Barack Obama Senior, son of Hussein Onyango and father of the American president, was a bona fide genius, intellectually. Known as a highly gifted youth in otherwise poor surroundings, the first Barack was given the best education that his poor family could provide. But like father Onyango, young Barack was stubborn (despite his brilliance). When the two clashed, Onyango was ruthless, a stern and brutal disciplinarian. In later years Barack continued to excel, proving himself a veritable mensa, or in youthspeak, a "brainiac" -- studying econometrics at Harvard. But he had an irascible temperament, perhaps dogged by the harshness of his upbringing. As a father for the future president, he was largely absentee.

The white woman:

It was Barack Obama (1936-1982) who turned a cold shoulder to his father's courageous conversion to Islam, took a scholarship to Hawaii, then married a white woman. He was every bit as much a rebel as his father had been. A veritable Mensa, he channeled his genius into the cerebral realm of econometrics. In addition to his mathematical intellectual gifts, he was also highly ambitious -- ultimately sacrificing both wife and infant son to his own academic career. The white woman, Stanley Ann Dunham, in fact never set foot on Kenyan soil (or indeed Africa) -- it would have been extremely unsafe for her to be in Kenya during the early 1960s. Tribal warfare between the Kikuyus and the Luos was raging in Kenya at the time of her pregnancy. The ethnic warfare erupted in the immediate aftermath of the Mau Mau uprising against the British colonialists. There's no way that Barack Obama Sr., a Luo, would have dared to bring his pregnant white American wife to Kenya at the time, knowing full well that her safety -- and that of their unborn son -- would have been in grave jeopardy.

In fact, the president's mother did not leave the United States until 1967, when she moved to Indonesia to live with her second husband, geographer Lolo Soetoro. (She divorced the senior Obama in 1964 after she learned that he was married to another woman in Kenya). He had temporarily left her and his small son when he won acceptance (a prestigeous honor) to the econometrics program at Harvard University, a personal ideal of the gifted mathematician and economically oriented genius, who has been called a brainiac, a mensa, a black Einstein.

But to the young Barack, he was also an absent father, and a husband who bailed out on his marriage.

An ancient people:

The Luo (also called Jaluo and Joluo) are found in the western part of Kenya in the well known Nyanza province. They are the second largest ethnic group in Kenya. They are found on the shores and hinterland of Lake Victoria. Kin groups of the Nyanza Luo are found spread far and wide into Uganda and southern Sudan, from where Kenya's Luo migrated some hundred years ago. The Obama clan, mostly Seventhday aventist, are found on both sides of the inlet known as Kendu Bay.

Nairobi Skyline
"Green City in the Sun"

along the Great Rift Valley between Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro

Barack Obama's maternal family tree

Presidential heritage: Genealogies of Presidents

Washington to Clinton: Genealogy of U.S. Presidents

Quirks of genealogy: presidential pedigrees

Accusations against Obama : The truth is oh so simple

Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu
[Oh God of all Creation]

Famous White Kenyans

• Jessica Posner - Jessica is the co-founder and director of Shining Hope for Communities
  
• Chris Froome - championship cyclist and leader of the Team Sky
  
• Richard Dawkins - award winning evolutionist and science author (now UK)
  
• Peter Hain - liberal UK politician (born in Kenya), anti-aparteid in South Africa
  
• Beryl Markham - bush pilot, adventurer, racehorse trainer; the Amelia Earhart of east Africa
  
• The Leakey family - paleontologists, archaeologists, paleo-anthropologists
  
• And then, of course, there's Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke, the famous author of "Out of Africa"

Fashion Footwear Designer Rachel Roy

Rachel Roy's first job in fashion was at a Contempo Casuals clothing outlet in her hometown at age 14. After college, she came to New York City, where she worked as a stylist for magazines and music videos. She became an intern at the urban fashion line Rocawear, where she rose to become creative director of the women's and children's divisions and also met her future husband, Damon Dash. In 2005 she launched her own eponymous fashion collection.

In early 2006 Roy received a Bollywood industry award for her contribution to American fashion. Roy has also appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show. In 2007, Roy was inducted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Rachel has also seen publicity through the teen market, including at Teen Vogue magazine. In their April 2009 issue, Rachel does a “how-to” where she transforms a regular t-shirt into a punky prom dress.

In June 2008, Jones Apparel Group formed a joint venture with the Rachel Roy brand.

Favorite of the American President's Wife
In August 2009, Roy launched The RACHEL Rachel Roy collection, an affordable diffusion line of sportswear, shoes and accessories. The label "RACHEL Rachel Roy" is available exclusively at Macy’s in the United States and at the Bay in Canada. In summer 2009, Rachel Roy and Grammy-Award winning British pop-singer Estelle announced their collaboration on a jewelry line for the Spring 2010 RACHEL Rachel Roy collection via Roy’s Twitter feed. Roy designed a capsule collection in partnership with model Jessica Stam, for Macy’s stores and RachelRoy.com in Fall 2010.

The Rachel Roy collections are available at Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Shoewoo, and Nordstrom. [edit]Celebrity clients

Perhaps her best known client is First Lady Michelle Obama, wife of United States President Barack Obama.

Other well known clients include Diane Sawyer, Kate Hudson, Jennifer Garner, Iman, Lucy Liu, Sharon Stone, Tyra Banks, Wendy Williams (media personality), and Penélope Cruz