Yelena khanga biography of barack

Journalist

At a Glance…

The Move to Russia

An African Connection

Roots Rediscovered

Selected writings

Sources

The story of journalist Yelena Khanga and her family is stranger than many that appear in the pages of novels. A citizen of the former Soviet Union since her birth in 1962, Khanga can trace her roots to Poland, Tanzania, Mississippi, and several large American cities.

Khanga’s attempts to track her tangled ancestry—and her discoveries about racism in both Russia and the United States—have formed the subject matter of her writings and have made her a minor celebrity on American shores. She is the author of Soul to Soul: The Story of a Black Russian American Family, 1865-1992, as well as numerous newspaper articles that detail her experiences in her native land and abroad.

Chicago Tribune correspondent Dana Micucci wrote of Khanga: “Her layered heritage, a curiosity to others, to her is the most natural thi Biography of Yelena Khanga GUMI