Book review: The Obamas – The Untold Story of an African Family

Written by Sam Mathe
Thursday, 07 July 2011 17:18

Several biographies have been published following the rise of Barack Obama’s political star as head of state of the most powerful nation on earth. Obama’s best-selling autobiography, Dreams From My Father, is a brilliant and engrossing account about the future American president searching for his African origins. But in narrating the story of Obama’s Kenyan ancestry, Peter Firstbrook has penned a peerless account of epic proportions.
In the process of his retelling the story of an illustrious Kenyan family, he has achieved a literary feat. The 300-word book is intriguing and compelling. He traces the family’s Sudanese origins back to as early as the 13th century through all their heroic odysseys across the treacherous plains and savannahs of East Africa as they follow the flow of streams and rivers for their and their livestock’s survival.

He tells of their sojourn in Uganda and ultimately their settlement in Kenya as members of the Luo people. It is a fascinating story of warriors and wanderers, of fishermen and farmers who didn’t only have to respond to the vagaries of nature, but who were also architects of their own destiny as they contributed to a rich oral tradition. With their passion for academic learning they became forebears of prominent politicians, intellectuals – and, ultimately, a global leader.

AUTHOR: PETER FIRSTBROOK
PUBLISHER: PREFACE PUBLISHING