A letter Barack Obama Sr. wrote in 1962 raises new questions about the veracity of the official Obama nativity story related by Barack Obama Jr. in his autobiography, "Dreams from My Father."
In a May 1962 letter he wrote from Hawaii to his political benefactor in Kenya, Tom Mboya, Barack Obama Sr. discusses his "wife," but without mentioning Ann Dunham, his Hawaiian bride and the mother of the future president.
Toward the end of the letter, Obama wrote, "You know my wife is in Nairobi there and I would really appreciate any help you may give her."
Clearly Obama Sr. is referring to his first wife, Kezia Aoko, whom he had married in 1954 at age 18 while she was pregnant with their first child. Obama left Kenya in 1959 to study in Hawaii.
He instructs Mboya that his wife Kezia was then staying with her brother, Wilson Odiawo, in Nairobi.
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Here is the relevant paragraph, at the end of the letter:
The handwriting next to the paragraph appears to be Mboya's: "Ask Odiawo to see me."
The handwriting at the bottom of the letter is that of Hoover Institution archivists identifying the location of the letter in the Tom Mboya Collection.
The official Obama nativity story maintains that Ann Dunham remained in Hawaii, living with her husband, Barack Obama Sr., and their infant son, until Barack Obama Sr. left Hawaii for Cambridge, Mass., in June 1962, to begin graduate studies at Harvard University.
As WND has reported, documentary evidence from the University of Washington at Seattle and testimony, including interviews with Ann Dunham's high school friends and her babysitter in Seattle, indicate Dunham left Hawaii almost immediately after her son was born.
Dunham enrolled in extension classes at the University of Washington in Seattle, beginning Aug. 19, 1961, when Barack Obama Jr. was only 15 days old.
WND has also reported that photos of Barack Obama Sr. attending a University of Hawaii party in the early 1960s show him enjoying the company of fellow students without the presence of Dunham. Obama's demeanor evident in the photographs suggests a familiarity with women that would give no indication he was engaged to be married or already wed to Dunham.
Obama's left hand, clearly visible in one of the photographs, shows his ring finger without a wedding band.
Barack Obama Sr. at party in Hawaii |
The heading of the letter to Mboya lists 1482 Alencastre Street in Honolulu as the address for Barack Obama Sr. at the time the letter was written, May 29, 1962.
This is a previously unknown address for Barack Obama Sr. At that time, Dunham was living with her son in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle at 516 13th Ave. East, Apt. 2.
There is no documentary evidence to suggest that Obama Sr. and Dunham ever lived together as man and wife at the same address.
WND has also reported that the address listed in the Hawaii newspaper birth announcements for Barack Obama Jr. was 6085 Kalanianaole Highway. The Polk's Directory of Honolulu for 1961-1962 lists Barack Obama Sr.'s address as 625 11th Ave. at the time Dunham's address is listed as that of her parents, 6085 Kalanianaole Highway.
Obama in the letter confirms he plans to leave Hawaii for Harvard University in June 1962. Dunham did not return from Seattle to Hawaii until after Barack Obama Sr. had left.
Obama makes clear that he has applied himself to his studies at the University of Hawaii, having achieved a B.A. and a Masters degree in three years, as well as being awarded Phi Beta Kappa (liberal arts academic excellence), Phi Kappa Phi (overall academic excellence) and Omicron Delta Kappa (leadership) honors. But there is no indication by Obama that any time was spent in Hawaii or elsewhere with his wife Dunham or son Barack Obama Jr.
The Hoover Institution confirmed to WND that the letter is authentic and that it is archived in Box 41, Folder 5 of the Tom Mboya collection.
Reporter Sally Jacobs, writing in the Boston Globe, Sept. 21, 2008, claimed she was told by Susan Mboya, wife of Tom Mboya, that Mboya was aware Obama had a wife and child in Hawaii.
Jacobs further claimed that in a series of letters exchanged with Obama, Mboya objected that Obama was leaving his Kenyan wife and daughter to go to Hawaii.
As noted above, this story lacks credibility, given that Dunham abandoned Barack Obama Sr. in August 1961, the month Barack Obama Jr. was born, when she left Hawaii to go to Seattle.
Jacobs reported that Susan Mboya was unwilling to release letters between her husband and Barack Obama Sr., making it clear the Boston Globe had not examined the purported letter exchange.
To date, the letter discussed in this article, dated May 29, 1962, found in the Hoover Institution archive, is the only letter exchanged between Barack Obama Sr. and Tom Mboya that has become public.
In September 2009, WND reported that Obama repeated in an address televised to the nation's schoolchildren his official birth story first told in "Dreams from My Father," totally ignoring documents WND had published proving the story was a fabrication.
"I get it. I know what it's like," Obama said in the televised speech. "My father left my family when I was 2 years old, and I was raised by a single mom who had to work and who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn't always able to give us the things that other kids had."
The story Obama told the nation's schoolchildren matched his account on page 126 of "Dreams from My Father."
In the book, Obama related a story his mother allegedly told him: "When your father graduated from UH [University of Hawaii], he received two scholarship offers. One was to the New School, here in New York. The other one was to Harvard. The New School agreed to pay for everything – room and board, a job on campus, enough to support all three of us. Harvard just agreed to pay tuition. But Barack was such a stubborn bastard, he had to go to Harvard. How could I refuse the best education? He told me. That's all he could think about, proving that he was the best. …"
WND can find no indication Dunham worked at a job while she attended the University of Washington, where she was enrolled in the Spring 1962 term as a full-time student.
WND also can find no evidence indicating how Dunham paid her tuition to the University of Washington or where she got sufficient funds to pay rent and living expenses for herself and her infant son from August 1961 until she returned to Hawaii, after Barack Obama Sr. had left for Harvard.
There is no indication that Dunham ever returned to Hawaii to visit Barack Obama Sr. while he continued his studies at the University of Hawaii in her absence or that Barack Obama Sr. ever traveled from Hawaii to visit Dunham while she lived in Seattle.
While he was at Harvard, there is no evidence Barack Obama Sr. returned to Hawaii to visit his wife and son.