Auma Obama

Rita Auma Obama (born 1960) is a Kenyan-British community activist, sociologist, journalist, author, and half-sister of the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama.

Auma Obama in 2012

Quotes

• "If I’m teaching young people to use their voices and be active in making their lives a success."
  • Forbes Aug 16, 2016
• "You can’t do this or that because you’re a girl.” Or, “You have to do this because you’re a girl.” I asked “Why?” I’m a human being first."
  • Forbes Aug 16, 2016
• “Poverty is no excuse. “Development aid has to be linked to economic development.”.
  • Julius Bar 22 January 2020
• “Once others hear your voice loud and clear, they realise you exist.”
  • Julius Bar 22 January 2020

• "It's special for us and for our children and for our communities because it tells every child that if you work hard you can do whatever you want in this world. You can make you future"
  • Oprah Daily Nov 14, 2020
• I manage that because Barack Obama’s in his present situation as the president of the United States is a very new thing, and it’s also something very temporary. I’ve been around for a lot longer, so I’ve already defined myself long before he became the president of the United States so in my own right I have my own identity. So in that sense I am able to, well, actually I’m learning, and I keep having to adjust to being Barack Obama’s sister, who is the president of the United States. But being me as Auma Obama, that is not an issue. It’s trying to accommodate the “new” – this new role that I’m received in, the attention I get, this visibility I get. In terms of my identity I think I’m pretty secure, as best one can be.
  • [1]
• I don’t get tired of being called Barack Obama’s sister because I am. I get tired of being called Barack Obama’s “half-sister” because I’m not. In our culture he’s just my brother, I’m his sister, so being called Barack Obama’s sister, I have no problem with that at all. I guess it becomes an issue when people see me as an extension of him and focus on that. So I guess this sense of “we’re inviting Barack Obama’s sister”, “we’re speaking to Barack Obama’s sister” to get closer to Barack Obama and find out more about him. To an extent it is justified, but that’s not all that I’m about, so I’m very conscious of that, and I’m conscious of making people aware of that and trying to make that clear that is part of the conversation.
  • [2]

External links

• Oficial Website[3]