Habiba Akumu Obama

Barack Obama is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a member of the Democratic Party and was the first African-American president in U.S. history.

Obama is the son of Stanley Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in 1942 and was an anthropologist specializing in economic anthropology and rural development. She earned her PhD from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and worked with organizations such as the United States Agency for International Development, the Ford Foundation, and Women's World Banking to promote microcredit programs aimed at reducing global poverty. Dunham was a significant influence in Obama's early years. She passed away in 1995.

His father, Barack Obama Sr., was born in 1936 in Kenya. He was a Kenyan of Luo descent and studied in the United States in the 1960s, where he met Dunham. Obama Sr. worked as an economist and returned to Kenya after his studies.

Obama was raised primarily by his maternal grandparents, Stanley Armour Dunham and Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham. His maternal grandfather, Stanley Armour Dunham, served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army during World War II and later worked in the clothing business. He passed away in 1992 and is buried at the Punchbowl National Cemetery in Honolulu. His maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, worked in banking and became vice president of a bank in Hawaii. She was born in 1922 and died in 2008. Obama has described Dunham as a dominant figure during his formative years.

Obama's maternal heritage includes mostly English ancestry, with additional German, Scotch-Irish, Welsh, and Swiss roots. In 2012, genealogy research suggested that Obama is likely descended from the African slave John Punch through his mother's Bunch lineage, with further ancestral lines of African Americans who married white landowners in colonial Virginia.

He has a younger sister, Maya Soetoro-Ni, and a half-sister, Auma Obama, from his father's side, as well as a step-brother, George Obama, and half-siblings from his father's extended family.

Obama attended Occidental College in Los Angeles before transferring to Columbia University in New York City, where he earned his undergraduate degree. He later graduated from Harvard Law School, becoming the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review.

In 1992, Barack Obama married Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, a lawyer, university administrator, and writer. Michelle was born on January 17, 1964, in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. After working at the law firm Sidley Austin, she served as associate dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago and as vice president for Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Michelle Obama served as the First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 and was involved in initiatives related to health, poverty, education, and military families.

Barack and Michelle Obama have two daughters: Malia Ann Obama, born July 4, 1998, and Natasha Marian "Sasha" Obama, born June 10, 2001. Both daughters attended Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. Their childhood residence was in Chicago, where they were involved in activities such as soccer, dance, drama, gymnastics, tap dancing, piano, and tennis.

During his presidency, Obama and his family resided in the White House. The family adopted two Portuguese Water Dogs, Bo and Sunny, to serve as pets and companions. Malia Obama has engaged in internships and creative projects, including working on a television series and a short film. Sasha Obama graduated from Sidwell Friends in 2019, then attended the University of Michigan, transferred to the University of Southern California, and graduated in 2023.

Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, resided with the Obama family in the White House throughout Barack Obama's presidency and passed away in 2018.