18th August, 2009

SIU FUNG WU

Dreams from My Father

Barack Obama

Three Rivers Press, New York, 2004
ISBN-10: 1400082773
ISBN-13: 978-1400082773

"The book tells stories of immense personal struggles. Yet at the same time there are glimpses of audacious hope. Although the contexts of Obama's stories are different from ours, there is a sense in which we all struggle with our own identity, especially in our Western pluralistic world. Obama's questions are perhaps ours too."

Dreams from My Father is a story of race and inheritance. Originally published in 1995, in this book Barack Obama takes us on a journey into his life and invites us to explore some poignant questions around identity, class and race.

The book consists of three parts. The first part is about Obama's childhood and teenage years. He was born to a Kenyan man and a white American lady in Hawaii. Obama's mother separated from his father and married to an Indonesian. Obama subsequently lived in Indonesia for some time and learned about how hard life can be in an Asian country. He then lived in Hawaii with his American grandparents. It was there that he began to realise he was different from other Americans because he was black.

The second section of the book is about Obama's work in Chicago in the years after completing his first degree at university. He learned to work with the African-Americans in the poor neighbourhoods in Chicago, and wrestled with the social issues there. In the process he sought to understand his own struggles as a black person born to a white American. This eventually led him to a visit to Kenya to find his roots. The third part of the book is about this amazing visit, where Obama met his extended families, discovered the history of his own people, and how his father and grandfather found their paths in the era of European colonisation.

The book tells stories of immense personal struggles. Yet at the same time there are glimpses of audacious hope. Although the contexts of Obama's stories are different from ours, there is a sense in which we all struggle with our own identity, especially in our Western pluralistic world. Obama's questions are perhaps ours too. Where do we belong in multi-faith and multicultural Australia? What are our roots? What were the stories before our time? How do we define our identity?

Obama's insights into power-relationships help us to understand the social and political issues today. Socio-economic power imbalance is known to be a major cause of poverty and injustice. Obama's stories in Indonesia, Chicago and Africa provide plenty of examples of unjust power relations. These relationships intersect with faith, human weaknesses, unjust social structures and racial tension to form a system that seeks to exploit and harm people - who are none other than the image-bearers of God.

Overall the book is well-written, although at times one finds certain stories somewhat disconnected. But it is a powerful book not only of self-discovery, but also of the human race's longing for a sense of identity as individuals and people groups try to chart their paths.

As a Christian reader, I sense the author's sincere search for meaning, meaning for himself and for the people around him. One can hear the frustrations of people when the social and political systems fail them. In fact, at times even the Christian communities fail them. But despite all our disappointments and frustrations, it is precisely because we are a people struggling with human fallenness that we find hope in a gracious God who sent His Son to die for us. It is with this hope that the church is called to embody the Gospel in every sphere of life.

I recommend this book to everyone who wants to understand the culture of our time and is willing to ask probing questions about God's purposes for the world today.

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