[DouglasKC]

I think the COLB is worthless, but “African” isn’t a slam dunk for me, since I can imagine how someone would have called Barack Sr. an African to distinguish him as an African Negro as opposed to an American Negro.

If you can find one other us birth certificate that lists the race of the baby as "African" you might have a point.

[Genoa]

Well, a US baby couldn’t be African. But a parent could. I don’t have any examples, sorry. My point is that it would have been natural for some clerk to use “African” to try to confer respectability on a black-skinned foreign national.