Obama's grandfather tortured by the British? A fantasy

Obama's grandfather tortured by the British? A fantasy

While Obama has claimed that his Kenyan grandfather was arrested and tortured by the British, a new biography of Barack Obama has established that Obama's grandfather just made that up.

Maraniss, who researched Obama’s life in Kenya, Indonesia, Hawaii and the mainland United States, found that there were ‘no remaining records of any detention, imprisonment, or trial of Hussein Onyango Obama’. He interviewed five people who knew Obama’s grandfather, who died in 1979, who ‘doubted the story or were certain it did not happen’.

John Ndalo Aguk, who worked with Onyango before the alleged imprisonment and was in touch with him weekly afterwards said he 'knew nothing' about any detention and would have noticed if he had gone missing for several months.

Zablon Okatch, who worked with Onyango as a servant to American diplomats after the supposed incarceration, said: ‘Hussein was never jailed. I know that for a fact. It would have been difficult for him to get a job with a white family, let alone a diplomat, if he once served in jail.’

Charles Oluoch, whose father was adopted by Onyango, said that ‘he did not have any trouble with the government in any way'.

Dick Opar, a relative by marriage to Onyango and a senior Kenyan police official, gave what Maraniss judged to be the most authoritative word. ‘People make up stories,’ he said. ‘If you get arrested, you say it was the fight for independence, but they are arrested for another thing. ‘I would have known. I would have known. If he was in Kamiti Prison for only a day, even if for a day, I would have known.

Daily Mail

Maraniss expresses the opinion that Obama's father, like Obama himself, created ‘history to conform with the image he wished for himself’.

Apparently, the tale that the father of Obama’s Indonesian stepfather was killed by Dutch soldiers fighting for Indonesian independence turns out not to be true either.

Obama himself, Maraniss finds, deliberately distorted elements of his own life to fit into a racial narrative. The author writes that Obama presents himself in his memoir as ‘blacker and more disaffected’ than he really was

Daily Mail

Obama's grandfather wasn't arrested and tortured by the British and his step father's father wasn't killed by the Dutch fighting for Indonesian independence.

Maraniss expresses the opinion that Obama's father, like Obama himself, created ‘history to conform with the image he wished for himself’.

Clearly not at all biased against the Obama's.

Regarding the lack of records - I rather doubt colonial records of the British activity in Africa would ever be permitted to survive.

Politician in being a liar "shocker".

2nd line.

Originally posted by Blackmarketeer
Regarding the lack of records - I rather doubt colonial records of the British activity in Africa would ever be permitted to survive.

You may well be correct about the records, although apparently a lot of records did survive.

However that doesn't explain away the people interviewed by the author who knew Obama's grandfather and have stated that he was never imprisoned or tortured by the British .

Obama's grandfather was not arrested or tortured by the British.

I wonder if Obama ever goes fishing ?

Love to hear all about the ones that got away !!

I think he likes people to feel sorry for him, poor guy.