Sarah Onyango Obama

Sarah Onyango Obama is the paternal step-grandmother of Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama. She lives in Kenya, in Kogela village, 40 miles north of western Kenya's main town, Kisumu, on the edge of Lake Victoria.

Sarah Obama was the third wife of Obama's paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama. Although not her blood relation, Barack Obama calls her "Granny", since she had a large role in raising his father.

Sarah Obama was just 16 when she married Obama's grandfather, an older man who was her father's friend. Arranged marriages and obedience to husbands -- enforced by beatings, if necessary -- were the plight of Kenyan women of her generation, she explained in Obama's book.

Sarah Obama has publicly complained about the false reports that Barack Obama is a Muslim.
 
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