Barack Obama, Sr. - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Obama was born in Rachuonyo District on the shores of Lake Victoria just outside Kendu Bay, Kenya Colony, at the time a colony of the British Empire. He was raised in the village of Nyang’oma Kogelo, Siaya District, Nyanza Province. His family are members of the Luo ethnic group. His father was Onyango (later Hussein) Obama (c. 1895-1979), and his mother, Habiba Akumu Nyanjango of Karabondi, Kenya, was his second wife. After Akumu separated from her husband Hussein and left the family in 1945, the boy Barack Obama was raised by his father Hussein's third wife, Sarah Ogwel of Kogelo.

Before working as a cook for missionaries and local herbalist in Nairobi, Barack Obama's father Onyango had traveled widely, enlisting in the British colonial forces and visiting Europe, India, and Zanzibar. There he converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam and took the name Hussein. In 1949, after becoming more politically active, Onyango was jailed by the British for six months due to his working for the Kenyan independence movement. According to Sarah Onyango Obama, her husband Hussein Onyango was subjected to beatings and abuse; it resulted in permanent physical disabilities and his loathing of the British.

Obama was raised in a Muslim family. When he was about six years old and attending a Christian missionary school, the boy converted to Anglicanism when strongly encouraged by the staff. He changed his name from "Baraka" to the more Christian-sounding "Barack".

While still living near Kendu Bay, Obama attended Gendia Primary School. After his family moved to Siaya District, he transferred to Ng’iya Intermediate School. From 1950 to 1953, he studied at Maseno National School, an exclusive Anglican boarding school in Maseno. The head teacher, B.L. Bowers, described Obama in his records as "very keen, steady, trustworthy and friendly. Concentrates, reliable and out-going."