I can’t see Obama actually saying that in an interview, but it is in Dreams -— the last passage in chap 16:
“Don’t you ever feel like you might be losing
something?”
Mark put down his knife and fork, and for the first time that afternoon his eyes looked straight into mine.
“I understand what you’re getting at,” he said flatly. “You think that somehow I’m cut off from my roots, that sort of thing.” He wiped his mouth and dropped the napkin onto his plate. “Well, you’re right. At a certain point, I made a decision not to think about who my real father was. He was dead to me even when he was still alive. I knew that he was a drunk and showed no concern for his wife or children. That was enough.”
“It made you mad.”
“Not mad. Just numb.”
“And that doesn’t bother you? Being numb, I mean?”
“Towards him, no. Other things move me. Beethoven’s symphonies. Shakespeare’s sonnets. I know-it’s not what an African is supposed to care about. But who’s to tell me what I should and shouldn’t care about? Understand, I’m not ashamed of being half Kenyan. I just don’t ask myself a lot of questions about what it all means. About who I really am.” He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe I should. I can acknowledge the possibility that if I looked more carefully at myself, I would…”
For the briefest moment I sensed Mark hesitate, like a rock climber losing his footing. Then, almost immediately, he regained his composure and waved for the check.
“Who knows?” he said. “What’s certain is that I don’t need the stress. Life’s hard enough without all that excess baggage.”
We stood up to leave, and I insisted on paying the bill. Outside we exchanged addresses and promised to write, with a dishonesty that made my heart ache. When I got home, told Auma how the meeting had gone. She looked away for a moment, then broke out with a short, bitter laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“I was just thinking about how life is so strange. You know, as soon as the Old Man died, the lawyers contacted all those who might have a claim to the inheritance. Unlike my mum, Ruth has all the documents needed to prove who Mark’s father was. So of all of the Old Man’s kids, Mark’s claim is the only one that’s uncontested.”
Again Auma laughed, and I looked up at the picture hanging on her wall, the same picture pasted inside Ruth’s album, of three brothers and a sister, smiling sweetly for the camera.
Proud family: US President Barack Obama greets members of his British and African-based family at the White House following his inauguration, including half-brother Abongo, far left, and stepmother Kezia, in yellow
KENYA TO THE WHITE HOUSE LINK
Pictured on the far left, Abongo Obama, who flew in from the family's ancestral home in Kogelo, western Kenya, just days before, said: "Barack gave us a grand tour of the White House. It was amazing to be in there with him. This is his new home. He has come a long way."
The 51-year-old accountant, who was best man at the President's wedding, added: "My brother had such a hectic schedule that day but he still took time out for us."
Abongo Obama, 'the 51 year old accountant' is the eldest son who was six years of age when Obama sr supposedly left Kenya in 1959. That makes the eldest son 56 years of age, not 51.
Mark Ndesandjo is in that group but not identified.
SO WHO IS MALIK ABONGO 'ROY' OBAMA?