Everybody knows me as Illai Kenney but my full name is Illai-Akia Scheherazade Kenney. I am not Muslim. Illai is from the Bible meaning exhaulted/most high. Akia was the name of a Japanese friend of my grandfather’s, and Scheherazade was a woman of exceptional intelligence, wisdom and bravery that saved her own life and that of 1000 virgins by telling spellbinding tales during dark Arabian nights and thus educated a king. These are qualities that my mother wished for me and why she gave me these names. When we first went to Africa I was proud to wear African clothes and even as a young girl I understood the meaning of standing in the Door of No Return at Goree Island. So let’s examine the meaning behind Barack Hussien Obama.
Barack is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is “flash of lightning”. In the Bible (Judges 4:6) Barack is a valiant fighting man who cooperated with the prophetess Deborah to win victory in a battle against overwhelming odds. I could stop there but the world is fixated on Hussein which is Arabic meaning good or handsome. So you see Barak was destined to be a good and handsome man that would rise like a flash of lightning to win victory in a battle against overwhelming odds.
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