The Other Barack (45 page)

By far the most plausible scenario is that Obama died in a drunken car accident, just as the police said. Both Obama and his car were crushed in the accident. The
Nairobi Times
reported that Obama's car was so badly destroyed that his body “had to be wedged out of the car.”
²⁹
As for Obama, doctors concluded that he had died as the result of “bleeding due to ruptured heart due to a traffic accident.”
³⁰
Whether Obama deliberately turned his car into the stump will never be known for sure, but the fact is that at the time of his death Obama had at long last arrived at a place of some peace. He was doing work that he loved and had regained some semblance of dignity. That he was a father again meant that he had the opportunity to do it differently this time, to be the kind of nurturing parent he had never had himself.

The funeral, an elaborate event that lasted for several days, took place at the family homestead in Alego. After years of feeling he was insufficiently appreciated, the list of notables who attended would have delighted Obama. There were members of Parliament and dozens of his colleagues from the Treasury. Peter Aringo and the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Robert Ouko, both spoke in tribute to his fierce intelligence and passion. Obama's mother, Habiba Akumu, frail and tearful, sat mournfully by his wooden coffin, the grief over her eldest son's death etched in the deep lines of her face. Dressed in a white floral dress and blue head kerchief, she sat protectively by his coffin as though she might protect him in death from the disappointments that had plagued him in life.

 

OBAMA IS BURIED next to his father on the Obama family compound about an hour's rough drive north of Lake Victoria. His grave is covered in broken yellow tiles and bears the Dholuo words
ibed gi kwe
, or “peace be with you.” If Barack Obama were to have sung a Luo praise song of his own life, he would have dwelled not on the tumult of his final decade but rather on the extraordinary and unlikely journey of a child born in a thatched hut in Kanyadhiang. The bird had flown high and far. Although Obama fell short of the exacting heights to which he aspired, he achieved ambitions that many Kenyans of his generation could not have begun to fathom.

Emerging from a bruising childhood, Obama rose swiftly above the red African dust. With his fierce intellect as his passport, he was not simply a man firmly of the twentieth century but one who stood at the fulcrum of a changing world as his country emerged from the tyranny of colonialism. Obama came within inches of the Harvard doctoral degree that he so coveted, the academic jewel that would have served as the bedrock for the career he envisioned. But Harvard denied him that. So broken was Obama by Harvard's summary judgment of him that he returned to Nairobi unable to even look at the dissertation that he had initiated with such high hopes. When, in a moment of despair, he claimed that paper had been stolen by thieves, what had really been lost was a deeper faith in himself.

Obama never fully recovered from that disappointment, but it did not prevent him from taking the stage at a vital moment in his country's life. At a time when many more cautious men retreated from a new imperious government that lashed out at dissent, Obama spoke truth to power. Confronted with the challenges of newly independent Kenya, a place radically changed from that which he left as a hopeful young man, Obama struggled to reconcile his ideals for his country with a bitterly disappointing
reality. He refused to knuckle despite the enormous personal consequences. In the end, it was not, as his friend Ndolo Ayah said, that Barack Obama did not finish the race; rather, he finished too early to see what he had wrought.

Nearly every day tourists from the farthest reaches of the world contemplate the cracked yellow tiles on his grave and take photographs of the resting place of President Barack Obama's father for their albums back home. As the next page of history has turned, Obama's impact has proved to be profoundly greater than he could have imagined. Although he never knew it, his legacy was to produce the most powerful man in the world. The other Barack would have liked that.

That any project of substance requires a village of helpers is a cliché. It is also true. This project enlisted the support of a global metropolis. During the two and a half years it took to produce this book, I have relied on an army of assistants around the world. I bow first to my team of friends and advisors in Nairobi and Kisumu. A heartfelt thanks to the four who burrowed so deep and traveled so many kilometers and then went back again: Okoth Beatrice Akoth, Leo Odera Omolo, Terry Wairimu, and Felgona Atieno Ochieng. Each of them committed themselves to finding the truth despite the sometimes daunting obstacles.

Many in the Obama family gave me their time and assistance. I am particularly thankful to Ezra Obama and Obama Kobilo, who made the drive with me to Kendu Bay more than once, and to the ever-welcoming Hawa Auma. Thanks also for their generosity and reflection to Francis Masakhalia, Fred Okatcha, Bitange Ndemo, Achola Pala Okeyo, Johnson Hungu, Peter Aringo, Edgar Edwards, and Chukwuma Azikiwe.

Among the many who supported the cause in Hawaii, there is first and foremost Ken Kobayashi, a determined reporter and my colleague on the ground for nearly two years. I thank you. Also, much gratitude to Gov. Neil Abercrombie, Hal Abercrombie, Pake Zane, and Naranhkiri Tith.

To Team Jacobs, the heart of it all: Shi Shi and Streett Jacobs, Grace Hamada, Sandra May, Jayson Walker, Jane Beal, Tabby, Castro, and Dixie. Each of them endured—and sometimes even looked at—the elaborate flow-charts left behind when I headed out on the road.

To my extraordinary friends who always made time to read and reflect, even when they didn't have it, Larry Tye and Judy Rakowsky, a heartfelt hallelujah. I am deeply grateful also to Kim Blanton, Sarah Wesson, Dudley Clendinen, and Phil Bennett. For their expertise and patience, John Lonsdale, Dharam Ghai, David W. Cohen, Parker Shipton, Dominique Connan, and Celia Nyamweru.

I am also most grateful to the families of Elizabeth Mooney and Helen Roberts for sharing their wealth of letters and photographs and letting me tell the extraordinary story, at last. If it weren't for Miss Mooney, who delivered the first Barack Obama to the United States, there might not be an Obama in the White House at all.

To others who made a difference along the way Lois Beckett, David Arnold, Liz Cooney, Paul Nyangani, Azinna Nwafor, Dorothy and Bob Stephens, Gitau Warigi, Barbara and M. F. Scherer, Richard Parker, Roger Noll, Ann Trevor, and Brendan Bannon.

Last, but certainly not least, I am indebted to the
Boston Globe
for giving me the time to work on this book and for taking me back when it was done.

1
Peter Firstbrook,
The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African Family
(London: Preface Publishing, 2010), 52; David W. Cohen,“The River Lake Nilotes from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century,” in
Zamani: A Survey of East African History
, ed. Bethwell A. Ogot and J. A. Kieran (Nairobi, Kenya: East African Publishing House, 1968), 149.

2
Grace Kezia Aoko Obama, affidavit in Succession Cause No. 233 of 1985, in the matter of the estate of Barack Hussein Obama, High Court of Kenya, Nairobi, November 1988.

3
Habiba Akumu, affidavit in Succession Cause No. 233 of 1985, in the matter of the estate of Barack Hussein Obama, High Court of Kenya, Nairobi, November 1988.

4
Ruling by Judge J. F. Shields, June 1989. Succession Cause No. 233 of 1985.

5
From Ruth Ndesandjo, Ezra Obama, and W. E. Obama Kobilo interviews.

6
Barack Obama,
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
(New York: Random House, 1995), 212.

7
From Abong'o Malik Obama interview.

8
Obama,
Dreams from My Father
, 217.

9
Auma Obama,
Das Leben kommt immer dazwischen
(Cologne, Germany: Bastei Lubbe GmbH & Co. KG, 2010), 123.

10
Andrew Jacobs, “An Obama Relative Living in China Tells of His Own Journey of Self-Discovery,”
New York Times
, November 4, 2009.

11
Obama,
Dreams from My Father
, 344.

12
From Mark Ndesandjo interview.

13
Mark Ndesandjo,
Nairobi to Shenzhen
(San Diego: Aventine Publishing, 2009), 6.

14
Ibid., 133.

15
George Obama with Damien Lewis,
Homeland: An Extraordinary Story of Hope and Survival
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010), 48.

16
Ibid., 269.

17
Obama,
Dreams from My Father
, 129.

18
Ibid., 221.

19
From Neil Abercrombie interview.

1
Ronald Hardy,
The Iron Snake
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1965), 308.

2
Assa Okoth,
A History of Africa
, vol. 1:
African Societies and the Establishment of Colonial Rule, 1800–1915
(Nairobi, Kenya: East African Educational Publishers, 2006), 198–99.

3
Oginga Odinga,
Not Yet Uhuru: The Autobiography of Oginga Odinga
(Nairobi, Kenya: East African Educational Publishers, 1967), 1.

4
Barack Obama,
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
(New York: Random House, 1995), 397.

5
Ibid., 398.

6
David W. Cohen, “The River Lake Nilotes from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century,” in
Zamani: A Survey of East African History
, ed. Bethwell A. Ogot and J. A. Kieran (Nairobi, Kenya: East Africa Publishing House, 1968), 142.

7
Ibid., 154.

8
Ibid.

9
Bethwell A. Ogot,
A History of the Luo Speaking Peoples of East Africa
(Nairobe, Kenya: Anyange Press, 2009), 512; Peter Firstbrook,
The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African Family
(London: Preface Publishing, 2010), 47.

10
Obama,
Dreams from My Father
, 395.

11
From Charles Oluoch and Elly Yonga Adhiambo interviews.

12
Caroline Elkins,
Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya
(New York, Henry Holt and Co., 2005), 7.

13
Odinga,
Not Yet Uhuru
, 2.

14
Carol E. DePré,
The Luo of Kenya: An Annotated Bibliography
(Washington DC: Institute for Cross-Cultural Research, 1968), 26.

15
Uganda Railway, Publicity Department poster, Dewar House, Haymarket S.W., undated.

16
Elkins,
Imperial Reckoning
, 14.

17
Odinga,
Not Yet Uhuru
, 23.

18
Richard D. Wolff,
The Economics of Colonialism: Britain and Kenya, 1870–1930
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1974), 119–20.

19
Obama,
Dreams from My Father
, 425

20
That figure does not take into account the rate of inflation affecting the British shilling as compared to the U.S. dollar.

21
Obama,
Dreams from My Father
, 426.

22
From Penina Ndalo interview.

23
Bethwell A. Ogot, “British Administration in the Central Nyanza District of Kenya, 1900–60,”
Journal of African History
4, no. 2 (1963), 256.

24
Ibid., 258.

25
From Saad Khairallah interview.

26
Obama,
Dreams from My Father
, 403.

27
Barack Obama's date of birth is unclear. His earliest school records bear no birth date. His University of Hawaii transcript records his birthdate as June 18, 1934. His marriage certificate and résumés indicate he was born in 1936. U.S. immigration records show his year of birth as both 1934 and 1936. Family members say they believe he was born in 1936, so I have used that date.

28
Paul Mboya,
Luo Kitgi Gi Timbegi
, trans. Jane Achieng (Nairobi, Kenya: Atai Joint Limited, 1938), 88.

29
Ibid., 45.

30
Parker Shipton,
The Nature of Entrustment: Intimacy, Exchange, and the Sacred in Africa
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 51.

31
Mboya,
Luo Kitgi Gi Timbegi
, 54.

32
Onyango's drinking habits are described by Charles Olouch, Hawa Auma, and Obama Madoho in their interviews with the author.

33
Mboya,
Luo Kitgi Gi
Timbegi, 137.

34
From Sarah Obama interview.

35
Timothy H. Parsons,
The African Rank-and-File: Social Implications of Colonial Military Service in the King's African Rifles, 1902–1964
(Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1999), 2.

36
Obama,
Dreams from My Father
, 409.

37
Ogot, “British Administration in the Central Nyanza District of Kenya, 1900–60,” 269.

38
Tiyambe Zeleza, “Kenya and the Second World War, 1939–1950,” in
A Modern History of Kenya, 1895–1980
, ed. W. R. Ochieng (London: Evans Brothers, 1989), 166.

39
Bethwell A. Ogot, “Kenya under the British, 1895 to 1963,” in
Zamani: A Survey of East African History
, ed. Ogot and J. A. Kieran (Nairobi, Kenya: East African Publishing House, 1968), 282.

40
Ogot, “British Administration in the Central Nyanza District of Kenya, 1900–60,” 270.

41
Matthew Carotenuto and Katherine Luongo, “Dala or Diaspora? Obama and the Luo Community of Kenya,”
African Affairs
108, no. 431 (2009): 197–219.