FW: Barack Extended family - paternal relations
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Inno Oji
Jan 27, 2009, 6:28:57 PM1/27/09
to NZUKOOGANIVU AROKIGBO, ARO-ATLANTA
Dear members Ndewo nu,
This might interest you.
From
Mazi Oji(okosisi)
Subject:obamas extended family
Extended family - paternal relations
The Obamas are members of the Luo, Kenya's third-largest ethnic group, which is part of a larger family of ethnic groups, collectively also known as Luo. This group belongs to the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan phylum. The Obama family is largely concentrated in the western province of Nyanza.
Back row (left to right): Unidentified man, Barack Obama, Abongo [Roy] Obama (Barack's half-brother), unidentified woman, unidentified man, unidentified man.
- Barack Obama, Sr.
- Barack Obama's father, (1936 - 1982). Government economist in Kenya. Besides President Obama, Barack Obama Sr. fathered six other sons and a daughter.[33]
- Hussein Onyango Obama
- Barack Obama's paternal grandfather (c. 1895–1979);[34] he worked as a mission cook. He joined the British Army during World War I. (One source gives 1870–1975 as his dates of birth and death based on his tombstone reading "Mzee Hussein Onyango Obama" in his home village.[35] The term "mzee" is a Kenyan honorific meaning "old man" or "elder.") According to his third wife, Sarah, he originally was a Roman Catholic, but took the name Hussein when he converted to Islam; she said he passed the name, not the religion, on to his children.[36]
- Habiba Akumu Obama
- Barack Obama's paternal grandmother, and the second wife of Hussein Onyango Obama.
- Sarah Obama
- Th ird wife of Obama's paternal grandfather, born 1922.[35] Also known, through the addition of her late husband's name, as Sarah Onyango Obama,[37] and sometimes referred to as Sarah Ogwel, Sarah Hussein Obama or Sarah Anyango Obama,[38] she lives in Nyang’oma Kogelo village, 30 miles west of western Kenya's main town, Kisumu, on the edge of Lake Victoria.[39][40]
- Although not a blood relation, Barack Obama nevertheless calls her "Granny Sarah".[38][41] Sarah, who speaks Luo and only a few words of English, communicates with President Obama through an interpreter.
- On July 4, 2008, she attended the United States Independence Day celebrations in Nairobi, hosted by Michael Ranneberger, the US ambassador in Kenya.[42]
- During the campaign she protested attempts to portray Obama as a foreigner to the United States or a Muslim, saying that while Obama's grandfather had been a Muslim, "In the world of today, children have different religions from thei r parents."[36] Sarah Obama herself is "a strong believer of the Islamic faith,” in her words.[43]
- Kezia Obama
- First wife of Barack Obama Jr.'s father, born c. 1940. She is Barack Obama Sr.'s first wife, whom he married in Kenya before studying abroad in the United States. Also known as Kezia Grace Obama.[44][45] She currently lives in Bracknell, Berkshire, England.[46][47]
- Malik Obama
- Barack Obama's half-brother, also known as Abongo or Roy, born c. March, 1958,[46] son of Barack Obama, Sr. with his first wife, Kezia.[48] Malik Obama was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya.[49] He earned a degree in accounting from the University of Nairobi.[50] He met his half-brother for the first time in 1985[49] when Barack flew from Chicago to Washington, D.C. to visit him.[51] Malik and his half-brother Barack were best men at each other's weddings.[49] Barack Obama brought his wife Michelle to Kenya three years later, and they met with Malik again while Barack was introducing Michelle to many other new relatives.[52]
- Although much of the Obama family has dispersed throughout Kenya and overseas, most, including Malik Obama, still considered their rural village on the shores of Lake Victoria to be their true home, and feel that those who have left the village have become culturally "lost".[53] A frequent visitor to the United States,[52] and consultant in Washington, D.C. for several months per year,[49] he nevertheless settled in the Obamas' ancestral home, Nyang’oma Kogelo, a village of several hundred people that he prefers to the city for its slow pace.[49] He runs a small electronics shop a half hour drive outside of town.[49]
- During his brother's presidential campaign, Malik Obama was a spokesman for the extended Obama family in Kenya, dealing with safety and privacy concerns arising from increased attention from the press.[54]
- Abo Obama
- Barack Obama's half-brother, born 1968. International telephone store manager in Kenya.
- Auma Obama
- Barack Obama's half-sister, born c. 1960.[55] As of July 2008, development worker in Kenya.[56] She studied German at the University of Heidelberg from 1981 to 1987. After her graduation in Heidelberg she went on for graduate studies at the University of Bayreuth, which awarded her a PhD in 1996. Her dissertation was about the conception of labor in Germany and its literary reflections.[56] Auma Obama lives in London, and in 1996 married an Englishman, Ian Manners. They have a daughter named Akinyi (b. 1997).[56][verification needed]
- Bernard Obama
- Barack Obama's half-brother, born 1970, son of Barack Obama, Sr. and his first wife, Kezia. He had been an auto parts supplier in Nairobi, Kenya, and has one child. Bernard converted to Islam as an adult and has said: "I’m a Muslim, I don’t deny it. My father was raised a Muslim. But it’s not an issue. I don’t know what all the hullabaloo is about."[57] He currently resides in Bracknell, England, with his mother Kezia.[57]
- Ruth Ndesandjo
- Born Ruth Nidesand, in US c. 1940s, Barack Obama Sr.'s third wife and a private kindergarten director in Kenya.[58] Ruth's two sons with Barack Obama, Sr., are Mark and David Ndesandjo; her third son, Joseph Ndesandjo, was born c. 1980 from a subsequent marriage to a Tanzanian.[59][60]
- Mark Ndesandjo
- Barack Obama's half-brother, son of Ruth Nidesand and Barack Obama Sr.[61] He runs an Internet company called WorldNexus that advises Chinese corporations how best to reach international customers.[62] Mark graduated from Brown University, studied physics at Stanford University, received an MBA from Emory University, and has lived in Shenzhen, China, since 2002 and is married to a Chinese woman.[63] He is also an accomplished pianist.[64]
- David Ndesandjo
- Barack Obama's half-brother (also known as David Opiyo Obama), son of Ruth Nidesand and Barack Obama Sr. Killed in a motorcycle accident.[65]
- George Hussein Onyango Obama
- Youngest half-brother of Barack Obama, born c.1982, son of Barack Obama Sr.[66] and a woman named Jael (now a resident of Atlanta, Georgia).[67][68] George was six months old when his father died in an automobile accident, after which he was raised=2 0in Nairobi by his mother and a French step-father. He later lived in South Korea for two years while his mother resided there for business reasons.[67] Returning to Kenya, George Obama "slept rough for several years," until his aunt gave him a six-by-eight foot corrugated metal shack in the Nairobi, Kenya, slum of Huruma Flats.[67] As of August 2008, Obama was studying to become a mechanic.[67] George received little attention until being featured in an article in the Italian language edition of Vanity Fair in August 2008, which20portrayed him as living in poverty, shame, and obscurity.[69] The article quoted Obama as saying that he lived "on less than a dollar a month" and stated that he "does not mention his famous half-brother in conversation" out of shame at his poverty.[70] In later interviews George contradicted this picture. In an interview with The Times, Obama "said that he was furious at subsequent reports that he had been abandoned by the Obama family and that he was filled with shame about living in a slum."[68] He told The Times, "Life in Huruma is good." Obama said that he expects no favors, that he was supported by relatives, and that reports he lived on a dollar a month were "all lies by people who don’t want my brother to win.”[68] He told The Telegraph that he was inspired by his half-brother.[67] According to Time, George "has repeatedly denied...that he feels abandoned by Obama."[71] CNN quoted him as saying, "I was brought up well. I live well even now. The magazines, they have exaggerated everything... I think I kind of like it here. There are some challenges, but maybe it is just like where you come from, there are the same challenges."[69] George's reported poverty was seized on by conservative critics of Barack Obama. Columnist Dinesh D'Souza solicited donations for George Obama from his readers,[72] while Jerome Corsi planned to give him a $1,000 check during a trip to Kenya (Corsi was expelled from the country by immigration authorities).[71]
- Omar Obama
- Half-uncle of Barack Obama,[73] born on June 3, 1944 in Nyang’oma Kogelo. Oldest son of Onyango and Sarah Obama, resides in Boston, Massachusetts.[citation needed]
- Zeituni Onyango
- Half-sister of Barack Obama Sr.,[74] born May 29, 1952, in Kenya,[75] Onyango is referred to as "Aunti Zeituni" in President Obama's memoir, Dreams from My Father.[76] Barack Obama first met Onyango in 1988 during his first trip to Kenya.[75] She worked as a computer programmer at Kenya Breweries in Nairob i during that period. Onyango suffers from a physical disability and uses a walking stick.[75] She claims to have visited the United States multiple times since 1975, and to have returned to Kenya each time.[75]
- By 2008, Onyango had been living quietly in a South Boston public housing project, according to Boston Public Housing Authority officials.[77] William McGonigle, deputy director of the Authority, called Onyango a "delightful lady" and "a great resident" who did a "wonderful job" as a public health advocate. He commented that Onyango was "not looking for fame or notoriety, and we were as surprised as anyone=2 0to learn she was related to the Democratic nominee."[77] Onyango worked as a volunteer computer systems co-ordinator for the Experience Corps, a program in which adults over 55 mentor children in their communities.[75]
- Onyango became the subject of media attention in the final week of the 2008 US presidential election in which Barack Obama was the Democratic candidate. The impetus for the scrutiny was an article by the Associated Press, based on anonymous government sources, which reported that Onyango was living in the United States without valid immigration status, after being asked to leave the country when her request for asylum was denied.[78][79] Onyango's case resulted in a special nationwide directive within Immigrations and Customs Enforcement requiring any deportations to be approved at the level of ICE regional directors before the US presidential election[78] and led to an investigation by the Federal government to determine the source of the leaked information and whether any laws were broken by federal officials in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign in disclosing information about her immigration status.[80]
- Federal Election Commission records show that Onyango donated multiple times to her half-nephew's campaign; the records compiled by The Huffington Post show she gave a total of $260 to the campaign.[81] Since it is illegal for foreign citizens and immigrants without green cards to make political donations, the Obama campaign announced their intention to return the money.[82]
- Yusuf Obama
- Half-uncle of Barack Obama,[73] born c. 1950s in Nyang’oma Kogelo; son of Onyango and Sarah Obama.[citation needed]
- Said Obama
- Half-uncle of Barack Obama,[73][83] born c. 1950s in Nyang’oma Kogelo; son of Onyango and Sarah Obama.[citation needed]
Michelle Robinson Obama's extended family
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