Obama’s Kenyan Roots

NY Slimes ^ | 2/24/2008 | Nicholas Kristoff

[markomalley]

A barefoot old woman in a ripped dress is sitting on a log in front of her tin-roof bungalow in this remote village in western Kenya, jovially greeting visitors.

Mama Sarah, as she is known around here, lives without electricity or running water. She is illiterate and doesn’t know when she was born. Yet she may have a seat of honor at the next presidential inauguration in Washington — depending on what happens to her stepgrandson, Barack Obama.

Mama Sarah cannot communicate with Mr. Obama, who calls her his grandmother, because she speaks only her Luo tribal language and a little Swahili. Senator Obama’s Luo is pretty much limited to “musawa,” meaning “how are you?”

People around here are giddy at the prospect of a President Obama.

“I’m up at 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. to listen to BBC news and get the latest on the campaign,” said Nicholas Rajula, who describes himself as a cousin of the senator. “By the way, what’s the latest news about the superdelegates?”

You might think that all Kenyans would be vigorously supporting Mr. Obama. But Kenya has been fractured along ethnic lines in the last two months, so now Mr. Obama draws frenzied support from the Luo ethnic group of his ancestors, while many members of the rival Kikuyu group fervently support Hillary Rodham Clinton.

[Mikey_1962]

Interesting that Obama has no slaves as American ancestors... explains the lack of chip on the shoulder?

[sageb1]

Much more on this:

Barack Obama and His Support for Islamic Sharia Law and al Qaeda

[sageb1]

Then what explains his affilation with a church that espouses black liberation theology?

[Cicero]

Nothing about his church-burning cousin Odinga here, I see. Would that be too embarrassing?

[VOA]

bump

[LibFreeOrDie]

The race baiters like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton won’t like Kristof’s last, positive paragraph.

[Mikey_1962]

He is no more responsible for the ravings of that lunatic than I am for the ravings Father Berrigan... or Father Coughlin for that matter.

[Yorlik803]

Dont really care where he came from...just where he is going to take us if elected.

[pandoraou812]

Thanks for that link. I wish more people would read it! It is going in my saved file. Pandy

[John Jorsett]

Frankly, I worry that enemies of Senator Obama will seize upon details like his grandfather’s Islamic faith or his father’s polygamy to portray him as an alien or a threat to American values. But snobbishness and paranoia ill-become a nation of immigrants, where one of our truest values is to judge people by their own merits, not their pedigrees. If we call ourselves a land of opportunity, then Mr. Obama’s heritage doesn’t threaten American values but showcases them.

I see the "let's move on" rhetoric of ignoring the past is still alive and well.

[9YearLurker]

Is this right, that Obama’s father was converted to Catholicism and only Obama’s grandfather was Muslim?

How about his stepfather? Is that his connection to this step-grandmother, and did he have more to do with raising Obama than his birth father?

Thanks.

[Heatseeker]

Is this right, that Obama’s father was converted to Catholicism and only Obama’s grandfather was Muslim?

I have been trying to research Senator Obama's background and this is the first I've heard of it, though much has been written of his father. I wonder if the writer didn't make assumptions based on the senior Barak Obama's attendance at a Catholic school.

[sageb1]

Obama has stated that he has learned much from the Pastor of that church. He could always leave. It doesn’t look good for Obama at all.

[9YearLurker]

Thanks; it will be interesting to hear if others have a bead on this.

[sageb1]

http://www.freedomsenemies.com/_more/obama.htm

[Verginius Rufus]

Senator Obama attended a Catholic school in Indonesia (where his religion was listed as Muslim). This is the first I’ve heard that his father had attended a Catholic school...it’s not impossible.

[Sonny M]

I know there was a rumor early on (either last year or right after talk started that Obama might run for president) from some of the clinton folks that Obama's ancestors (ironically on both his father and mothers side) may have been involved with the slave trade.

The only follow up I ever read was that his mothers side, some of her ancestors did own slaves, but on his fathers side, the story just disappeared.

Since it was coming from the Clinton supporters camp, I was never sure if that was true, or just total b.s. in a whispering campaign.

Does anyone remember this?

[MinorityRepublican]

I never thought of it until you brought it up. Obama is not black in the American sense because he is not descendant of former slaves in this country.

[ansel12]

“He is no more responsible for the ravings of that lunatic than I am for the ravings Father Berrigan... or Father Coughlin for that matter.”

---

That doesn’t even make sense,

“Obama says he found religion and Jesus Christ through Wright, whom he met in the mid-1980s. He has been attending Wright’s church regularly since 1988.”

“In 1991, Obama joined the church and walked down the aisle in a formal commitment of faith. Wright later married Obama and Michelle Robinson and baptized their two daughters.

The title of Obama’s bestseller “The Audacity of Hope” comes from one of Wright’s sermons. Wright is one of the first people Obama thanked after his election to the Senate in 2004.”

[The Forgotten Man]

What happened to his white grandparents who raised him. Never a mention of his 50/50 make up. He is black and that is it. What about the fact that his mother was white. Where does that work into the equation? Oh, I know, the treatment he gets is because says he is black but to mention his half status would be racist in nature....

[sageb1]

Also this from Hot Air:

Obamessiah and the Weathermen: More recent sightings

[Heatseeker]

Senator Obama attended a Catholic school in Indonesia (where his religion was listed as Muslim). This is the first I’ve heard that his father had attended a Catholic school...it’s not impossible.

I think it's more likely that the Catholic school in question accepted children of all faiths, or that Senator Obama was not a practicing Muslim at that time (this later point is in some dispute).

[Lumper20]

Obama supporters looks even worse to be so ignorant about their candidate or are they all card carrying socialists? The CPUSA has to be laughing it’s fanny off at all the fools they have duped in the USA.

[JimRed]

Interesting that Obama has no slaves as American ancestors...

Well, that does it! How dare he try to pass as BLACK!

[Mikey_1962]

That does not make him any more responsible for the ravings of that lunatic than I am for the ravings Father Berrigan... or Father Coughlin for that matter.

Just because he attends the church does not mean he writes the speeches.

Is everything your Pastor/Priest/Rabbi run by you before he says it? If yes, why isn’t he attending your church? If not you are normal.

[toddlintown]

Can he say: “No these are my ears, not some monkey’s.”

[detective]

“Senator Obama barely knew his father and does not know his Kenyan relatives well. He has visited Kenya three times, most recently very briefly in 2006.”

Obama’s father was already married when he got Obama’s mother pregnent. Obama’s father abandoned Barack and his mother soon after Barack was born. Barack Obama was raised by his white mother’s parents after his mother married an Indonesian, moved to Indonesia and didn’t want Barack around. His white grandparents took care of Barack, supported him and paid for his tuition at the most exclusive private school in Hawaii. Accounts of Obama’s childhood and teens say that he was rude and abusive towards his white grandparents and spent his time taking drugs and generally acting like a spoiled brat.
After Obama left and went to college and began his career he has never acknowledged the sacrifice his white grandparents made to support him when no one else would. Instead Obama created a fictionalized version of his life, saying that he was supported by his fathers relatives in Kenya.

[CIDKauf]

Wow...let’s not hammer him too hard until the Beast is defeated. There is quite a lot of information on Obama at freedom’s enemies”.

[Godwin1]

OBAMA went to a Catholic primary school for two years. In his autobiography, Obama describes how the efforts of the “parched old nuns” to interest him in the Christian story were unsuccessful. The Jesus stuff held no interest for him. The atheism of mom and religious indifference of his Indonesian stepdad were stronger influences. (Stepdad was a lapsed Muslim, who smoke, drank whiskey and married a foreign infidel.)
I found the “parched old nuns” remark unfortunate. I suppose he meant that, as white women, the tropical sun had been hard on their complexions. All the same, it seemed an ungrateful, disrespectful, and quasi-racist thing to say. But then I’ve always been very grateful to the unselfish and dedicated women who gave up everything to provide me and my siblings, at virtually no cost to my poor parents, a rigorous and serious primary education that could not be had now for ANY money. So maybe I’m uber-sensitive.

[Orange1998]

The title of Obama’s bestseller “The Audacity of Hope” comes from one of Wright’s sermons.

Does he copy everything. At least MLK was original.

[informavoracious]

If Obama were concerned about his poor barefoot granny in Kenya, he could have bought a modest house and sent the rest of the money to Africa. He didn’t. But he expects you to. As he takes his rightful place as the elite of the new order.

[Orange1998]

Obama describes how the efforts of the “parched old nuns” to interest him in the Christian story were unsuccessful. The Jesus stuff held no interest for him. The atheism of mom

The Anti-Christ please check your coat at the door. Surprising no one really knows Hussien Okarma.

[9YearLurker]

Thanks, sageb1!

[ansel12]

“That does not make him any more responsible for the ravings of that lunatic than I am for the ravings Father Berrigan... or Father Coughlin for that matter.”

---

I don’t understand you at all. Obama handpicked his minister and spiritual mentor.

I would never join up with a racist like that, and I would leave if he suddenly started preaching such materials.

Obama attended the church for years and then formally signed up, Obama embraces that minister.

Obama had that minister perform his marriage, and baptize his children, Obama is a follower of Wright.

[9YearLurker]

I hear you, CIDKauf. After a thoroughly depressing early primary season I’m feeling increasingly enthusiastic about the general election. The Obama bubble is going to burst.

[ansel12]

“The Anti-Christ please check your coat at the door.”

---

You may enjoy this link, ‘Is Obama the Messiah’.

http://obamamessiah.blogspot.com/

[ansel12]

"After a thoroughly depressing early primary season I’m feeling increasingly enthusiastic about the general election. " ============================================================

[bert]

His wife, however does....

[brazzaville]

Good afternoon.
“At least MLK was original.”

Probably not. It’s believed that he plagiarized his “I Had A Dream” speech from some Republican who used it at a Republican convention, and his doctoral thesis is suspect as well.

Michael Frazier

[bert]

Is Obama’s polygamy any worse or different than Jessee Jackson or any of the other polygamist villagers.

[cmsgop]

Here are some more Roots

[CARepublicans]

Actually LOOK at his record please - Osama/Obama is far more damgerous than Hillary.

[Orange1998]

The Bastard!

[Godwin1]

Well, since he has kept from view—at least until the primaries are over—the white grandmother who raised him, I wouldn’t expect him to do much for an African woman whom he does not really know and who, in any case, is probably not his “real” blood grandmother.

[fweingart]

People around here are giddy at the prospect of a President Obama.

Many people here are likewise giddy.

They're ignorant fools who can't tell a socialist pinko from someone who truly has America's welfare at heart.

Those Africans are giddy at the prospect of getting that $845 billion that Ba-rack has promised them if he's elected president.

Of course they're to use that to combat aids and malaria. Everyone knows it will be used by the tin-horn marxist dictators to build palatial residences and to buy Rolls-Royce cars.

DDT would do wonders for the malaria problem.

[CIDKauf]

Not even liberals will elect a muslim at this time.

[nyyankeefan]

Obama’s Kenyan Roots....

how about b. hussein’s muzzie roots????

[Cicero]

See the link at #3. I think that indicates where he would go as well as where he came from.

[Charles Bronson Forever]

Obama put the “ho” in Don Ho.