Since his brilliant speech at the Democrats convention in 2004, Barack Obama has covered all the front pages of a multitude of media outlet. Everyone is interested in a very single detail of his life. One of those details that journalists and rivals were looking for during the last campaign period was the role his Grandfather played during colonial time in Kenya .
The reason was to know if he was a against British colonialists therefore making President Barack Obama an undisputable descendant of a racists who does not like whites or if he cooperated with the white, making his grand son a descendant of a traitor who can't stand by his decisions. All of those campaigns did not work on their favors. In the contrary, Sarah Obama the Grandmother of the US president came out and talked openly to the Times magazine about the role of Mzee Hussein Onyango Obama during that time. Mzee Onyango hated the English.
Reason? He was beaten morning and evening overand over when he was jailed between 1949 and 1951 according to Mama Sarah, one of his three wives. She went further by saying that Mzee Obama told him that he was tortured physically. His testicles were squeezed with metals and his buttocks were pierced with another metal.
He was arrested for allegedly being associated to the Mau Mau movement. Then, Mzee Obama was served as a cook at a English's house. Being a Luo, many would not believe that he participated in the Mau Mau struggle. But Sarah was quick to clarify that when Mzee Obama came from the second world war where he served also a cook for the British ranks.
President Obama mentioned without much details in his bestseller book "Dreams from My father". He only mentioned that after six months in detention, his grandfather was declared innocent. He was also caught in his writings worrying if Mzee Obama was not a collaborator of the Mau Mau. Remember that the Mau Mau struggle saw at least 12000 kenyans dead and almost 50 English. According to Mama Sarah, until his death in 1975, Mzee Obama never ceased to bear grudge for English(colonialists of course).
Hapamedia 2009 |
