by Richard Watkins

Created on: April 20, 2009

Barrack H. Obama was born to Stanley "Ann" and Barrack H. Obama Sr. in August of 1961. He was born in Hawaii. His father was a native of Kenya. His mother Stanley, who went by her middle name, "Ann", was American born.

Barrack Jr.'s childhood like many children born in the 1960's was afflicted by divorce, relocating, and step-parents. He has said in his books and memoirs that his parents marriage ended due to his racists grandparents. His mother told him that his father had to leave because the family could not afford to live together under the same roof. Other family members have said differently.

Ann was 18 and nave when she first met the presidents father, Barrack Hussein Obama, Sr. Both were attending the same college and she was taken by his smooth talking ways. She agreed to marry him, not knowing that he had a wife named Keiza in Kenya. At the time of her divorce she was one of three of Barrack Sr's wives. After their separation, he married a teacher he met while attending Harvard.

After Ann divorced him, Barrack Sr was forced to return to Kenya where he got a prestigious job as a civil servant. He fathered two children with his Kenyan wife Keiza, and his other wife the school teacher, who left him after he beat her in a drunken rage. Obama's biological father was an alcoholic who lost both legs in a car accident, while he was driving drunk. He also lossed his job. He died in another drunken car accident when Obama was 21 years old. Obama has 7 half siblings by his father and his father's wives.

Obama and his biological father were not close. Relatives from Kenya have said that Obama was bothered by what he found out from them about his biological father. However, his uncle, his fathers brother pointed out that bigamy is legal there. Other relatives reassured Obama that his father was a good person when he wasn't drunk. Obama visited Kenya and his relatives there four years after his father died. Obama Jr. grew up believing his father was an intellectual who helped Africa gain independence. His mother had romanticized him to Obama, and the reality of his father's life came as a shock.

Obama's mother Ann remarried after the divorce to the manager of an oil company. Her new husband's work took her and her young son to Indonesia. Obama attended school in Indonesia until he was ten years old. He went to a Catholic school where other foreign students attended. Later, he would attend a public school where he was the only foreigner, he spoke Indonesian and didn't

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