Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
, the 44th
president of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...
, is a prominent American family active in law, education, activism and politics. Obama's immediate family circle was the first family of the United States from 2009 to 2017, and are the first such family of African-American descent. His immediate family includes his wife
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...
and daughters Malia and Sasha Obama.
Obama's wider ancestry is made up of people of Kenyan (Luo),
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
, and Old Stock American (including originally English, Scots-Irish, Welsh, German, and Swiss) ancestry.
Immediate family
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American lawyer, university administrator, and writer who served as the
First Lady of the United States
The first lady of the United States (FLOTUS) is the title held by the hostess of the White House, usually the wife of the president of the United States, concurrent with the president's term in office. Although the first lady's role has never ...
from 2009 to 2017. She is Barack Obama's wife, and was the
first African-American
African-Americans are an ethnic group in the United States. The first achievements by African-Americans in diverse fields have historically marked footholds, often leading to more widespread cultural change. The shorthand phrase for this is "bre ...
first lady. Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Michelle Obama is a graduate of
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
and
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
, and spent her early legal career working at the law firm
Sidley Austin
Sidley Austin LLP is an American multinational law firm with approximately 2,000 lawyers in 20 offices worldwide. The firm's headquarters is at One South Dearborn in Chicago's Loop. The firm specializes in a variety of areas in both litigation ...
, where she met her husband. She subsequently worked as the associate dean of Student Services at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
and the vice president for Community and External Affairs of the University of Chicago Medical Center. Barack and Michelle married in 1992.
Michelle campaigned for her husband's presidential bid throughout 2007 and 2008, delivering a keynote address at the
2008 Democratic National Convention
The 2008 Democratic National Convention was a quadrennial presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party where it adopted its national platform and officially nominated its candidates for president and vice president. The conventi ...
. She returned to speak at the
2012 Democratic National Convention
The 2012 Democratic National Convention was a gathering, held from September 3–6, 2012, at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, in which delegates of the Democratic Party nominated President Barack Obama and Vice Presid ...
, and again during the
2016 Democratic National Convention
The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the majo ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, where she delivered a speech in support of the Democratic presidential nominee, and fellow first lady,
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
.
As first lady, Michelle Obama sought to become a role model for women, an advocate for poverty awareness, education, nutrition, physical activity and healthy eating, and became a fashion icon.
Malia Obama and Sasha Obama
Barack and Michelle Obama have two daughters: Malia Ann (), born July 4, 1998, and Natasha Marian (known as Sasha ), born June 10, 2001. They were both delivered at University of Chicago Medical Center by their parents' friend and physician Anita Blanchard. Sasha was the youngest child to reside in the White House since John F. Kennedy Jr. arrived as an infant in 1961. In 2014, Malia and Sasha were named two of "The 25 Most Influential Teens of 2014" by ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine.
Before his inauguration, President Obama published an open letter to his daughters in ''
Parade
A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...
'' magazine, describing what he wants for them and every child in America: "to grow up in a world with no limits on your dreams and no achievements beyond your reach, and to grow into compassionate, committed women who will help build that world".
While living in Chicago, the Obamas kept busy schedules, as the Associated Press reported: "soccer, dance and drama for Malia, gymnastics and tap for Sasha, piano and tennis for both". In July 2008, the family gave an interview to the television series ''Access Hollywood''. Obama later said they regretted allowing the children to be included. Malia and Sasha both graduated from the private Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., the same school that
Chelsea Clinton
Chelsea Victoria Clinton (born February 27, 1980) is an American writer and global health advocate. She is the only child of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton ...
,
Tricia Nixon Cox
Patricia Nixon Cox ( Nixon; born February 21, 1946) is the elder daughter of the 37th United States president Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon, and sister to Julie Nixon Eisenhower.
She is married to Edward F. Cox and is the mother of Chr ...
Vice President
A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...
) attended. The Obama girls began classes there on January 5, 2009; Malia graduated in 2016. Before the family moved to Washington in 2009, both girls attended the private
University of Chicago Laboratory School
The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (also known as Lab or Lab Schools and abbreviated as UCLS though the high school is nicknamed U-High) is a private, co-educational day Pre-K and K-12 school in Chicago, Illinois. It is affiliated with t ...
.
In his victory speech on the night of his election, President Obama repeated his promise to Sasha and Malia to get a puppy to take with them to the White House. The selection was slow because Malia is allergic to animal dander; the president subsequently said that the choice had been narrowed down to either a
labradoodle
A Labradoodle () is a crossbreed dog created by crossing a Labrador Retriever and a Standard, Miniature, or Toy Poodle. The term dates back to at least 1955 but was unpopular at the time. Labradoodles are considered a good choice for people with ...
or a Portuguese Water Dog, and that they hoped to find a shelter animal. On April 12, 2009, it was reported that the Obamas had adopted a six-month-old Portuguese Water Dog given to them as a gift by Senator
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
; Malia and Sasha named the dog Bo. The White House referred to Bo as the First Dog. In 2013, the family adopted a second Portuguese Water Dog named Sunny.
As a high school student, Malia Obama spent a portion of the summer in 2014 and 2015 working in television studios in New York and Los Angeles. She spent the summer of 2016 working as an intern in the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain.
During the week June 26, 2016, to July 3, 2016, Michelle, Sasha, Malia, and Michelle's mother Marian Robinson went to
Liberia
Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
to promote the Let Girls Learn Peace initiative, for which the United States has provided $27 million in aid. They met with
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born Ellen Eugenia Johnson, 29 October 1938) is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa.
Sirleaf was born in Mon ...
, the former
president of Liberia
The president of the Republic of Liberia is the head of state and government of Liberia. The president serves as the leader of the executive branch and as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Liberia.
Prior to the independence of Liberia ...
and the first elected female head of state in Africa. Then they went to Morocco, where they had a panel with
Freida Pinto
Freida Selena Pinto (born 18 October 1984) is an Indian actress who has appeared mainly in American and British films. Born and raised in Mumbai, Maharashtra, she resolved at a young age to become an actress. As a student at St. Xavier's Colle ...
and Meryl Streep moderated by CNN's Isha Sesay in Marrakesh and delivered a substantive amount of money to aid 62 million girls lacking access to formal education. They proceeded to Spain where Michelle delivered a message about the initiative.
In August 2016, Sasha began working at Nancy's, a seafood restaurant in
Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the ...
. In the fall of 2016, Malia went on an 83-day trip to
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
and
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
. In February 2017, Malia started an internship for Harvey Weinstein at
The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America prior ...
film studio in New York City. In August 2017, Malia started attending
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. Sasha graduated from Sidwell Friends in 2019 and began attending the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
in the fall. Sasha has since transferred to the
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...
, and Malia graduated from Harvard in 2021 and is now working as a writer on Donald Glover's new Amazon series ''Hive''.
Marian Robinson
Marian Robinson
Marian Lois Robinson ( née Shields; born July 29, 1937) is the mother of Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the United States, and Craig Robinson, a basketball executive. She is also the mother-in-law of 44th U.S. President Barack Obama.
...
, Michelle Obama's mother, resided in the White House during the Obama presidency.
Maternal relations
Barack Obama was raised by his mother,
Stanley Ann Dunham
Stanley Ann Dunham (November 29, 1942 – November 7, 1995) was an American anthropology, anthropologist who specialized in the economic anthropology and rural development of Indonesia. She is the mother of Barack Obama, the Presidency of ...
, and maternal grandparents Madelyn and Stanley Dunham. He often referred to his family during his candidacy and two terms as president.
Obama's maternal heritage consists mostly of English ancestry, with smaller amounts of
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, Scotch-Irish, Welsh, and Swiss ancestry. Research by a genealogy team at
Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites.
In November 2018, ...
, published in 2012, stated that Obama is likely descended from the African slave John Punch through his mother's Bunch line, with generations of African Americans who gradually "married white" and became landowners in colonial Virginia. The Bunches later moved to Tennessee; in 1834 a daughter moved to Kansas, where Obama's mother was born four generations later.
Ann Dunham (1942–1995)
Obama's mother was born Stanley Ann Dunham. She became an anthropologist, specializing in economic anthropology and rural development. She earned her
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
United States Agency for International Development
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...
, the Ford Foundation, and Women's World Banking, to promote the use of
microcredit
:''This article is specific to small loans, often provided in a pooled manner. For direct payments to individuals for specific projects, see Micropatronage. For financial services to the poor, see Microfinance. For small payments, see Micropayme ...
in order to combat global poverty. The Ann Dunham Soetoro Endowment in the Anthropology Department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the Ann Dunham Soetoro Graduate Fellowships at the
East–West Center
The East–West Center (EWC), or the Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West, is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peopl ...
(EWC) in
Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...
, are named in her honor. Obama has said that his mother was the dominant figure of his formative years. "The values she taught me continue to be my touchstone when it comes to how I go about the world of politics."
Stanley Armour Dunham (1918–1992)
Stanley Armour Dunham is the maternal grandfather of Barack Obama. He served as a
sergeant
Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...
in the U.S. Army during World War II, enlisting just after the attacks on
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...
. He and his wife Madelyn Dunham raised Obama in Honolulu, Hawaii. In addition to Obama, Stanley is related to six US presidents:
James Madison
James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...
,
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
,
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
, and
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
. He died in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is buried at the
Punchbowl National Cemetery
The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (informally known as Punchbowl Cemetery) is a national cemetery located at Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu, Hawaii. It serves as a memorial to honor those men and women who served in the United Stat ...
.
Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham (1922–2008)
Madelyn Dunham (née Madelyn Lee Payne) was Obama's maternal grandmother who worked in banking and became vice president of a bank in Hawaii. Obama grew up with her and remembered that when he was a child, his grandmother "read me the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence and told me about the men and women who marched for equality because they believed those words put to paper two centuries ago should mean something."
Charles Thomas Payne (1925–2014)
Charles Thomas Payne is Madelyn Dunham's younger brother and Obama's great-uncle. He was born in 1925. Payne served during World War II in the U.S. Army 89th Infantry Division. Obama has often described Payne's role in liberating the
Ohrdruf forced labor camp
Ohrdruf was a German forced labor and concentration camp located near Ohrdruf, south of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany. It was part of the Buchenwald concentration camp network.
Operation
Created in November 1944 near the town of Ohrdruf, sout ...
. There was brief media attention when Obama mistakenly identified the camp as
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
during the campaign. In 2009, Payne spoke about his war experience:
Ohrdruf was in that string of towns going across, south of Gotha and
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
. Our division was the first one in there. When we arrived there were no German soldiers anywhere around that I knew about. There was no fighting against the Germans, no camp guards. The whole area was overrun by people from the camp dressed in the most pitiful rags, and most of them were in a bad state of starvation.
Payne appeared in the visitor's gallery at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, when his great-nephew was nominated for President. He was the assistant director of the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
's Library.
Ralph Dunham (1916–2012)
Ralph Dunham was Stanley Dunham's older brother and Obama's great-uncle, he served in the U.S. Army as an assignment and personnel officer during World War II. He landed at Normandy's Omaha Easy Red Beach on D-Day plus four, and moved with troops in the fighting through France, Italy and Germany.
Eleanor Belle Dunham Berkebile (1932–2003)
Eleanor Dunham, Obama's great-aunt, was the younger sister of Stanley Armour Dunham and Ralph Dunham. Married to Ralph Lee Berkebile. She was the youngest daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham Sr. and his second wife, Martha Mae Stonehouse. She retired from civil service as an executive secretary.
Margaret Arlene Payne (1927–2014)
Margaret Arlene Payne, Obama's great-aunt, was the younger sister of Madelyn Dunham and Charles Payne. She was a professor of nutrition who taught at the
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...
, Kansas City, and at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
(1980–1990). She wrote numerous research articles and two books.
Leona McCurry (1897–1968)
Obama's family said that his maternal great-grandmother, Leona McCurry, was part Native American. She reportedly held that as a "source of considerable shame" and "blanched whenever someone mentioned the subject and hoped to carry the secret to her grave". But her daughter Madelyn Dunham (Obama's maternal grandmother) "would turn her head in profile to show off her beaked nose, which along with a pair of jet-black eyes, was offered as proof of
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
blood". To date, no concrete evidence has surfaced of Cherokee heritage in the McCurry line.
Ruth Lucille Armour (1900–1926)
Obama's family said that his paternal great-grandmother, Ruth Dunham, died November 26, 1926, from
ptomaine
Foodborne illness (also foodborne disease and food poisoning) is any illness resulting from the spoilage of contaminated food by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites that contaminate food,
as well as prions (the agents of mad cow disease) ...
poisoning. She resided in Topeka, Kansas.
Fulmoth Kearney (–1878)
A maternal 3rd great-grandfather of Barack Obama, nicknamed "Fully". Born circa 1829 in Moneygall, King's County, Ireland, he emigrated to Ohio via New York in 1850, making him the most recent immigrant on the maternal side of Barack Obama's family tree. Fulmoth married Charlotte Holloway and raised a family which included three daughters (including Mary Ann). She and two of her sisters married three Dunham brothers. Kearney and his wife are buried in Fairview Cemetery in
Labette County, Kansas
Labette County (county code LB) is a county located in Southeast Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 20,184. Its county seat is Oswego, and its most populous city is Parsons. The county was named after LaBette creek, the ...
. Descendants placed a headstone there in 2014. Around the same time, a photo of him was discovered.Smolenyak, Megan. Barack Obama visited Moneygall in 2011. In 2014, " Barack Obama Plaza", a service station and visitor center, was opened in Moneygall. In 2015, a photograph of Kearney was discovered and made publicly available. In 2018, statues of Michelle and Barack were erected in Moneygall.
Lolo Soetoro (1936–1987)
Lolo Soetoro, Javanese given name: ''Martodihardjo'', was the second husband of Ann Dunham (married on March 15, 1965) and stepfather to Barack Obama. He is Maya Soetoro-Ng's father. After his divorce from Dunham, Soetoro married Erna Kustina. They had two children, Yusuf Aji Soetoro (b. 1981) and Rahayu Nurmaida Soetoro (b. 1984).Habib, Ridlwan. "Keluarga Besar Lolo Soetoro, Kerabat Dekat Calon Presiden Amerika/Lolo Soetoro's Extended Family, Close Relatives to American Presidential Nominee" , '' Jawa Pos Daily'', Edition of November 5, 2008.
Maya Soetoro-Ng (b. 1970)
Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama's half-sister, was born in
Jakarta, Indonesia
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
. She has a half-brother and half-sister, Yusuf and Aya Soetoro, from her father's second marriage. She is married to Canadian-American Konrad Ng, with whom she has two daughters, Suhaila and Savita. Maya Soetoro-Ng is a teacher in Hawaii.
Konrad Ng (b. 1974)
Konrad Ng is Barack Obama's brother-in-law. He is of
Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese () refers to people of Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese.
Terminology
() or ''Hoan-kheh'' () in Hokkien, refe ...
descent, and his parents are from
Kudat
Kudat ( ms, Pekan Kudat) is the capital of the Kudat District in the Kudat Division of Sabah, Malaysia. Its population was estimated to be around 29,025 in 2010. It is located on the Kudat Peninsula, about north of Kota Kinabalu, the state cap ...
and
Sandakan
Sandakan (, Jawi: , ) formerly known at various times as Elopura, is the capital of the Sandakan District in Sabah, Malaysia. It is the second largest city in Sabah after Kota Kinabalu. It is located on the Sandakan Peninsula and east coast of ...
, two small towns in
Sabah, Malaysia
Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia to the south. The Federal Territory of L ...
. Ng and his younger brother, Perry, were born and raised in
Burlington, Ontario
Burlington is a city in the Regional Municipality of Halton at the northwestern end of Lake Ontario in Ontario, Canada. Along with Milton to the north, it forms the western end of the Greater Toronto Area and is also part of the Hamilton met ...
, Canada. Perry Ng works for the University of Ottawa. He married Maya Soetoro-Ng at the end of 2003 in Hawaii. They have two daughters, Suhaila and Savita. Konrad Ng is a U.S. citizen. He was an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii's Academy of Creative Media. From 2011–2015 he was the Director of the Smithsonian's
Asian Pacific American Program
The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC) is a migratory museum that shares Asian Pacific American history, art, and culture through innovative museum experiences online and throughout the U.S through the Smithsonian Institution's work. ...
. Since 2016, he has been the Executive Director of The
Shangri La
Shangri-La is a fictional place in Asia's Kunlun Mountains (昆仑山), Uses the spelling 'Kuen-Lun'. described in the 1933 novel ''Lost Horizon'' by English author James Hilton. Hilton portrays Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gen ...
Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design in Honolulu. He studied philosophy at
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
and cultural studies at the
University of Victoria
The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary instit ...
before getting his PhD degree from University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Ng studies "how minority and diaspora communities use cinema and digital media to engage in artistic and cultural representation and preservation, and community mobilization". From 2011 to 2016, he served as director of the
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC) is a migratory museum that shares Asian Pacific American history, art, and culture through innovative museum experiences online and throughout the U.S through the Smithsonian Institution's work. ...
.
Robert Wolfley (1835–1895)
Robert Wolfley, born in 1835, is one of Obama's maternal third great-grandfathers. He served as a private in Company A,
145th Ohio Infantry
The 145th Ohio Infantry Regiment, sometimes 145th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (or 145th OVI) was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Service
The 145th Ohio Infantry was organized at Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio, and ...
during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
. He died July 17, 1895, and is buried in the Olathe Memorial Cemetery in Olathe, Kansas.
John Punch
According to
Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites.
In November 2018, ...
's research in 2012, using a combination of historical documents and
yDNA
The Y chromosome is one of two sex chromosomes (allosomes) in therian mammals, including humans, and many other animals. The other is the X chromosome. Y is normally the sex-determining chromosome in many species, since it is the presence or abs ...
analysis, genealogists found that John Punch, the first documented African slave in the
Colony of Virginia
The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...
, has been documented as likely an eleventh great-grandfather of Obama through his mother, Ann Dunham, and her Bunch ancestors. With intermarriage, there were eventually both white and African-American lines of descent from Punch; some Bunch descendants were classified as white by the early 18th century. Other Bunch descendants were considered
free people of color
In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...
.
Ralph Bunche
Ralph Johnson Bunche (; August 7, 1904 – December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist, diplomat, and leading actor in the mid-20th-century decolonization process and US civil rights movement, who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize f ...
, U.S. minister to the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
, is thought by historian Paul Heinegg to have likely been an African-American descendant of the Bunch family via South Carolina and
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
.Paul Heinegg, "Bunch Family" ''Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware'', 1995–2005
Jonathan Singletary Dunham (1640–1724)
Jonathan Singletary Dunham, born in 1640 in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...
, was one of Obama's maternal eighth great-grandfathers and is his earliest ancestor known to be born in North America.
Paternal relations
Obama's family in Kenya are members of the Jok'Obama, a clan belonging to the Luo people, the nation's second-largest ethnic group. Linguistically, Luo is one of the Nilotic languages. The Obama family is concentrated in the western Kenyan province of Nyanza.
Hussein Onyango Obama (c. 1895–1979)
Paternal grandfather to Barack Obama, he was born Onyango Obama. (One source gives 1870–1975 as his dates of birth and death, possibly based on his tombstone in his home village. Barack Obama relates finding in 1988 a British document, based on a 1928 ordinance, recording his grandfather as 35 years old. The date of the document was estimated to be about 1930, which would mean that his grandfather had been born around 1895.) The Luo are given names related to the circumstances of their birth, and ''Onyango'' means "born in the early morning".Onyango was the fifth son of his mother, Nyaoke, who was the first of the five wives of his father, Obama. Barack Obama relates how his step-grandmother Granny Sarah (
Sarah Onyango Obama
Sarah Onyango Obama (1922 – March 29, 2021) was a Kenyan educator and philanthropist. She was the third wife of Hussein Onyango Obama, the paternal grandfather of U.S. president Barack Obama and helped raise his father, Barack Obama Sr. She ...
) describes his grandfather: "Even from the time that he was a boy, your grandfather Onyango was strange. It is said of him that he had ants up his anus, because he could not sit still."''Dreams from My Father'', p. 397. As a young man, Onyango learned to speak, read and write in English, the language of British colonial administration in Kenya.''Dreams from My Father'', p. 400. Onyango worked as a mission cook and as a local herbalist. He joined the King's African Rifles during World War I. In 1949, Onyango spent at least six months in Kamiti Prison. He was tried in a magistrates' court either on charges of
sedition
Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, estab ...
or being a member of a banned organization. Records do not survive; all such documentation was routinely destroyed after six years by the colonial administration. Onyango was then subject to
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...
due to suspicions that he was an associate of the Mau Mau rebels. In his memoir, Obama recounted family descriptions of his grandfather's shocking physical state when released from prison:
"When he returned to Alego he was very thin and dirty. He had difficulty walking, and his head was full of
lice
Louse ( : lice) is the common name for any member of the clade Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera has variously been recognized as an order, infraorder, or a parvorder, as a result o ...
." For some time, he was too traumatized to speak about his experiences. His wife told his grandson Obama: "From that day on, I saw that he was now an old man."
Onyango was permanently scarred, suffering pain and requiring assistance in moving until his death. Although previously he had worked closely with the British, Onyango became bitterly anglophobic after his experiences in Kamiti Prison. According to his third wife, Sarah, Onyango had converted from tribal religion to
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
missionaries
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
visited the Kendu Bay area many people were baptized into the church, including Onyango. When he later converted to Islam, he took the first name ''Hussein''. She said that he passed on the name of Hussein to his children, but not the religion. See also thi correction Onyango is sometimes referred to as Mzee Hussein Onyango Obama. The word ''mzee'' (meaning "elder") is a Kenyan
honorific
An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It ...
. And to this day the Obama family in Kenya is divided between Seventh-day Adventists and Muslims.
Habiba Akumu Obama (c. 1918–2006)
Also known as Akumu Nyanjoga and Sje. She was Barack Obama's
paternal grandmother
Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually-reproducing living organism who is not a genetic chimera has a maximum of four genetic gra ...
, and the second wife of Hussein Onyango Obama. She had three children with Onyango: daughters Sarah and Auma, and son Barack (Barack Obama's father). Her father was named Njango or Njoga, and she was born and raised in the Western Kenyan village of Karabondi.
In his memoir ''Dreams from My Father'', Obama wrote that Akumu was miserable in her marriage and abandoned Onyango Obama and her children with him. She subsequently married again and moved to Tanganyika, now
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
. Her name ''Akumu'' means "mysterious birth". Her mother conceived her after having given birth to another child and before resuming her menses. Akumu took the name ''Habiba'' upon her conversion to Islam in her second marriage, to Salmin Orinda, a Muslim from Wagwe, near Homa Hills, South Nyanza. A photograph of her holding her son, Barack Sr., on her lap is on the cover of her grandson's memoir. (See image at right margin.)
Sarah Obama (b. 1933)
Aunt of U.S. President Obama and elder sister of his father, daughter of Hussein Onyango and his second wife, Habiba Akumu Obama.''Dreams from my Father'', p. 408. (She should not be confused with her stepmother
Sarah Onyango Obama
Sarah Onyango Obama (1922 – March 29, 2021) was a Kenyan educator and philanthropist. She was the third wife of Hussein Onyango Obama, the paternal grandfather of U.S. president Barack Obama and helped raise his father, Barack Obama Sr. She ...
, also often called just Sarah Obama, the third wife of Onyango.)
Barack Obama Sr. (1934–1982)
Barack Obama Sr., Barack Obama's father, was the son of Onyango and his second wife Habiba Akumu Obama. Educated in the US at the University of Hawai'i and
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, he returned to Kenya, where he became an economist with the government. He served in the ministries of transportation and finance. Obama Sr. married three times, and he fathered a daughter and at least four sons in addition to Barack II.Ancestry of Barack Obama /ref>
Hawa Auma Hussein
Aunt of U.S. President Obama and younger sister of his father, born to Hussein Onyango and second wife Habiba Akumu Obama.
Sarah Onyango Obama (1922–2021)
Sarah Onyango Obama was the third wife of Obama's paternal grandfather. She was known for short as Sarah Obama; she was sometimes referred to as Sarah Ogwel, Sarah Hussein Obama, or Sarah Anyango Obama. She lived in
Nyang'oma Kogelo
Nyang'oma Kogelo, also known as Kogelo, is a village in Siaya County, Kenya. It is located near the equator, 60 kilometres (37 mi) west-northwest of Kisumu, the former Nyanza provincial capital. The population of Nyangoma-Kogelo is 3,64 ...
village, 30 miles west of western
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
's main town,
Kisumu
Kisumu ( ) is the List of cities and towns in Kenya by population, third-largest city in Kenya after the capital, Nairobi, and the coastal city of Mombasa (census 2019). It is the third-largest city after Kampala and Mwanza in the Lake Victor ...
, on the edge of
Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface area after ...
. (She should not be confused with her stepdaughter of the same name, Sarah Obama, a daughter of Onyango's second wife Akumu.)
Although she was not a blood relation, Barack Obama calls her "Granny Sarah". Sarah, who spoke Luo and only a few words of English, communicated with President Obama through an interpreter.
On July 4, 2008, Sarah Obama attended the
United States Independence Day
Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States ...
celebrations in Nairobi, hosted by
Michael Ranneberger
Michael Edward Ranneberger (born 1949) is a former United States Ambassador to Kenya.
Early life
Ranneberger attended Archbishop Curley High School, a Roman Catholic private school in Baltimore, Maryland. After graduating, he obtained a B.A. f ...
, the US ambassador in Kenya.''Daily Nation'', July 8, 2008 "Obama granny's day out with envoys and top politicians" , ''Daily Nation'', July 8, 2008
During the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, she protested attempts to portray Obama as a foreigner to the United States or as a Muslim, saying that while Obama's grandfather had been a Muslim, "In the world of today, children have different religions from their parents." Sarah Obama was "a strong believer of the Islamic faith", in her words.
In November 2014, Sarah Obama received an award from the United Nations for the work of an education foundation that she headed, as a part of
Women's Entrepreneurship Day
Women's Entrepreneurship Day (WED) is a day on which the work of women entrepreneurs is observed and discussed, held every day of each year. The inaugural event was held in New York City at the United Nations, with additional events being held si ...
.
Kezia Obama (1940–2021)
Kezia "Grace" Obama (also known as Kezia Aoko) was born c. 1940. She was Barack Obama Sr.'s first wife; she married him in Kenya in 1954 before he studied abroad in the United States. They had at least two children together: Abongo ">oyand Auma; and also claimed Bernard and
Abo Obama
The family of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, is a prominent American family active in law, education, activism and politics. Obama's immediate family circle was the first family of the United States from 2009 to 2017, a ...
as sons by Barack Sr.
She lived in
Bracknell
Bracknell () is a large town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Built-up Area, Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the Bracknell Forest, Borough of Bracknell Forest. It l ...
, Berkshire, England, until her death in 2021. On March 22, 2009, Kezia Obama made a guest appearance on the British television show ''
Chris Moyles' Quiz Night
''Chris Moyles' Quiz Night'' is a British television comedy panel game show, presented by Chris Moyles.
The show was originally shown on Channel 4 at 10 p.m. on Sundays and repeated on Mondays at 11 p.m. It included three rounds in w ...
''. Her sister, Jane, is the 'Auntie Jane' mentioned at the very start of ''Dreams from My Father;'' she telephoned Obama in the US in 1982 to tell him that his father had been killed in a car accident in Kenya. She died on April 13, 2021.
Malik Obama
Barack Obama's half-brother, also known as Abongo or Roy, was born c. March 1958, the son of Barack Obama Sr. and his first wife, Kezia. Born and raised in
Nairobi
Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...
, Kenya, he earned a degree in
accounting
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...
from the
University of Nairobi
, mottoeng = In unity and work
, image = Uon emblem.gif
, image_size = 210px
, caption = Coat of Arms of the University
, type = Public
, endowment ...
. The half brothers met for the first time in 1985 when Barack flew from Chicago to Washington, D.C., to visit him. They were
best men
''Best Men'' is a 1997 American crime comedy film directed by Tamra Davis, and stars Sean Patrick Flanery, Luke Wilson, Andy Dick, Mitchell Whitfield, Fred Ward, Drew Barrymore and Dean Cain.
Plot
Four groomsmen are preparing for a wedding, don ...
at each other's weddings. The American Obama brought his wife Michelle to Kenya three years later, and they met with Malik again while meeting many other relatives for the first time.
Malik lives in the Obamas' ancestral home, Nyang'oma Kogelo, a village of several hundred people, preferring its slow pace to that of the city. He runs a small electronics shop a half-hour's drive outside of town. Although much of the Obama family has dispersed throughout Kenya and overseas, most, including Malik Obama, still consider their rural village on the shores of
Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface area after ...
to be their true home. They feel that those who have left the village have become culturally "lost". A frequent visitor to the US,* and a consultant in Washington, D.C., for several months each year, Malik has dual citizenship in Kenya and the United States.
During his brother's 2008 presidential campaign, Malik Obama was a spokesman for the extended Obama family in Kenya. He dealt with safety and privacy concerns arising from the increased attention from the press.
Malik ran for governor of the Kenyan county of Siaya in 2013. His campaign slogan was "Obama here, Obama there" in reference to his half-brother who was serving his second term as the
president of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...
. Malik garnered a meager 2,792 votes, about 140,000 votes behind the eventual winner. Prior to the
2016 United States presidential election
The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...
, he stated that he supported
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
, the candidate for the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
. He attended the third presidential debate as one of Trump's guests.
Auma Obama
Barack Obama's half-sister, born c. 1960, to Kezia, his father's first wife. As of July 2008, she was a development worker in
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
. She studied German at the
University of Heidelberg
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
from 1981 to 1987. After her graduation at Heidelberg, she went on for graduate studies at the University of Bayreuth, earning a
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
degree in 1996. Her dissertation was on the conception of labor in Germany and its literary reflections.
Auma Obama has lived in London. In 1996 she married an Englishman, Ian Manners, although they have since divorced. They have a daughter named Akinyi (b. 1997). In 2011, Auma Obama was interviewed for
Turk Pipkin
Turk Pipkin (born July 2, 1953) is an author, actor, comedian and director.
He is also the co-founder of The Nobelity Project, a non-profit organisation which seeks to find solutions to global problems, and which advocates for basic rights for chi ...
's documentary ''
Building Hope
''Building Hope'' is a film by Turk and Christy Pipkin. It was produced by The Nobelity Project and premiered on March 12 at the 2011 South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. It is the sequel to the film ''One Peace at a Time''.
Summary
Afte ...
'' and was the subject of a German documentary film ''
The Education of Auma Obama ''The Education of Auma Obama'' is a 2011 German documentary on the life of Barack Obama's half-sister Auma Obama. It won the ''Best Diaspora Documentary'' Award at the Africa Movie Academy Awards. It was directed by Branwen Okpako
Prof. Branwe ...
''.
In 2017 Auma Obama was honoured with the fourth International TÜV Rheinland Global Compact Award in
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
. At the award ceremony, she received the bronze sculpture 'Der Griff nach den Sternen' (Reaching for the stars), solely made for the award, by artist
Hannes Helmke
Hannes Helmke (born 10 May 1967 in Heidelberg) is a German sculptor creating bronze sculptures.
Life
After an education in wood sculpture, Helmke attended postgraduate studies in free art at the Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences in ...
.
Abo and Bernard Obama
Said to be Barack Obama's half-brothers, Abo, also known as Samson Obama, was born in 1968 and Bernard was born two years later in 1970 to Kezia Obama. In ''Dreams from My Father'', Obama wrote that his Obama relatives doubt that Abo and Bernard are the biological sons of Barack Obama Sr.
Ruth (Baker) Ndesandjo
Born Ruth Beatrice Baker in the United States around 1937, the daughter of Maurice Joseph Baker and Ida Baker of
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...
, who are of
Lithuanian-Jewish
Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks () are Jews with roots in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, as well as adjacent area ...
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton, A ...
, and a 1958 graduate of
Simmons College
Institutions of learning called Simmons College or Simmons University include:
* Simmons University, a women's liberal arts college in Boston, Massachusetts
* Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black college in Louisville, Kentucky
* Har ...
in Boston with a degree in business. She was a suburban elementary school teacher when she met and began dating Barack Sr. in Cambridge in June 1964, a month before his return to Kenya in August 1964. She followed Obama Sr. back to Kenya five weeks later, and married him in Kenya in a civil ceremony on December 24, 1964. She later became a private kindergarten director in Kenya. She had two sons with Barack Obama Sr.: Mark and David. She and Barack Sr. separated in 1971 and divorced about 1973. Since she remarried when her sons were young, they took their stepfather's surname, Ndesandjo, as their own. Her third son, Joseph Ndesandjo, was born c. 1980 in her second marriage.
Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo
Barack Obama's half-brother, born c. 1965, son of Barack Obama Sr. and his third wife Ruth Baker. Mark Ndesandjo runs an Internet company called WorldNexus that advises Chinese corporations how best to reach international customers. Mark was educated in the US, graduating from
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
; he studied
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...
.
He has lived in
Shenzhen, China
Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major Sub-provincial division, sub-provincial city and one of the Special economic zones of China, special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pea ...
, since 2002. Through his mother, he is
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
. He is married to Liu Xuehua (also spelled Liu Zue Hua in some reports), a Chinese woman from Henan Province. He is an accomplished pianist and has performed in concert.In 2009, Mark Ndesandjo published a semi-autobiographical novel, ''Nairobi to Shenzhen: A Novel of Love in the East''. He published a memoir in 2013, entitled, ''Cultures: My Odyssey of Self-Discovery''. In it, he accused their father Barack Sr. of abuse.
David Ndesandjo (–)
Barack Obama's half-brother (also known as David Opiyo Obama), son of Barack Obama Sr. and his third wife, Ruth Baker, an American. He died in a motorcycle accident several years after his father's death in a car accident.
George Hussein Onyango Obama
Youngest half-brother of Barack Obama, born c. May 1982, son of Barack Obama Sr. and Jael Otieno. (She has since moved to
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, Georgia as a full-time resident.) George was six months old when his father died in an automobile accident, after which he was raised in Nairobi by his mother and a French stepfather. His mother took him to South Korea for two years while she was working there. Returning to Kenya, George Obama "slept rough for several years", until his aunt gave him a six-by-eight foot corrugated metal shack in the
Nairobi
Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...
slum of
Huruma Flats Huruma is a low-income residential estate located in the northeast of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. It borders Kariobangi and Dandora to the east, Moi Air Base to the south, Mathare to the north to west and Eastleigh, Nairobi, Eastleigh to the sout ...
.As of August 2008, George Obama was studying to become a mechanic. He received little attention until featured in an article in the Italian-language edition of '' Vanity Fair'' in August 2008 during the US presidential campaign. This portrayed him as living in poverty, shame, and obscurity. The article quoted George Obama as saying that he lived "on less than a dollar a month" and said that he "does not mention his famous half-brother in conversation" out of shame at his own poverty. In later interviews, George contradicted this account. In an interview with ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'', he "said that he was furious at subsequent reports that he had been abandoned by the Obama family and that he was filled with shame about living in a slum".
He told ''The Times'', "Life in Huruma is good." George Obama said that he expects no favors, that he was supported by relatives, and that reports he lived on a dollar a month were "all lies by people who don't want my brother to win". He told ''The Telegraph'' that he was inspired by his half-brother. According to ''Time'', George "has repeatedly denied ... that he feels abandoned by Obama".
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
quoted him as saying, "I was brought up well. I live well even now. The magazines, they have exaggerated everything – I think I kind of like it here. There are some challenges, but maybe it is just like where you come from, there are the same challenges." George Obama and the British journalist Damien Lewis published George's story in a 2011 book called ''Homeland''. George also appeared in the 2012 film, '' 2016: Obama's America'', an anti-Obama documentary.
Omar Okech Obama
At times using a variation of the name of his father, Onyango Obama, Omar Okech Obama is a half-uncle of Barack Obama. Born on June 3, 1944, in
Nyang'oma Kogelo
Nyang'oma Kogelo, also known as Kogelo, is a village in Siaya County, Kenya. It is located near the equator, 60 kilometres (37 mi) west-northwest of Kisumu, the former Nyanza provincial capital. The population of Nyangoma-Kogelo is 3,64 ...
, he is the eldest son of Onyango and his third wife, Sarah Obama. He moved to the United States in October 1963 when he was 17 years old as part of Kenya president Tom Mboya's Airlift Africa project, to send promising Kenyan students to the US for education, particularly undergraduate and graduate school. Once he arrived in the country, his half-brother, Barack Obama Sr., found him a place at a boys' school then known as Browne & Nichols, in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
. He later dropped out of school and changed his name to O. Onyango Obama. He has operated a liquor store in Framingham, where he resided as of March 2011. Barack Obama lived with Onyango in the 1980s while a student at Harvard Law School in Cambridge.Blake, Aaron & Juliet Eilperin After denial, White House now says Obama lived with uncle ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', December 5, 2013.
Omar Okech Obama was subject to a deportation order in 1989. After an unsuccessful appeal, he was given a new deportation order in 1992. He was arrested on August 24, 2011, for
driving under the influence
Driving under the influence (DUI)—also called driving while impaired, impaired driving, driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, operating while intoxicated (OWI), operating under the influence (OUI), operating vehicle under the infl ...
, or DUI, and was held in jail until September 9, 2011, on a federal immigration warrant. The ''
Boston Herald
The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Pulit ...
'' reported in August 2011 that Obama had had a valid Social Security card "for at least 19 years". On November 30, 2012, the Board of Immigration Appeals remanded the immigration case to the
Executive Office for Immigration Review
The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) is a sub-agency of the United States Department of Justice whose chief function is to conduct removal proceedings in immigration courts and adjudicate appeals arising from the proceedings. These a ...
for reconsideration of the original order of deportation, which was issued in 1986 and re-issued in 1992.
An immigration judge ruled on January 30, 2013, that Onyango Obama would receive a deportation hearing. Onyango's attorneys said that his defense at the December 3, 2013, deportation hearing would be a reliance on the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, because Onyango had resided in the U.S. since before January 1, 1972, the cutoff date of the 1986 amnesty. At the hearing, Immigration Judge Leonard I. Shapiro ruled that Onyango was eligible for
permanent residence
''Permanent Residence'' () is a 2009 Hong Kong film starring Sean Li and Osman Hung. It was directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Danny Cheng, also known as Scud. The film explores several themes traditionally regarded as 'taboo' in Hong Kong society, ...
Zeituni Onyango
Zeituni Onyango ( ; May 29, 1952 April 7, 2014) was known as the half-aunt of United States President Barack Obama; she was born into the Luo tribe in Kenya. Born during the British rule of the Protectorate of Kenya, Onyango was the half-sist ...
, half-aunt of Barack Obama, was born May 29, 1952, in
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
. Onyango is referred to as "Aunti Zeituni" in Obama's memoir '' Dreams from My Father''. She entered the US in 2000 on a temporary visa with her son who was going to school; she applied in 2002 for political asylum due to unrest in Kenya and ethnic conflict. This was denied in 2004, but she remained in the country illegally. Her presence was leaked to the media during Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. She was granted asylum in 2010. She died on April 7, 2014, from complications caused by cancer and respiratory problems.
Michelle Obama's extended family
Barack Obama has called his wife
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...
"the most quintessentially American woman I know". Her family is of African-American heritage, descendants of Africans and Europeans of the colonial era and
antebellum
Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to:
United States history
* Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern United States
** Antebellum Georgia
** Antebellum South Carolina
** Antebellum Virginia
* Antebellum ar ...
eras. Michelle Obama's family history traces from colonists and
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
in the South to
Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...
to the Great Migration to northern cities, in her family's case, Cleveland and Chicago. Each of her four grandparents was multiracial.Rachel L. Swarns, "Meet Your Cousin, the First Lady: A Family Story, Long Hidden" ''The New York Times'', June 16, 2012 Some of Michelle's relatives still reside in
South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
. Extended family from her mother's Shields ancestors also reside in Georgia and throughout the South.
Jim Robinson
Michelle's earliest known relative on her father's side is her great-great grandfather Jim Robinson, born in the 1850s, who was an American
slave
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
on the
Friendfield Plantation
Friendfield Plantation is a 3,305-acre Plantations in the American South, plantation near Georgetown, South Carolina composed of parts of six former historic plantations and Friendship House, built in 1931-36. with It was listed on the National Re ...
in
Georgetown, South Carolina
Georgetown is the third oldest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina and the county seat of Georgetown County, South Carolina, Georgetown County, in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census ...
in the
Low Country
The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...
, where African Americans developed as the
Gullah people
The Gullah () are an African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Their language and cultu ...
and culture. The family believes that after the Civil War, he worked as a Friendfield
sharecropper
Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land.
Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...
for the rest of his life. He is said to have been buried there in an unmarked grave.
Jim married twice, first to a woman named Louiser, with whom he had two sons, Gabriel and Fraser, Michelle Obama's great-grandfather. A daughter was born to the family, but her name has not been discovered, and she is believed to have died as a child. His second marriage to Rose Ella Cohen produced six more children. Fraser had an arm amputated as a result of a boyhood injury. He worked as a shoemaker, a newspaper salesman, and in a lumber mill. Carrie Nelson, Gabriel Robinson's daughter, is the keeper of family lore and the oldest living Robinson at 80 years old in 2008.
At least three of Michelle Obama's great-uncles served in the military of the United States. One aunt moved to
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...
, where she worked as a maid. She cooked Southern-style meals for Michelle and her brother Craig, when they were students at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
.
Melvinia Shields (1844–1938)
The earliest known relative on her mother's side is her great-great-great-grandmother, Melvinia Shields (1844–1938), who was held as a slave on a farm in Clayton County, North Georgia. Her master was Henry Walls Shields, who had a 200-acre farm near Rex. He would have worked along with his slaves. Melvinia became pregnant at about age 15 and had a biracial son, Dolphus T. Shields, born into slavery about 1860. Melvinia did not talk to relatives about his father. Based on DNA and other evidence, in 2012 researchers said the father was likely 20-year-old Charles Marion Shields, son of Melvinia's master. After the Civil War, Dolphus Shields moved to
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
. Charles later became a teacher and married a white woman. Michelle Obama's extended family has said that people didn't talk about slavery time while they were growing up. Michelle Obama's distant ancestry also includes Irish and other European roots.
On June 26, 2012, a monument to Shields was erected in Rex, with an inscription summarizing her life and "a five-generation journey that began in oppression" resulting in her descendant becoming First Lady of the United States. A year later, the monument was vandalized and knocked from its base, but was quickly replaced.
Marian Lois Robinson
Marian Lois Robinson (born Marian Lois Shields, July 30, 1937), is descended from Dolphus Shields and his wife. She is now widowed, but had married Michelle's father,
Fraser Robinson
The family of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, is a prominent American family active in law, education, activism and politics. Obama's immediate family circle was the First Family of the United States, first family of the ...
, on October 27, 1960. Robinson was formerly a secretary at
Spiegel catalog
Spiegel was an American direct marketing retailer founded in 1865 by Joseph Spiegel. Spiegel published a catalog, like its competitors Sears and Montgomery Ward, which advertised various brands of apparel, accessories, and footwear, as well a ...
and a bank. While Michelle and Barack Obama were campaigning in 2008, Robinson tended the Obamas' young children. She continued to help care for them while living in the White House as part of the First Family; she was the first live-in grandmother since Elivera M. Doud during the Eisenhower administration. Some media outlets dubbed Robinson as the "First Granny". Marian took Sasha and Malia to school daily.
Fraser C. Robinson III (1935–1991)
Michelle Obama's father, born August 1, 1935, died March 6, 1991, married Michelle's mother, Marian Shields, on October 27, 1960. Robinson was a pump worker at the City of Chicago water plant.
Craig Robinson
Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama's brother, was born in 1962. From 2008 until 2014, he served as
head coach
A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...
of men's basketball at
Oregon State University
Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...
.
Fraser Robinson Jr. (1912–1996)
Michelle Obama's paternal grandfather was born on August 24, 1912, in
Georgetown, South Carolina
Georgetown is the third oldest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina and the county seat of Georgetown County, South Carolina, Georgetown County, in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census ...
, and died on November 9, 1996, aged 84. He was a good student and orator but moved from South Carolina to Chicago during the Great Migration to find better work and living conditions than in the South, where
Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
had been imposed and blacks were disfranchised. He became a worker for the
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...
. He married LaVaughn Johnson. When he retired, they moved back to South Carolina.
LaVaughn Dolores Johnson (1915–2002)
Michelle Obama's paternal grandmother (February 6, 1915 – September 17, 2002) and married to Fraser Robinson Jr. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, to James Preston Johnson (1880–1920?) and Phoebe (1879–1920?).
Robbie Shields Terry (1908–1983)
Robbie Shields Terry (born Robbie Lee Shields; July 3, 1908 – June 1, 1983) was Michelle Obama's great-aunt: her mother's father's sister. In the 1940 census, she was listed as head of household, with Marian Shields listed as niece. Michelle Obama, in her memoir, '' Becoming'', introduces Robbie and her husband, Terry, in the first chapter. Her nuclear family moved into a small apartment on the second floor in their house while she was still a young child. Robbie was Michelle's piano teacher as well as nearest neighbor. When she died, Robbie, a widow, left the house to her mother, Marian, and father,
Fraser Robinson
The family of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, is a prominent American family active in law, education, activism and politics. Obama's immediate family circle was the First Family of the United States, first family of the ...
, who moved downstairs. Subsequently, Michelle moved into the second floor apartment while working at the law firm Sidley & Austin. When Barack Obama settled in Chicago after graduating law school, he moved into this same apartment.
Capers Funnye
Capers C. Funnye Jr. is Michelle Obama's first cousin once removed: his mother, Verdelle Robinson Funnye (born Verdelle Robinson; August 22, 1930 – April 16, 2000), was a sister of Michelle Obama's paternal grandfather, Fraser Robinson Jr. He is 12 years older, and Funnye and Obama grew to know each other as adults in Chicago, where both were involved in community organizing, along with Barack Obama. He is one of America's most prominent African-American rabbis, known for acting as a bridge between mainstream Jewry and African American Jews. He converted to Judaism after 1970, during years of activism when he regarded Christianity as having been imposed on slaves.
Genealogical charts
Ancestries
Sources:
*
*
Family trees
Index
*Key:
**Underscored: Now or once a member of Barack Obama's household
**Personal name bolded: Living
*Note: Every link in this index is to entries in this article
Jonathan
Jonathan may refer to:
*Jonathan (name), a masculine given name
Media
* ''Jonathan'' (1970 film), a German film directed by Hans W. Geißendörfer
* ''Jonathan'' (2016 film), a German film directed by Piotr J. Lewandowski
* ''Jonathan'' (2018 ...
Capers
''Capparis spinosa'', the caper bush, also called Flinders rose, is a perennial plant that bears rounded, fleshy leaves and large white to pinkish-white flowers.
The plant is best known for the edible flower buds (capers), used as a seasoning ...
*Ndesandjo
**
Mark
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* Fi ...
Abo
The ABO blood group system is used to denote the presence of one, both, or neither of the A and B antigens on erythrocytes. For human blood transfusions, it is the most important of the 43 different blood type (or group) classification system ...
**
Auma
The Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) (Proposition 64) was a 2016 voter initiative to legalize cannabis in California. The full name is the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act. The initiative passed with 57% voter approval and be ...
George
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
Malik
Malik, Mallik, Melik, Malka, Malek, Maleek, Malick, Mallick, or Melekh ( phn, 𐤌𐤋𐤊; ar, ملك; he, מֶלֶךְ) is the Semitic term translating to "king", recorded in East Semitic and Arabic, and as mlk in Northwest Semitic duri ...
Sayid
''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali, sons of Muhammad' ...
Charles
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...
Margaret
Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian.
Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular througho ...
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
By first name
*
Abo Obama
The family of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, is a prominent American family active in law, education, activism and politics. Obama's immediate family circle was the first family of the United States from 2009 to 2017, a ...
Auma Obama
Rita Auma Obama (born 1960), is a Kenyan-British community activist, sociologist, journalist, author, and half-sister of the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama. Obama serves as the executive chairwoman of Sauti Kuu Foundation ( ...
Barack Obama Sr.
Barack Hussein Obama Sr. (; 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 Fa ...
*
Bernard Obama
The family of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, is a prominent American family active in law, education, activism and politics. Obama's immediate family circle was the first family of the United States from 2009 to 2017, a ...
Charles Payne Charles Payne may refer to:
* Charles Payne (clergyman) (1830–1899), Methodist clergyman and president of Ohio Wesleyan University
* Charles Payne (television personality) (born 1960), American Fox Business Network contributor and co-host of '' ...
Konrad Ng
The family of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, is a prominent American family active in law, education, activism and politics. Obama's immediate family circle was the first family of the United States from 2009 to 2017, a ...
Malik Obama
Abon'go Malik "Roy" Obama (born March 1958) is a Kenyan-American businessman and politician known for being the older half-brother of 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, and the eldest son of economist Barack Obama Sr.
Biograph ...
Sayid Obama
The family of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, is a prominent American family active in law, education, activism and politics. Obama's immediate family circle was the First Family of the United States, first family of the ...
Zeituni Onyango
Zeituni Onyango ( ; May 29, 1952 April 7, 2014) was known as the half-aunt of United States President Barack Obama; she was born into the Luo tribe in Kenya. Born during the British rule of the Protectorate of Kenya, Onyango was the half-sist ...
See also
*
Family of Joe Biden
Joe Biden, the 46th and current president of the United States, has family members who are prominent in law, education, activism and politics. Biden's immediate family became the first family of the United States on his inauguration on Janu ...
*
List of African-American firsts
African-Americans are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group in the United States. The first achievements by African-Americans in diverse fields have historically marked footholds, often leading to more widespread cultural chang ...
New York Daily News
The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
Joe Johns
Joseph Eduardo Johns is an American lawyer and journalist. He is the Senior Washington Correspondent for CNN, based in the Washington, D.C., bureau. He was promoted to the position in 2014. He previously worked as an NBC News Capitol Hill Corres ...
Megan Smolenyak
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak,Sam Roberts''The New York Times'', September 14, 2006. born October 9, is an American genealogist, author, and speaker. She is also a consultant for the FBI and NCIS.
Education
Smolenyak holds a BSFS in Foreign Service ...
Megan Smolenyak
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak,Sam Roberts''The New York Times'', September 14, 2006. born October 9, is an American genealogist, author, and speaker. She is also a consultant for the FBI and NCIS.
Education
Smolenyak holds a BSFS in Foreign Service ...
RTÉ
(RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...
Family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
Family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...