An Obama's Journey: My Odyssey of Self-Discovery across Three Cultures

In this revealing and beautifully written memoir, Mark Obama Ndesandjo, recounts his complex relationship with his older half-brother, President Barack Obama, including their first meeting in Kenya over twenty years ago. The book also offers the author's inspiring personal story about identity and multiculturalism. Rare family photos add to the book's personal nature as does the intense recounting of domestic violence in the home of Barack Obama Sr.'s and his third wife, Ruth Baker, Mark's Jewish-American mother. The book also attempts to set the records straight on several points of the president's best-selling memoir Dreams from My Father. In its connection to President Obama, Mark's story takes on an even greater significance because it becomes all the more directly, a story of American identity and a window into the complex figure of the father they share, Barack Obama Sr., their roots in Kenya, their multicultural identities, and their relationships with America.

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An Obama's Journey: My Odyssey of Self-Discovery across Three Cultures

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An Obama's Journey: My Odyssey of Self-Discovery across Three Cultures

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An Obama's Journey: My Odyssey of Self-Discovery across Three Cultures

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493007516
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/29/2014
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Born in Kenya and a twelve year resident of Shenzhen, People's Republic of China, Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo is an accomplished pianist, writer, artist and businessman. He has a BSc. Physics rom Brown University, an MSc Physics from Stanford and is an Emory EMBA graduate. He consults worldwide, using over 15 years of telecommunications and international marketing and branding experience gained as a senior manager at Lucent, Nortel and other companies. He is an HSK L7 (advanced) Mandarin speaker and writer, and an avid brush calligrapher. In addition to his first book the novel Nairobi to Shenzhen, he has published 3 piano CDs, The Untimely Ones, Night Moods and his own composition Reflections on William Blake.His current projects include a translation of Tang Dynasty poems. He regularly gives piano lessons to orphans in and around Shenzhen. Mr. Obama Ndesandjo has been appointed Volunteer Image Ambassador and Special Olympics Image Ambassador by China. Recently he established the Mark Obama Ndesandjo Foundation Ltd for cultural exchange, which brings art to youth and the disadvantaged. He lives in Shenzhen, China. http://www.markobamandesandjo.com/

Introduction ix

Prelude: Winter in Beijing, 2009 xi

Chapter 1 Kenya: Where It All Began 1

Chapter 2 My Parents: A Failed Elopement 13

Chapter 3 Dissolution: Johnnie Walker Black Label 37

Chapter 4 Cleansing 55

Chapter 5 My Brother David: A Tragedy 69

Chapter 6 Sex, Beaches, and Mixed-Race Families 85

Chapter 7 Of Grandmothers, Music, and Wandering Jews 95

Chapter 8 Saints and Sinners 111

Chapter 9 Being Brown at Brown and Other University Stories 127

Chapter 10 Sibling Atonement 143

Chapter 11 Harvard of the West 163

Chapter 12 Youthful Indiscretions: The Second Time I Realized I Was Ugly 179

Chapter 13 Culture Shocks and Untimely Nuns 195

Chapter 14 Digital Revolutions, Sowing the Seeds of Rebellion 211

Chapter 15 A War Begins: I Look to the East 221

Chapter 16 Tie Middle Kingdom: China 231

Chapter 17 The Orphans and a Cup of Water 255

Chapter 18 On Love and Dreams 269

Chapter 19 New Directions and a Special Gift 289

Chapter 20 The New America Has Arrived 303

Chapter 21 White House Family Reunion 315

Coda: Kenyan Spring 339

Appendix I Obama Family Genealogy: 1700s-Present 363

Appendix II On Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama: Setting the Record Straight 365

Acknowledgments 373

From the B&N Reads Blog

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Editorial Reviews

An Obama's Journey is a jaw-dropping memoir which casts a pall not only over Barack, Sr. but over Barack as well.. . .Lucky for us, the author happens to be blessed with a refreshingly-unguarded honest and introspective nature which in combination with a wonderful way with words add up to a must-read regardless of how you feel about his very famous sibling.

Tennessee Tribune

"It is fascinating in its own right, a riveting transcontinental tale of survival, accomplishment, adjustment, transformation and, ultimately, triumph taking the reader from Africa to America to China and back."-Kam Williams, syndicated book and film critic “The book is captivating. It gave me new insights into Mark’s life with his half-brother, President Barack Obama, as well as the limited time that he had with his father, Barack Obama Sr. This book is a compelling read for those who are very interested in learning more about President Obama and his family, as well as the work Mark has done...[Mark] is a remarkable person. When you read this book, you’ll get a good sense of him, of the family history, and for his commitment to justice and equality.” - Charles J. Ogletree Jr., Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at Harvard University, and founding and executive director of Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice “An Obama’s Journey is a touching story of one man’s transnational search for identity, cultural understanding, and forgiveness. It’s a riveting, stunningly honest read that transcends being the biography of the president’s half-brother; from his early years in Kenya to his coming of age in the United States and final passage to China, Mark Obama has a remarkable tale to tell in his own right.” —Jenni Marsh, South China Morning Post "With gut-wrenching honesty, Mark Obama Ndesandjo exorcises demons from his past while delicately balancing diverse cultures that straddle three continents. His candor covers failures, successes, racism, a scandal or two, musical joys, charitable pleasures, and amazement at watching from a distance as his rival sibling performed political miracles." — John Cairns, author of All Aboard! Planet Expat “Like any great autobiography, this book is about more than a person. It is about humanity and relationships and holds lessons for all to learn. I enjoyed reading the full and nuanced description of Africa’s beauty and savagery and about its curiously admirable indifference. Mark captures the heady days before the tech bubble in America, and lands in China just in time to witness the vibrant new life the Chinese are creating for themselves. The scenes where he meets Barack crackle with electricity. Their evolving friendship is fascinating to watch. Masterly writing, with poignant anecdotes and insightful, quotable thoughts, yet is cohesive with breathtaking transitions.” —Fritz Galt, author of China Gate

From the Publisher

2014-07-27
An Obama about whom we haven't heard a lot seeks, in the story of his cosmopolitan life, to find himself. The author is a half brother of the president. Ndesandjo's mother, Ruth, was the third wife of Barack Obama Sr. Ndesandjo (Nairobi to Shenzhen, 2009) lived with both parents at home in Kenya. Obama Sr., in whom the author saw a "terrible magnificence," was an abusive womanizer and drunkard. After seven years, Ruth had had enough. She left and wed the solid, caring man whose name the author bears. Peripatetic young Ndesandjo failed to be admitted to Harvard, where his father and brother had excelled, and he struggled with life and studies at Brown and at graduate school at Stanford. There, he was discovered cheating, but he managed a master's degree in physics, as well as an MBA from Emory. After Emory, it was on to a series of jobs and beautiful women. The author was also quite proficient at the piano, performing publicly. There were difficulties with creditors, though, which finally subsided when Ndesandjo immigrated to China 12 years ago, where he married and studies Chinese and calligraphy. Still, he struggles to come to terms with his mixed racial heritage, noting that he often feels like an outsider. Though not lacking in pride and ambition, how can his considerable talents match the achievements of his brother, the POTUS? They first met decades ago in a fraught encounter; Barack had seemed distant. But Ndesandjo, just around the time of the 2008 presidential campaign, became eager to restore the family connection. The result was a visit to the White House and some family squabbles over access to the president. The author is simultaneously quite accomplished and quite needful of praise. Stressing his sensitivity, he begins each chapter with a favorite evocation of music, from Schumann to Fats Waller. A deft memoir that, despite the self-indulgent posturing about unique family dynamics, is oddly engaging.

Kirkus Reviews

An Obama's Journey: My Odyssey of Self-Discovery across Three Cultures

An Obama's Journey: My Odyssey of Self-Discovery across Three Cultures

Hardcover(1st Edition)

Hardcover(1st Edition)

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Overview

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About the Author

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Overview

Product Details

About the Author

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