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Photograph: Guardian
The British Foreign Office released 8,800 documents Tuesday related to the colonial era.
When the British Foreign Office released thousands of colonial-era files Wednesday, one name stood out – Barack H. Obama, father of the United States president.
The elder Obama was on a list of names in a secret file about Kenyans studying in the U.S., the Guardian of London reported. The file lists Kenyans, including "OBAMA, Barrack H," who, at the age of 23, enrolled at the University of Hawaii.
In 1959, when Barack Obama Sr. had gone to study in Hawaii, U.S. officials told the British they worried that Kenyan students had a reputation for being “anti-American” and “anti-white,” the Guardian reported.
Ben Curtis / AP file
A photograph of Barack Obama Sr. hangs in the home of his grandmother, Sarah Hussein Obama, in Kogelo, a village near the shores of Lake Victoria, Kenya.
Colonial administrators in Nairobi claimed that Kenyans who studied abroad were “academically inferior” to those who studied in Africa. They also criticized the African American Students Foundation – supported by actor Sydney Poitier and baseball star Jackie Robinson – which gave Obama a grant to study.
In memos between the U.S. and Britain, colonial officials questioned the caliber of the students chosen, according to the BBC. A particularly frustrated British colonial official told Americans that the students had been personally selected by sponsors who had picked candidates from their tribal groups.
"The motives behind this enterprise, therefore, seem more political than educational," the note stated.
U.S. officials replied that Kenyans had a reputation for falling “into bad hands.”
Ultimately, officials on both sides of the pond concluded nothing could be done, the BBC reported.
"The best we can hope to achieve is to exert some influence over them while they are here," wrote one official.
In the memoir, "Dreams of My Father," Obama wrote that his father had been among the first wave of Africans to be sent the U.S. to master Western technology and bring it back to Africa.
The next year, Barack Obama Sr. met Ann Dunham while studying Russian at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and the two had a baby who would later become the president of the United States. Barack Obama Jr. was born in 1961.
In total, 8,800 colonial documents were sent to England when the colonies gained independence – for Kenya, that was in 1963. The records have been in a secret archive for the last 50 years, violating the country’s open records law, according to the Guardian.
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Leave a Comment:
a lot to do about nothing article. 1959 African blacks looked down upon and intellectually belittled by white colonial leaders in Africa, England and America. There's a surprise. But they had a dream baby........
I guess some would rather this whole "nightmare" of an Obama presidency had never happened, but it did. I find this interesting and relevant presidential history. It debunks skeptics of Obama's father's reason for being in Hawaii as well as the timing for "junior's" birth... and where... Hawaii. Oh well.
++++++In the memoir, "Dreams of My Father," Obama wrote that his father had been among the first wave of Africans to be sent the U.S. to master Western technology and bring it back to Africa.+++++++
Does this statement mean that Obama will be the "second wave" and return to Africa with his mastery of Western technology. Does he need help packing?
That was a wasted story. I guess it just proves to the ignorants that he is a US citizen. Why do people have to make stupid comments about the president? Helping him pack to go back to Kenya?!!!!!! Really, what has the president done to you? @Tripod, I bet you are a lower middle class, uneducated blue collar worker that votes against your interest because you just can't see yourself voting for a black man.
Panky -
I am an educated, middle-class, white-collar worker, and I don't like Obama AS PRESIDENT either (which I think was the point trying to be made). I don't care if he's black, white, orange, or purple. I've listened to him talk, I think his politics suck, his ideas are bad, and he's not good for the country (my opinion). I think that many people (perhaps yourself included) were only voting FOR a black man. That said, this article has nothing to do with anything, I really couldn't give 2 craps about his father or what the Brits thought of his studies here. Basically, this "SECRET FILE" says that Obama Sr., was studying at UofH when he met an American woman and had a kid who grew up to be president. What's NEW about this NEWs story? I want that 5 minutes of my life back.
You know, it never ceases to amaze me how someone like MSN can be struggling to find a story to put up that they would rehash old news like this. Furthermore, it never ceases to amaze me how people simply can NOT let things go. Come on, seriously? This horse is dead, put the bat down, please.
tripod as the girl in the shake and bake comercial almost sail. Can I HELP
"In 1959, when Barack Obama Sr. had gone to study in Hawaii, U.S. officials told the British they worried that Kenyan students had a reputation for being “anti-American” and “anti-white,” the Guardian reported."
And then he meets Obama's mother in a Russian language class at the height of the Cold War between Russia and the USA.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Perhaps that's why Obama keeps 'apologizing' for America to the World - I wonder if his parents instilled an anti-American outlook in him.
so what!
Best man to hit the white house in decades. Decent and rightous. Damned good leader. Shame the hope and change we all wanted and voted for has been pissed on by the republicans from day one. I'll be voting for it again. Republicans have spent all their credibility and are currently running a deficit. LOL. The shame and dysfunction continues. Completely absurd.
The story doesn't tell everything. Obama Sr. after getting Obama's mother pregnant flunked out of Harvard, expelled from the U.S. and was a disaster in Kenya. Besides Obama's father was a bigamist, criminal and liar. 100% verifiable for those who want to check. Breeding always reveals.
rockymtnroustabout Its the man who makes the job and reputation. You are so ridiculous believing that something he never had was taken away from him. Vote for the trash again and throw your vote down the sewer again. You saw what he didn't do and he had two years of an all democratic congress. He is a clueless ignoramus without a thought or original idea in his head. Jets around the world throwing away American jobs and pandering to minorities in hopes of getting elected. Takes credit for projects started way before he even thought of being president and wants to cheapen America by exporting the jobs.
He is a fake, a fool and a fraud.
ROY WILSON-336103 You WONDER?
Like father, like son.
This just in. Barak Obama, President of the United States is actually 75 years old!
Funny.
Where are the birthers when you need them. Four more years!
Why print this story? That guy is not Barack's real father. Baracks's father lived in Chicago.
That would be a death sentence for the American Economy and we would be required to learn Chinese to speak with our landlord
Not 4 more years, no more presidents! The whole intitution bites. Too bad the White House got re-built after the British Army burned it dow.
Wait, obama has claimed publically that his father met his mother during the Selma March in 1965. But his birth certificate says he was born in 1961.
So either obama 'misremembered' when his parents met, or he's lying.
kountryking Four more years with Obummer and America couldn't even lay claim as a third world country.
Wait, that can't be right, because the President was born in Kenya, right?
He was dropped off a UFO in Kenya Trump and the Arizona sheriff knows that to be a fact
Alexandra hill
@leroy, strange that so many people don't know that during the court hearing of N.J. vs obama his lawyer Alexandra M Hill stated that his birth certificate is a forgery. She stated that becouse it's a forgery it doesn't disprove his cittizenship, and becouse of his political popularity he should be allowed to be kept on the ballet. The judge didn't bite and refered the case for trial. LOL the most important things happening in our country are being suppresed by the mainstream media like MSNBC.
He should have stayed home.
And your mother should have kept her legs crossed!
And your mother should have kept her legs crossed.
And yours!
It wouldn't have helped, they would have just done it doggy style ;-p
Not enough information to comment on.
Disapointing relese of secret documents, they should have reflected how a free love white trash, drug smoking hippie girl gave birth to a President, well a Presidential impersonator anyways.
Nothing much to take away from this article with the exception of the fact that White Imperialists thought Africans to be lower than them in every way imaginable. Has anything really changed? No, I didn't think so.
asknreceive - read the article again. You misunderstood. They were only talking about the group that Barrack was in, not all African students. Knee-jerk reaction on your part.
You can blame Obama for refusing to modernize and use as examples the all Black Charter Academy Urban Prep from Illinois that got all the graduating black seniors into four year universities two years in a row.
Obama never looked at the 20+ private schools that got all their seniors into universities or how their education systems are successful and how the entire U.S. education system needs revision.
Has anyone heard a peep out of our "GREAT LEADER" in improving out social system by improving the schools?
The man is ridiculous. He lacks substance, ability, intelligence, honesty, knowledge, and above all he has no clue how to run a country.
A non-story that will inevitably be filtered through birther xenophobia.
I can borrow my mother's typewriter and reproduce the document in the picture. That said, my laptop gives me trouble.
It is very convenient that Mr. Obama Senior's name was at the top of the page.
Take care,
JonnotJohn
Or his name being spelled with two "r"s.............................what was the point of this? Well, it DID inadvertently hit on our President being born in Hawai'i. Bet that wasn't part of the plan. How ridiculous!
His name is at the top of the alphabetical list of O's. Probably because not many names start with 'Oa.' How is that convenient?
this documents has been proved that in the time which the fact of Europe was lower White Imperialists in everything imaginable . in same time the American people and united states was the new model of freedom in the world like new messenger every thousand year
Huh?
Mr. President - Please do something about the state of education in this country. See above comment for evidence of this need.
soo....why are they still on this obama was born in hawaii? Because im sure we all kinda figured out that its a huge lie and yet he is still the president (though why we haven't impeached him is beyond me) BUT!!! that being said....perhaps we could focus on ooh I dunno his health care plan going to the supreme court and forceing us to pay for something no one can afford....to me this seems like there trying to distract us from other issues out there and make obama look like he could of just maybe been born in hawaii *rolls eyes* stupid government.
Wake up and smell the BS you are pushing.... Where were you assclowns when George Romney was running for president after being born in Mexico? That is right Mitt is an anchor baby.....
@Jon-4106365, the tax payers can't afford to pay for you when you get sick and don't have insurance!!!!!!!
Panky get a clue and learn to read. NOBODY is arguing that there shouldn't be health care reform, the statement was in regards to the way this is being pushed. Jon is dead right, the tax payers can't afford to pay for your health insurance either, or health insurance for all of the non-taxpayers (illegals included) who are benefiting from it.
Matty get a clue , go to school, study something useful (economics would be a good start if you plan to comment on things you know nothing about...), and stop listening to the paid lackeys at FUX Noise.
@Lizard of Ahaz-4610468 = Jackass
The apple still doesn't fall far from the tree even in this case...
yeah ok on more *locked up* files from History Books of Foreign Countries! Y'all see how *SUPERIOR SOCIETY* does things yet people? Manipulation of Truth > they been doing it for how many milleniums? The *SUPERIOR BOOKS* that brainwashed how many generations of people all over the WORLD and still doing IT?
I still want the UK to explain the writings that somebody in England could have granted William Penn's Dad a lot of land that became PENNSYLVANIA (and how that person granting the land acquired it to begin with to use to pay Penn's dad a debt owed to him).
Of course now these Brits where HIGHLY EDUCATED and *SCHOOLED* in what the *ART TO LIE*! Ha it's called "Creative Writing Course", eh!
The PROBLEMS of today will never be resolved until everyone goes back to the ORIGINAL WRITINGS of the LIES...go search the HISTORY!
OBAMA 2012!!
OBAMA 2012!!!
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, like father like son.
I believe that Great Britain also felt Gandhi was a revolutionary subversive.
This is in response to tripod comment; Have you started packin ? Do you even ko who you are and where you're from ? Go stick your head in a hole. This is 2012. tripod is the reason we all must vote due to undercover biggit'sl like this are all around us. I'm proud Obama is our president. The way jed bush stole florida for his brother should keep us on our toes.
Obama 2012.
Yet another opportunity for people to give meaning to nothing. Have at it idiots. Go sheep go!
NO PLEEEESE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another meaningless story to keep us all focused on the mundane and irrelevant while Obama continues deficit spending and debt building at a record setting pace. With no end in site and no plan to stop it.
They can't focus on that and they can't focus on his record in office. So best to divert attention elsewhere, drum up false issues (like the "War On Women" campaign that backfired miserably) and engage in campaign of divisive politics.
If there was ever a politician that said one thing (lied) and did another, Obama is the prime example.