Heritage from Father is a poignant testimony on the suffering from discrimination and the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It is also a testimony of love, compassion and healing after the authors parents, six brothers and sisters were killed in the genocide. In this testimony, the author highlights his awareness of Gods blessings upon him through people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. It is evidence that the awareness reminds him of the values of gratitude and faith instilled by his father from early age. The very values that had healed his father during the persecutions of the Tutsi in the years that preceded the horror of the 1994 genocide. Heritage from Father is also an account of how the saving hand of remembrance kept away from him the pressing need for hatred that had started to overrun him, and how it urged him to life in peace instead, with himself and with the world. This is particularly true in his personal style of forgiving the executioners of his family and relatives, in spite of their refusal to own responsibility.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS In this iconic memoir of his early days, Barack Obama “guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race” (The Washington Post Book World). “Quite extraordinary.”—Toni Morrison In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. Praise for Dreams from My Father “Beautifully crafted . . . moving and candid . . . This book belongs on the shelf beside works like James McBride’s The Color of Water and Gregory Howard Williams’s Life on the Color Line as a tale of living astride America’s racial categories.”—Scott Turow “Provocative . . . Persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither.”—The New York Times Book Review “Obama’s writing is incisive yet forgiving. This is a book worth savoring.”—Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here “One of the most powerful books of self-discovery I’ve ever read, all the more so for its illuminating insights into the problems not only of race, class, and color, but of culture and ethnicity. It is also beautifully written, skillfully layered, and paced like a good novel.”—Charlayne Hunter-Gault, author of In My Place “Dreams from My Father is an exquisite, sensitive study of this wonderful young author’s journey into adulthood, his search for community and his place in it, his quest for an understanding of his roots, and his discovery of the poetry of human life. Perceptive and wise, this book will tell you something about yourself whether you are black or white.”—Marian Wright Edelman
This book grew out of my experiences; in a collection of family group gatherings; interview with family siblings- pioneers, elderly communities, dialogue with those people with experience in sorrows, anger, grief, stress, and rod scholarly academic experiences from Africa, Europe, and United States, under Global Universities and Colleges. This document is composed of several chapters. Chapter I brings to us, the true measure of man and manhood. Chapter II, reveals the father of Dr. Khiwa, Mr. Luyirika and his philosophy in raising children and the immigration of his family and his final words of wisdom to the children and the World. Chapter 3, focuses at the moment of silence. In this course, here father revealed the sources of his manhood and legacy. Chapter IV brings to the reader the understanding of Luyirikas’ grands and his heritage. Chapter V, breaks down the history of the great parents of Luyirika’s line of origin.
The perfect gift for parents this Father’s Day: a beautiful, gut-wrenching memoir of Irish identity, fatherhood, and what we owe to the past. “A heartbreaking and redemptive book, written with courage and grace.” –J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy “…a lovely little book.” –Ross Douthat, The New York Times The child of an Irish man and an Irish-American woman who split up before he was born, Michael Brendan Dougherty grew up with an acute sense of absence. He was raised in New Jersey by his hard-working single mother, who gave him a passion for Ireland, the land of her roots and the home of Michael's father. She put him to bed using little phrases in the Irish language, sang traditional songs, and filled their home with a romantic vision of a homeland over the horizon. Every few years, his father returned from Dublin for a visit, but those encounters were never long enough. Devastated by his father's departures, Michael eventually consoled himself by believing that fatherhood was best understood as a check in the mail. Wearied by the Irish kitsch of the 1990s, he began to reject his mother's Irish nationalism as a romantic myth. Years later, when Michael found out that he would soon be a father himself, he could no longer afford to be jaded; he would need to tell his daughter who she is and where she comes from. He immediately re-immersed himself in the biographies of firebrands like Patrick Pearse and studied the Irish language. And he decided to reconnect with the man who had left him behind, and the nation just over the horizon. He began writing letters to his father about what he remembered, missed, and longed for. Those letters would become this book. Along the way, Michael realized that his longings were shared by many Americans of every ethnicity and background. So many of us these days lack a clear sense of our cultural origins or even a vocabulary for expressing this lack--so we avoid talking about our roots altogether. As a result, the traditional sense of pride has started to feel foreign and dangerous; we've become great consumers of cultural kitsch, but useless conservators of our true history. In these deeply felt and fascinating letters, Dougherty goes beyond his family's story to share a fascinating meditation on the meaning of identity in America.
Adolph F. Bandelier, Charles Fletcher Lummis, and Father Anton Docher are names closely associated with the early colonial days in New Mexico. All of these characters appear in this narrative of Isleta Pueblo which tells the story of Father Docher's life in the Indian pueblo from the day when he first arrived along the road that was bad, but the sunset beautiful in 1891 until the time of the death of his two great friends, Bandelier and Lummis, and his own death several months later in 1928. Father Docher's job was not an easy one, but his great patience and understanding helped him through many difficulties. The story goes into many of these and into much of the legend and superstition of Isleta Pueblo which the Padre encountered during his long life there. He was particularly interested in the story of Father Padilla, the Franciscan friar who came with Coronado's band, whose body was buried in the church at Isleta but which refused to stay underground. Julia Keleher was a member and Professor in the English Department of the University of New Mexico from 1931 to her retirement in 1959. She was also a professional writer and edited each of her brother, William A. Keleher's books, all of which have been published by Sunstone Press in its Southwest Heritage Series. Her collaboration with Elsie Ruth Chant resulted in this fascinating collection of incidents for all readers interested in the American Southwest. She was married to Lloyd Chant and raised two children, George Ashley Chant and Julia Jane Chant.
You don't have to learn everything about genetic genealogy before asking specific questions of your DNA! That's the premise of Diahan Southard's brand new book, Your DNA Guide - the Book, now available for pre-order at a special sale price. Your DNA Guide - the Book is like no other genetic genealogy book on the market. Instead of learning more-than-you-need-to-know in textbook style, you'll choose a specific DNA question to start exploring right away. You'll follow concrete step-by-step plans, learning important DNA concepts--in plain English--as you go. Do you want to learn who your 2X great grandmother is? Turn to page 23. Do you want to know how you are related to one of your DNA matches? Page 37. As you proceed, you check your progress and get new guidance based on your specific results at each stage. (Including troubleshooting, like when your matches just aren't responding or your great-grandparents turn out to be first cousins.) This powerful, hands-on approach is based on Diahan's 20 years of experience in the genetic genealogy industry and especially in the past five years, as she helps clients one-on-one make DNA discoveries. It became clear to her that while each client's situation may be unique, there are patterns in how you can find solutions that you can apply yourself. Your DNA Guide - the Book is for anyone who has taken a DNA test or may want to. It helps genealogists reconstruct family trees. It helps adoptees identify biological relatives. It can help you identify a specific DNA match. In short, it helps anyone explore what their DNA--and their DNA matches--can tell them about their origins.
On January 2, 1972, Mark Arax's childhood came to a sudden, explosive end when his father was shot to death at his nightclub in Fresno, California. It was one of the most sensational murders in California's heartland, and it was never solved. Mark, only fifteen years old at the time, was left with a legacy of questions: Were the rumors about his father true? Had he led a double life? Was he killed because of his dealings with the underworld? Mark Arax, an award-winning journalist at the Los Angeles Times, now writes a searing, intensely personal account of his twenty-two-year search for answers about his father's life and death, and his own identity. As the oldest child, Mark was thrust into the role of patriarch. His quest for answers began in high school, when he sought out his father's father, an Armenian immigrant. His grandfather opened a window into an old country world full of promise and heartbreak -- and four generations of eccentric family members. Two decades later, Mark uprooted his wife and baby and returned to Fresno under an assumed name to try and determine who killed his father and why. Fearing for his own life, he discovers his father was murdered just before he was going to make a startling disclosure. More than a true-life murder mystery, more than an exploration of family and culture, In My Father's Name is the poignant story of one man's remarkable journey as he uncovers long-hidden secrets about his father, his family, his heritage, and the town he once called home.
