In search of desired selves : constructions of self-identities in Barack Obama's Dreams from my father and Nelson Mandela's Long walk to freedom

Abstract

In  this  article    I  use  barack  obama’s  Dreams  from  my  father:  a  story  of  race  and  inheritance  (hereafter  to  be  referred  to  as  Dreams  from  my  father)and Nelson Mandela’s Long walk to freedom to demonstrate hall’s (1996, 4) view that identities are about  ‘... using the resources of history, language and culture in the process of becoming rather than being,’ meaning to say that they are not a fixed essence, but a process, always being constructed and deconstructed in response to the cultural and historical circumstances in which the subject finds himself. this theory rejects the claim that a life narrative is an uncontaminated story  of  one’s  personal  history  and  life.  I  argue  that  obama’s  and  Mandela’s  identities  take  shape  in  response  to  the  challenges  of  the  duo’s  respective  cultures  and  societies.  both  men  deploy  narrative  towards  political  ends:  obama uses it to resolve questions of his origins as well as to launch his political career while Mandela uses it mainly to justify and uphold already existing but seemingly contradictory public images of himself as a militant revolutionary and peacemaker.