According to an article posted in the Nigerian ThisDayOnline, Paul Ibe of Abuja and Ahamefula Ogbu in Obama Kingdom, write that Barack Obama may have roots in Nigeria. The Obama community in Rivers State claims that the third great grandfather of Barack Obama is of Nigerian descent.
The community, which is in present-day Bakana in the Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State, said the name “Bakana” was a Portuguese creation, as their real name is “Obama” which means “Oba’s kingdom” or “Oba’s town.” It is claimed that “Oba” means king.
The ThisDay website folks were told that when Barack Obama became a Senator four years ago, the King, Kegan Igbanigbo Will-Braide, informed his chiefs that the African-American has his roots in Obama Kingdom in Rivers State. The following excerpt is from a much-longer article.
Elders of Obama who spoke to THISDAY yesterday on the island, which is
five nautical miles from Port Harcourt, claimed that the US President-elect’s great-great-great grandparents were from Obama Bakana Kingdom.
The story goes that following inter-tribal wars around 1776, the people of Obama began to disperse and that the US President-elect’s ancestor migrated up North to Kanem Bornu Empire. Obama’s great-great-great grandparents, out of sheer tiredness and not wanting bloodshed, moved up towards the Kanem Bornu area. The condition for the stay of Obama’s ancestors in Kanem Bornu empire was to convert to Islam, according to the story. The US President-elect’s father and great-grandfather were Muslims.
From Kanem Bornu the Obama ancestors were said to have migrated to the present Kenya. The father of the US President-elect hailed from Kogelo in Kenya.
“No one is saying by any stretch of imagination that if you go to Kenya, you will not see Obama’s father’s house; we are looking at his ancestry, at his roots. It is like Alex Haley, an American who traced his ancestor, Kunta Kinte, to Gambia,” Duke said.
Read the full January 19, 2009 article at the ThisDayOnline site.
If President Barack H. Obama does have Nigerian roots, I would like to know the exact connection!
Yes – me too. Personally, I have my doubts…