Description
Book SynopsisBarack Obama’s political ascendancy has focused worldwide attention on Kenya. Carotenuto and Luongo argue that efforts to cast Obama as a “son of the soil” of the Lake Victoria basin invite insights into the politicized uses of Kenya’s past.
Trade Review“In the US, Barack Obama is African; in Africa, he is Kenyan; and in Kenya, he is Luo. … Historians Carotenuto (St. Lawrence Univ.) and Luongo (Northeastern Univ.) emerge from the pages of this book as a dynamic academic duo as they glide through Kenya's colonial and postindependence periods.… This book also demonstrates that African studies is in good academic hands. Summing up: Recommended.” * CHOICE *
“This book … represents a laudable attempt to confront distorted and false depictions of Obama and the Kenyan past and present that have appeared since 2008 in scholarly and nonscholarly works … In a book that will be useful in American university classrooms and now even more among the general public as Obama is succeeded as chief executive by a long-time purveyor of the 'birther' myth, [Carotenuto and Luongo] effectively dismantle the many stereotypes and myths that have characterized writing about Obama and Kenya by right-wing ideologues outside Kenya.” * African Studies Review *
