This is an old revision of this page, as edited by MusikAnimal (talk | contribs) at 19:56, 17 May 2013 (Reverted edits by 96.227.114.8 (talk) to last version by קהלת). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 19:56, 17 May 2013 by MusikAnimal (talk | contribs) (Reverted edits by 96.227.114.8 (talk) to last version by קהלת)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Barack Obama, Sr. | |
|---|---|
 Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. | |
| Born | Baraka Obama 18 June 1936 Nyang’oma Kogelo, Rachuonyo District, Kenya Colony |
| Died | 24 November 1982 (aged 46) Nairobi, Kenya |
| Cause of death | Automobile accident |
| Resting place | Nyang’oma Kogelo, Siaya, Kenya |
| Nationality | Kenyan |
| Alma mater | University of Hawaii Harvard University |
| Occupation | Economist |
| Known for | Father of U.S. President Barack Obama |
| Spouse(s) | Kezia Obama Stanley Ann Dunham Ruth Ndesandjo Jael Otieno |
| Children | Malik Obama (b.1958) Auma Obama (b.1960) Barack Obama (b.1961) Mark Ndesandjo (b.1965) David Ndesandjo (1968–1987) Abo Obama (b.1968) Bernard Obama (b.1970) George Obama (b.1982) |
| Parent(s) | Hussein Onyango Obama and Akumu Habiba |
Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (/ˈbærək huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; 18 June 1936 − 24 November 1982) was a Kenyan senior governmental economist and the father of U.S. President Barack Obama. He is a central figure of his son's memoir, Dreams from My Father (1995). Obama married in 1954 and had two children with his first wife. He was selected for a special program to attend college in the United States, where he went to the University of Hawaii. There in 1960 he met Stanley Ann Dunham, a native of Kansas. They married in 1961 and divorced three years later, after having a son, Barack Hussein Obama, named for him. The elder Obama went to Harvard University for graduate school, earning an M.A. in economics, and returned to Kenya in 1964.
Later that year, he married Ruth Beatrice Baker, a Jewish-American woman with whom he had developed a relationship in Massachusetts. They had two sons together before separating in 1971 and divorcing in 1973. Obama first worked for an oil company, before beginning work as an economist with the Kenyan Ministry of Transport. He gained a promotion to senior economic analyst in the Ministry of Finance. Among a cadre of young Kenyan men educated in the West in a program supported by Tom Mboya, Obama had conflicts with Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta, which adversely affected his career. He was fired and blacklisted in Kenya, finding it nearly impossible to get a job. Drinking heavily, Obama suffered two serious car accidents and died in a third in 1982.
Early life and education
Obama was born in Rachuonyo District on the shores of Lake Victoria just outside Kendu Bay, Kenya Colony, at the time a colony of the British Empire. He was raised in the village of Nyang’oma Kogelo, Siaya District, Nyanza Province. His family are members of the Luo ethnic group. His father was Onyango (later Hussein) Obama (c. 1895-1979), and his mother, Habiba Akumu Nyanjango of Karabondi, Kenya, was his second wife. After Akumu separated from her husband Hussein and left the family in 1945, the boy Barack Obama was raised by his father Hussein's third wife, Sarah Ogwel of Kogelo.
Before working as a cook for missionaries and local herbalist in Nairobi, Barack Obama's father Onyango had traveled widely, enlisting in the British colonial forces and visiting Europe, India, and Zanzibar. There he converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam and took the name Hussein. In 1949, after becoming more politically active, Onyango was jailed by the British for six months due to his working for the Kenyan independence movement. According to Sarah Onyango Obama, her husband Hussein Onyango was subjected to beatings and abuse; it resulted in permanent physical disabilities and his loathing of the British.
Obama was raised in a Muslim family. When he was about six years old and attending a Christian missionary school, the boy converted to Anglicanism when strongly encouraged by the staff. He changed his name from "Baraka" to the more Christian-sounding "Barack".
While still living near Kendu Bay, Obama attended Gendia Primary School. After his family moved to Siaya District, he transferred to Ng’iya Intermediate School. From 1950 to 1953, he studied at Maseno National School, an exclusive Anglican boarding school in Maseno. The head teacher, B.L. Bowers, described Obama in his records as "very keen, steady, trustworthy and friendly. Concentrates, reliable and out-going."
Marriage and family
In 1954 at the age of eighteen, Obama married Kezia Aoko in a tribal ceremony. They had two children, Malik (a.k.a. Roy) and Auma, during the early years of their marriage. Later, after Obama had married a third time, Kezia had two more sons, Abo and Bernard who are thought to be Obama's children. Barack Obama, Jr, in his memoir, Dreams from My Father, said that his father's family questions whether Abo and Bernard are his biological sons.
College and graduate school
In 1959, Obama received a scholarship in economics through a program organized by the nationalist leader Tom Mboya. The program offered education in the West to outstanding Kenyan students. Initial financial supporters of the program included Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Jackie Robinson, and Elizabeth Mooney Kirk, a literacy advocate who provided most of the financial support for Obama's early years in the United States. Funds provided the next year by John F. Kennedy's family paid off old debts of the project and subsidized student stipends, indirectly benefiting Obama and other members of the 1959 group of scholarship holders. When Obama left for America, he left behind his young wife, Kezia, and their baby son, Malik. Kezia was also pregnant, and their daughter, Auma, was born while her father was in Hawaii.
University of Hawaii
In September 1959, Obama enrolled at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu as the university's first African foreign student. He initially lived across the street from the university at the Charles H. Atherton branch of the YMCA at 1810 University Avenue; public records from 1961 indicate he later had a residence two miles southeast of the university at 625 11th Avenue in the Kaimuki neighborhood. In September 1960, Obama met Stanley Ann Dunham in a basic Russian language course at the University of Hawaii. Dunham dropped out of the University of Hawaii after the fall 1960 semester after becoming pregnant, while Obama continued his education. Obama married Dunham in Wailuku on the Hawaiian island of Maui on 2 February 1961. He eventually told Dunham about his previous marriage in Kenya, but said he was divorced—which she found out years later was a lie.
Obama and Dunham's son, Barack II, was born in Honolulu on 4 August 1961 at the old Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital—a predecessor of the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children. His birth was announced in The Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, with his parents' address listed as 6085 Kalanianaole Highway in the Kuliouou neighborhood of Honolulu, seven miles east of the university—the rented home of Dunham's parents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham. Soon after his birth, Dunham took her son to Seattle, Washington, where she took classes at the University of Washington from September 1961 to June 1962. Obama continued his education at the University of Hawaii and in 1961–1962 lived one mile east of the university in the St. Louis Heights neighborhood. He graduated from the University of Hawaii after three years with a B.A. in economics and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and left Hawaii in June 1962.
Harvard University
In September 1962, after a tour of mainland U.S. universities, Obama traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he began a graduate fellowship in economics at Harvard University and rented an apartment in a rooming house near Central Square in Cambridge. Meanwhile, Dunham and their son returned to Honolulu in the latter half of 1962, and she resumed her undergraduate education in January 1963 in the spring semester at the University of Hawaii. In January 1964, Dunham filed for divorce in Honolulu; the divorce was not contested by Obama. In 1965, Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, a Javanese surveyor whom she had met at the East-West Center.
Obama was forced to leave his Ph.D. program at Harvard University in May 1964 (and received an A.M. in economics from Harvard in 1965). In June 1964, Obama met and began dating a 27-year-old Jewish American elementary school teacher named Ruth Beatrice Baker, the daughter of prosperous Lithuanian immigrants to the United States.
Return to Kenya
Obama returned to Kenya in August 1964. Baker followed him, and they married 24 December 1964. They had two sons together, Mark Okoth Obama in 1965 and David Opiyo Obama in 1968. Baker and Obama separated in 1971, and divorced in 1973. Baker subsequently married a Tanzanian named Ndesandjo and took his surname, as did her sons Mark and David. Mark said in 2009 that Obama had been abusive to him, his late brother David, and his mother.
After working for an oil company, Obama served as an economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Transport. He later was promoted to senior economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Finance. In 1959, a monograph written by him had been published by the Kenyan Department of Education, entitled Otieno jarieko. Kitabu mar ariyo. 2: Yore mabeyo mag puro puothe. (English: Otieno, the wise man. Book 2: Wise ways of farming.) That same year, Obama published a paper entitled "Problems Facing Our Socialism" in the East Africa Journal, harshly criticizing the blueprint for national planning, "African Socialism and Its Applicability to Planning in Kenya", which had been produced by Tom Mboya's Ministry of Economic Planning and Development. The article was signed "Barak H. Obama." In December 1971, Obama was still recuperating after an almost year-long hospitalization following an automobile accident. He made a month-long trip to Hawaii, during which he visited with his ex-wife Ann and son Barack II. The visit was the last time the boy would see his father. On that trip Obama took his son to his first jazz concert, a performance by the pianist Dave Brubeck.
President Obama recalled his father giving him his first basketball:
I only remember my father for one month my whole life, when I was 10. And it wasn't until much later in life that I realized, like, he gave me my first basketball and it was shortly thereafter that I became this basketball fanatic. And he took me to my first jazz concert and it was sort of shortly thereafter that I became really interested in jazz and music. So what it makes you realize how much of an impact that they have on you. But I think probably the most important thing was his absence I think contributed to me really wanting to be a good dad, you know? Because I think not having him there made me say to myself 'you know what I want to make sure my girls feel like they've got somebody they can rely on.'"
According to his son's memoir, Obama's conflict with President Jomo Kenyatta destroyed the economist's career. The decline began after Tom Mboya was assassinated in 1969. After Kenyatta fired Obama he was blacklisted in Kenya and found it impossible to get work. He began to drink heavily and had a serious car accident in 1970, requiring almost a year in the hospital. By the time he visited his son in Hawaii in late 1971, he had a bad leg. Obama's life deteriorated into drinking and poverty, from which he never recovered. His friend, journalist Philip Ochieng, has described Obama's difficult personality and drinking problems in the Kenya newspaper, Daily Nation.
Obama later lost both legs in a second serious automobile accident, and subsequently lost his job. He fathered another son named George. Six months after George's birth, Obama died in 1982 in a car crash in Nairobi, his third since 1970. He was interred in his native village of Nyang’oma Kogelo, Siaya District. His funeral was attended by ministers Robert Ouko, Peter Oloo-Aringo and other prominent political figures.
Publications
- Otieno jarieko (Otieno, the Wise Man: A Series of Readers to Follow the Luo Adult Literacy Primer) (in Luo). Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, Eagle Press. 1959. OCLC 694566336.
- "Problems facing our socialism: another critique of Sessional Paper No. 10" (PDF). East Africa Journal. 2 (4). Nairobi: 26–33. July 1965. ISSN 0012-8309. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
See also
Portals:
Notes
- Jacobs (2011), p. 26: Her brother Baraka, as she recalls, converted to Christianity when he was about six years old and changed his name to the more Christian-sounding Barack because the Christian missionaries at the early schools that he attended insisted that he do so.
- ^ Jacobs (2011), p. 261: 27. Barack Obama's date of birth is unclear. His earliest school records bear no birth date. His University of Hawaii transcript records his birthdate as 18 June 1934. His marriage certificate and résumés indicate he was born in 1936. U.S. immigration records show his year of birth as both 1934 and 1936. Family members say they believe he was born in 1936, so I have used that date.
- ^ Oywa, John; Olwenya, George (14 November 2008). "Obama's dad and his many loves". The Standard. Nairobi. Archived from the original on 23 January 2009. Retrieved 22 November 2008.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Sanders, Edmund (17 July 2008). "So alike and yet so different". Los Angeles Times. p. A1. Archived from the original on 11 February 2009. Retrieved 24 February 2009.
Obama's worsening drinking binges strained his career and marriage. "He would pass out on the doorstep," said Leo Odera Omolo, a former drinking buddy and friend of the family. "Ruth would complain he's getting out of hand." The couple divorced in the early 1970s.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Powell, Kimberly (2008). "Ancestry of Barack Obama". New York: About.com. Archived from the original on 2 March 2008. Retrieved 4 March 2008.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - Fornek, Scott; Good, Greg (9 September 2007). "The Obama family tree" (PDF). Chicago Sun-Times. pp. 2B–3B. Retrieved 22 March 2008.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Crilly, Rob (22 August 2008). "Life is good in my Nairobi slum, says Barack Obama's younger brother". The Times. London. p. 37. Retrieved 23 August 2008.
- Pflanz, Mike (21 August 2008). "Barack Obama is my inspiration, says lost brother". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 23 August 2008.
- "The President's Kin" (PDF). New York. 23 November 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
- Sheridan, Michael (27 July 2008). "Barack Obama's brother pushes Chinese imports on U.S". The Times. London. p. 27. Archived from the original on 15 August 2008. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - Obama, Barack (16 October 2006). "My spiritual journey". Time. Retrieved 5 March 2008.
My father was almost entirely absent from my childhood, having been divorced from my mother when I was 2 years old; in any event, although my father had been raised a Muslim, by the time he met my mother he was a confirmed atheist, thinking religion to be so much superstition.
- Sally H. Jacobs. The Other Barack. PublicAffairs. 2011. Excerpt at NPR.org Retrieved 16 September 2011. Quote: "The Old Man had also been called Barack, but his was a working man's name, with the emphasis on the first syllable."
- Interview of Sally H. Jacobs by John Batchelor. The John Batchelor Show. 16 July 2011 (19:10–19:50). Retrieved 16 September 2011.
- Ombour, Joe (4 November 2008). "Obama's father and the origin of Muslim name". The Standard. Nairobi. Archived from the original on 6 December 2008. Retrieved 13 November 2008.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - Reitwiesner, William Addams (2008). "Ancestry of Barack Obama". Washington, D.C.: wargs.com (William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical Services). Archived from the original on 3 December 2008. Retrieved 21 November 2008.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - Macintyre, Ben; Orengoh, Paul (3 December 2008). "Beatings and abuse made Barack Obama's grandfather loathe the British". The Times. London. p. 6. Archived from the original on 20 January 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Jacobs (2011), p. 25: Like all of Onyango's children and many of his grandchildren, Hawa Aumu was raised as a Muslim.
- Jacobs (2011), p. 26: Her brother Baraka, as she recalls, converted to Christianity when he was about six years old and changed his name to the more Christian-sounding Barack because the Christian missionaries at the early schools that he attended insisted that he do so.
- Obama (1995, 2004), p. 418.
- Oywa, John (4 November 2008). "Tracing Obama Snr's steps as a student at Maseno School". The Standard. Nairobi. Retrieved 8 November 2008.
- "Fascinating story of Obama family". The Standard. Nairobi. Retrieved 11 July 2009.
- ^ Foreman, William (4 November 2009). "Obama's half brother: our father was abusive; new novel 'Nairobi to Shenzhen' is patterned in part on Barack Obama, Sr". msnbc.com. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 7 November 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2009.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - Obama (1995, 2004), p.335.
- ^ Dobbs, Michael (30 March 2008). "Obama overstates Kennedys' role in helping his father". The Washington Post. p. A1. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
- Winfrey, Oprah (15 February 2007). "Oprah talks to Bobby Kennedy Jr". O, The Oprah Magazine. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
- ^ Jacobs, Sally (21 September 2008). "A father's charm, absence". The Boston Globe. p. 1A. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
... Pake Zane, 66, who attended the University of Hawaii with Obama and had not publicly discussed their 1974 conversation until now. Zane was astonished at the transformation in his once vibrant friend, who had been divorced by his third wife a year before.
- "Tom Mboya Archives", Library, Stanford University
- Dobbs, Note: During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama Jr. mistakenly said that the Kennedys had organized the initial 1959 student airlift, an error acknowledged by a campaign spokesman.
- Rice, Xan (6 June 2008). "'Barack's voice was just like his father's—I thought he had come back from the dead'". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 9 June 2008. Retrieved 10 June 2008.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Maraniss, David (24 August 2008). "Though Obama had to leave to find himself, it is Hawaii that made his rise possible". The Washington Post. p. A22. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
- ^ Hoover, Will (9 November 2008). "Obama's Hawaii boyhood homes drawing gawkers". The Honolulu Advertiser. p. A1. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
- ^ Ripley, Amanda (9 April 2008). "The story of Barack Obama's mother". Time. Archived from the original on 12 April 2008. Retrieved 10 April 2008.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) (online)
Ripley, Amanda (21 April 2008). "A mother's story". Time. 171 (16): 36–40, 42. ("Raising Obama" cover story) (print) - ^ Salsberg, Bob (29 April 2011). "Files suggest elder Obama forced to leave Harvard". The Arizona Republic. Associated Press. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
President Barack Obama's father was forced to leave Harvard University before completing his Ph.D. in economics because the school was concerned about his personal life and finances, according to newly public immigration records.
- ^ Dougherty, Phil (10 February 2009). "Barack Obama moves to Seattle in August or early September 1961". Seattle: HistoryLink.org. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
- Griffin, John (22 June 1962). "First UH African graduate gives view on E-W Center". The Honolulu Advertiser.
An off-campus resident himself (St. Louis Heights) Obama thinks it's a mistake to have the East-West students in dormitories.
- Brannon, Johnny (10 February 2007). "Hawai'i's imperfect melting pot a big influence on young Obama". The Honolulu Advertiser. p. 1A. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
The elder Obama lived first at the Atherton YMCA on University Avenue and later moved to St. Louis Heights.
- "President Obama's connection to UH Economics". Honolulu: Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa. 26 February 2009. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
- "U.S. Presidents share a Phi Beta Kappa connection". Focus News. Washington, D.C.: Phi Beta Kappa Society. 21 January 2009. Retrieved 22 October 2009.
- "Kenya student wins fellowship". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. 20 June 1962. p. 7.
A 1962 graduate, he leaves next week for a tour of Mainland universities before entering Harvard in the fall.
- Merida, Kevin (14 December 2007). "The ghost of a father". The Washington Post. p. A12. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
- Nakaso, Dan (12 September 2008). "Obama's mother's work focus of UH seminar". The Honolulu Advertiser. p. 1A. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
At UH, she fell in love with a Javanese candidate for a master's degree in geography named Soetoro Martodihardjo, who went by the Javanese nickname 'Lolo' Soetoro. They married in 1965 ...
- Dewey, Alice; White, Geoffrey (November 2008). "Ann Dunham: a personal reflection". Anthropology News. 49 (8): 20. doi:10.1111/an.2008.49.8.20. reprinted by:
Dewey, Alice; White, Geoffrey (9 March 2009). "Ann Dunham: a personal reflection". Honolulu: University of Hawaii Department of Anthropology. Retrieved 21 January 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Solomon, Deborah (20 January 2008). "Questions for Maya Soetoro-Ng: All in the family". The New York Times Magazine. p. 17. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
- Jacobs (2011), p. 159.
- . (1970). Harvard alumni directory (14th ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Alumni Assocation. p. 1240. ISSN 0895-1683.
{{cite book}}:|author=has numeric name (help)
. (1986). Harvard alumni directory, vol. 1 (17th ed.). Boston, Mass.: Harvard Alumni Association. p. 904. ISSN 0895-1683.{{cite book}}:|author=has numeric name (help) - Jacobs (2011), pp. 160–161.
- ^ Jacobs, Andrew (4 November 2009). "An Obama relative living in China tells of his own journey of self-discovery". The New York Times. p. A10. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
- ^ Demick, Barbara (5 November 2009). "Obama's half brother describes abuse". Los Angeles Times. p. A32. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
- Jacobs (2011), p. 165.
- Jacobs (2011), p. 177.
- Ochieng, Philip (1 November 2004). "From home squared to the US Senate: how Barack Obama was lost and found". The EastAfrican. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 4 March 2008.
- Obama (1995, 2004), p. 126: : "Later, when he came to visit us in Hawaii that time, he wanted us to come live with him. But I was still married to Lolo then, and his third wife had just left him, and I just didn't think ..."
- Obama (1995, 2004), p. 216: : "She left when I was twelve or thirteen, after the Old Man had had a serious car accident. He had been drinking, I think, and the Old Man was in the hospital, almost a year, and Roy and I lived on our own. When the Old Man finally got out of the hospital, that's when he went to visit you and your mum in Hawaii."
- Fornek, Scott (9 September 2007). "Barack Obama Sr.: 'Wrestling with ... a ghost'". Chicago Sun Times. p. 4B. Retrieved 4 March 2008.
- Bade, David W. (2000). "Books in African languages in the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, Northwestern University: a catalog" (PDF). Evanston, Ill.: Program of African Studies, Northwestern University. p. 304 (#3729). Retrieved 18 March 2009.
- Spak, Kara (7 December 2010). "Obama's African sales appeal on exhibit". Chicago Sun-Times. p. 20. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
- Smith, Ben; Ressner, Jeffrey (15 April 2008). "Long-lost article by Obama's dad surfaces". Politico.com. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 62–71, 216.
- Meacham, Jon (23 August 2008). "On his own". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 19 January 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - "Kennedy Center honoree Brubeck's ties to Obama". New England Cable News. 6 December 2009. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
- BarackObama.com (21 November 2011). "Dinner with Barack: Two Teachers, an Army Veteran, a Small Business Owner, and The President". YouTube. Retrieved 24 November 2011.
- Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 214–216.
- Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 64–71, 212–219.
References
- Obama, Barack (1995, 2004). Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 1-4000-8277-3.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|year=(help)CS1 maint: year (link) - Jacobs, Sally H. (2011). The other Barack: the bold and reckless life of President Obama's father. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 1-58648-793-0.
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