The article which I linked to was written in 1960 so although it may read like Jr’s campaign I trust the writing of a journalist who actually practiced the art compared to the presstitutes of today. In 1960’s Africa, independence for former colonies was big news and such news would focus on those fighting for independence as the article did with Tom Mboya, especially considering Jomo Kenyatta wasn’t available to interview. I did scroll through the Mboya holdings at Stanford and one section does describe “personal correspondence including letters between Mboya and students of the airlift”. I would trust the listings at Stanford more so than I would trust the presstitute who conveniently wrote that Susan Mboya refused to release her father’s papers when his papers are held at Stanford. Presstitutes these days are lazy as was evident during the past two years taking much for granted, especially within Jr’s fairytale. Also if I remember correctly Susan Mboya was quite young when her father was killed so it is difficult to believe that she is accurate in her memories or even that she read every single article within her father’s papers. She presently is the head of an organization which raises funds to send African women to the U.S. for an education imitating her father. Apologies for the late reply, I was looking to see how old Susan was but was not successful although I did find a few more articles to add to my “dirt in woodpile” file. Tom and Pamela were married in 1962 and had their first daughter, Maureen, in 1963. Susan was born sometime after that and their son, Lucas, was 21 months old when his father was killed. It was quite interesting reading about the Mboya family and I was struck by the fact that Susan has returned to Kenya and now represents Coca Cola but I haven’t found a date when she returned to the country yet.
Did she vote in the election before she returned to Kenya, and did the girls in her airlift program have her support when they worked for Jr’s campaign?
Having grown up in that era, I can agree with you -- to a point. Certainly journalists had a higher standard, but then, as now, reporters -- and more importantly their editors -- had agendas leaning left or right. I do apologize for the sarcasm in my reply, but after two years of reading journalistic nonsense, I have little patience for, or interest in, Kenyan history.
I did scroll through the Mboya holdings at Stanford and one section does describe “personal correspondence including letters between Mboya and students of the airlift”. I would trust the listings at Stanford more so than I would trust the presstitute who conveniently wrote that Susan Mboya refused to release her father’s papers when his papers are held at Stanford.
If you don't trust the "presstitute's" writing that Susan Mboya refused to release her father's papers, why do you put so much faith in the actual existence of those particular letters she describes? Certainly, the relationship between Mboya and Obama was a contentious one. The now-famous Marxist paper Obama wrote in 1965, not long after his return from Harvard, was a direct attack on "the economic proposals of pro-Western ‘third way” leader Tom Mboya," as Greg Ransom of Prestopundit has reported in an excellent piece of research.
Obama hadn't suddenly become a communist upon his return to Kenya -- the commemorative written by Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. on the Cambodiana.org website gives us an idea, tactfully phrased, of his beliefs as a UH student in the early '60's:
"Barak and I were a part of a small group of foreign students who participated in group discussions in various places (Churches, sinagogues, junior colleges) around the campus and in town. Those discussions centered on the role and impact of former Soviet Union and China had in the developing countries. Barak, was more hopeful than I was about the role and the influence of these two major Communist countries in the developing nations in the world, because I had the opportunity to study in Europe, and in France, especially, I was more aware of the nature of communism than Barak was...
...We often were not on the same side, when discussing Communism in the developing countries."
And niether did Tom Mboya suddenly become pro-Western; both these men held ideologically opposite views of Kenya's future, and by all accounts, Obama was never shy in expressing those views -- even to the face of Kenyatta, who promptly banned him from government as a result.
Given that background, and the fact that Obama never confided a marriage to Ann Dunham of the existence of a son in the US to any of his classmates or friends in the US, why would he have confided it to Tom Mboya? To what possible advantage?
Also note, from the misleading description of the downfall of Sr. as presented in "Dreams" and quoted in Ransom's report, that the "official story" never portrayed Mboya and Obama as friends. You certainly don't get that impression by reading the Boston Globe piece.
My first, gut, reaction to that Globe story was, "Oh, Abercrombie (or the Obama campaign) felt the need to have someone other than the Hawaii Congressman (Susan Mboya) attest to the glorious love affair."