Obama, the African Colonial

American Thinker ^ | June 25, 2009 | L.E. Ikenga

[neverdem]

Had Americans been able to stop obsessing over the color of Barack Obama's skin and instead paid more attention to his cultural identity, maybe he would not be in the White House today. The key to understanding him lies with his identification with his father, and his adoption of a cultural and political mindset rooted in postcolonial Africa.

Like many educated intellectuals in postcolonial Africa, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was enraged at the transformation of his native land by its colonial conqueror. But instead of embracing the traditional values of his own tribal cultural past, he embraced an imported Western ideology, Marxism. I call such frustrated and angry modern Africans who embrace various foreign "isms", instead of looking homeward for repair of societies that are broken, African Colonials. They are Africans who serve foreign ideas.

The tropes of America's racial history as a way of understanding all things black are useless in understanding the man who got his dreams from his father, a Kenyan exemplar of the African Colonial.

Before I continue, I need to say this: I am a first generation born West African-American woman whose parents emigrated to the U.S. in the 1970's from the country now called Nigeria. I travel to Nigeria frequently. I see myself as both a proud American and as a proud Igbo (the tribe that we come from -- also sometimes spelled Ibo). Politically, I have always been conservative (though it took this past election for me to commit to this once and for all!); my conservative values come from my Igbo heritage and my place of birth. Of course, none of this qualifies me to say what I am about to -- but at the same time it does.

My friends, despite what CNN and the rest are telling you, Barack Obama is nothing more than an old school African Colonial who is on his way to turning this country into one of the developing nations that you learn about on the National Geographic Channel. Many conservative (East, West, South, North) African-Americans like myself -- those of us who know our history -- have seen this movie before. Here are two main reasons why many Americans allowed Obama to slip through the cracks despite all of his glaring inconsistencies:

First, Obama has been living on American soil for most of his adult life. Therefore, he has been able to masquerade as one who understands and believes in American democratic ideals. But he does not. Barack Obama is intrinsically undemocratic and as his presidency plays out, this will become more obvious. Second, and most importantly, too many Americans know very little about Africa. The one-size-fits-all understanding that many Americans (both black and white) continue to have of Africa might end up bringing dire consequences for this country.

Contrary to the way it continues to be portrayed in mainstream Western culture, Africa is not a continent that can be solely defined by AIDS, ethnic rivalries, poverty and safaris. Africa, like any other continent, has an immense history defined by much diversity and complexity. Africa's long-standing relationship with Europe speaks especially to some of these complexities -- particularly the relationship that has existed between the two continents over the past two centuries. Europe's complete colonization of Africa during the nineteenth century, also known as the Scramble for Africa, produced many unfortunate consequences, the African colonial being one of them.

The African colonial (AC) is a person who by means of their birth or lineage has a direct connection with Africa. However, unlike Africans like me, their worldviews have been largely shaped not by the indigenous beliefs of a specific African tribe but by the ideals of the European imperialism that overwhelmed and dominated Africa during the colonial period. AC's have no real regard for their specific African traditions or histories.  AC's use aspects of their African culture as one would use pieces of costume jewelry: things of little or no value that can be thoughtlessly discarded when they become a negative distraction, or used on a whim to decorate oneself in order to seem exotic. (Hint: Obama's Muslim heritage).

On the other hand, AC's strive to be the best at the culture that they inherited from Europe. Throughout the West, they are tops in their professions as lawyers, doctors, engineers, Ivy League professors and business moguls; this is all well and good. It's when they decide to engage us as politicians that things become messy and convoluted.

The African colonial politician (ACP) feigns repulsion towards the hegemonic paradigms of Western civilization. But at the same time, he is completely enamored of the trappings of its aristocracy or elite culture. The ACP blames and caricatures whitey to no end for all that has gone wrong in the world. He convinces the masses that various forms of African socialism are the best way for redressing the problems that European colonialism motivated in Africa. However, as opposed to really being a hard-core African Leftist who actually believes in something, the ACP uses socialist themes as a way to disguise his true ambitions: a complete power grab whereby the "will of the people" becomes completely irrelevant.

Barack Obama is all of the above. The only difference is that he is here playing (colonial) African politics as usual.  

In his 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father -- an eloquent piece of political propaganda -- Obama styles himself as a misunderstood intellectual who is deeply affected by the sufferings of black people, especially in America and Africa. In the book, Obama clearly sees himself as an African, not as a black American. And to prove this, he goes on a quest to understand his Kenyan roots. He is extremely thoughtful of his deceased father's legacy; this provides the main clue for understanding Barack Obama.

Barack Obama Sr. was an African colonial to the core; in his case, the apple did not fall far from the tree. All of the telltale signs of Obama's African colonialist attitudes are on full display in the book -- from his feigned antipathy towards Europeans to his view of African tribal associations as distracting elements that get in the way of "progress".  (On p. 308 of Dreams From My Father, Obama says that African tribes should be viewed as an "ancient loyalties".)

Like imperialists of Old World Europe, the ACP sees their constituents not as free thinking individuals who best know how to go about achieving and creating their own means for success. Instead, the ACP sees his constituents as a flock of ignorant sheep that need to be led -- oftentimes to their own slaughter.

Like the European imperialist who spawned him, the ACP is a destroyer of all forms of democracy.

Here are a few examples of what the British did in order to create (in 1914) what is now called Nigeria and what Obama is doing to you: 

1. Convince the people that "clinging" to any aspect of their cultural (tribal) identity or history is bad and regresses the process of "unity". British Imperialists deeply feared people who were loyal to anything other than the state. "Tribalism" made the imperialists have to work harder to get people to just fall in line. Imperialists pitted tribes against each other in order to create chaos that they then blamed on ethnic rivalry. Today many "educated" Nigerians, having believed that their traditions were irrelevant, remain completely ignorant of their ancestry and the history of their own tribes.
2. Confiscate the wealth and resources of the area that you govern by any means necessary in order to redistribute wealth. The British used this tactic to present themselves as empathetic and benevolent leaders who wanted everyone to have a "fair shake". Imperialists are not interested in equality for all. They are interested in controlling all.  
3. Convince the masses that your upper-crust university education naturally puts you on an intellectual plane from which to understand everything even when you understand nothing. Imperialists were able to convince the people that their elite university educations allowed them to understand what Africa needed. Many of today's Nigerians-having followed that lead-hold all sorts of degrees and certificates-but what good are they if you can't find a job?   
4. Lie to the people and tell them that progress is being made even though things are clearly becoming worse.  One thing that the British forgot to mention to their Nigerian constituents was that one day, the resources that were being used to engineer "progress" (which the British had confiscated from the Africans to begin with!) would eventually run out. After WWII, Western Europe could no longer afford to hold on to their African colonies. So all of the counterfeit countries that the Europeans created were then left high-and-dry to fend for themselves. This was the main reason behind the African independence movements of the1950 and 60's. What will a post-Obama America look like?
5. Use every available media outlet to perpetuate the belief that you and your followers are the enlightened ones-and that those who refuse to support you are just barbaric, uncivilized, ignorant curmudgeons.  This speaks for itself.

America, don't be fooled. The Igbos were once made up of a confederacy of clans that ascribed to various forms of democratic government. They took their eyes off the ball and before they knew it, the British were upon them. Also, understand this: the African colonial who is given too much political power can only become one thing: a despot.

L.E. Ikenga can be reached at leikenga@gmail.com.

[Fred Nerks]

Saturday, July 05, 2008 The Big Mistake TJ And Jomo Made

Tom Mboya is welcomed aboard a British navy battle ship in this undated photo.

We miss you Tom Mboya… Oh How Kenya misses you!

39 years ago on a Saturday just like today a few minutes to one o’clock PM, two revolver bullets rung out loudly on Moi Avenue Nairobi.

A Handsome well built man in an immaculate designer suit stopped those two bullets. He fell back towards the door of the Chemist from where he had just emerged a split second before. His name was Tom Mboya.

Tourists seated at the popular Thorn Tree Bar (the restaurant next to the street at the New Stanley Hotel along Kimathi street heard the loud gun fire and silence and panic fell in the bar area...

source

[thouworm]

Hoover Archives Unveils Correspondence Between Kenyan Independence Leader and American Philanthropist Responsible for Helping Educate Hundreds of Kenyans Including Barack Obama Sr.

January 25, 2010

Accra, Ghana, 1958: William X. Scheinman, seated second from right, with Tom Mboya, third from right (William X. Scheinman Papers, Box 49:2, Hoover Institution Archives).

Kenyan university students arriving at Idlewild Airport, New York, 1959 (William X. Scheinman Papers, Box 49:10, Hoover Institution Archives).

Washington, D.C., 1959: From right to left, William X. Scheinman, Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, Tom Mboya, unidentified (from William X. Scheinman Papers, Box 49:1, Hoover Institution Archives).

The Hoover Institution Library and Archives recently announced the opening of the papers of William X. Scheinman (1927–1999), a longtime friend of and correspondent with Kenyan independence leader Tom Mboya. The highlight of the collection is the rich correspondence between Scheinman and Mboya, which contains hundreds of letters, beginning in 1957 and ending only with Mboya’s untimely death from an assassin’s bullet in 1969. Mboya served in the first cabinet of Kenya after it achieved independence from Great Britain in 1963.

Scheinman, an American businessman and investment adviser, first met Mboya in 1956. In subsequent meetings the two men, realizing that the future development of an independent Kenya required an educated populace, developed a program to bring Kenyan students to the United States to pursue their university studies. Founded in 1959, the African American Students Foundation, with Scheinman as its president, helped make it possible for funding the education of hundreds of Kenyan students to study in the United States; among them was President Obama’s father, Barack Obama Sr.

In addition to the Mboya correspondence, the William X. Scheinman papers contain records of the African American Students Foundation, documenting fund-raising efforts, led by such personalities as Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, and Jackie Robinson, and records of the foundation’s various activities from 1959 to 1963. Also included are extensive correspondence files that record Scheinman’s long-standing interest in Africa, as seen in letters to and from African political and cultural leaders such as Kenyan president Daniel Arap Moi, Zimbabwean independence leader Joshua Nkomo, longtime Zambia president Kenneth Kaunda, and Malawian independence leaders Henry Chipembere and M.W. Kanyama Chiume, as well as South African singer and human rights activist Miriam Makeba.

Hoover Institution, Standforn University

[Fred Nerks]

...as well as South African singer and human rights activist Miriam Makeba.

Miriam Makeba married Stokely Carmichael in the Spring of 1968.

[Fred Nerks]

THERE'S A STRONG MESSAGE FOR OBAMA AND RAILA ODINGA IN THE KENYA PARLIAMENT RECORD:

...We thought that individuals by themselves can make a change and that our country can become a better place. In designing a Constitution, we must know the problem that we want to resolve. It is only by knowing the problem that we can design the Constitution that will stand the test of time. It is only by knowing the conflicts within us and how to address them that we can design a Constitution that will last for many years.In this history, there is a time when we were almost attracted to leave alone the pursuit of change through peaceful means and even imagine that we could pursue change through arms struggle. As Malcolm asked: “Is it the ballot or the bullet?” In the Kenyan tradition, other than the struggles that took place before 1963, we had decided that we will resolve conflicts, including the constitutional ones, through the ballot and that will be signified by the referendum that the people will take part in, in order to enact this new Constitution...

(So...in 2010 the Kenya Parliament refers to Malcolm X? And makes it clear that Kenya decided to 'resolve conflicts, including the constitutional ones, through the ballot...')

WHERE-AS IN CONTRAST, THIS IS WHAT MALCOLM X WAS PREACHING IN THE US!

On December 20, 1964 at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, Malcolm X declared, “Oginga Odinga [the Vice President of recently-liberated Kenya] is not passive. He's not meek. He's not humble. He's not nonviolent. But he's free.”

This fact was part of a larger object lesson that Malcolm X had for Black Americans:

"Jomo Kenyatta, Oginga Odinga, and the Mau Mau will go down as the greatest African patriots and freedom fighters that that continent ever knew, and they will be given credit for bringing about the independence of many of the existing independent states on that continent right now. There was a time when their image was negative, but today they're looked upon with respect and their chief is the president and their next chief is the vice president.

"I have to take time to mention that because, in my opinion, not only in Mississippi and Alabama, but right here in New York City, you and I can best learn how to get real freedom by studying how Kenyatta brought it to his people in Kenya, and how Odinga helped him, and the excellent job that was done by the Mau Mau freedom fighters. In fact, that's what we need in Mississippi. In Mississippi we need a Mau Mau. In Alabama we need a Mau Mau. In Georgia we need a Mau Mau. Right here in Harlem, in New York City, we need a Mau Mau...

21 posted on Saturday, April 17, 2010 11:13:14 AM by Fred Nerks

[thouworm]

“Besides his elegant style of dressing, Obama Sr, recalls Richard Hook, who worked with him as a development adviser for Harvard University’s Institute for International Development in Kenya had a deep resonant base with a timbre you could not forget. “

According to source in post 576, Hook worked with Obama Sr in the “late 70’s.”

[thouworm]

Post #579 SOURCE

[thouworm]

Thinking out loud and breaking this letter down
~~~~~~~~~~~~

As you know I have been able to finish my B.A.(hon.)degree and done my M.A. within three years only as contrasted to the normal four years for a B.A. and one to two years for M.A.

I have therefore been able to cut on at least two years for my B.A. and Master’s.

Further during this period I have been able to get the highest academic honours that anyone can get in America and as for the University of Hawaii I was the only foreign student to get.

I have been awarded the Phi Beta Kappa Honours Award, the Phi Kappa Phi Honours Award, the Omnicrom Delta Kappa Phi Honours Award all for high attainment in scholarship and leadership. These are the highest honours that anyone can get in the U.S.A. for high academic attainments.

Barack Obama Sr. to Tom Mboya, May 29, 1962 (Tom Mboya Papers, Box 41, Hoover Institution Archives)
~~~~~~~~~~~~

By May 29, 1962 Obama has finished his education in America-—a BA degree and a MA degree. He says he has done this in THREE years instead of “the normal four for a BA and one to two years for an MA.”

1959-60 - Univ of Hawaii
1960-61 - Univ of Hawaii
1961-62 - Harvard

Even though the date of the letter is not contained in the portion published on the blog, what he does say and what seems now beyond dispute is that he got a BA & an MA in THREE YEARS and presumably finished this education before May 29, 1962.

[Fred Nerks]

FROM YOUR LINK:

According to press accounts at that time, the elder Obama did not handle his political exile well while in the United States as a student. A variety of microfilmed newspaper cuttings show that he was involved in a series of car crashes, often involving drunk-driving.

I wonder what years that statement refers to, and a link to the 'microfilmed newspaper cuttings' would be interesting...

[Fred Nerks]

Even though the date of the letter is not contained in the portion published on the blog, what he does say and what seems now beyond dispute is that he got a BA & an MA in THREE YEARS and presumably finished this education before May 29, 1962.

Let me try to get my head around this; he finished his education one month before he left Hawaii in June 1962 and took a tour of the mainland before commencement at Harvard in September, 1962?

Goodness me, the ILWU WOULDN'T LIE TO US WOULD THEY?:

ILWU WEBSITE - THE ONLY RECORD OF WHEN OBAMA SENIOR LEFT HAWAII. SOURCE

[thouworm]

Dated rally article, May 18, 1962, but bio article dated March 31, 2009

Barack Senior came to Hawaii in 1959 with a scholarship sponsored by Kenyan nationalists to educate gifted Kenyan students as the country fought for independence from British Colonial rule.

Obama graduated from the University of Hawaii in June 1962, earning his degree in three years with a straight A average and Phi Betta Kappa honors.

He left Hawaii on June 22 with a scholarship to attend Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Obama’s marriage to Ann Dunham did not last long. They separated in 1962 and Dunham filed for divorce in January 1964 and was back in Hawaii with son Barack Jr.

In 1965, Barack Sr. graduated from Harvard with a master’s degree in economics and returned to Africa where he served as an economist with the government of the now independent Kenya.

[aruanan]

Obama graduated from the University of Hawaii in June 1962, earning his degree in three years with a straight A average and Phi Betta Kappa honors.

I guess this should tell us something about Barry's real father.

[Fred Nerks]

WHO TO BELIEVE?

[Fred Nerks]

Dated rally article, May 18, 1962, but bio article dated March 31, 2009

Making up history as it suits the myth!

[thouworm]

In an August 29, 2008 article by Washington Post journalist David Maraniss entitled, "Obama in Hawaii: Father was ambitious" makes a reference to a Honolulu Star Bulletin article from a September 18, 1959 by Shurei Hirozawa entitled, "“Young Men from Kenya, Jordan and Iran Here to Study at U.H.” This 1959 article has never appeared in its entirety on the Internet, although it is often cited.

Just recently (Feb 2010), Jerome Corsi of WorldNetDaily, apparently referencing this same 1959 article, wrote:

"The first article documenting Barack Obama Sr.'s presence in Hawaii was by journalist Shurei Hirozawa in the Honolulu Star Bulletin on Sept. 18, 1959, only nine days after the Jackie Robinson airlift.

"The article suggested Barack Obama Sr., then fully settled in Hawaii and enrolled at the university, had used personal savings to pay his travel expenses from Kenya to Hawaii and tuition costs at the university. "

[NOTE: Although BHO Sr may have used some of his own money, this claim by Corsi that Obama Sr was responsible for all travel and college expenses has no where been confirmed, and evidence is available to the contrary in statements by Elizabeth Mooney Kirk and Cora Weiss]

Corsi continues with a quote: "But the money [Barack Obama Sr.] saved will only stretch out for two semesters or less because of the high cost of living in Hawaii, he found out," wrote Hirozawa. "He'll work, he says, and possibly apply for a scholarship."

[NOTE & question: Does the quote Corsi uses come from the 1959 article or from someone quoting the 1959 article? The quote does NOT come from the 2008 Marannis article because Manannis uses only one quote the 1959 article: "when he read in an American magazine about its racial tolerance."

Note also that BHO Sr said in the 1959 interview that he did NOT have a scholarship when he began classes at the University of Hawaii.

These are David Marannis' references to the 1959 article in his 2008 article:

His [BHO Sr] arrival in Honolulu was announced in a newspaper article under the headline "Young Men from Kenya, Jordan and Iran Here to Study at U.H."

Obama told the reporter [Hirozawa, in 1959] that he grew up on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya, in East Africa, and was a member of the Luo tribe. He said he had worked as an office clerk in Nairobi for several years to save money for college and settled on UH "when he read in an American magazine about its racial tolerance."

Other accounts have said he went to Hawai'i because it was the only U.S. university to offer him a scholarship, but that appears unlikely, based on this contemporaneous report. In the newspaper story, Obama said he had enough money to stay in Hawai'i only for two semesters unless he applied for a scholarship.

He said he would study business administration and wanted to return to Kenya to help with its transition from tribal customs to a modern economy. He was concerned, he said, about his generation's disorientation as Kenyans rejected old ways yet struggled with Westernization.
~~~~~~~~~~~

In the same lengthy 2008 article, Marannis makes a reference to and quotes Obama Sr in ANOTHER 1959 newspaper article written "a few months into Obama's first semester":

A few months into Obama's first semester, another newspaper story about him focused on his conclusions about racial attitudes on the island. "No one seems to be conscious of color," he said.

But there were stereotypes to shatter on both sides — his of Hawai'i and Hawai'i's of Africa.

"When I first came here, I expected to find a lot of Hawaiians all dressed in native clothing and I expected native dancing and that sort of thing, but I was surprised to find such a mixture of races," he said.

When asked if people questioned him about Kenya, he laughed and said: "Oh, yes. People are very interested in the Mau Mau rebellion (an uprising against the British) and they ask about race relations in Kenya. I tell them they've improved since the rebellion but are not perfect. They also ask if Kenya is ready for self-government. Some others ask me such questions as how many wives each man has back home, what we eat, how I dress at home, how we live, whether we have cars."
~~~~~~~~~~

Is it possible to find both 1959 articles?

[USF]

Thank you for your research and valuable contributions.

[Fred Nerks]

Is it possible to find both 1959 articles?

No scholarship, no money, no connection to the airlift, only Mooney Kirk and Cora Weiss to tell us how he managed financially, and then somehow, he can afford a tour of the mainland US before commencing Harvard?

The only archives for the Star Bulletin I could find go back to 1996. Lucy, can anyone on your pinglist help?

[Albertafriend]

This is a link to the Mboya papers:

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt9b69q71x;style=oac4;view=dsc#c01-1.7.7.17

The caption on the post of 0 Sr.’s letter says it is in Box 41. This link is to the part of the collection that is labelled Universities and from its description holds a huge amount of information about the air-lift, the scholarships, the students’ records, and correspondence. But it is not online. I wonder if there is any reliable person in LA that would be interested in digging into it.

I’m also wondering if anyone ever made an attempt to obtain his record from the UH. It would be very interesting to check out the dates, subjects, grades etc. to see if he is telling Mboya the truth.

I’m also wondering if it’s possible to track who in American history has received such high ranking awards.

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2278969/posts?page=597#597

you’ve been reading my mind!

[LucyT]

Is it possible to find both 1959 articles?

No scholarship, no money, no connection to the airlift, only Mooney Kirk and Cora Weiss to tell us how he managed financially, and then somehow, he can afford a tour of the mainland US before commencing Harvard?

The only archives for the Star Bulletin I could find go back to 1996.

[OafOfOffice]

Can someone tell me why the presidnet of the united states took a foreign tax credit for 2009? I thought his job was paid for by taxpayers and we are not foreigners.

Barack & Michelle Obama made $5,661,666. in 2009 and not dime went to medical or dental for all 4 of them. Must be nice to make almost 6 million and have taxpayers pay for parties every 3 days and all of your medical and dental too.Look at that 666. What comes to mind is Obama forcing his books in high school and colleges and that is where he made a lot of money.

I know we do that for all presidents. But there is hypocrisy here. Congress and Obama did not lose a dime during the recession nor any benefits. Americans paid for their benefits and continue to take losses Obama is creating.

http://bit.ly/9YeNV0

And I am ticked off, Obama flew all the way to CA just to campaign to Boxer tonight. Aren’t they suppose to pay for this is if no official business is going on?

Obama will not have any official business in Los Angeles,White House said.Taxpayers foot the bill for Boxer fundraiser http://bit.ly/9KBSO7

Obama spins health care into fund-raising tour among lib elites http://bit.ly/9XhL5q

Should Nancy Pelosi be forced to pay back security expenses for her trip to Palm Beach?http://bit.ly/chXll4 Yes! (97.0%, 14,363 Votes)

More US Capital police along to protect Pelosi than the 18 guests at party at George Cloutier’s home. http://bit.ly/chXll4