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Category: News and Politics
Archived articles surface, refer to “Kenyan-born Obama”
By Linda Bentley | October 21, 2009
A
June 2004 article from the archives of the East African Standard
referred to then Senator Barack Obama as “Kenyan-born,” while an
article published in the Oct. 11, 2009 edition refers to Obama becoming
President of the United States “via a sleepy village in Kenya called
Nyang’oma K’Ogelo.”
Last week, an
archived article from the Sunday, June 27, 2004 edition of the East
African Standard headlined: “Kenyan-born Obama all set for US Senate”
was unearthed.
The article began, “Kenyan-born US Senate hopeful, Barack Obama,
appeared set to take over the Illinois Senate seat after his main
rival, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race on Friday night amid a furor
over lurid sex club allegations.”
The uncovering of this archive went viral on the Internet and could be found on blogs from coast to coast.
Another archived article surfaced last week from the Nov. 4, 2008
edition of the Nigerian Observer titled: “US Presidential Polls: Obama,
McCain slug it out today.”
The article, by Soloman Osowata with Agency Reports, stated, “The
Kenyan-born Senator will, however, face stiff competition from his
Republican counterpart, John McCain who has taken the presidential
battle to the finishing line with vigorous campaign strategies.”
More recently, the Oct. 11, 2009 edition of the Standard published an
article questioning whether or not Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.
The opening sentence in that article stated, “It seems Barack Hussein
Obama, President of the United States of America (via a sleepy village
in Kenya called Nyang’oma K’Ogelo) can do no wrong.”
In light of these recent discoveries, Snopes.com has been surprisingly
silent on the matter, as have other fact-checking websites. Snopes.com
has aggressively debunked any and all questions about Obama’s
birthplace, even going so far as to change archived information when
the very left-leaning couple that runs Snopes.com realized certain
posts contradicted other posts on their own website.
The November 2008 edition of the Organization of American Historians
(OAH) Newsletter contained an editorial by Monica-Wanambisi Mwesel, a
literature professor at the University of Nairobi, titled: “What
Kenyans think about an Obama win.”
According to its website, the OAH, founded in 1907 as the Mississippi
Valley Historical Association, “is the largest professional
organization for the investigation, study and teaching of American
History. It serves a membership of 11,000 college and university
professors, high school teachers, students, archivists, public
historians, and institutional subscribers such as libraries, museums,
and history societies, as well as individual and institutional foreign
members.”
The article, obviously published before the Nov. 4, 2008 election,
stated, “Most Kenyans feel that, should Obama win, their lives will
definitely improve … Many assume that by being connected to Kenya,
Obama would be empowered to send vast amounts of U.S. aid to their
country. Since graft and corruption are common to both the Islamic and
the Democratic parties, certainly most of this money would go to the
promotion of an Islamic state and then financing the conversion of
other African states to Islam. Many assume that Obama will channel
resources that will go a long way in improving the lives of the people.”
Mwesel mentions schools were renamed after Obama prior to his most
recent visit with the hope of attracting funding, since it would be
considered “a shame that a school named for a great American should be
so dilapidated.”
She went on to say, “A widespread assumption is that, being a Kenyan,
Obama understands the problems Kenyans face. Hence they expect more
foreign aid from him. They wonder why they should stay poor while they
have a Kenyan president of the U.S.”
Close to half of Kenyans, Mwesel said, dreaded the prospects of an
Obama presidency and were fractured along ethnic lines, citing the
Kikuyu tribe feared an Obama victory would boost the chances of Raila
Odinga, a Luoccai like Obama, to ascend to the presidency.
Mwesel concluded, “It is therefore very clear that Senator Obama draws
frenzied support from the Luo ethnic group of his ancestors, while many
members of the rival Kikuyu group do not support him.”
In fact, Mwesel said the majority of the Kikuyu favored New York Senator Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primaries.
12:43 PM
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