Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dreams from My Father, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family and Community
Fathers, Sons, and Manhood
Race and Identity
Storytelling and Truth
Summary
Analysis
On the plane from London to Nairobi, a young British student sits next to Barack. He’s traveling to South Africa to work with mining companies; the companies are short on “trained people.” When Barack suggests that Black South Africans would probably love to be trained, the student notes that Black people are starving in “Godforsaken” African countries and that he tries to stay out of politics. Barack turns to his book, which is written by a Western journalist who spent a decade in Africa. The author seems to imply that the current suffering throughout Africa makes the continent’s history meaningless. Barack tries to figure out why he’s angry and wonders if it’s due to the student’s assumption that, as an American, Barack would also look poorly on Africa.
While Barack doesn’t go so far as to answer his own question about why he’s angry, it seems that he simply finds the stories that white people tell about Africa dehumanizing and reductive. This echoes the single disappointing paragraph he found about the Luo when he was a child, and he sees that white people don’t view Africa as a continent with a rich and varied history that, despite the struggles it faces, isn’t worthless. But since those white people see only the struggles of the present, the past seems less meaningful or useful.
Themes
Barack has been feeling edgy throughout his entire stay in Europe. He traveled the continent for three weeks and eventually realized that Europe is beautiful, but is possibly just a distraction from his quest to come to terms with the Old Man. He wonders if Kenya will answer his questions and fill his emptiness, as Will suggested it would. But Barack knows that he and Will both think of Africa as an idea, not a real place, and going there will change things—and he might be disappointed. Barack thinks back to a Senegalese man he met and traveled with briefly. He wonders if he idealizes the man—but he also thinks that the man offered him water and coffee, and maybe small kindnesses are all people can expect.
Now that Barack is actually on the way to Kenya, he feels more comfortable admitting outright that he wants to come to terms with his father’s legacy and figure out how to place that in a wider context. However, Barack also recognizes that, as an American, he idealizes Africa to a degree—it’s the place of his ancestors and it represents a land seemingly untainted by the racism that plagues the United States. However, meeting the Senegalese man impresses upon Barack that people everywhere are just people and should be celebrated as such.
Themes
The Nairobi airport is nearly empty. A guard stops to smoke with Barack and asks if he knows his nephew, who’s studying in Texas. The guard seems disappointed that Barack doesn’t. Barack’s bag doesn’t appear, so the guard goes to fetch help. He returns with a Miss Omoro, who explains that the bag went to Johannesburg and asks if Barack is related to Dr. Obama. She explains that the Old Man was a family friend and they chat for a while. Barack is amazed that she recognized his name. This is a first, and he feels as though he belongs here—even if he doesn’t understand what he belongs to. Auma arrives and while Barack greets her, Miss Omoro disappears.
The guard’s query if Barack knows his nephew introduces Barack to the way things work in Kenya, where family ties rule everything and where it turns out to not be that odd for someone to be able to make a connection like this. This is evidenced by the fact that Miss Omoro does recognize Barack as the Old Man’s son, even though the Old Man has now been dead a number of years and Barack has never been to Kenya.
Themes
Auma’s VW Beetle barely runs. Aunt Zeituni, the Old Man’s sister, insists that Auma is going to sell her the car when Auma goes back to Germany, but Auma sighs. The women chat as Barack studies the city. When Auma drops Zeituni off at work, Zeituni warns her to not let Barack “get lost again.” Auma explains that being “lost” refers to being gone for a long time; it’s often used in reference to men who move to the West and never write or visit, like Omar. They reach Auma’s apartment, which is filled with books and a collage of family photographs. The next morning, they wander through Nairobi. It’s smaller than Barack expected, comprised of colonial architecture mixed with modern high-rise buildings. There are Masai women and suited bankers.
The simple idea of being “lost,” as Auma defines it, drives home even more how important family and connections are in Kenya. Losing family members to the rest of the globe is something to be avoided at all costs. Similarly, Auma’s collage of family photographs shows how this focus on family works on an individual scale. Even as Auma plans to go back to Germany and lives part of her life as a Western woman, she still maintains her relationships with her family and tries to keep them with her wherever she goes.
Themes
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In the market, Barack finds wooden carvings just like the Old Man brought him years ago. Another merchant offers Barack a necklace for Auma and lowers the price when Auma tells the merchant that Barack is Kenyan. The old woman in the stall laughs, cuts Barack a deal for a necklace and two carvings, and then, with Auma’s help translating, tells them about her life. Barack looks around at the craftspeople and marvels at what it must be like to lead such a steady life in a place where being Black isn’t an issue. It’s just how the world is here.
What Barack reacts to here is the idea that, in Kenya, Blackness is the norm. In the United States, Barack consistently feels like an outsider and has to watch the way he speaks and acts to fit in with white peers—but here, he doesn’t have to be on guard in the same way. Rather, when the vendor identifies Barack as American, Barack realizes he might not be African enough to fit in here—but the vendor seems to accept it when Auma clarifies that Barack is Kenyan.
Themes
Barack studies the tourists who come from all over, many dressed in safari suits. He remembers laughing at tourists in Hawaii, but these don’t seem funny. They seem insultingly innocent—and in that sense, more free. Barack and Auma sit down at a cafe for lunch, but two African waiters leap to serve an American family instead. One waiter brings menus when Barack waves, but then ignores them. Auma angrily stands up as the Americans receive their food. She scolds the waiter and throws a 100-shilling note at him. Outside, she says she can’t go anywhere with Africans—but if she’s with a German, she can get into any building. She calls Kenya the “whore of Africa.” Barack tries to comfort Auma, but he knows that not all tourists come for the wildlife—they come because Kenya shamelessly re-creates the colonial era for white tourists, even though Black Kenyans govern the country.
Barack recognizes that Kenya caters to white tourists by making it seem as though white people are in control. And to a degree, this does give white tourists to Kenya a great deal of control—they bring in the tourism money, after all. This makes Auma’s anger understandable, as this country is her home and she should be able to eat at a cafe. But it’s also worth noting that Auma is trying to differentiate herself from her poorer countrymen in the same way that Barack and his college-educated Black friends tried to separate themselves from the Black kids who weren’t fortunate enough to pursue an education.
Themes
That night, Auma drives Barack to an apartment complex. There, he meets Aunt Jane, Kezia, Bernard, and about 12 others. They feed Barack and listen politely as he talks about Hawaii and organizing in Chicago. His work in Chicago confuses them, but they’re thrilled that he’s going to Harvard in the fall. Jane tells Bernard to study like Barack and explains that Bernard wants to play football, but Bernard says earnestly that he plays basketball. Auma tells Barack that Jane constantly accepts people into her home even though she can’t really afford it; she’s not sure how many live here now. Jane raised Bernard. Barack looks around and realizes that this apartment reminds him of Altgeld. There’s gossip, TV, kids, and few men.
The reactions to hearing about the organizing work in Chicago give the impression that Barack’s Kenyan family has very specific ideas about what constitutes success—and their excitement that he’s going to Harvard suggests that success means education and a high-powered professional job. When Barack sees the similarities between Nairobi and Altgeld, he’s faced with the undeniable fact that not much changes just because he’s in Africa. Some in the U.S. didn’t understand his organizing work either.
Themes
As Barack and Auma leave, Jane whispers to Auma to take Barack to see Aunt Sarah, the Old Man’s older sister. In the car, Auma explains that she won’t go see Sarah, but Barack should. Sarah is disputing the Old Man’s will and has been insisting that Auma, Roy, and Bernard aren’t the Old Man’s children. The estate probably isn’t worth much and will probably just pay for the lawyers, but since the family had previously believed that the Old Man was wealthy, they still believe that, if they wait, the money will appear. Even Bernard—who is so smart—believes this and is consequently doing nothing with his life. Auma adds that Barack himself is part of the inheritance, and that Sarah wants to see him because she believes that he might have the money. Auma is exhausted. She missed Kenya when she was in Germany, but now that she’s here, everyone needs her help. She wants to build a family home for everyone, but she also resents the Old Man for not building the house himself.
Auma recognizes that their family approaches life with some sense of apathy. Especially when she mentions how smart Bernard is, it starts to seem as though she doesn’t see her family taking the good parts of the Old Man’s legacy to heart. Like Barack (who is struggling to piece together his American upbringing with his Kenyan family), Auma is struggling to balance her German life with the family obligations in Kenya. And a major part of that struggle is the fact that she has to confront how little the Old Man did for his children. He left them alone to figure it out, with very little to guide them.
Themes
When Barack’s luggage hasn’t arrived after two days, Auma and Barack spend the day at the airline office and then at the airport. They finally go to the British Airways downtown office, where the secretary refuses to help. But a relative appears who knows the manager, and with his prodding, the manager arranges to have Barack’s bag delivered that day. Downstairs, Barack stops at a photo of Kenyatta, Kenya’s first president. Auma says that no matter what a person wants, they have to go through their family, friends, or tribe to get it. The Old Man messed up because he thought his education would allow him to bypass those relationships. Later, Barack thinks of one of Auma’s stories. Their father sent Auma to buy him cigarettes, insisting the merchant would let her take them on credit because they were for Dr. Obama. The merchant laughed.
This episode helps Auma show Barack how important familial ties are in Kenya. It is, in her understanding, the only way things get done. It’s telling too that she understands this, despite her Western education. This suggests that the Old Man, who didn’t understand the role of family in becoming successful, may have had a very different experience in the Western world. Relating the story of trying to find him cigarettes allows her to also drive home the consequences of not properly reading the culture. It must have been embarrassing for Auma—though none of what happened was her fault.
Themes
