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Reverend Wright
Sayid is one of Barack’s uncles in Kenya. He is Granny’s son and the Old Man’s youngest half-brother. Sayid is large, clean-shaven, and welcoming. He introduces Barack to the idea that in the last century or so, white colonizers and Black Kenyans who have spent time in the city have introduced the idea of poverty to rural Kenya—and the concept of poverty, he suggests, didn’t exist among Black Kenyans before this. Now, he believes that the apathy and listlessness of many rural Kenyans is due to their own unwillingness to try to improve their situations on their own. Though Sayid didn’t attend university, he makes a point to dedicate himself to his work on development projects and seems undaunted that his attempts to line up a job for when his current project ends are going poorly. He believes in persistence and hard work. Though Barack thinks that Sayid’s beliefs have a bit of truth to them, he also recognizes that the issues of poverty in Kenya are undeniable and seemingly impossible to fix through simple hard work or motivation. However, Sayid does share Barack’s belief that tribalism among Africans doesn’t help anyone.
Sayid Quotes in Dreams from My Father
The Dreams from My Father quotes below are all either spoken by Sayid or refer to Sayid. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 18
Quotes
“But I think also that once you are one thing, you cannot pretend that you are something else. How could he be a matatu driver, or stay out all night drinking, and also he is writing Kenya’s economic plan? A man does service for his people by doing what is right for him, isn’t this so? Not by doing what others think he should do. But my brother, although he prided himself on his independence, I also think that he was afraid of some things. Afraid of what people would say about him if he left the bar too early. That perhaps he would no longer belong with those he’d grown up with.”
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Sayid Quotes in Dreams from My Father
The Dreams from My Father quotes below are all either spoken by Sayid or refer to Sayid. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 18
Quotes
“But I think also that once you are one thing, you cannot pretend that you are something else. How could he be a matatu driver, or stay out all night drinking, and also he is writing Kenya’s economic plan? A man does service for his people by doing what is right for him, isn’t this so? Not by doing what others think he should do. But my brother, although he prided himself on his independence, I also think that he was afraid of some things. Afraid of what people would say about him if he left the bar too early. That perhaps he would no longer belong with those he’d grown up with.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
