Barack Obama Sr.

Barack Hussein Obama Sr. (/ˈbærək huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born Baraka 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 (1995). 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 Stanley 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 M.A. 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 Sr. married Ruth Beatrice Baker, a Jewish-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 Sr. 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 Sr. was involved in three serious car accidents during his final years; he died as a result of the last one in 1982.

Barack Obama Sr. was born in 1934 in Rachuonyo District 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, 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.

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 Orthodox Islam, changing his name to Hussein. 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". 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 colonial authorities.

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. 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. 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 Sr. married Kezia Aoko 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.)

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.