I. Obama’s Roots in Polygamy and the Ford Foundation 17Obama’s grandfather is described as a strange, hard, autocratic and cruel man. (Dreams from My
Father 397, 406) “It is said of him that he had ants up his anus, because he could not sit still.... he
was very serious always. He was always curious about other people’s business, which is how he
learned to be a herbalist.” (Dreams 397) He was very fastidious and compulsively clean.
Grandfather Obama lived at the time that the British colonialists first arrived in Kenya. Grandfather
Obama was one of the first to imitate the practices of the British: at one point he went away for
some months, and came back wearing European trousers, shirts, and shoes. Kandu province is
located in the interior of Kenya, closer to Lake Victoria than to the Indian Ocean. When the British
arrived in Kandu they began setting up a colonial administration with a district commissioner. The
Kenyans “called this man Bwana Ogalo, which meant “the Oppressor” ... he surrounded himself
with Luos who wore clothes like the white man to serve as his agents and tax collectors.” (Dreams
399) One of those who went to work for the British during this time was grandfather Obama, who
“had learned to read and write, and understood the white man system of paper records and land
titles. This made him useful to the white man, and during the war [World War I] he was put in
charge of road crews. Eventually he was sent to Tanganyika, where he stayed for several years.”
(Dreams 400) When grandfather Obama returned to Kandu, he staked his claim to a plot of land,
but he soon departed for Nairobi, where he again went to work for the British.
Obama’s grandfather worked in Nairobi as a butler and cook for the British. He “was popular
with employers and worked in the estates of some of the most important white men, even Lord
Delamere.” (Dreams 401) Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere, was the undisputed political
boss of the British colony of Kenya from about 1900 until his death in 1931; he was known as the
Kenyan equivalent of Cecil Rhodes in South Africa, meaning that he was the dominant political
personality of the colony. He had huge estates in the Rift valley. According to Wikipedia, “It is
believed that on one of these Somaliland hunting trips, Delamere coined the term “white hunter” –
the term which came to describe the professional safari hunter in colonial East Africa.” The relation
with Lord Delamere is the first sign of anything extraordinary in the entire Obama clan. If Obama
seizes the presidency, it will be due in some measure to the fact that his grandfather chose to go to
work for the leading British imperialist politician in that part of the world.
Using his earnings, grandfather Obama was able to buy land and cattle in Kandu. He was very
strict about his property, and emerges as an obsessive-compulsive personality. He was also choleric
and violent, and was known for harshly beating his wives and any men who offended him. He was
often involved in shouting matches with his British employers, and once beat one of them with a
cane; he was fortunate to get off with a fine and a warning. He was so violent to his wife Akumu
that she tried repeatedly to get away from him, and finally deserted him for good, leaving behind the
young child who would become Barack Obama’s father.
A BATMAN IN THE BRITISH ARMY
During World War II, grandfather Obama accompanied the British Army captain who was his
employer as cook and servant. He was attached to a British regiment and was stationed in Burma,
Ceylon, Arabia, and Europe. When he returned to Kandu, he was economically well-off. When he
was almost 50, he decided to move to Alego, the family’s ancestral home. At that time Alego was
bush country, but grandfather Obama’s ability as a farmer allowed him to build up a successful
farming business. Grandfather Obama seems all in all to have had a Hobbesian temperament; he is
quoted as saying: “The African is thick. For him to do anything, he needs to be beaten.” (Dreams
407) Grandfather Obama appears to have started his life as a follower of traditional animist or
totemic religion. What Grandfather Obama “respected was strength — discipline...this is also why