{"id":25005,"date":"2021-03-29T19:17:43","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T19:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/?p=25005"},"modified":"2021-03-29T19:17:43","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T19:17:43","slug":"barack-obamas-statement-on-grandmas-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/barack-obamas-statement-on-grandmas-death","title":{"rendered":"Barack Obama’s Statement on Grandma’s Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

AfricaPress-Kenya:<\/strong> Former US President Barack Obama on Monday, March 29 mourned his paternal grandmother, Mama Sarah Obama, who passed on earlier in the day at the age of 99.<\/p>\n

Here is his full statement:<\/p>\n

My family and I are mourning the loss of our beloved grandmother, Sarah Ogwel Onyango Obama, affectionately known to many as \u201cMama Sarah\u201d but known to us as \u201cDani\u201d or Granny.<\/p>\n

Born in the first quarter of the last century, in Nyanza Province, on the shores of Lake Victoria, she had no formal schooling, and in the ways of her tribe, she was married off to a much older man while only a teen.<\/p>\n

She would spend the rest of her life in the tiny village of Alego, in a small home built of mud-and thatch brick and without electricity or indoor plumbing.<\/p>\n

\n
\"An<\/div>\n
Former US President Barack Obama speaking during an event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

There she raised eight children, tended to her goats and chickens, grew an assortment of crops, and took what the family didn\u2019t use to sell at the local open-air market.<\/p>\n

Although not his birth mother, Granny would\u00a0raise my father\u00a0as her own, and it was in part thanks to her love and encouragement that he was able to defy the odds and do well enough in school to get a scholarship to attend an American university.<\/p>\n

When our family had difficulties, her homestead was a refuge for her children and grandchildren, and her presence was a constant, stabilizing force.<\/p>\n

When I first traveled to Kenya to learn more about my heritage and father, who had passed away by then, it was Granny who served as a bridge to the past, and it was her stories that helped fill a void in my heart.<\/p>\n

During the course of her life, Granny would witness epochal changes taking place around the globe: world war, liberation movements, moon landings, and the advent of the computer age.<\/p>\n

She would live to fly on jets, receive visitors from around the world, and see one of her grandsons get elected to the United States presidency. And yet her essential spirit\u2014strong, proud, hard-working, unimpressed with conventional marks of status and full of common sense and good humor\u2014never changed.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

We will miss her dearly, but celebrate with gratitude her long and remarkable life.<\/p>\n

Obama’s tribute to his grandmother comes as political leaders also paid homage to the 99-year-old who passed away on Monday morning at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital, Kisumu.<\/p>\n

Among the leaders including President Uhuru Kenyatta\u00a0mourned Mama Sarah\u00a0as an icon of family values and a philanthropist whose contribution to the progress of the Kenyan nation would be missed dearly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AfricaPress-Kenya: Former US President Barack Obama on Monday, March 29 mourned his paternal grandmother, Mama Sarah Obama, who passed on earlier in the day at the age of 99. Here is his full statement: My family and I are mourning the loss of our beloved grandmother, Sarah Ogwel Onyango Obama, affectionately known to many as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":25009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[8030,8031],"class_list":["post-25005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-barack-obama","tag-mama-sarah-obama"],"yoast_head":"\nBarack Obama's Statement on Grandma's Death - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former US President Barack Obama on Monday, March 29 mourned his paternal grandmother, Mama Sarah Obama, who passed on\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/barack-obamas-statement-on-grandmas-death\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Barack Obama's Statement on Grandma's Death\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former US President Barack Obama on Monday, March 29 mourned his paternal grandmother, Mama Sarah Obama, who passed on\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/barack-obamas-statement-on-grandmas-death\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-29T19:17:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/03\/resized_99265-kenya-obama_will_67-19835.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"470\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"328\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/barack-obamas-statement-on-grandmas-death#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/barack-obamas-statement-on-grandmas-death\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Barack Obama’s Statement on Grandma’s Death\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-29T19:17:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/barack-obamas-statement-on-grandmas-death\"},\"wordCount\":458,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/barack-obamas-statement-on-grandmas-death#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/03\/resized_99265-kenya-obama_will_67-19835.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Barack Obama\",\"Mama Sarah Obama\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/barack-obamas-statement-on-grandmas-death#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/barack-obamas-statement-on-grandmas-death\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/barack-obamas-statement-on-grandmas-death\",\"name\":\"Barack Obama's Statement on Grandma's Death - 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