Richard M. Langworth

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.

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.…

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