Barack Obama's Kenyan Roots A Photo Essay

by Arjen Koopman

www.Kenya-Advisor.com

Introduction Although he only visited Kenya twice in his life, US Senator and current Presidential candidate Barack Obama is half Kenyan, half American by descent. In Kenya, people are very proud that somebody whose father grew up herding goats, is climbing high in American politics. Obama’s Kenyan Father Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, of a Kenyan father with the same name, and an American mother, Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas. His father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., and his grandfather were poor. They lived in a little village in Kenya's western Nyanza province. His grandfather was a cook for the British, who were the colonizers in Kenya at that time. His father “grew up herding goats and went to school in a tin-roof shack”, as Obama said himself. But the father got the chance of his lifetime when he got a scholarship introduced by John F. Kennedy to study in the USA. He enrolled in the University of Hawaii, where he met and married Obama’s mother, fellow student Ann Dunham. She came from a blue-collar background too. Afterwards, he studied at Harvard University. The marriage, during which Obama was born, lasted only a few years. After a few years, she married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian oil manager and they moved with Obama to Jakarta. Obama’s father went back to Kenya where he worked in the oil industry and eventually became an economist in the government of Jomo Kenyatta, the first Kenyan President after independence. He died at age 46 in a car accident. Obama Visits Kenya Obama visited Kenya only twice in his life. The first time was before he, like his father, entered Harvard University. He visited his relatives in the Nyanza province, and cried at his fathers grave, even though he hardly knew him. The second time, in 2006, it was an official visit as US Senator. With his wife and 2 daughters, he was received at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by the US Ambassador, Michael Rannesberger, and Obama’s Kenyan relatives. The streets were lined with massive crowds hoping to catch a glimpse of the currently only black US Senator. A spirit of Obama mania swept the nation, with Kenyans even renaming a local beer to “Obama”.

Above: Small Barack with his father and mother. The marriage only lasted a few years. Obama’s father essentially left his family for advanced studies at Harvard.

Above: Father and son Obama met again at the airport of Honolulu, Hawaii. At this time Obama’s mother was already remarried to Lolo Soetoro and movied to Jakarta.

Above: Obama’s Kenyan family. On the picture: (bottom row, from left) half-sister Auma, her mother Kezia Obama, Obama's step-grandmother Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama and unknown; (top row, from left) unknown, Obama, half-brother Abongo (Roy) Obama, and 3 unknowns.

Above: After Obama’s parents divorced, his mother remarried Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian oil manager. The family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia.

Above: Obama with his grandmother, Sarah Hussein Obama, during his first trip to Kenya.

Above: Obama greeting crowds in Nairobi, near where the United States Embassy stood before a bombing destroyed it in 1998.

Above: Obama with his grandmother (in pink clothes) during his Kenyan visit in 2006.

Above: Obama with his grandmother during his Kenyan visit in 2006.

Above: This picture, of Obama in traditional Swahili-Muslim clothes, was spread by the Clinton camp during the campaign, apparently to prove that Obama is a Muslim (apparently a terrible sin in political America).

Above: Obama’s half brother, Malik, who’s apparently still a Muslim, showing a picture of Obama in traditional Muslim clothes.

Above: Obama at a rally in Kenya during his 2006 visit.

Above: Obama’s grandfather has spoken out against the “lies” that Obama is a Muslim.

Above: Obama’s grandmother in her small Luo village, where they are chicken and goat herders.

Above: Obama and his wife took HIV tests at a clinic in Kenya in an effort to battle the fear and social stigmas that have slowed progress in fighting the spread of AIDS.

Above: Obama in western Kenya in 2006.

Above: Obama with Raila Odinga, the opposition-leader-turned-primeminister. Odinga is also from the Luo tribe and claims to be Obama’s cousin.