Dreams From My Father

"It came out in 1995 when Obama was a young man and it was reissued in 2004, when he’d just been made senator. I’m glad I read it after writing my own book on Kenya because it goes to the heart of something that I try to capture in my book but probably don’t manage to do quite as well. My book is about corruption, his is about more than that, but the point he makes, and I agree with him, is that corruption is not about personal greed, it’s about compassion. Compassion for the extended family, whose members put incredible pressure on those who do well. Since they don’t trust the state to do anything, they’re dependent on family. Obama tells the story of Auma, his half-sister, who is educated, hard-working and has succeeded abroad, who owns property and a car, and recounts the way the entire family basically leeches off her. It’s not good for either side. She resents it because all her projects are undermined, but the family is also resentful of her because they don’t like being beholden. If aid is one of the problems in Africa, the extended family is also both a blessing and a blight. Obama didn’t even spend that long in Kenya, but he captures that conundrum immediately."

"He is really is a globish president and a brilliant writer. He is of Kenyan origin, grew up in Kansas and Hawaii. His reference is America, Kenyan tribal customs, Indonesia. All of these are explored in his book which finally takes him to Kenya to track down his father’s family and to find out what the man who his white mother talked about so much was actually like. And I think Obama really is a global citizen who says he has a special relationship with the English. But at the same time he can say the same thing to India and the Chinese and it will sound authentic in a way it never would if Gordon Brown or David Cameron said it. I was writing my book during his campaign and he really is a case in point of what I am talking about. Now the power is east to west where as in the old days it really was north to south. And Obama is fine with that as he is able to operate in any situation because of his roots which he so vividly writes about in this book."