Barack Obama Sr.

Barack Hussein Obama (; born Baraka Hussein Obama, 18 June 1934 – 24 November 1982) was a Kenyan senior governmental economist and the father of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. He is a central figure of his son's memoir, Dreams from My Father. Obama married in 1954 and had two children with his first wife, Kezia. He was selected for a special program to attend college in the United States and studied at the University of Hawaii where he met Ann Dunham, whom he married in 1961 following the conception of his son, Barack. Obama and Dunham divorced three years later. Obama then went to Harvard University for graduate school, where he earned an MA in economics, and returned to Kenya in 1964. He saw his son Barack once more, when his son was about 10.

In late 1964, Obama married Ruth Beatrice Baker, an American woman he had met 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 was promoted to senior economic analyst in the Ministry of Finance. He was among a cadre of young Kenyan men who had been 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. Obama was involved in three serious car accidents during his final years; he died as a result of the last one in 1982.

Early life

Baraka Hussein Obama was born in 1934 on the shores of Lake Victoria just outside Kendu Bay, Kenya, at the time a colony and protectorate of the British Empire. He was raised in the village of Nyang'oma Kogelo, Siaya District, Nyanza Province. His family were members of the Luo people. His father was Onyango Obama (–1979), and his mother was Habiba Akumu Nyanjango (–2006) of Karabondi, Kenya, Onyango's second wife, with whom, in addition to Baraka, they had two daughters. After his mother left the family in 1945, the three children were raised by Onyango's third wife, Sarah Ogwel of Kogelo. Religion and education

When Obama was about six years old and attending a Christian missionary school, he converted from Islam to Anglicanism when strongly encouraged by the staff, and changed his name from "Baraka" to "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. The head teacher, B.L. Bowers, described Obama in his records as "very keen, steady, trustworthy and friendly. Concentrates, reliable, and out-going." In 1954 at age 20, Obama married Kezia Aoko in a tribal ceremony in Kenya. They had two children, Malik (a.k.a. Roy) and Auma.

Due to his accomplishments, 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. Kirk and her literacy associate Helen M. Roberts of Palo Alto raised the money necessary for Obama to travel to the US.

When Obama left for the United States, he left behind his young wife, Kezia, and their baby son Malik. Kezia was pregnant, and their daughter Auma was born while her father was in Hawaii. At Obama's request, Helen M. Roberts committed to watching over and financially supporting the family that he had left behind, for as long as she remained in Nairobi.

University of Hawaii

In 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;

In 1960, Obama met Stanley Ann Dunham in a basic Russian language course at the University of Hawaii and they started dating. Obama married Dunham in Wailuku on the Hawaiian island of Maui on 2 February 1961, despite parental opposition from both families. He eventually told Dunham about his previous marriage in Kenya, but said he was divorced—which she found out years later was not true.

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. He left Hawaii in June 1962. but declined it. Meanwhile, Dunham and their son returned to Honolulu in the latter half of 1962. they were divorced on 20 March 1964, whereupon Ann Dunham was granted sole custody of their son. 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

Third marriage After graduating from Harvard, Obama returned to Kenya in 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. Barack Obama, in his memoir Dreams from My Father (1995), said that his father's family had questioned whether Abo and Bernard are Barack Sr.'s biological sons.

Economics career Obama first worked as a government economist for an oil company in Kenya. In 1965, 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", developed by Tom Mboya's Ministry of Economic Planning and Development. Obama considered the document to be not adequately socialist and African. Obama served as an economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Transport. Later he was promoted to senior economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Finance.

In 1970, Obama was in a serious automobile accident, and was hospitalized for nearly a year. In December 1971, he traveled to Hawaii for a month. There he visited with his ex-wife Ann Dunham and American son Barack II, who was 10. The visit was the last time the boy saw his father.

His son recalled Obama giving him his first basketball:

Final years and death Grave of Barack Obama Sr. in home of Sarah Onyango Obama in village Nyang'oma Kogelo in Siaya County, Kenya, 19 August 2016 According to Barack II's memoir, Obama's continuing conflict with Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta destroyed his career. He came under suspicion after Tom Mboya was assassinated in 1969, as he had been a protege of the ruler. Kenyatta fired Obama, who was blacklisted in Kenya and found it impossible to get work. By the time Obama visited his son in Hawaii in 1971, he had a bad leg from the 1970 accident.

Obama later broke both legs and shattered his knee cap in a second serious automobile accident, and subsequently lost his job. His life deteriorated as he struggled with poverty and drinking. During his final decade, he never recovered his former social or economic standing. His friend Philip Ochieng, a journalist of the Kenya newspaper Daily Nation, has described Obama's difficult personality and drinking problems. In 1982, Obama had a relationship with Jael Otinyo and with her fathered his last son, named George Obama. George was raised by his mother, who later remarried; his stepfather cared for him as well. Six months after George's birth, Obama died in a car crash in Nairobi. 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