2008.10.18: October 18, 2008: Headlines: COS - Kenya: Election2008 - Obama: All Africa: Kodi Barth writes: Why Barack Obama is His Father's Son

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Kenya: Peace Corps Kenya : Peace Corps Kenya: Newest Stories: 2008.06.04: June 4, 2008: Headlines: Election2008 - Obama: Truth Out: World Welcomes Obama Win : 2008.10.18: October 18, 2008: Headlines: COS - Kenya: Election2008 - Obama: All Africa: Kodi Barth writes: Why Barack Obama is His Father's Son

By Admin1 (admin) (75.41.169.164) on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 - 2:17 pm: Edit Post

Kodi Barth writes: Why Barack Obama is His Father's Son

Kodi Barth writes: Why Barack Obama is His Father's Son

Most poignant in Obama's narrative is the scene at his father's grave at Kogelo, Alego. When at 21 his aunt Jane had phoned him in New York to tell him that his father was dead, he had just sat down on the couch, stared at cracks in his college apartment and tried to measure the loss of a father he hardly knew. Four years later, he now sat between the graves of his grandfather and his father, under the mango tree behind his grandmother's house. "For a long time I sat between the two graves and wept," he writes. "When my tears were finally spent ... I felt the circle finally close. I realised that who I was, what I cared about, was no longer just a matter of intellect or obligation... "I saw that my life in America -- the black life, the white life, the sense of abandonment I'd felt as a boy, the frustration and hope in Chicago -- all of it was connected with this piece of earth an ocean away ... "The pain I felt was my father's pain. My questions were my brother's questions. Their struggle, my birthright." Sen Obama is his father's son. It is said that Obama Sr had a driving intellect and ambition; two traits that Auma worries may drive his brother too far. But as the Boston Globe wrote recently, if someone had said to Obama Sr: "You know, your son might be president," he would have said: 'Well, of course. He's my son.'"

Kodi Barth writes: Why Barack Obama is His Father's Son

Kenya: Why Barack Obama is His Father's Son

18 October 2008
Posted to the web 22 October 2008

Kodi Barth
Nairobi

A man is the son of his father, so we say out here in Africa. But how much of Barack Obama Senior is in his son, the Democratic nominee for US president? Or just how Kenyan is Sen Obama?

First, he is unequivocally American by birth and upbringing. But his writing, speeches and mannerisms have left little doubt that the Illinois senator is proud of his Kenyan roots.

Why else does he feel compelled to mention it in his major speeches?

In that first famous address at the Democratic national convention that catapulted him onto the national stage, he spoke about his Kenyan father for an entire four minutes.

He has done so at every significant event he has to introduce himself: at the first primary victory in Iowa, at his victory over Hillary Clinton in Minnesota, at his nomination acceptance speech in Colorado and at the first presidential debate with John McCain in Mississippi.

It is evident that Obama is acutely conscious of and comfortable with his Kenyan roots. The search for his identity began in his teenage, he writes in Dreams from My Father, when it suddenly occurred to him that everybody around him was either white or with a "proper" American name.

It was in college that he decided that he should be called Barack or Obama, not Barry. By this time the impact of an absent father who had long divorced his mother and returned to a tragically unhappy life in Kenya was at its peak. His father's letters that firmly instructed him to "know his people" tugged at his heart.

The intensity with which Obama tells the story of his first meeting with Auma, his Kenyan half-sister, is startling. Her plane from Germany was about to land in Chicago.

"I pulled into the airport parking lot ... and ran to the terminal as fast as I could. Panting for breath, I spun around several times, my eyes scanning the crowds... Damn! I knew I should have left earlier. ...

"What if she had walked right past me and I hadn't even known it? I looked down at the photograph in my hand ... smudged now from too much handling. Then I looked up, and the picture came to life... I lifted my sister off the ground as we embraced... I picked up her bags and we began to walk ... and she slipped her arm through mine. And I knew at that moment that I loved her, so naturally, so easily and fiercely..."

It was Obama's first encounter with his own flesh and blood from Alego, Kenya. The next telling moment is when he landed at the Nairobi airport for the first time in 1986. A woman at the British Airways desk looked at his passport and asked if he was related to "Dr Obama."

That had never happened before, Obama writes. "For the first time in my life, I felt the comfort, the firmness of identity that a name might provide... how people might nod and say: 'Oh, you are so and so's son.' No one here in Kenya would ask how to spell my name... My name belonged and so I belonged."

The next day while with Auma at a kiosk near Koja Mosque, he writes, an old woman pointed at him and said in Kiswahili that he looked like an American. Obama, beating his chest, promptly instructed his sister, "Tell her I'm Luo!"

Obama's narration of his Kenyan experience in the subsequent weeks reveals an impressive understanding of his father's land: the first supper at aunt Jane's house at Kariakor; his visit to the Mathare slum with aunt Sarah; his night out with brother Roy at Garden Square; his travel by matatu to Alego and Kendu Bay -- his great grandfather's place where uncles insisted he taste the local brew chang'aa; his diarrhoea attack that his grandfather's sister insisted to treat with local herbs and bitter roots.

Most poignant in Obama's narrative is the scene at his father's grave at Kogelo, Alego. When at 21 his aunt Jane had phoned him in New York to tell him that his father was dead, he had just sat down on the couch, stared at cracks in his college apartment and tried to measure the loss of a father he hardly knew.

Four years later, he now sat between the graves of his grandfather and his father, under the mango tree behind his grandmother's house.

"For a long time I sat between the two graves and wept," he writes. "When my tears were finally spent ... I felt the circle finally close. I realised that who I was, what I cared about, was no longer just a matter of intellect or obligation...

"I saw that my life in America -- the black life, the white life, the sense of abandonment I'd felt as a boy, the frustration and hope in Chicago -- all of it was connected with this piece of earth an ocean away ...

"The pain I felt was my father's pain. My questions were my brother's questions. Their struggle, my birthright."

Sen Obama is his father's son. It is said that Obama Sr had a driving intellect and ambition; two traits that Auma worries may drive his brother too far.

But as the Boston Globe wrote recently, if someone had said to Obama Sr: "You know, your son might be president," he would have said: 'Well, of course. He's my son.'"

The writer is a lecturer of journalism at the United States International University, Nairobi




Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: October, 2008; Peace Corps Kenya; Directory of Kenya RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Kenya RPCVs; Election2008 - Obama





When this story was posted in October 2008, this was on the front page of PCOL:




Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers RSS Feed
Peace Corps Suspends Program in Bolivia Date: September 16 2008 No: 1264 Peace Corps Suspends Program in Bolivia
Turmoil began in Bolivia three weeks ago sparked by President Evo Morales' pledge to redistribute wealth from the east to the country's poorer highlands. Peace Corps has withdrawn all volunteers from the country because of "growing instability." Morales has thrown out US Ambassador Philip Goldberg accusing the American government of inciting the violence. This is not the first controversy surrounding Goldberg's tenure as US ambassador to Bolivia.


 Contact PCOL Search PCOL with Google Site Index Recent Posts Bulletin Board Open Discussion RPCV Directory Register
October 1, 2008: This Month's Top Stories  Date: October 2 2008 No: 1270 October 1, 2008: This Month's Top Stories
Candidates pledge to boost volunteerism 12 Sep
NPCA Promotes PC Expansion with MorePeaceCorps 5 Sep
President Bush praises Peace Corps 8 Sep
PC Mourns Loss of Belize PCV Bertie Lee Murphy 11 Sep
Home of Sargent Shriver is on the Market 12 Sep
Shays discusses Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan, Pakistan 12 Sep
Terry Wozniak adopts boy from Fiji 14 Sep
Paul Theroux writes: Moose Hunting for Votes 14 Sep
Kelan Evans works in Parwan province of Afghanistan 16 Sep
Joseph Opala creates an exhibit on Bunce Island 20 Sep
Anita Rogers called to serve in Afghanistan in 1966 21 Sep
RPCVs discuss changes in Sierra Leone 22 Sep
Chris Dodd is major player in $700 billion rescue plan 22 Sep
Kathleen Wright says PCVs changed South Korea 24 Sep
Thomas Tighe Reports from Clinton Global Initiative 25 Sep
Expectations High for Ambassador Kathleen Stephens 26 Sep
Scott Hajek sees US through whole new set of eyes 28 Sep
James Rupert writes: US Raids Strengthen Taliban 29 Sep
Three Common Misconceptions about the Peace Corps 30 Sep
Margaret Krome writes: Campaign endangers Voter Franchise 30 Sep
Christopher Hill returns to North Korea 1 Oct

New: More Stories from August and September 2008

September 1, 2008: This Month's Top Stories Date: September 1 2008 No: 1259 September 1, 2008: This Month's Top Stories
Eric Green writes: 2008 Election helps US Image Worldwide 28 Aug
Tschetter meets with President Arroyo in Philippines 29 Aug
Hill's new approach is an unsung success story 29 Aug
Jackie Theriot served as PCV in Togo 25 Aug
Therese Abalo became beekeeper to join Peace Corps 24 Aug
Obituary for Pauline Birky-Kreutzer 23 Aug
Peace Corps to Pare Ranks of Volunteers 22 Aug
George Packer writes play about Iraqi occupation 22 Aug
Martin Puryear retrospective at the National Gallery of Art 22 Aug
Elaine Chao heads final 2008 Olympic delegation 21 Aug
J R Bullington writes: Reinvigorate the Peace Corps 19 Aug
Faith Van Gilder returns to Botswana 18 Aug
Bill Owens still turning suburbs into art 18 Aug
Amy Smith hosts International Development Design Summit 17 Aug
McCain calls for greater volunteerism 17 Aug
Sarah Chayes writes: Afghans don't support insurgency 16 Aug
Maurice Albertson remembers origins of Peace Corps 15 Aug
John Perkins "hit man" is now documentary movie 15 Aug
Brian Connors helps local farmers in Malawi 13 Aug
Dr. Peter Davenport no stranger to rural health issues 13 Aug
Jeremiah Johnson tells story of HIV termination 8 Aug

New: More Stories from July and August 2008

PCVs Evacuated from Georgia Date: August 19 2008 No: 1254 PCVs Evacuated from Georgia
The Peace Corps has announced that all Volunteers and trainees serving in the Republic of Georgia are safe and they have been temporarily relocated to neighboring Armenia. Read the analysis by one RPCV on how Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili believed that he could launch a lightning assault on South Ossetia and reclaim the republic without substantial grief from Moscow and that Saakashvili's statements once the war began demonstrated that he expected real Western help in confronting Russia.

August 6, 2008: This Month's Top Stories Date: August 6 2008 No: 1250 August 6, 2008: This Month's Top Stories
PC in Budget Crunch may cut PCVs by 5% 5 Aug
Garamendi first to announce run for governor in 2010 2 Aug
Bob and Pat Parish receive president’s award 31 Jul
Sam Brownback removes block on Kathleen Stephens 31 Jul
Peace Corps Removes Ban on HIV-Positive Volunteers 31 Jul
RPCVs organize online for Obama 31 Jul
Peace group awards perfect rating to Sam Farr 29 Jul
How Hill used back channels to negotiate Korean agreement 27 Jul
Voter surge may hurt Shays 26 Jul
Matthew A. Hamilton writes: A Shadow on Ararat 25 Jul
Gates says Tools of inspiration are indispensable 15 Jul
An interview with Composer Gabriela Lena Frank 13 Jul
Ginny Farmer to swim in Olympics for American Samoa 11 Jul
Dodd is possible vice presidential candidate 11 Jul
Carl Pope supports the Pickens Plan 8 Jul
George Packer writes: Obama’s Iraq Problem 7 Jul
An Interview with PCOL 4 Jul
Ifugao hopes for tourism boost after Campbell Trial 3 Jul
Peace Corps To Quit Kiribati 3 Jul
Tony Hall asks: Where is moral outrage over food crisis? 3 Jul
Wofford raises awareness about global poverty 2 Jul

New: More Stories from June and July 2008



Read the stories and leave your comments.








Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: All Africa

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Kenya; Election2008 - Obama

PCOL42372
65

By John H Lawrence (202.131.163.201) on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 1:55 am: Edit Post

Please increase funding for US Peace Corps. The 2009 Continuing Resolution provides just $340 million for the Peace Corps- a very small $9 million increase over the 2008 budget. This increase does not account for costly new security procedures worldwide thus the total number of volunteers or volunteer support must be cut.

I am emailing you, President Obama today, to request that you increase FY09 funding for US Peace Corps to $425 million; to fully support the important mandate of this agency and to fulfill your campaign pledge.

As a former Peace Corps volunteer. I am dismayed that my government is not supporting the Peace Corps with appropriate levels of funding. Over 13,000 people applied in 2008 alone for fewer than 4,000 spots, and nearly 20 countries are asking for new programs, but we are about to make a decision that will slash the number volunteer opportunities in 2009. It is unacceptable.

The Continuing Resolution funding level is not logical, and a number which PeaceCorps flatly rejects. Please heed the thousands of messages President Obama. Your action to increase funding for US Peace Corps to $425 million is a promise to volunteers, current and past, to all US citizens and to the global community.


Add a Message


This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.
Username:  
Password:
E-mail: