Barack Obama Sr.

Barack Obama Sr. was born in 1934 in Rachuonyo District{{cite news |author1=Oywa, John |author2=Olwenya, George |date=14 November 2008 |title=Obama's dad and his many loves |newspaper=The Standard |location=Nairobi |url=http://www.eastandard.net/news/InsidePage.php?id=1143999351&cid=4&|access-date=22 November 2008|url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090123151243/http://www.eastandard.net/news/InsidePage.php?id=1143999351&cid=4&|archive-date=23 January 2009}} 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.{{cite news |author=Ombour, Joe |date=4 November 2008 |title=Obama's father and the origin of Muslim name |newspaper=The Standard |location=Nairobi |url=http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1143998542&cid=4 |access-date=13 November 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081206194416/http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1143998542&cid=4&| archive-date= 6 December 2008 | url-status= usurped}} His family were members of the Luo people.{{Citation |title=Roots |date=2022-02-22 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7765/9781526156730.00004 |work=Pride in prejudice |access-date=2023-05-24 |publisher=Manchester University Press|doi=10.7765/9781526156730.00004 |last1=Jackson |first1=Paul |isbn=9781526156730 }} His father was Onyango Obama, and his mother was Habiba Akumu Nyanjango (c. 1918–2006) of Karabondi, Kenya, Onyango's second wife, with whom, in addition to Barack Sr., 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.{{cite web | author=Powell, Kimberly |year=2008 |title=Ancestry of Barack Obama |location=New York |publisher=About.com |url=http://genealogy.about.com/od/aframertrees/p/barack_obama.htm |access-date=4 March 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080302182159/http://genealogy.about.com/od/aframertrees/p/barack_obama.htm| archive-date= 2 March 2008 | url-status= live}}{{cite web |author=Reitwiesner, William Addams |year=2008 |title=Ancestry of Barack Obama |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=wargs.com (William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical Services) |url=http://www.wargs.com/political/obama.html |access-date=21 November 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081203132159/http://www.wargs.com/political/obama.html| archive-date= 3 December 2008 | url-status= live}}

As a young man, Onyango enlisted in the British Colonial Auxiliary Forces and visited Europe, India and Zanzibar where he converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam, changing his name to Hussein.{{Citation |last=Hudson-Koster |first=Mickie |title=Obama, Barack, Sr. |date=2011-12-08 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.49673 |work=African American Studies Center |access-date=2023-05-24 |publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.49673 |isbn=978-0-19-530173-1 }} The Times alleged, based on statements from his third wife Sarah, that Onyango was jailed by British colonial authorities during the Mau Mau rebellion after being suspected of supplying information to Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KFLA) insurgents and was subject to abuse while imprisoned which resulted in several physical scars and made him "loathe the British".{{cite news |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ben |last2=Orengoh |first2=Paul |date=3 December 2008 |title=Beatings and abuse made Barack Obama's grandfather loathe the British |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5276010.ece |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090120210653/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5276010.ece |archive-date=20 January 2009 |access-date=7 March 2009 |newspaper=The Times |location=London |page=6 |issue=69497}}{{cite web|url=http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/dec-12-1963-kenya-gains-independence/|title=Dec. 12, 1963 – Kenya Gains Independence|date=12 December 2011|work=The Learning Network|access-date=14 August 2014}} However, in his 2012 biography of Barack Obama, American writer David Maraniss claimed that Onyango did not support the KFLA during the Mau Mau rebellion and wasn't imprisoned by the British, and continued to be trusted by white Kenyans.JAMES FALLOWS [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/books/review/barack-obama-by-david-maraniss.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 The Making of the President 'Barack Obama,' by David Maraniss], The New York Times, 14 June 2012David Maraniss BARACK OBAMA The Story Simon & Schuster

When Obama Sr. 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". He later became an atheist, contending that religion was mere superstition.{{cite news |author=Obama, Barack |date=16 October 2006 |title=My spiritual journey |magazine=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1546579,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130122065534/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1546579,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 January 2013 |access-date=5 March 2008 |quote=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.}} While still living near Kendu Bay, Obama Sr. 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.Obama (1995, 2004), p. 418. The head teacher, B.L. Bowers, described Obama in his records as "very keen, steady, trustworthy and friendly. Concentrates, reliable, and out-going."{{cite news |author=Oywa |first=John |date= |title=Tracing Obama Snr's steps as a student at Maseno School |url=https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/the-standard/article/1143998493/tracing-obama-snrs-steps-as-a-student-at-maseno-school |newspaper=The Standard |location=}} In 1954 at age 20, Obama Sr. married Kezia Aoko{{cite news|title=Fascinating story of Obama family |newspaper=The Standard |location=Nairobi |url=http://www.eastandard.net/uselections/InsidePage.php?id=1143998528 |access-date=11 July 2009 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090817205956/http://www.eastandard.net/uselections/InsidePage.php?id=1143998528 |archive-date=17 August 2009 }} in a tribal ceremony in Kenya. They had two children, Malik (a.k.a. Roy) and Auma.

In 1959, the Kenyan Department of Education published Obama's monograph, entitled Otieno jarieko. Kitabu mar ariyo. 2: Yore mabeyo mag puro puothe. (English: Otieno, the wise man. Book 2: Wise ways of farming.){{cite web|author=Bade, David W. |year=2000 |title=Books in African languages in the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, Northwestern University: a catalog |page=304 (#3729) |location=Evanston, Ill. |publisher=Program of African Studies, Northwestern University |url=http://www.northwestern.edu/african-studies/docs/working-papers/wp8bade.pdf |access-date=18 March 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528020630/http://www.northwestern.edu/african-studies/docs/working-papers/wp8bade.pdf |archive-date=28 May 2010 }}{{cite news |author=Spak, Kara |date=7 December 2010 |title=Obama's African sales appeal on exhibit |newspaper=Chicago Sun-Times |page=20 |url=http://www.suntimes.com/photos/galleries/2715253-418/obama-africa-african-easterbrook-library.html |access-date=20 January 2011}}

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.{{cite news |author=Dobbs, Michael |date=30 March 2008 |title=Obama overstates Kennedys' role in helping his father| newspaper=The Washington Post |page=A1 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/29/AR2008032902031.html |access-date=24 February 2011}}{{cite news |author=Jacobs, Sally |date=21 September 2008 |title=A father's charm, absence |newspaper=Boston Globe |page=1A |url=http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/09/21/a_fathers_charm_absence |access-date=14 August 2009 |quote=... 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.}} 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."Tom Mboya Archives", Library, Stanford University Kirk and her literacy associate Helen M. Roberts of Palo Alto raised the money necessary for Obama to travel to the US.{{cite book|last=Shachtman|first=Tom|title=Airlift to America|year=2009|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-0-312-57075-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/airlifttoamerica00shac/page/4 4–9]|url=https://archive.org/details/airlifttoamerica00shac/page/4}}{{cite journal|url=http://mvgazette.com/news/2009/08/27/unlikely-events-recall-story-president?k=vg526e9fe2783b9|last=Seccombe|first=Mike|title=Unlikely Events Recall Story of This President|journal=Vineyard Gazette|location=Martha's Vineyard, MA|date=27 August 2009}}

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.{{cite news|author=Rice, Xan |date=6 June 2008 |title={{-'}}Barack's voice was just like his father's—I thought he had come back from the dead{{'-}} |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/06/barackobama.uselections2008 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=10 June 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080609043742/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/06/barackobama.uselections2008 |archive-date=9 June 2008 |url-status=live }} 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.{{cite book|last=Jacobs|first=Sally H.|title=The Other Barack|year=2011|publisher=PublicAffairs|isbn=978-1-58648-793-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/otherbarackboldr0000jaco/page/72 72–73, 90–91, 129–130]|url=https://archive.org/details/otherbarackboldr0000jaco/page/72}}

In 1959, Obama enrolled at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu as the university's first African foreign student.{{cite news |author=Maraniss, David |date=24 August 2008 |title=Though Obama had to leave to find himself, it is Hawaii that made his rise possible |newspaper=The Washington Post |page=A22 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/23/AR2008082301620.html |access-date=24 February 2011}} 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.{{cite news |author=Hoover, Will |date=9 November 2008 |title=Obama's Hawaii boyhood homes drawing gawkers |newspaper=The Honolulu Advertiser |page=A1 |url=http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2008/Nov/09/ln/hawaii811090361.html |access-date=21 January 2011}}

In 1960, Obama met Stanley Ann Dunham in a basic Russian language course at the University of Hawaii and they started dating. After becoming pregnant, Dunham dropped out of the University of Hawaii after the fall 1960 semester, while Obama continued his education.{{cite magazine|author=Ripley, Amanda |date=9 April 2008 |title=The story of Barack Obama's mother |magazine=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1729524,00.html |access-date=10 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080412021959/http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0%2C8599%2C1729524%2C00.html |archive-date=12 April 2008 |url-status=dead }} (online)
{{cite magazine |author=Ripley, Amanda |date=21 April 2008 |title=A mother's story |magazine=Time |volume=171 |issue=16 |pages=36–40, 42}} ("Raising Obama" cover story) (print) Obama married Dunham in Wailuku on the Hawaiian island of Maui on 2 February 1961, despite parental opposition from both families.{{cite web|last1=Jones|first1=Tim|title=Barack Obama: mother not just a girl from Kansas; Stanley Ann Dunham shaped a future senator|website=Chicago Tribune|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-0703270151mar27|access-date=16 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120508091049/http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-0703270151mar27-archive,0,5853572,full.story|archive-date=8 May 2012|page=1|date=27 March 2007}}{{cite news |author=Meacham, Jon |date=23 August 2008 |title=On his own |work=Newsweek |url=http://www.newsweek.com/2008/08/22/on-his-own.html |access-date=27 July 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100723152200/http://www.newsweek.com/2008/08/22/on-his-own.html| archive-date= 23 July 2010 | url-status= live}} (online)
{{cite journal |author=Meacham, Jon |date=1 September 2008 |title=On his own |journal=Newsweek |volume=152 |issue=9 |pages=26–36}} ("Special Democratic Convention issue") (print){{Cite news | last =Salsberg | first =Bob | date = 29 April 2011 | title =Files suggest elder Obama forced to leave Harvard | periodical =The Arizona Republic | agency =Associated Press | url =http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMAS_FATHER_HARVARD?SITE=AZPHG&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT | access-date =1 May 2011 | quote =President Barack Obama's father was forced to leave Harvard University before completing his PhD in economics because the school was concerned about his personal life and finances, according to newly public immigration records. }} He eventually told Dunham about his previous marriage in Kenya, but said he was divorced—which she found out years later was not true.

Their son, future US president Barack Obama II, was born in Honolulu on 4 August 1961 at the former Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital (succeeded by 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 her son's birth, Dunham took the infant with her to Seattle, Washington, where she took classes at the University of Washington from September 1961 to June 1962.{{cite web |author=Dougherty, Phil |date=10 February 2009 |title=Barack Obama moves to Seattle in August or early September 1961 |location=Seattle |publisher=HistoryLink |url=http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=8926 |access-date=21 January 2011}}

Obama Sr. 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.{{cite news |author=Griffin, John |date=22 June 1962|title=First UH African graduate gives view on E-W Center|newspaper=The Honolulu Advertiser |quote=An off-campus resident himself (St. Louis Heights) Obama thinks it's a mistake to have the East-West students in dormitories.}}{{cite news |author=Brannon, Johnny |date=10 February 2007 |title=Hawai'i's imperfect melting pot a big influence on young Obama |newspaper=The Honolulu Advertiser |page=1A |url=http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Feb/10/ln/FP702100346.html |access-date=21 January 2011 |quote=The elder Obama lived first at the Atherton YMCA on University Avenue and later moved to St. Louis Heights.}} He graduated from the University of Hawaii after three years with a B.A. in economics{{cite web|date=26 February 2009 |title=President Obama's connection to UH Economics |location=Honolulu |publisher=Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa |url=http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/news/news-09.html#obamaconnection |access-date=21 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101215034236/http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/news/news-09.html |archive-date=15 December 2010}} and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.{{cite web |date=21 January 2009 |title=U.S. Presidents share a Phi Beta Kappa connection |location=Washington, D.C. |work=Focus News |publisher=Phi Beta Kappa Society |url=http://www.pbk.org/home/FocusNews.aspx?id=188 |access-date=22 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090428010818/http://www.pbk.org/home/FocusNews.aspx?id=188 |archive-date=28 April 2009 |url-status=dead}} He left Hawaii in June 1962.{{cite news |author=Sanders, Edmund |date=17 July 2008 |title=So alike and yet so different |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |page=A1 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-jul-17-fg-obamadad17-story.html |access-date=24 February 2009 |quote=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.| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090211122308/http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/17/world/fg-obamadad17| archive-date= 11 February 2009 | url-status= live}}

Obama Sr. was offered a scholarship to study in New York City,One source says the scholarship was for New York University:
{{cite news|author=Meacham, Jon |date=August 23, 2008 |title=On his own |magazine=Newsweek |url=http://www.newsweek.com/2008/08/22/on-his-own.html |access-date=November 14, 2008 }};
others say it was for the New School for Social Research, e.g.:
{{cite news|author=Maraniss, David |date=August 22, 2008 |title=Though Obama had to leave to find himself, it is Hawaii that made his rise possible |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/22/AR2008082201679_pf.html |access-date=November 14, 2008 }}
{{cite news|author=Ripley, Amanda |date=April 9, 2008 |title=The story of Barack Obama's mother |magazine=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1729524-3,00.html |access-date=February 13, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090209214852/http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0%2C8599%2C1729524-3%2C00.html |archive-date=February 9, 2009 |url-status=dead }} but declined it. In September 1962, after a tour of mainland U.S. universities, Obama Sr. traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he began a graduate fellowship in economics at Harvard University. He rented an apartment in a rooming house near Central Square in Cambridge.{{cite news |date=20 June 1962 |title=Kenya student wins fellowship |newspaper=Honolulu Star-Bulletin |page=7 |quote=A 1962 graduate, he leaves next week for a tour of Mainland universities before entering Harvard in the fall.}} Meanwhile, Dunham and their son returned to Honolulu in the latter half of 1962. In January 1964, Dunham filed for divorce in Honolulu which was not contested by Obama;{{cite news |author=Merida, Kevin |date=14 December 2007 |title=The ghost of a father |newspaper=The Washington Post |page=A12 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/12/13/ST2007121301893.html |access-date=21 January 2011}} they were divorced on 20 March 1964, whereupon Ann Dunham was granted sole custody of their son.

Obama was forced to leave his PhD program at Harvard University in May 1964 because of administrators' concerns over his finances and personal life, including uncertainty over the number of wives he had, but he received an M.A. in economics from Harvard in 1965.Jacobs (2011), p. 159.{{cite book|year=1970|title=Harvard alumni directory|edition=14th|location=Cambridge, Mass.|publisher=Harvard Alumni Association|page=1240|issn=0895-1683|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PCEpAQAAIAAJ&q=Obama&pg=PA1240}}
{{cite journal|year=1986|title=Harvard alumni directory, vol. 1|journal=Harvard Alumni Directory|edition=17th|location=Boston, Mass.|publisher=Harvard Alumni Association|page=904|issn=0895-1683}} 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.Jacobs (2011), pp. 160–161.{{cite news |author=Jacobs, Andrew |date=4 November 2009 |title=An Obama relative living in China tells of his own journey of self-discovery |newspaper=The New York Times |page=A10 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/asia/04brother.html |access-date=21 January 2011}}{{cite news |author=Demick, Barbara |date=5 November 2009 |title=Obama's half brother describes abuse |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |page=A32 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-nov-05-fg-china-obama-book5-story.html |access-date=21 January 2011}}

After graduating from Harvard, Obama returned to Kenya in 1964.Jacobs (2011), p. 165.{{Clarify|date=June 2024|reason= The previous section gives his degree date as 1965; could "after finishing at Harvard" be used here? }} Baker followed him, and they married 24 December 1964.Jacobs (2011), p. 177. They had two sons together, Mark Okoth Obama in 1965 and David Opiyo Obama in 1968.{{cite news |author=Ochieng, Philip |date=1 November 2004 |title=From home squared to the US Senate: how Barack Obama was lost and found |newspaper=The EastAfrican |url=http://www.nationmedia.com/EastAfrican/01112004/Features/PA2-11.html |archive-date=27 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927223905/http://www.nationmedia.com/EastAfrican/01112004/Features/PA2-11.html |access-date=4 March 2008}} Baker and Obama separated in 1971,Obama (1995, 2004), p. 126: [Ann Dunham]: "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: [Auma Obama]: "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." and divorced in 1973. Baker subsequently married a Tanzanian man 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 their mother.

In Kenya, Obama Sr. reconnected with his first wife Kezia. She had two sons after his return: Abo (b. 1968) and Bernard (b. 1970), believed to be his children.{{cite news |author=Foreman, William|agency=Associated Press|date=4 November 2009 |title=Obama's half brother: our father was abusive; new novel 'Nairobi to Shenzhen' is patterned in part on Barack Obama, Sr |publisher=Today.com |url=https://www.today.com/news/obama-s-half-brother-our-father-was-abusive-wbna33608282 |access-date=5 November 2009}} 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.Obama (1995, 2004), p. 335

Obama first worked as a government economist for an oil company in Kenya.{{Cite web|title=Obama's father forced out at Harvard|url=https://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53968.html|access-date=14 June 2020|website=Politico|date=29 April 2011 |language=en}} 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.{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=David William |title=The risks of knowledge : investigations into the death of the Hon. Minister John Robert Ouko in Kenya, 1990 |date=2004 |publisher=Ohio University Press |page=182}}{{cite news |author1=Smith, Ben |author2=Ressner, Jeffrey |date=15 April 2008 |title=Long-lost article by Obama's dad surfaces |work=Politico | url=http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9610.html |access-date=20 January 2011}} Obama served as an economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Transport. Later he was promoted to senior economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Finance.{{cite news|author=Fornek, Scott |date=9 September 2007 |title=Barack Obama Sr.: 'Wrestling with ... a ghost' |newspaper=Chicago Sun-Times |page=4B |url=http://jobs.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/familytree/545467,BSX-News-wotreev09.stng |access-date=4 March 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716164203/http://jobs.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/familytree/545467%2CBSX-News-wotreev09.stng |archive-date=16 July 2011 }}

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.Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 62–71, 216. There he visited with his ex-wife Ann Dunham and American son Barack II, who was nearly 10. The visit was the last time the boy saw his father. During his trip, Obama took his son to his first jazz concert, a performance by the pianist Dave Brubeck.{{cite web|url=http://www.necn.com/Boston/Arts-Entertainment/2009/12/06/Kennedy-Center-honoree/1260145664.html |title=Kennedy Center honoree Brubeck's ties to Obama |date=6 December 2009 |publisher=New England Cable News |access-date=9 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091212100047/http://www.necn.com/Boston/Arts-Entertainment/2009/12/06/Kennedy-Center-honoree/1260145664.html |archive-date=12 December 2009 }}

His son recalled Obama giving him his first basketball:

{{quotation|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 [even if it's only a month] 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."{{cite web|author=BarackObama.com|date=21 November 2011 |title=Dinner with Barack: Two Teachers, an Army Veteran, a Small Business Owner, and The President|url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb5D71aQAoo&t=5m30s |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/Tb5D71aQAoo |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|via=YouTube |access-date=24 November 2011}}{{cbignore}}}}

File:Sarah Onyango home-Barack Obama Sr grave-1.jpg 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.Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 214–216. 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 (1995, 2004), pp. 64–71, 212–219.

Obama later lost both legs 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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}} 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.

• {{cite book |year=1959 |title=Otieno jarieko (Otieno, the Wise Man: A Series of Readers to Follow the Luo Adult Literacy Primer) |location=Nairobi |publisher=East African Literature Bureau, Eagle Press |language=luo |oclc=694566336}}
• {{cite journal |date=July 1965 |title=Problems facing our socialism: another critique of Sessional Paper No. 10 |journal=East Africa Journal |location=Nairobi |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=26–33 |issn=0012-8309 |url=http://www.politico.com/pdf/PPM41_080411_bhobama_article_1965.pdf |access-date=6 May 2011}}

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• Family of Barack Obama

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• {{Cite book |author=Obama, Barack |orig-year=1995|year=2004 |title=Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance |title-link=Dreams from My Father|location=New York |publisher=Three Rivers Press |isbn=1-4000-8277-3}}
• {{cite book |author=Jacobs, Sally H. |year=2011 |title=The other Barack: the bold and reckless life of President Obama's father |location=New York |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-1-58648-793-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/otherbarackboldr0000jaco }}

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{{Barack Obama}}

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