Q: Act of spite?

Thanks for the amus­ing “Oba­ma, Cal­houn and the Churchill Bust-Out.” What do you say how­ev­er about the Dai­ly Tele­graph‘s spec­u­la­tion that Obama’s rejec­tion of Churchill was based on the British jail­ing and tor­ture of his grand­fa­ther, Hus­sein Onyan­go Oba­ma, between 1949 and 1951, “dur­ing the Mau Mau rebel­lion in Kenya”?  —R.P.

A: Not even close

First, the Dai­ly Tele­graph did not con­nect Obama’s grandfather’s jail­ing with the Mau Mau rebel­lion. The Tele­graph report is very care­ful on this point:

It was dur­ing Churchill’s sec­ond pre­mier­ship that Britain sup­pressed Kenya’s Mau Mau rebel­lion. Among Kenyans alleged­ly tor­tured by the colo­nial regime includ­ed one Hus­sein Onyan­go Oba­ma, the President’s grandfather.

Pre­sum­ably it will now get round that the President’s grand­fa­ther was a Mau Mau rebel. But Town­hall colum­nist Diana West explodes the whole busi­ness. West explains that the tor­ture alle­ga­tion stems from an unat­trib­uted blogsite. And from Obama’s “Granny Sarah,” who claimed that Barack was born in Kenya. West continues:

In his Dreams from My Father, Oba­ma describes his grandfather’s deten­tion as last­ing “over six months” before he was found inno­cent (no men­tion of tor­ture).  What­ev­er the case, Churchill didn’t become prime min­is­ter for the sec­ond time until the end of 1951. The Mau Mau Rebel­lion didn’t begin until the end of 1952, one year after Obama’s grandfather’s release.

Mr. Oba­ma, an intel­li­gent man, prob­a­bly appre­ci­ates that the Par­lia­men­tary forms final­ly emerg­ing in Kenya stem from the colo­nial British, as they do in much of the old Empire, notably India and what Churchill called the “Great Domin­ions.” To para­phrase Mark Steyn (whose bust will prob­a­bly nev­er adorn the President’s office either), imag­ine how Kenya might have devel­oped if it had been col­o­nized by, say, the Ger­mans, Japan­ese or Russians.

Fur­ther reading

“Get Your His­to­ry Right: Reply to Read­er Hasan in The Blade (Tole­do),” 2020.

“It’s baaack! The Win­ston Churchill Bust Furore, Round 3,” 2021.

“Pres­i­dent Oba­ma and the Churchill Bust – Out.” 2009.