Obama's Grandfather Imprisoned, Tortured By British, Relatives Say

President-elect Barack Obama's paternal grandfather was brutally tortured by the British during Kenya's Mau Mau uprising, according to Obama's Kenyan relatives and reported in the Times of London.

Hussein Onyango Obama, Mr Obama's paternal grandfather, became involved in the Kenyan independence movement while working as a cook for a British army officer after the war. He was arrested in 1949 and jailed for two years in a high-security prison where, according to his family, he was subjected to horrific violence to extract information about the growing insurgency.

"The African warders were instructed by the white soldiers to whip him every morning and evening till he confessed," said Sarah Onyango, Hussein Onyango's third wife, the woman Mr Obama refers to as "Granny Sarah"...."He said they would sometimes squeeze his testicles with parallel metallic rods. They also pierced his nails and buttocks with a sharp pin, with his hands and legs tied together with his head facing down," she said The alleged torture was said to have left Mr Onyango permanently scarred, and bitterly antiBritish. "That was the time we realised that the British were actually not friends but, instead, enemies," Mrs Onyango said. "My husband had worked so diligently for them, only to be arrested and detained."

The Guardian questions how this new information will affect Obama's relationship with the UK and view of interrogation techniques.

Obama, with more pressing contemporary problems on his plate, is unlikely to be fixated on extracting revenge from the UK. But he may draw the broader historical conclusion that the imposition of torture and repressive violence has a habit of undermining the political legitimacy of world-class powers.

He has already signalled his determination to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre and speed up withdrawal from Iraq. We will have to wait and see whether his grandfather's experience has a bearing on his policies on Afghanistan and international terrorism.

Comments

[avraamjack]

This should make for some interesting conversation when Obama meets the British Envoy.

"Hello Mr Envoy"

"Hello President Obama. Sorry about squeezing your grandfather's testicles between metal rods and jabbing his fingers and buttocks with pins."

" Umm ok"
.

[Jade 406]

Let's talk about torture.

Sometimes it's useful, face it. For example, the Mumbai massacre. They caught just one of the terrorists and you can bet he was tortured. And he should have been. They needed information from him. Who was responsible, what other attacks were planned, etc.

Can anyone dispute that lone terrorist should not have tortured?

[NappyRoots100]

first I have not heard one way or the other whether the captive was tortured or not. until we know for sure and find out what if anything he had to say that was of some value it would be pointless to speculate. i refer back to the interrogator who wrote in the wasington post this week that the torturing of iraqis has caused an untold amount of deaths of us soldiers and i believe that we, as human beings have lost way more than we have gained. torture as policy is just wrong--its too easy to cross over into the rampant abuse of those who simply disagree with the torturer's opinion, ie O's grandpa.

[avraamjack]

"Obama, with more pressing contemporary problems on his plate, is unlikely to be fixated on extracting revenge from the UK. But he may draw the broader historical conclusion that the imposition of torture and repressive violence has a habit of undermining the political legitimacy of world-class powers."

The USA lost its formerly legitimate claim to superiority when it allowed gang stalkers to openly and notoriously poison people.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=%22gang%20stalking%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Now any country that does not allow it can say "We are better".
.

[globalcitizenlinda]

Some of who know about the history of African countries are well aware of all the attocities committed against black people by their colonizers.

Kenya was at the center of Africa's struggle for indepence during its Mau Mau rebellion when the native Africans decided that they had to put a stop to foreign dominance.

Many people died and were tortured as they strived to break the chains of colonial oppression and there are many streets and musuems in African capitals commemorating the period during which people and natural resources where stolen from Africans and used to enrich western capitals

[gamoonbat]

The British jailed and tortured American revolutionaries as well. Will Barack Obama unite the dregs of the British Empire to rise up and seek reparations?

[smag]

Reparation­s=Extortio­n=Forget it

[DaisyDooks]

Hmm...but, it's only ok for j.e.w.s. and japanese to receive reparations?

[eden4barack08]

LOL. There goes the British tabloid.

This is so ridiculous, it's funny! Not the torture part, don't get me wrong, but to even say: "The Guardian questions how this new information will affect Obama's relationship with the UK ..."??
Oh goodness, the stupidity! Can you just imagine Obama, an American who never even knew his own father, much less his grandfather, suddenly taking revenge on Britain for torturing half the world's population, 70 some years ago?


Must be that c o lo nial, i m p e rialistic guilt the Br it ish feel for messing up half the world.

[luke150]

Journalists continue to amaze me. One doesn't have to have a tortured grandfather to believe that torture is wrong.

[michaelmik]

true. but it does personalize it.

[ThinkCreeps]

Well at least we know Obama's grandfather was nothing out of the ordinary.

[toypiano]

It's hard to imagine Obama having much of a reaction to this story, assuming it's true, except maybe to downplay it. I don't think he wants to be seen as being a righteous, angry black man on any level. He'll probably play it safe and if he says anything it'll be to parlay it into a general statement against torture or empire. Something that won't scare too many faint-hearted traditionalists (code for "racists"), since he seems to be quite concerned with their opinions.

[dissanayake]

Is Abu Graib or Guantanamo any different? British or Americans, torture is torture, even when our
dear leader says "We Dont Torture"

[Jezreel]

"The Guardian questions how this new information will affect Obama's relationship with the UK and view of interrogation techniques­."

Geez. The Guardian must be having a lot of slow news days since the election is over. Better to create a narrative than to have no narrative at all, I guess.

[panchovilla]

That's definitely not grounds to drop a nuclear bomb in London, but we should at least expel the British ambassador in Washington.

[harrymellon]

Typical Anglo-American brutality.

[mayfly0]

Yes, I am British, Diffinately sounds like the old British regime. I hope they have got past this now.

[db572]

Like Obama really cared about his other side of his family! He allowed his half-brother to live off a $1 a week in Kenya. He didn't even know his Aunt was living in Public housing in Boston.

[FebM]

How about his Kenya family owing him for all the 45yrs they abandoned him? His father was a Harvard graduate in 1964 but chose not to support him. Obama is his own person, an American and owes nothing to anyone like everyone else.

[db572]

Exactly! So why was the media so bent on selling us this Historic theme of the 1st African-American to be elected President? He was not raised by blacks!

[Aviewpoint]

What’s this obsession with Obama’s family in Kenya? PE Obama is an American just like the past presidents - I didn't see happen to them...