Because of Barack Hussein Obama's innate mixed-race identity, the news of his presidency became breaking news not only in the United States, but also in Kenya, the ancestral country where his father lived.
Perhaps out of blood thicker than water, or more out of the need for political posturing, Obama has also visited Kenya.
While these moves have enhanced his prestige among supporters, they have also sparked an "identity crisis" that has plagued his political career.
Home to Kenya
Obama summed it up about his path to president: "I live in the dreams of my fathers and the American people." ”
From an ordinary man with no name to a white house, his life path is very much in line with the positioning of the "American Dream".
He is the descendant of black-white intermarriage, lived briefly in Asian countries, grew up with an American elite education, and worked in black communities.
When he became the first African-American president in U.S. history and was re-elected, the discussion about him really caused a huge response in American society as a whole.
Some commentators have even compared this to the emancipation of slaves in the United States and the right of black men to vote, calling it the "third major progressive event."
As early as when Obama was first elected president in 2008, Kenya had extended an invitation to him to "go back to his hometown and see."
Why is Kenya Obama's "home"? It all starts with Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama.
Obama's father grew up in the village of Kogello in Neansa Province, Kenya, a small village with poor natural conditions and poor residents, who belonged to the Luao tribe by tribe.
In 1959, recognized for his talent, the elder Obama was given the opportunity to enjoy sponsorship and study in the United States.
He later became the first African student at the University of Hawaii and graduated with the first place in econometrics.
It was also during his time at the University of Hawaii that Obama Sr. met Ann Dunham, a white woman who was also studying at the university.
But only two years after they got married and gave birth to Obama Jr., they divorced because of a feud.
Since then, Obama's childhood and adolescence have been spent mainly with his maternal relatives, and he has also traveled to Indonesia with his mother because of his remarriage.
In this way, the impact of Obama's upbringing, whether it is his father or the land of Kenya, is not very strong.
But even so, Mr. Obama often refers to his father in a tone of respect and praise, saying that he is grassroots but inspirational, which has become one of the benchmarks of his life.
Grandma Sarah
As for Kenya, it is only natural that it would be so proactive and eager to curry favor with Obama.
The influence of the United States at the international political level is unquestionable, and most Kenyans feel honored that Obama, who has Kenyan blood, can become the president of the United States.
Just after Obama's victory, his father's hometown of Kogilo became Kenya's "village of honor", and the local name "Obama" was used to name various roads, place names, buildings and even goods.
In the following year, in 2009, Kenyan officials directly listed this small village as a national heritage site, intending to develop the tourism resources of Kogello Village.
According to media statistics, since those years, the name "Obama" has also become one of the popular choices for Kenyans to name newborns.
In fact, as early as 1982, Obama the elder Obama, who returned to Kenya as an official in the field of tourism economy, died in a car accident, when he was under fifty years old, and was buried in the village of Kogello, where he grew up.
And his son, Barack Obama, who lived in a foreign country, was only 21 years old at the time.
So what other people and things are associated with Obama in the village of Koghello now?
The most famous is, of course, "Sara Grandmother".
Sarah Obama is Obama's grandfather's third wife and is not related by blood to Obama.
But family and kinship were still enough to bind them together, and before becoming president, Mr. Obama twice visited relatives near and far who still lived in the village of Koghero.
He called Sarah Grandma, and on that trip in 1992 he brought with him Michelle Robinson, who had been decided and would soon be married.
For those who have experienced the recognition and meeting of relatives, those two visits are very important and worth cherishing.
Sarah's room is littered with posters of her grandson's campaign and group photos from two visits to relatives in 1992 and 2006.
In these group photos, not only Obama and his old Kenyan grandmother, but also his fiancée, stepmother, sister and other people appear.
Speaking of Obama, Sarah once said that "he loves basketball the most."
In addition, on the day of Obama's inauguration, she left Kenya for washington for the first time in her life, all of which she could not forget.
And, when Obama came to visit her, he helped with farm work himself.
Michelle Robinson (who changed her last name after marriage to Michelle Obama) also wrote about the visit in her autobiography "Becoming".
She said she was also African-American, but actually felt a sense of "being rootless on both sides" in the reddish-brown land of Nairobi, Kenya.
She remembers Obama's sister Omar driving an "old sky blue Beetle car" that broke down halfway and her newly purchased white sneakers were quickly dyed the color of red earth thanks to the cart.
The short, plump Grandma Sarah was overjoyed by their arrival, and she tried her best to communicate across language restrictions, and made a stew with chicken as the main ingredient, accompanied by a local corn paste for dinner.
Visit Kenya
For others in Kenya, of course, the importance of Obama's two family visits before he became famous is far from comparable to his official visits after becoming president.
Because as a politician, every word and deed he says and does in Kenya no longer represents Obama personally.
Obama was first elected president in 2008, but did not visit Kenya as president of the United States until 2015, in his second term, which disappointed many Kenyans.
They argue that this means "neglect" from Obama, and even africans who are not Kenyans believe that Obama has not made much useful effort to develop Africa.
In Obama's autobiography, "From My Father's Dream," Obama once mentioned a visit to Kenya before taking office.
In addition to the place names, there is also a school named "Senator Barack Obama Elementary School" in the area.
However, due to the local economic downturn and lack of materials, students have been attending classes with tattered tables and stools for many years.
Many people are eagerly awaiting President Ma oba visiting Kenya as soon as possible and "bringing at least some assistance with them."
It wasn't until Obama entered his second presidency, in July 2015, that his plans to visit Kenya as president finally came to fruition.
When the news came, Grandma Sarah first expressed her welcome, and she also said that she planned to make fish, chicken and corn paste for her grandson again.
She also hopes that Obama will come this time and have enough time to see his father's grave.
Of course, the old man also added that this was only her personal hope, and did not intend to influence his plans.
"It doesn't matter if Barack is a senator or president. He would enjoy everything I had prepared for him. ”
The President's Family Dinner
In order to welcome President Ma's important visit, Kenyan officials even prepared a unique "family banquet" for him.
At a local restaurant in the village of Coghero, Mr. Obama sat at the same table with about 30 local residents, all of whom had been associated with mr. Obama's family.
However, it is conceivable that except for those who are really close to the family, most of the people sitting at the dinner table are so-called "distant relatives" for Obama.
In the eyes of outsiders, Obama does not have the shelf of a big country politician at all, sits with his distant relatives and neighbors in his hometown, drinks and chats and laughs like his brothers and family, and when he first returned to his hometown in Africa, he once sat at the head of the village to drink with his brother.
However, only Obama knows that he can navigate every important occasion, but at this time, he is somewhat cramped.
Kenya's local lingua franca is predominantly Swahili, but Obama has been gently "rebuked" by his grandmother since his first visit to his family, and he does not speak this non-mainstream African language.
The language barrier and the lack of enough common topics, although the eating and drinking scenes are quite lively, but the cold field is also difficult to avoid.
He once recalled the scene of the meal, saying that when he ate, he almost always recognized people.
In addition to eating at the same table with relatives and friends, of course he visited his grandmother again.
Years have passed, and the house where his grandmother lived has not changed much. Although small villages are also electrified, driving here from larger cities still has to pass through dusty dirt roads.
Grandma Sarah and the rest of her family still greet him with the same family attitude as they did years ago.
Obama's attitude has not changed because of the senator or the president, and he is still willing to help his grandmother work, and even personally started to carry food for the elderly.
Two visits
Of course, this time Obama went to Kenya, not just for a private visit to his family.
During his visit to Kenya, he also arranged a variety of public activities such as meetings and speeches, which also made the local people have great expectations for this early.
According to US media reports, those Kenyans who are full of appreciation and good feelings for Obama have long set Obama's speech voice to mobile phone ringtones.
After this trip to Africa, the Kenyan government even arranged an army for Grandma Sarah to be carefully protected around her yard.
If there are people other than the villagers who wish to meet the "old grandmother of the Oba President Ma", it is not something that can be seen casually, and it must be approved by the army and it must be determined that the old man has a good mood and physical condition today.
Because this relationship is so well known in Kenya, there are even a large number of Kenyans who are eager to immigrate to the United States, hoping that Sarah can help them with the issue of U.S. visas.
Sarah is also helpless, and she often has to explain to these people that the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi is the only way to provide visas.
When Barack Obama stepped down as president in 2018, he also made one trip to Kenya.
On that occasion, kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta personally greeted him, and the two sides had a good talk.
But in fact, Mr. Obama is making an appearance for the sports career center that his half-sister, Omar Obama, believes will provide more opportunities for local young people to improve their economy and destiny.
This time, enthusiastic Kenyans still haven't forgotten Obama, who once gained a lot of good feelings, and there are graffiti related to him on the streets, and bars lose no time in listing "Obama beer".
These visits not only brought exchanges and interactions, but also some foundations began to take root in the local area, and indeed brought opportunities for change.
The storm about the "birthplace"
For Obama's political career, his teenage experiences are one of the "secret weapons" that are unique to walking politics.
He has African blood in his veins, his biological father is in Kenya, his stepfather is in Indonesia, and his maternal relatives are in the United States, which makes it possible for him to face a variety of people with different types of intimacy and recognition.
During his campaign and tenure, he did make good use of these advantages and won the favor and support of many people in society.
Photographer Carrie Schell once lamented a photograph: when a photograph of Abraham Lincoln was hung on the wall of the White House, and around the same table sat the first black president and his core personnel.
It is no exaggeration to say that this is an important historical moment not to be missed.
However, when Trump describes these advantages as related to Obama's "birthplace conspiracy" and frequently emphasizes them, the advantages of the past have also formed some disadvantages.
In Michelle Obama's autobiography, as early as 2011, Trump began to brew up the remarks and gradually threw them out to the public.
Until 2016, when Trump actually came down to participate in the election, the attack on Obama's "birthplace" also reached its peak.
Trump's strategy, to put it bluntly, is to insist that Obama was born in Kenya (rather than Hawaii, the United States, as the official information says), so that he is not qualified to run for the presidency of the United States.
Trump himself and those who share Trump's side have often challenged in a provocative tone, questioning that Obama is not an American at all, and that "a Kenyan cannot lead the United States forward."
When such rumors were rife, Obama's wife and daughters were the first to be attacked, and they were privately called "Mrs. Kenya" and "Kenyan gold" and ridiculed.
The fact that Obama has traveled to his hometown in Kenya several times, and even Michelle Obama has been to the village of Kogello, seems to add weight to these claims.
Trump kept "new bottles of old wine," insisting that news of Obama's birth in The Honolulu newspaper in 1961 was fake, and that no one in the so-called kindergarten class remembered the existence of Childhood Obama, so it was not acceptable.
In the face of such explosive news, many media are also overjoyed, the click rate has risen, and there have been more and more discussions and speculations about Obama.
The damn thing is that according to Hawaii state law, the birth certificate is a very private document, and it is very difficult to make it public.
Even if it is difficult to publish the birth certificate, Trump's flirtatious "forgery" on the other side kicked the ball back.
In other words, the Obamas, who have relatives in Kenya, are soon caught up in the difficulty of falsifying.
Michelle Obama has said that these rumors are most rampant and peak at the same time as Hillary Clinton's defeat and Trump's wife Melania into the White House.
epilogue
Because Trump repeatedly grabbed Obama's "Kenyan hometown" and caused great pain to the latter's family, especially his two daughters, Michelle Obama even issued a declaration of "never forgive Trump".
For former US President Barack Obama, the "hometown" of Kenya is indeed a double-edged sword.
Bibliography:
"Obama's First Return to Kenya After Leaving Office What is this going to do?" 》； Overseas Network; 2018-07-15
"Visiting Obama's Grandmother in Kenya"; China Youth Daily; 2009-4-3
"Obama and Kenyan grandmother intimate photos exposed"; International Online; August 19, 2010
"Obama will visit Kenya 'Grandmother' Says To Be a Big Meal"; Xinhua Net; July 5, 2015
"Obama will visit Kenyan grandmother saying 'he must pay homage to his father's grave'"; People's Daily - International Channel; 2015-07-23