A Facebook post shows three photos of a young Barack Obama, the former president of the US, in a rural village.
“Only God knows our destiny,” the caption reads. “Obama in his village in 1986, when he visited his root.”
Obama was born in the US state of Hawaii in August 1961. His mother, Ann Dunham, was a US citizen. His father, Barack Hussein Obama I, was a Kenyan born and raised in Kogelo, a village in Siaya county’s Alego constituency. The two met when Obama senior was on a scholarship to the US.
But Facebook’s fact-checking system has flagged the post as possibly false.
So do the photos show the former US president visiting his Kenyan “roots” in 1986?
Obama did visit Kenya in 1987 – not 1986 – when he was 27, an emotional trip he describes in this video. It was his first of three visits to the country.
The third was in 2015, when Obama was president. At the time, a number of news sites dug up old photos of his 1987 visit to Kenya, and his father’s village.
Some confuse the village of Kogelo with the constituency of Alego, as Obama did in his 1988 autobiography Dreams from my Father. His father died in a car crash in 1982.
The three photos do show Obama visiting his Kenyan roots in the late 1980s.
In the first, he’s seen carrying a large sack of maize as he walks back to Kogelo with his paternal grandmother, Sarah Obama.
The second photo is of Obama with his grandmother, his sister Auma Obama and his stepmother Kezia Obama.
The third photo also shows Obama with his grandmother. – Africa Check
“Only God knows our destiny,” the caption reads. “Obama in his village in 1986, when he visited his root.”
Obama was born in the US state of Hawaii in August 1961. His mother, Ann Dunham, was a US citizen. His father, Barack Hussein Obama I, was a Kenyan born and raised in Kogelo, a village in Siaya county’s Alego constituency. The two met when Obama senior was on a scholarship to the US.
But Facebook’s fact-checking system has flagged the post as possibly false.
So do the photos show the former US president visiting his Kenyan “roots” in 1986?
First Kenyan visit in 1987
Obama did visit Kenya in 1987 – not 1986 – when he was 27, an emotional trip he describes in this video. It was his first of three visits to the country.
The third was in 2015, when Obama was president. At the time, a number of news sites dug up old photos of his 1987 visit to Kenya, and his father’s village.
Some confuse the village of Kogelo with the constituency of Alego, as Obama did in his 1988 autobiography Dreams from my Father. His father died in a car crash in 1982.
Photos with grandmother, sister, stepmother
The three photos do show Obama visiting his Kenyan roots in the late 1980s.
In the first, he’s seen carrying a large sack of maize as he walks back to Kogelo with his paternal grandmother, Sarah Obama.
The second photo is of Obama with his grandmother, his sister Auma Obama and his stepmother Kezia Obama.
The third photo also shows Obama with his grandmother. – Africa Check
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Further Reading
[email protected]: The challenges of working across Africa
Misinformation knows no borders and Africa Check often responds to similar false claims from country to country.
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