NEWS

Sarah Obama Update: How Granny Stabilized Me As US President—Obama

<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sarah Obama was a stabilizing force to Barrack as US President<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that Barack Obama&comma; a democrat and the 44th President of the United States of America has lost his Kenyan grandmother&comma; Sarah Ogwel Onyango Obama&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Obama who&comma; just last week&comma; announced the commencement on the building of the Obama Presidential Center on the South Side of Chicago&comma; is currently in sorrow&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Barack Obama&&num;8217&semi;s step-grandmother&comma; Sarah Obama&comma; has died at a hospital in Kenya at the age of 99&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Sarah Obama&comma; affectionately called Granny Sarah by the former president&comma; she defended her grandson during his 2008 presidential campaign&comma; when he was said to be Muslim and not born in the US&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Her home became a tourist attraction when he was elected as the first black <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">US president<&sol;a>&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Sarah Obama was the third and youngest wife of Barack Obama&&num;8217&semi;s grandfather&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;She died early on Monday at a hospital in the western town of Kisumu&comma; her daughter Marsat Onyango told Kenya&&num;8217&semi;s Daily Nation newspaper&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;A family spokesman said Mrs Obama had been unwell for a week&comma; but did not have Covid-19&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;She was buried later on Monday&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;We will miss her dearly&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Barack Obama said&comma; &&num;8220&semi;but we&&num;8217&semi;ll celebrate with gratitude her long and remarkable life&period;&&num;8221&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Kenya&&num;8217&semi;s President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Twitter that Mrs Obama was &&num;8220&semi;a strong&comma; virtuous woman&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;an icon of family values&&num;8221&semi;&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Before her grandson became a household name&comma; Sarah Obama was well known for the hot porridge and doughnuts she served at a local school&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;She became more widely known when Mr Obama visited Kenya in 2006&period; At the time he was a senator from the state of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wsj&period;com">Illinois<&sol;a>&comma; but a national celebrity in Kenya&comma; and his grandmother spoke to the media about his rise in politics&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He returned in 2015&comma; becoming the first sitting US president to visit Kenya&comma; meeting Mrs Obama and other family members in Nairobi&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Barack Obama visited his step-grandmother&&num;8217&semi;s home in the village of Kogelo in Kogelo in western Kenya in 2018&comma; after leaving office&comma; joking he had been unable to visit earlier because the presidential plane was too big to land at the local airport&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Sarah Obama was born in 1922 in a village on Lake Victoria&comma; according to AFP&period; She was a Muslim and part of Kenya&&num;8217&semi;s Luo ethnic group&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;For decades&comma; she ran a foundation in Kenya to help educate orphans and girls&comma; something she felt strongly about as she couldn&&num;8217&semi;t read herself&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;She was the third wife of Hussein Onyango Obama&comma; President Obama&&num;8217&semi;s paternal grandfather&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Her husband&comma; who died in 1975&comma; fought for the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">British<&sol;a> in Burma&comma; now called Myanmar&comma; and is reported to be the first man in his village to swap goatskin clothing for trousers&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;In a well crafted words of lamentation&comma; the former president stated that the entire family would continuously miss Sarah Obama who he described as loving and kind&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Barack writes and mourns Sarah Obama as reproduced below&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;My family and I are mourning the loss of our beloved grandmother&comma; Sarah Ogwel Onyango Obama&comma; affectionately known to many as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Mama Sarah” but known to us as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Dani” or Granny&period; Born in the first quarter of the last century&comma; in Nyanza Province&comma; on the shores of Lake Victoria&comma; she had no formal schooling&comma; and in the ways of her tribe&comma; she was married off to a much older man while only a teen&period; She would spend the rest of her life in the tiny <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;washingtonpost&period;com&sol;">village of Alego<&sol;a>&comma; in a small home built of mud-and thatch brick and without electricity or indoor plumbing&period; There she raised eight children&comma; tended to her goats and chickens&comma; grew an assortment of crops&comma; and took what the family didn’t use to sell at the local open-air market&period;<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<em>Although not his birth mother&comma; Granny would raise my father as her own&comma; and it was in part thanks to her love and encouragement that he was able to defy the odds and do well enough in school to get a scholarship to attend an American university&period; When our family had difficulties&comma; her homestead was a refuge for her children and grandchildren&comma; and her presence was a constant&comma; stabilizing force&period; When I first traveled to Kenya to learn more about my heritage and father&comma; who had passed away by then&comma; it was Granny who served as a bridge to the past&comma; and it was her stories that helped fill a void in my heart&period;<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<em>During the course of her life&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">Granny<&sol;a> would witness epochal changes taking place around the globe&colon; world war&comma; liberation movements&comma; moon landings&comma; and the advent of the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wsj&period;com">computer age<&sol;a>&period; She would live to fly on jets&comma; receive visitors from around the world&comma; and see one of her grandsons get elected to the United States presidency&period; And yet her essential spirit—strong&comma; proud&comma; hard-working&comma; unimpressed with conventional marks of status and full of common sense and good humor—never changed&period;<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<em>We will miss her dearly&comma; but celebrate with gratitude her long and remarkable life&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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