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KALIMA translates Obama biography into Arabic

ABU DHABI - Abu Dhabi’s KALIMA project announced publishing the translation of Barack Obama’s ‘Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance’ into Arabic.

The book is a memoir by the US President, first published in 1995, before his political career began but after he was elected the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review.

It was re-released in 2004 and the new edition includes a new introduction by Obama, then a Senator-elect.

‘The focus on translating the most important historical and literary books is a strategy by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage to present the cultures of ‘the other’, in its diversity and difference, to reaffirm the objectives for opening of new channels for Arab readers, and for the revival of the translation movement from foreign languages into Arabic,’ said Dr. Ali bin Tamim, Director of KALIMA.

The son of a black African father and a white American mother, Obama, in his book, describes the search for meaning in his life as a black American.

The book begins in New York where Obama learns that his father is killed in a car accident and this incident inspires him to travel in search of his family’s roots.

He first went 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.

Obama has worked as a community organizer, civil rights attorney, law professor, and senator before becoming the US President in 2009.

The book was translated by Hiba Najeeb Maghrebi and Iman Abdul Ghani Najem, both of whom have published many translations.

KALIMA, a translation initiative by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH), seeks to provide Arab readers with the latest publications in the international scene.

It seeks to translate at least 100 books every year from world languages into Arabic.

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