Airlift to America: How Barack Obama, Sr., John F. Kennedy, Tom Mboya, and 800 East African Students Changed Their World and Ours [Hardcover]

Tom Shachtman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0312570759 | ISBN-13: 978-0312570750

This is the long-hidden saga of how a handful of Americans and East Africans fought the British colonial government, the U.S. State Department, and segregation to transport to, or support at, U.S. and Canadian universities, between 1959 and 1963, nearly 800 young East African men and women who would go on to change their world and ours. The students supported included Barack Obama Sr., future father of a U.S. president, Wangari Maathai, future Nobel Peace Prize laureate, as well as the nation-builders of post-colonial East Africa -- cabinet ministers, ambassadors, university chancellors, clinic and school founders.  

The airlift was conceived by the unusual partnership of the charismatic, later-assassinated Kenyan Tom Mboya and William X. Scheinman, a young American entrepreneur, with supporting roles played by Jackie Robinson, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, and Martin Luther King, Jr.  The airlift even had an impact on the 1960 presidential race, as Vice-President Richard Nixon tried to muscle the State Department into funding the project to prevent Senator Jack Kennedy from using his family foundation to do so and reaping the political benefit. 

The book is based on the files of the airlift's sponsor, the African American Students Foundation, untouched for almost fifty years.  

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

One of the true global cultural exchange programs that paid huge dividends, the African American Students Foundation (AASF), is the timely topic of Shachtman's (Rumspringa) new book. The brainchild of Kenyan politician Tom Mboya and American businessman William Scheinman, the AASF's goal was to bring top African students to America between 1959 and 1963 in order to establish a group of accomplished young Africans to staff government positions and the educational system in their native countries upon the fall of colonialism. Called the airlift generation, prized students from Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda and Rhodesia, among them President Obama's father, Barack Sr., and Wangari Maathai, the winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize, were chosen to study in American colleges and universities. Shachtman relates the political controversies surrounding the program and U.S. government involvement, as African nations gained independence and became proxies in the cold war. A memorable and poignant recounting of a significant endeavor that is still scoring successes around the world, this book is not to be missed by African and American history buffs. 8 pages of b&w photos. (Sept.)
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Review

“In 1960, Boniface Odero, an Airlift student from Kenya, came to  live with my family in our house in Riverdale, New York. Due to her  education by Cora Weiss, (executive director of the African American Students Foundation, the airlift organizers) my mother took to this idea like a dove to its mate. After all, she and Cora were fast friends and co-activists, and during the years when my sisters and brother and I were all underage, it was not atypical of my mother, Andrea Simon, to invite students and actors, poets and political protesters for a  'little stay' at our boisterous, busy and crowded house. Boniface stayed a year. I am so proud of this book, proud of the history of  the unique initiative which brought Odero and his fellow students to  this country, and proud of our lasting humanitarian program and the  hearty spirit which drives it.”

--Carly Simon

 

"A little more than half a century ago when I was in college, the few Africans on campus felt isolated by Negro students, most of whom were running as fast as they could away from African students and from any hint of our own African ancestors.  Due in large measure to the thawing spawned by the far-sighted and brilliantly executed African Airlift, African and American brothers, sisters, cousins and ancestors, have since produced enterprises in commerce, politics and education enriching to parties on both sides of the Atlantic. It was a noble and far-sighted endeavor."

--Roger Wilkins, a former board chair of the Africa America Institute, is Clarence J. Robinson Professor Emeritus of the Clarence J. Robinson program at George Mason University.

“[This] bold initiative charted a new course in the preparation of African leaders, created new relationships with United States institutions of higher education, and helped pave the way for increased access by African-Americans to colleges and universities whose closed doors were opened by those who came under the auspices of the program.  These airlift students returned home to become builders of the newly independent East African nations and helped unravel the threads holding colonialism together.  I am proud that Adelphi gave scholarships to three of the participants.”

-- Dr. Robert A. Scott, President, Adelphi University

 

“Shachtman’s text, gleaned from the organization’s files and interviews with principals, offers a compelling portrait of nation-building abroad and nation-changing at home. A valuable case study of the effectiveness of NGOs when they are operated with care and confidence.”

--Kirkus

 

 

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312570759
• ISBN-13: 978-0312570750
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #775,028 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars When Africans Came to the US to Study, December 16, 2009

By 

Timothy P. Koerner (Great Lakes, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Airlift to America: How Barack Obama, Sr., John F. Kennedy, Tom Mboya, and 800 East African Students Changed Their World and Ours (Hardcover)

One of the legacies of W W II was acceleration of the disintegration of colonialism in Africa and Asia. Colonialism, of course, did not end overnight, and it took longer to collapse in some countries than in others. The book AIRLIFT TO AMERICA looks, generally, at the end of colonialism in eastern Africa and, specifically, at an interesting and little known "crusade" or initiative whose main purpose was to prepare a country emerging from British rule to independence by providing higher education for its future leaders. The country was Kenya.

The crusade referred to in the previous paragraph was the so-called African "Airlift" to the USA. Beginning in 1959 and continuing for the next several years, and supported by people from both Africa (Tom Mboya) and the US (Harry Belafonte, Jackie Robinson, Bill Scheinman), approximately eight hundred east African students flew to the US to continue their education at a wide variety of colleges and universities all over the country, from community colleges to Ivy League schools.

Most of these students earned undergraduate and/or graduate degrees and returned to their African homes to take up positions in government, education, agriculture, and business, as their country prepared and attained self-rule (granted to Kenya in 1963). Some chose to stay in the US.

The airlift venture inevitably became connected to and involved in both the international cold war (the Soviets were also recruiting African students to come to schools in Moscow) and domestic US politics (the presidential election of 1960). These connections are discussed by the author in some detail. He also supplies profiles of numerous airliftees, i.e. the individual students, and their experiences.

One of these students happened to be named Barrack Hussein Obama, who left his native Kenya (and wife there) to study at the University of Hawaii (Hawaii's climate, he'd apparently heard, might be more to his liking than Maryland's or northern California's) and later earn a master's degree in Economics at Harvard and work toward a doctorate in that subject. As with most of the airliftees, Obama returned to his country where he worked in business and government. But while in Hawaii, he was married for a short period of time to a university student by the name of Ann Dunham, and this union produced a future president of the US.

Although Barrack Obama Sr. and John F. Kennedy are featured in the book's subtitle, there really is not much on either of them here. Readers would probably like to have seen a bit more. I'd also like to have read more specifics on the discrimination the students had to put up with in the US because of the color of their skin. Too, the book seems somewhat hastily put together in that there are a lot of gaps and "jumping arounds". (Perhaps a historian might take up this topic?) Still, in spite of minor imperfections, the book opened up a topic that I knew nothing about, for which I thank Tom Shachtman. And, in the end, how can one not fail to be moved or inspired by a cause as noble as this, in most repects at least, appears to have been.

Recommended.
Tim Koerner December 2009

3.0 out of 5 stars The only book that documents this event and its importance, January 10, 2012

By 

MarianneM - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Airlift to America: How Barack Obama, Sr., John F. Kennedy, Tom Mboya, and 800 East African Students Changed Their World and Ours (Hardcover)

I ordered this book as my father and others I know were involved in the Airlift to America. At the time it came out, it was just after Obama was elected President of the United States and has made history as the first African-American person, literally, to hold this office. His father, Barack Obama the elder was from Kenya and came to the U.S. to get a college education and ended up at The University of Hawaii, where he met President Obama's mother. Hawaii had not been a state for very long. If this had not happened, Barack Obama, the younger would never have been born and as such, would never have become President. Barack Obama the Elder did not actually come over on one of the chartered planes, but did receive some small grants from them for expenses. Also important is how a the African Students Airlift secured a private grant from the Joseph Kennedy Foundation when the State Department did not give them the money. This was during the 1960 Presidential Campaign, and may have had some impact on the outcome of this election.

However, this book, in my opinion, is not particularly well-written. It is important that there now a written record of the Airlift to America for those who are interested in such subjects.