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This is an archive article published on September 8, 2008

Roots

A look at people and personalities whose roots make them citizens of the world. This week, BARACK OBAMA, the Democratic candidate for US president.

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A look at people and personalities whose roots make them citizens of the world. This week, BARACK OBAMA, the Democratic candidate for US president.

Obama

He is a one-man melting pot, with cousins spread all over the world. Born in Hawaii, US, to an American mother and a Kenyan father, Obama spent the first six years of his life in the US and then in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather. He later came back to Hawaii, where his grandparents brought him up. He studied in Los Angeles, New York, Columbia and later Chicago, where he met his wife Michelle Obama. He is also said to have spent some time in Pakistan, where his mother worked for 5 years.

Siblings

Obama has seven half-brothers and half-sisters living across 3 continents. He is said to be close to Maya Soetoro-Ng, his mother8217;s child from her second marriage.

Parents

Mother Stanley Ann was born in Kansas and moved to Hawaii, where she met Obama8217;s father, Barack Obama Sr. Son Obama was born six months after they married, when she was 18. Obama8217;s parents separated three years later and Ann married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian, and moved with him to the South Asian country. Barack Obama Sr was born in Kenya. He went to the University of Hawaii to study economics. When his son was one, he left to study at Harvard. After he divorced Obama8217;s mother, he returned to Kenya, where he worked for a US oil company and the Kenyan government. He went to Hawaii to visit his son just once, when Obama Jr was 10.

Grandparents

Obama8217;s maternal grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham, were born in Kansas and lived in four states before settling down in Hawaii. They raised the young Obama. In Kenya, Obama8217;s step grandmother Sarah Obama raised his dad and Obama has visited her in Kenya several times.

 

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