WORLD> America
|
WORLD> America
|
|
Obama's Kenyan grandmother says will attend inauguration
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-06 23:13 The people of Kogelo, and the Obama family in particular, have been at the center of a two-year media blitz. Sarah took a nap before facing reporters outside her tidy little blue-roofed house. The rest of the extended family celebrated by dancing and chanting in the local Luo language, "Obama Biro, Yaw Ne Yo," or " Obama is coming, clear his path." Most of Kenya and the rest of Africa took the news of Obama's election as a symbolic victory for the continent. "I have not been talking to him of late because he was busy on the campaign trial," Sarah said and attributed her grandson's success to hard work, love for people and his oratory skills. Auma said they don't expect life to change much with an Obama in the White House. "As a family, we support Barack but we have no expectations. Because we are very, very clear that this is something he is doing in America and that he is an American president," said Auma. She said that although Kenyans are excited, she realizes that he won't provide any quick fixes for their country. "He makes it very clear that he is an American and his first priority is to Americans," she said. "We have not lacked anything so we don't expect that to change." Obama's connection to the western Kenyan village of Nyang'oma- Kogelo near Lake Victoria comes through his father, also named Barack Obama. After winning a scholarship to study in the US, the elder Obama enrolled in the University of Hawaii, where he met and married Obama's mother, fellow student Ann Dunham. After returning to the village when Barack was young, the father died in a car crash in 1982. After the village held prayers for Obama, who is known as "Wuod Alego," (the son of the Alego), the region where the village is located, Sarah said when she does meet Obama, she plans to tell him to initiate development projects in Kenya and the United States, especially those that foster global peace. Sarah has been the Kenyan face of the Obama family since he became Illinois Senator. She has dined with the high and mighty but maintained her humility and hospitality that has made her the darling of the locals, tourists and journalists. The president-elect, 47, has visited Kenya three times, most recently in 2006 when he saw an AIDS clinic in Kibera, a slum of 700,000 people in Nairobi, the capital. With his wife, Michelle, he visited AIDS patients at a hospital in Kisumu, about 70 km southeast of his family's village. He also visited Sarah and a primary school that the village named after him. Asked whether she is worried about Obama's security following recent threats against his life, Sarah said she has never given it much thought. And although they become part of the United States' first family, Sarah said that they would not like to be treated differently from the rest of the villagers. "We ought not to be treated differently. We are a normal family and we do not expect anything special," she said. |
