President Barack Obama

The 44th presidency of the United States of America is now held by man who has unwittingly become the most famous native son of Hawaii. Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at the Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Obama, Sr., of Nyangoma-Kogelo, Siaya District, Kenya, and Ann Dunham, of Wichita, Kansas. His parents met whilst attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was enrolled as a foreign student. The marriage lasted only a few years and when Barack was just two years old his parents separated and soon after divorced.

Following the divorce, in 1967, Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, married Lolo Seotoro, an Indonesian national, and the family moved to his home in Jakarta. Obama attended local schools in Jakarta until he was ten years when he returned to Honolulu to pursue better educational opportunities available in Hawaii. He lived with his maternal grandparents and was later joined by his mother.

Obama was enrolled in the fifth grade at the prestigious Punahou School
Punahou High School . An exclusive college-preparatory school, Punahou's majority population was Asian-American and Obama found himself one of only three Black students attending. In an American school, Obama first became aware of racism and what it means to be an African-American. At this point, his father came to visit him and his family; it was the last time that Obama would see him before his father's death in a car accident in 1982.

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