Barack Obama Sr.: Difference between revisions
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{{For|his son, the United States Senator and Presidential candidate|Barack Obama}} |
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{{Infobox Person |
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| name = Barack Obama, Sr. |
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| image = Barack Obama Sr Jr.jpg |
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| imagesize = 180px |
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| caption = Obama, Sr. with son, Barack c. 1971 |
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| birth_date = 1936 |
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| religion = |
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| birth_place = [[Nyang’oma Kogelo]], [[Kenya]] |
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| death_date = 1982 (aged 46) |
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| death_place = [[Nairobi]], [[Kenya]] |
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| partner = [[Kezia Obama]]<br>[[Ann Dunham]]<br>[[Ruth Nidesand]]<br>[[Family of Barack Obama#Paternal relations|Jael]]<ref>{{cite paper | author=Scott Fornek | coauthors=Greg Good, ''et al.'' | ~url=http://www.suntimes.com/images/cds/MP3/obamatree.pdf | title=The Obama Family Tree | publisher=''The Chicago Sun Times'' | date=9 September 2007 | accessdate=2008-09-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | author=Rob Crilly | title=Life is Good in My Nairobi Slum, Says Barack Obama's Younger Brother | url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4583353.ece | work=The Times | date=22 August 2008 | accessdate=2008-09-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | author=Mike Pflanz | title=Barack Obama is My Inspiration, Says Lost Brother | url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/2595688/Barack-Obama-is-my-inspiration-says-lost-brother.html | work=The Daily Telegraph |date=21 August 2008 | accessdate=2008-09-26}}</ref> |
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| parents = [[Onyango Obama|Hussein Onyango Obama]] and [[Akuma Obama|Akuma/Akumu Obama]] <ref name="genealogy"/> |
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| children = 1. (with Kezia): [[Abongo Obama|Abongo (Roy) Obama]], [[Auma Obama]],<br> [[Abo Obama]], [[Bernard Obama]]<br>2. (with Ann Dunham): [[Barack Obama]]<br>3. (with Ruth Nidesand): [[Mark Ndesandjo]],<ref>{{cite news | author=Michael Sheridan | title=Barack Obama’s Brother Pushes Chinese Imports on US | url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4406813.ece | work=The Times Online | date=27 July 2008 | accessdate=2008-09-26}}</ref> David Ndesandjo<br>4. (with Jael): [[George Obama]] |
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| parents =[[Onyango Obama|Hussein Onyango Obama]] and [[Akuma Obama|Akumu Habiba]] |
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| resting_place =[[Nyang’oma Kogelo]], Siaya, Kenya<ref name="genealogy"/> |
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| known_for = Father of [[Barack Obama]] |
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| occupation = [[Economist]] |
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| nationality = [[Kenya]] |
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| alma_mater = [[University of Hawaii]]<br>[[Harvard University]] |
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}} |
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'''Barack Hussein Obama''' (1936–1982) was a [[Kenya]]n senior governmental economist, and [[father]] of [[Illinois]] [[United States Senator|Senator]] and 2008 Democratic presidential nominee [[Barack Obama]]. He is the main subject of his son's memoir, ''[[Dreams From My Father]]''. |
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==Biography== |
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===Early years === |
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Obama Sr. was born on the shores of [[Lake Victoria]] in [[Nyang’oma Kogelo]], [[Alego Constituency|Alego]], [[Siaya District|Siaya]], [[Kenya]] to [[Onyango Obama|Hussein Onyango Obama]] (c. 1895–1979), and [[Akuma Obama|Akumu Habiba]].<ref name="genealogy">{{cite web | author=Kimberly Powell | title=Ancestry of Barack Obama | url=http://genealogy.about.com/od/aframertrees/p/barack_obama.htm | work=About.com | date=2008 | accessdate=2008-09-26}}</ref> His family are members of the [[Luo (Kenya and Tanzania)|Luo ethnic group]]. Obama Sr. was raised as a Muslim, but later became an atheist.<ref name="spiritual journey"/> He grew up in [[Nyang’oma Kogelo]], and was married at the age of eighteen in a tribal ceremony to [[Kezia Obama|Kezia]], with whom he had four children. |
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===Education === |
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Due to a program offering Western educational opportunities to outstanding Kenyan students that was organized by nationalist leader [[Tom Mboya]],<ref name="Overstate" /> Obama Sr. was awarded a scholarship in economics, and at the age of 23 he enrolled at the [[University of Hawaii]]. He left behind a pregnant Kezia and their infant son. As his son Senator Obama has said, "The [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedys]] decided: 'We're going to do an airlift. We're going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is. This young man named Barack Obama [Sr.] got one of those tickets and came over to this country.{{'"}}<ref name="xan-rice">{{cite news | author=Xan Rice | title='Barack's Voice was Just Like His Father's — I Thought He had Come Back from the Dead' | url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/06/barackobama.uselections2008 | work=The Guardian | date=6 June 2008 | accessdate=2008-09-26}}</ref> An article by Michael Dobbs in [[The Washington Post]], however, states that the Kennedy family did not become associated with the educational airlift until 1960, a year after Obama Sr. was studying in the United States. 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 Sr.'s early years in the United States, according to the Tom Mboya archives at [[Stanford University]].<ref name="Overstate" /> |
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Obama Sr. had already turned away from Islam and became an [[atheist]] by the time he moved to the United States.<ref name="spiritual journey">{{cite news | author=Barack Obama | title=My Spiritual Journey | url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1546579,00.html | work=TIME | accessdate=2008-09-26}}</ref> Barack Obama Sr.'s daughter [[Auma Obama|Auma]] has commented that her father "was never a Muslim although he was born into a Muslim family with a Muslim name."<ref name="xan-rice"/> |
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On 21 February 1961, Obama Sr. married a fellow student, [[Ann Dunham]] in [[Maui]], [[Hawaii]].<ref>{{cite news | author=Amanda Ripley | title=The Story of Barack Obama's Mother | url=http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1729524,00.html | work=TIME | date=9 April 2008 accessdate=2008-09-26}}</ref> Their son, Barack Obama, was born on August 4, 1961. Two years later, Obama Sr. was accepted at [[Harvard]] for graduate study. He moved to [[Massachusetts]] while Ann and their son remained in Hawaii. He and Dunham divorced in 1963. The divorce was filed in [[Honolulu, Hawaii]] in January 1964, and he only saw his son again once, at age 10. He received a Masters degree (AM) in economics from Harvard in 1965.<ref>{{cite book | author=Harvard University | title=Harvard University 350th Anniversary Alumni Directory | edition=seventeenth edition| volume=vol. I | page=p. 904 | location=Cambridge, MA | publisher=President and Fellows of Harvard College | year=1986 | oclc=17963336}}</ref> |
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At Harvard, he met an American-born teacher named [[Ruth Nidesand]] who would follow him to Kenya when he returned after completing his Masters degree. She eventually became his third wife and had two children with him before they divorced.<ref name="Ochieng">{{cite news | author=Philip Ochieng | title=From Home Squared to the US Senate | url=http://www.nationmedia.com/EastAfrican/01112004/Features/PA2-11.html | work=The East African | date=1 November 2004 | accessdate=2008-09-26}}</ref> |
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===Return to Kenya=== |
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On his return to Kenya, Obama Sr. was hired by an oil company and then served as an economist in the Ministry of Transportation, and later became senior economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Finance.<ref name="Ghost">{{cite news | author=Scott Fornek |title=Barak Obama Sr.: Wrestling with . . . a Ghost | url=http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/familytree/545467,BSX-News-wotreev09.stng | work=The Chicago Sun Times | date=9 September 2007 | accessdate=2008-09-26}}</ref> In 1965 Obama Sr. wrote a paper titled "Problems Facing Our Socialism," published in the ''East Africa Journal,'' harshly criticizing the blueprint for national planning titled "African Socialism and Its Applicability to Planning in Kenya" produced by Tom Mboya's Ministry of Economic Planning and Development.<ref>{{cite journal | first=Barak H. | last=Obama | title=Problems Facing Our Socialism | pages=pp. 26-33 | journal=East Africa Journal | month=July | year=1965 | url=http://www.politico.com/static/PPM41_eastafrica.html | format=.PDF | accessdate=2008-09-26}}</ref> As Senator Barack Obama describes in his memoir, his father's conflict with [[Jomo Kenyatta|President Kenyatta]] destroyed his career. |
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Obama Sr.'s life then took a tailspin into drinking and poverty, from which he never recovered. His friend, Kenyan journalist Philip Ochieng, has described Obama Sr.'s difficult personality and drinking problems in the Kenya newspaper ''The Nation''.<ref name="Overstate" /> Obama Sr. lost both legs in an automobile accident, and subsequently lost his job. He died not long afterward at the age of 46 in a car crash in [[Nairobi]].<ref name="Overstate">{{cite news | author=Michael Dobbs | title=Obama Overstated Kennedy's Role in Helping His Father | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/29/AR2008032902031.html?nav=hcmodule | work=The Washington Post | date=30 March 2008 | accessdate=2008-09-26}}</ref> |
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Obama Sr. is buried in [[Alego]], at the village of Nyang’oma Kogelo, Siaya District, Kenya. |
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==See also== |
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*[[Family of Barack Obama]] |
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==References== |
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{{reflist|2}} |
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{{Barack Obama}} |
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{{Notable Joluo}} |
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{{Lifetime|1936|1982|Obama, Barack, Sr.}} |
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[[Category:Barack Obama]] |
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[[Category:Former Muslims]] |
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[[Category:People from Nairobi]] |
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[[Category:Harvard University alumni]] |
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[[Category:Kenyan atheists]] |
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[[Category:Kenyan economists]] |
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[[Category:Kenyan expatriates in the United States]] |
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[[Category:Luo Kenyans]] |
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[[Category:Muslim atheists]] |
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[[Category:Obama family]] |
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[[Category:Road accident deaths in Kenya]] |
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[[Category:University of Hawaii alumni]] |
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Revision as of 19:16, 26 October 2008
