A Pan-African Memoir in Verse
In this groundbreaking work, Teddy Warria crafts a luminous "I am from" poem that transcends borders, generations, and genres—part memoir, part praise song, part manifesto for unity in a fractured world.
Rooted in the ancient Luo oral tradition of Pakruok (narrative non-fiction praise poetry), Warria weaves together the threads of his extraordinary life: from the firefly-lit villages of Nyakach, Kenya to the halls of Stanford and the United World College movement; from the banks of the Nile to the sacred lands of the Hopi and Guale peoples. He honors the fishermen and bone-setters, the grandmothers and mentors, the musicians and revolutionaries who shaped his becoming.
At its heart, this is a meditation on Sankofa—the Akan principle of reaching back to fetch what is at risk of being left behind. Warria demonstrates how deep self-knowledge becomes the foundation for genuine encounter with the Other, transforming difference from division into connection. His first sight of a white woman carrying a heavy load on her head becomes a revelation: the strange and familiar, the self and Other, united in a single gaze.
I AM FROM is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how personal ancestry can ground global citizenship; how poetry can serve truth-telling and transformation; and how education, when rooted in cultural wisdom rather than colonial extraction, becomes a genuine force for peace.