Barack Obama Sr.

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Barack Hussein Obama (born June 18, 1936 in Nyang'oma Kogelo in the then British colony of Kenya , † November 24, 1982 in Nairobi ) was a Kenyan economist , government adviser and father of Barack Obama , the 44th President of the United States .

Origin and early life

Barack Obama Senior was born in 1936 under the name Baraka Obama in the Rachuonyo District on the shores of Lake Victoria in British Kenya , which was then a colony and protectorate of the British Empire . He grew up in the village of Nyang'oma Kogelo. His family was from the Luo people .

His father was Onyango Obama, who later called himself Onyango Hussein Obama (1895-1979), his mother was Habiba Akumu Nyanjango, Onyango's second wife. In addition to Barack, the couple had two daughters. In 1945 Akumu separated from Onyango and left the family, their three children were raised by Onyango's third wife Sarah Ogwel.

Initially the family lived on Kendu Bay, Obama attended Gendia Primary School . After the family moved to the Siaya District , he switched to the Ng'iya Intermediate School . From 1950 to 1953 he went to the Maseno National School , an exclusive Anglican boarding school in Maseno . His headmaster, B. L. Bowers, described him in his notes as "astute, persistent, trustworthy and kind, focused, reliable and generous."

Private life

Obama Senior married his first wife, Kezia Aoko, at the age of 18 in 1954, and their son Malik was born in 1958 . His wife was pregnant with daughter Auma when he received a scholarship that allowed him to study at college in the United States . At Obama's request, his sponsor Helen Roberts agreed to look after his family and provide them with financial support. He left his family and became the first African student to enroll at the University of Hawai'i .

There he met the anthropology student Ann Dunham in 1960 , whom he married in 1961 against the opposition of both families on Maui . On August 4, 1961, their son Barack Obama Junior was born. When Barack Obama Sr. received a scholarship to Harvard University , Ann Dunham Obama moved to Seattle , where she continued her studies as a single mother at Washington University . The following year, with the support of her parents, she resumed her studies in Honolulu in late 1962. In 1964 she filed for divorce.

Barack Obama Sr. saw his son Barack Junior only once when he was 10 years old. He is the central figure in his memoirs from 1995 with the title Dreams from My Father , which tell of the impressions that shaped his life from those few days.

During his visit, Obama invited his son to his first jazz concert, a performance by pianist Dave Brubeck .

His son remembered getting his first basketball gift from Obama:

“I only remember one month with my father in my entire life, I was 10 years old at the time. And it wasn't until much later in life that I realized that the moment he gave me my first basketball, I became the basketball fan I still am today. He took me to my first jazz concert and I developed a great interest in jazz and music. It is unbelievable what a tremendous impression this month made on me, certainly because otherwise he was absent. That was the main reason I later resolved to be a really good father myself. The thought of not having it with me made me say: 'The most important thing is that my girls always feel that they have someone they can rely on.' "

- Barack Obama : Dinner with Barack: Two Teachers, an Army Veteran, a Small Business Owner, and The President, November 21, 2011

Barack Obama Sr. met the 27-year-old elementary school teacher Ruth Beatrice Baker of Lithuanian origin in Cambridge, Massachusetts in June 1964 .

Obama returned to Kenya in 1964. Baker followed him, they married on December 24, 1964 and had two sons named Mark (* 1965) and David (* 1968). Baker and Obama split in 1971 and divorced in 1973.

In Kenya, Obama Senior lived again with his first wife Kezia, and after his return she had two sons: Abo (* 1968) and Bernard (* 1970).

Career

In 1959, the Kenyan Ministry of Education published Obama's monograph entitled Otieno jarieko. Kitabu mar ariyo. 2: Yore mabeyo likes puro puothe ( Eng . Otieno, the wise. Book 2: Smart strategies in agriculture ).

Because of his accomplishments, Obama received a 1959 scholarship to study economics through a program organized by nationalist leader Tom Mboya to provide excellent Kenyan students with Western education. The program was sponsored by Harry Belafonte , Sidney Poitier , Jackie Robinson, and Elizabeth Mooney Kirk, a literary agent who provided the bulk of Obama's financial support in the United States.

He graduated from the University of Hawaii after three years with a B.A. in Economics and was accepted into the Phi Beta Kappa Academic Society .

In September 1962, Obama Senior traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he began a Graduate Fellowship in Economics. In 1965 he graduated from Harvard University with an MA in Economics . He did not complete a planned doctorate.

Professional career

Obama first worked for an oil company before he was hired as an economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Transportation. He later became a Senior Economic Analyst at the Treasury Department.

In an article in the East Africa Journal titled Problems Facing Our Socialism in 1965, Obama vehemently criticized the cornerstones of the national economic plan as developed by Tom Mboya's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Development.

In his memoirs, Barack Obama Junior writes that his father's career was ultimately ruined by an ongoing conflict with Jomo Kenyatta . After the murder of Tom Mboya, who had promoted him, he fell into disrepute. Kenyatta fired Obama, who was blacklisted so that he could not find work in Kenya. During this phase he visited his son in Hawaii in 1971.

Last years of life and death

Grave of Barack Obama Sr. in Nyang'oma Kogelo , Kenya

As early as 1970 he injured his leg in an accident and had to be treated in hospital for almost a year. Obama later lost both legs in a serious car accident, and in the years that followed, his social situation continued to deteriorate.

In 1982 Obama became a father again. His partner, Jael Otinyo, gave birth to a boy named George.

Six months later, Obama died as a result of another traffic accident in Nairobi. He was buried in his hometown Nyang'oma Kogelo. Several ministers and many other prominent political figures attended the funeral service.

Publications

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jacobs (2011), p. 261 : 27. Barack Obama's date of birth is unclear. His school reports do not have a date of birth. University of Hawaii records indicate June 18, 1934. His marriage certificate and memoirs refer to the year 1936; U.S. immigration records indicate both 1934 and 1936. In his family, 1936 is considered right.
  2. ^ Jacobs (2011), p. 26 : Barack's sister Hawa Auma remembered her brother Baraka converting to Christianity at the age of six and changing his name to the more Christian-sounding name Barack because the Christian missionaries in primary school had insisted on it.
  3. ↑ a b c Obama's dad and his many loves . In: The Standard , November 14, 2008. Retrieved November 22, 2008. 
  4. ↑ Obama, Barack: My spiritual journey . In: Time , October 16, 2006. Retrieved March 5, 2008. “ My father was completely absent from my childhood after divorcing my mother when I was two years old. What is certain is that, although he grew up as a Muslim, at the time my mother met him he was a staunch atheist, for whom religion was only superstition. " 
  5. ↑ Ombour, Joe: Obama's father and the origin of Muslim name . In: The Standard , November 4, 2008. Retrieved November 13, 2008. 
  6. ^ Powell, Kimberly: Ancestry of Barack Obama . About.com . Retrieved March 4, 2008.
  7. ↑ a b Reitwiesner, William Addams: Ancestry of Barack Obama . wargs.com (William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical Services). Retrieved November 21, 2008.
  8. ↑ Obama (1995, 2004), p. 418.
  9. ↑ a b Oywa, John: Tracing Obama Snr's steps as a student at Maseno School . In: The Standard , November 4, 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2008.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.eastandard.net
  10. ^ Fascinating story of Obama family . In: The Standard . Archived from the original on August 17, 2009. Retrieved July 11, 2009. 
  11. ↑ Sally H. Jacobs, The other Barack , PublicAffairs , 2011, ISBN 978-1-58648-793-5 , pp. 72-73, 90-91, 129-130
  12. ↑ Maraniss, David: Though Obama had to leave to find himself, it is Hawaii that made his rise possible . In: The Washington Post , August 24, 2008, p. A22. Retrieved February 24, 2011. 
  13. ↑ Tim Jones: Barack Obama: mother not just a girl from Kansas; Stanley Ann Dunham shaped a future senator . chicago tribune. March 27, 2007. Archived from the original on March 29, 2009. Retrieved on February 16, 2009.
  14. ^ Meacham, Jon: On his own , newsweek.com. August 23, 2008. Archived from the original on July 23, 2010. Retrieved July 27, 2010.  (online)
    Meacham, Jon: On his own . In: Newsweek . 152, No. 9, September 1, 2008, pp. 26-36. ("Special Democratic Convention issue") (print)
  15. ^ Dougherty, Phil: Barack Obama moves to Seattle in August or early September 1961 . HistoryLink .org. February 10, 2009. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  16. ^ T. Diane Cejka: Obama Immigration Records FOIA Requests . HS Mathers. November 30, 2011. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  17. ↑ Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 62–71, 216.
  18. ↑ Kennedy Center honoree Brubeck's ties to Obama . New England Cable News. December 6, 2009. Archived from the original on December 12, 2009. Retrieved on February 9, 2011.
  19. ↑ BarackObama.com: Dinner with Barack: Two Teachers at Army veteran, a Small Business Owner, and The President . YouTube. November 21, 2011. Retrieved November 24, 2011.
  20. ↑ Jacobs (2011), pp. 160-161.
  21. ↑ Jacobs, Andrew: An Obama relative living in China tells of his own journey of self-discovery . In: The New York Times , November 4, 2009, p. A10. Retrieved January 21, 2011. 
  22. ^ Jacobs (2011), p. 165.
  23. ^ Jacobs (2011), p. 177.
  24. ^ Ochieng, Philip: From home squared to the US Senate: how Barack Obama was lost and found . In: The EastAfrican , November 1, 2004. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved March 4, 2008. 
  25. ↑ a b c d Jacobs, Sally: A father's charm, absence . In: The Boston Globe , September 21, 2008, p. 1A. Retrieved August 14, 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. " 
  26. ^ Bade, David W .: Books in African languages ​​in the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, Northwestern University: a catalog . Program of African Studies, Northwestern University. 2000. Archived from the original on May 28, 2010. Retrieved March 18, 2009.
  27. ↑ Spak, Kara: Obama's African sales appeal on exhibit . In: Chicago Sun-Times , December 7, 2010, p. 20. Retrieved January 20, 2011. 
  28. ^ Dobbs, Michael: Obama overstates Kennedys' role in helping his father . In: The Washington Post , March 30, 2008, p. A1. Retrieved February 24, 2011. 
  29. ^ "Tom Mboya Archives," Library, Stanford University
  30. ^ Tom Shachtman: Airlift to America . St. Martin's Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-312-57075-0 , pp. 4-9.
  31. ↑ Mike Seccombe: Unlikely Events Recall Story Of This President . In: Vineyard Gazette . , Martha's Vineyard, MA27. August 2009.
  32. ^ President Obama's connection to UH Economics . Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa. February 26, 2009. Archived from the original on December 15, 2010. Retrieved on January 21, 2011.
  33. ↑ US Presidents share a Phi Beta Kappa connection . In: Focus News . Phi Beta Kappa Society. January 21, 2009. Archived from the original on April 28, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 22, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pbk.org
  34. ↑ Kenya student wins fellowship . In: Honolulu Star-Bulletin , June 20, 1962, p. 7. "A 1962 graduate, he leaves next week for a tour of Mainland universities before entering Harvard in the fall." 
  35. ↑ Harvard alumni directory , Harvard Alumni Association (ed.), Cambridge / Massachusetts, 1970, p. 1240
  36. ↑ Fornek, Scott: Barack Obama Sr .: 'Wrestling with ... a ghost' . In: Chicago Sun Times , Sep 9, 2007, p. 4B. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved March 4, 2008. 
  37. ^ Long-lost article by Obama's dad surfaces , Politico.com. April 15, 2008. Retrieved January 20, 2011. 
  38. ↑ Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 214-216.
  39. ↑ Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 64-71, 212-219.
  40. ↑ Pflanz, Mike: Barack Obama is my inspiration, says lost brother . In: The Daily Telegraph , August 21, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2008. 
  41. ↑ , The President's Kin , New York (magazine) , accessed January 20, 2012
  42. ^ Sally H. Jacobs: The Other Barack . PublicAffairs. 2011. Excerpt at NPR.org , accessed September 16, 2011.
  43. ↑ Interview of Sally H. Jacobs by John Batchelor. ( Memento of the original from March 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The John Batchelor Show . July 16, 2011 (7:10 p.m. - 7:50 p.m.). Retrieved September 16, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / podfuse-dl.andomedia.com
personal data
SURNAME Obama, Barack Sr.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Obama, Barack Hussein senior (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kenyan economist and government advisor and father of Barack Obama
DATE OF BIRTH June 18, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Nyang'oma Kogelo , in what was then the British colony of Kenya
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 1982
Place of death Nairobi