Being Barack Obama's brother: George Obama in the slums | VPRO Documentary | 2013

you [Music] all people also respect you a lot because your brother is the President of the United States what happened when he became president for you so blessed means of course it skips you them constantly famous and the same time you want well your private life did change your life have altered yeah that's across you can't just be brothers and sisters you don't get to choose them but your family bond lasts a lifetime I'm not in the shadow Jimmy I'm in the shade sometimes they are your trusted friends sometimes they are arrival to NASA Branson has the richest brother in the world nobody it doesn't give me any money [Music] Obama very classic but what is it like when your brother or sister is a megastar an icon this week George Obama brother to rock a Nairobi the city the city of Kenya now we have very many corn and you can get like one land is home to 10 people ok so it's better up country the land is there you don't take it with anybody [Music] many happy George Obama the youngest half-brother of Barack Obama when he was born in I rode into an affluent middle-class family but now he lives in the slums of this gigantic city since his brother became the president of the United States George has been quite busy the people in his slum come to him for advice and counsel after all he's an Obama and he has white friends like Kevin the playwright from England you never know what his connections with the White House could lead to no I don't pray to the back baby no I don't pray five times a day to the Big Bang no I mean you know I've been upfront about this before you know I'm gonna completely respect you know the only thing Christians and Muslims differ on is really peanuts cause um this would be one this is only one good which means you've cornered God you'll call him Allah you'll call him your side so to the world's problems it's not straightforward yeah I was supposed to Middle East all about [Music] Sanga whole tonga program is they call him the president of the slums in any case the name Obama does help to bring in some money together with cousin Raja Obama and his friend Adan George is trying to set up the Obama Foundation to help the slums orphans because children in Haruma should also be able to swim fence and skate [Music] why don't you tell you what's up living more than you come across a Dan has known George since he was 15 when both of them were still gangsters he recalls how George's life changed the moment his brother became president after the brother came the President of the United States it's like he started being getting famous people now want to know who is George everybody when he looks at him George Obama you see who is now famous you can notice that in the area as well yeah yeah everywhere we go people ask is that George Obama yeah everybody want to know him it's very difficult even sometimes when he walks around we call him George Obama and see everybody screaming to him I think that's unfair to him maybe by by being with him it may it may help me and help what I'm doing that's why I'm coming closer closer to him so if we work together I think what we are doing many people between you and we will get help [Music] [Music] you had to occur you see me Madonna fan on a common happened when I needed to borrow money here [Music] but it's all quite incredible just like the fact that his brother became president in the first place tonight is a particular honor for me because let's face it my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely my father was a foreign student born and raised in a small village in Kenya he grew up herding goats went to school in a tin roof Shack his father my grandfather was a cook a domestic servant to the British but my grandfather had larger dreams for his son through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place America that shone as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before [Applause] it's almost a Shakespearean drama one of the brothers is the most powerful man in the world and the other lives in between the world's poorest how is that possible Kevin feegan asked himself the same question when he first heard of their story the British playwright traveled to Kenya for ten days he shadow George's every move in the slums he wrote Obama the Mamba which became a hint in the London theatres and Georgian Kevin became friends for life what does he do in the community on the surface it looks like nothing you know he wanders about but you know Georgia Varma wandering about in the slums is you know is a force he he tries to you know use the he tries to use the Obama name for some good in that in those communities so you know he'll do what he can to help others and you can see it's genuine you can see it's genuine from not just witnessing it first town and as high up but from the response of his close friends they they really love him and they care for him and he you know he needs caring for because you know he's a troubled character he hurts what's his troubled future he's a trouble character because being the brother of the most powerful man in the world is a blessing and it's a curse and he has to do with both whites and blessing it's a blessing because that can bring you attention it can bring you money can bring you power then it's a curse because there's a huge expectation on your shoulders to deliver what are you gonna deliver you've got the name you're the big man you know come on deliver and thus you know that is a difficult thing to live with [Music] [Music] lucky Sam tomorrow you sassani me ganja on a fever i skeeve easily do this dish now - lucky - neow - neow me cool for the day here Oh lolli sit for lasted 20 sin oficio for developer for college nah yeah no fan Nana was Ozzy assigned you could've left I act when I knew you I see what will be drawn beautiful [Music] because I'm the main time at a meaningful don't you dare come short of caution so we see what it'll do [Music] George's neighbor takes care of her orphaned grandchild but there are also many orphans without grandmas that wonder the slums and small groups surviving on their neighbours charity [Music] at nighttime they sleep in their own little Hut sharing one mattress between 10:00 George tells us what is it time to box there are various kinds of boxes disrespecting all the people that have died from serious illness Raja Obama is George's cousin his mother Aunt Sarah is George and Barack's father's sister their father had four wives Barack was born out of his marriage with an American woman they got Barack Obama jr. who is now the president of the u.s. George is the last son out of his marriage with an African woman give birth to two judge while George is far too pursued a career overseas his sister settled in Nairobi slums and that's how the Obamas ended up here but in those days this world was still a lot less chaotic and less vast Kenya's population has doubled in the last 20 years and in 30 years the slums have grown into a complex lovey rend of narrow streets and huts garbage dumps abattoirs supermarkets car washes shops bars cemeteries and anything else supposed to may need in a city and the noise never stops but when you live here you grow used to it George has even come to love it the people he cares about most live here like Aunt Sarah but she passed away George never really knew his father but cousin Rajah who is older than George did Barack Obama senior is his role model he managed to go to school he managed to go to Harvard University yeah there's a time we used to out relates to what my uncle was able to achieve and when an opportunity came I was about my scholarship and I was saying wow now I'll be like my uncle and he was an economist and I say no I don't want to do any other thing I want to be an economist George II know he would be your role model as a as a young boy he died when I was six months old but my role model was my stepdad he was wait yeah but um when he abandoned us I missed my road mejor del and they turned to I decided to drop out of school hmm it wasn't a magic thing or something like that you know but I'm due to peer pressure I decided to turn to crime but crime led me to prison human they left his army he said it that he doesn't pay so it's like I'm a peer pressure is what it's really bad action because it led me to do things as I am as a young boy I never dreamt under hmm cuz I'm as an AM boy I dreamt of finishing University [Music] Prison is horrible you have lice endure the trilogy they sleep in a room left 140 people this little on the sides no mattress is no blog that's bogus actually that's what I'm made miracle worker from crime person that's going to be the life if they catch you here go there I can't they sit there for nine months and it was hectic [Music] they stood up people in prison survived you did yeah me how does their work know because not only money but what can you buy in prison food that's only think about the food is horrible how how do you buy food in prison do you buy it from the prison or the policeman between the gays walk in the kitchen you pay the money to get some more food yeah why don't they give you enough food because they also need money the prisoner has also need money so it's a cycle [Music] please you must refresh them because police can kill you anytime and we have shown so many people been killed and after there they put a gun there they say that we any time so you have to be afraid of them because you might not have grudges and mothers lizardy another boy was just smoking weed and then the police stopped him yeah I tried to stop him and the boys just started running he was afraid so yeah he was afraid of the police shot at him shot at him and then when he just lied down there they put a gun on the road I was carrying all that three of my friends yeah we never saw them they were arrested by police but up to now we never see the bodies so they can take him and then they kill you and they put the drill to a river where there is a lot of crocodiles there they eat me nobody will ever see George Obama lives in a country where people are told that criminals are fed to crocodiles where the same small patch of slum land is sold to ten different people where prisoners buy food with the money they steal from other prisoners and where country people send their children to the city to earn money in the abbatoirs of the biggest gold market in Kenya [Music] [Applause] [Music] once somebody I started seeing the blood when you get used to blood when it's effective mentally and that's why you see you had something sometimes a man was being killed here people get stabbed all that stuff the kids are they're used to blood so once even if he stabs you that it doesn't like him he sees it like um he thinks he's a goat or something you know he's used to blood all that stuff so it's like um it's something normal to them you know [Music] what entrustment is the whole accident of birth thing you know if George had been born into barracks life could he have become Barack Obama that's an interesting question if Barack Obama had been born into George's life could he have become George could he have been a gangster could he have been that reformed gangster character it's an interesting question you know all I want to do is put that question out there because he raises the nature-nurture that we get for accident of birth you know where you're born you don't choose where to be born or who you're born to that happens and then where do you go from there but that starting point matters a lot it matters a lot you tell the people of the developing world it doesn't matter that you're born in the first world it doesn't matter [Music] [Music] but I think what's been really great about this these few last few days is the way that you is emerged the common ground between you guys and it feels right that we should sit down and try and write a message to the world from a rumor hmm the phrase better die on your feet than die on your knees and actually that is the true reflection of what is happening you'd endorse not coming on very much that is true with most young boys yeah we've lost okay young girls not only on force institution and even they are even in crime that's why we try to get the kids out of there we'd rather sacrifice the little we have on them getting some education so it ran like um show them to do something but something that's productive I was thinking why not if we write up to the world idea but why not write a letter to Obama directly who's so famous before the letter reaches you it passes crayon appear on it passes through this guy I don't know Syria he's got it on he's got North Korea's got all that stuff sits and I come he should see it as reporting it then decide on what I don't let it's if I write to let it's like I'm begging I don't beg I don't bet banging it's addressing no it's not addressing it's a burden so how well do the brothers know each other George met his brother on two occasions once when he was 15 and once when Barack became senator and came to visit Kenya following a family reunion Barack invited George to a Nairobi hotel Barak wanted to exchange memories and talk about their father but when George arrived in the hotel he was told their appointment had to be cancelled an emergency meeting had suddenly come up you know as I look back I only you remember my father for one month my whole life when I was 10 and it wasn't until much later in life that I realized like he gave him my first basketball and it was shortly thereafter that I became this basketball fanatic and he took me to my first jazz concert and it was sort of shortly thereafter that I became really interested in jazz and music so so what it makes you realize is how much of an impact even if it's only even if it's only a month that they have on you but I think probably the most important thing was he his absence I think contributed to me really wanted to be a good dad because I think not having him there made me say to myself you know what I want to make sure that my girls feel like they've got somebody who they can rely on [Music] but aksinya is a very strict man yeah and if he would have had time with George I'm really sure that George could have been a very different person but also the positive thing which I can say George took from the father the father was a man of the people and even judges a man of the people hmm so that one I think it comes naturally SATA was the first I mean the firstborn so I'm sorry I was like um she has they come why don't you be like you find your father at the same time I was thinking uh this bullshit's is they need to be like my father nobody fun but I'm it reached a point where and I stood what she was saying and I stood up she really means what she's saying [Music] Sylva rockin George share a father that neither of them really knows but they also have the same grandmother the same aunts and uncles this turned the Roma slum that normally never sees a white face into an attraction for nosy journalists we'd even don't know how they traced this place but during that then the the next like two months this place was just you can't handle all over this all over big news news broadcasting stations they were coming here to get to know it well actually why is he here why are you here into a brother is it is a big man now [Music] and that's what happened when obama became president of the united states the international press found the younger brother in the nairobi scoffs some of them were just curious george told his story with pride he explained how he had seen his brother only twice but was certain they would meet again others used george to campaign against obama UI his rather has he been your keeper ask him he's got other issues to deal with he's taking care of the world but don't you start at home taking care of me a part of the world from that day George decided it would be best not to speak of it at all you know in America there is a huge anti Obama campaign and he's bankrolled you know the big money behind it because of the nature of politics in the USA is my understanding you know so you know people try to use George and have used George in the past as a weapon to to attack he's famous brother yeah there was a recent documentary film made called 2016 and Dinesh D'Souza who made the film he came over here in that George used George in a blatantly Hanteo bomber film and that film was bankrolled by anti-obama morning so yes that's just just one example UK journalists did the same for a national newspaper came over can grow a completely abusive article because he couldn't be asked to get to know the real person no in fact he hadn't got the skills he hadn't got the humanity to get to know the real person he didn't even care you can see that from the way these people treat him and write about him and then there is another thing having white friends and connections with the White House can also be dangerous the Nairobi slums don't get visited by white people so if they do come to see you it means you have something that the others don't have money here money makes you powerful but also vulnerable and lonely because no one else but imagine if you were the younger brother of the President of the United States and you lived in the Nairobi slums and imagine one day you decide to call him to write or to email what do you say where do you start what can you ask of him what should you talk about perhaps about the president of your own country who has been summoned to the Hague for violating human rights but that he doesn't really feel like it so decided not to go and his big head is displayed on Billboard's everywhere and that you could throw a rock against it but that no one would really do that over here that your friend Julius the photographer who also tries to help orphans has photographs of how things went badly wrong during 2007 elections and that it still tears him up to think about it I was working in Islam during that time and I saw a human being hand still it was very fresh and it was still doing like this and it was very shocking moment for me I've seen worse than that but that was crazy I saw a human being harm without the body and I saw another lady coming from top of the road screaming they have killed my baby they have killed my baby this arm was with watch on the arm and the what you're still going was working so well know and touched the watch no and took the watch off but the arm was there and suddenly I didn't know that this arm is one of my friends um so when I came to the main road I told some guys that there's a human being arm down there we need to collect it after the elections the people in the slums became divided people who shared the same faith started to fight against each other [Music] I'm gonna need any drama in order to minimize Aloha popularity may change at a new development agenda to make by the Machine Genesis hemos hecho una how much can a human being take in the days we spend with George he drinks a lot he tries his best but life has been hard on him his most cherished memories aravaan Sarah his father sister who always gave him shelter in her rumor when he was sent away from home as a punishment they came here as a young boy I was like 15 I was brought here like I'm for two weeks I go back home I do another mistake I'm not Jeff for electroweak so that's I am I think pretty much everyone knows me you've seen me since I was young but um I don't call her Auntie which is really like my mother not my auntie function was in my momma when my mom went abroad I came to stay I'm sorry I would cry [Music] do you think it's a coincidence that Barack Obama senior got two sons one in the White House and one in the Ramos lungs do you think it's just you know a coincidence or I have never not like I've said George chose third choice he had good opportunities it is his choice to be messed lamps because if he chose another path it could not have been in the slums we had the opportunities most people in the Western world forget about the slums and because George Obama is here yeah they're very curious and they even think that is abundant as why is suffering really they think that George is abundant much to me is his choice because they are the opportunities and they still have the opportunities do you discuss that with him yeah we do discussed we do discuss words I can tell you George is also a very difficult person he gets sometimes you get very stubborn yeah when if you tell him do these argue a lot you just argue a lot but at least I know how he handled it what would make George happy I know you like being with people when is with people is very happy when it goes in a place where is lonely this is not happy [Music] as much as sometimes the dream cuts he knows what at least is you know what to do they make her there's a time we come and play Scrabble and George is drunk drunk till still beat you that is very interesting yeah it's not very sharp when the final scores are given nil 66 beautiful points [Music] yeah I brought your gift and some good news that's the program for the player our show you can see the guy you played George in the original production how do you feel about Hollywood star playing you it's it's as a sponsor if it does well in the West End next year there's a real chance that it will transfer to Broadway and if it's on in Broadway then we need to apply to try and get you into the States and I know that's not as easy as it sounds but if we were to be successful in that and get you over would you be interested in coming over to do that well you would yeah I'm open to yeah I just think it would be an incredible moment for for you and Barack to meet again on Broadway I think that could be awesome how would you feel there's no way we can promise to deliver that of course yeah but yeah it would be a good thing to do with it ready to go yes do you remember it when he was in president yeah there must have been a big moment I mean for you as well yeah I was a fraud are you proud of him now yeah how long does it open did you meet him yeah what did you describe the first time you think that's possible you don't like to talk about him I don't talk about people who are not in the picture but why is that you could ask it go ask him but I have stuff yeah it's it's difficult for me to talk about someone it feels the gossip I'm kind of choosy because I don't know what the motives of the person coming to sing yeah I'm exhausted because we have I mean if you you met your brother twice I know because I read it in your book you had one question it's tons of 10 questions and I've answered but I'm not serious to know why you shouldn't tell me what he's like [Music] hello Louise America would you like to meet him again yeah yes he's no good [Music] [Music] there is no doubt that what Kenyans have accomplished since independence is both impressive and inspiring but for all the progress that's been made we must surely acknowledge that neither Kenya nor the African continent has yet fulfilled its potential [Music] [Music] ever since it's been a long a long time coming but I know change gonna come oh yes it will it's meant to but I'm afraid to die thank you for watching for more on this subject take a look at the playlist you can also watch this recommended video don't forget to subscribe to our Channel and we'll keep you updated on our documentaries [Music]

Channel: vpro documentary

Views: 5,562,757

Rating: 4.6349893 out of 5

Keywords: George Obama, Barack Obama, Barak Obama, Obama, Obama family, Obama siblings, Obama Africa, Obama slums, Obama Kenya, Obama interview, Obama Nairobi, Obama Nairobi slums, vpro, vpro documentary, Culture, president obama, obama sister, kenya, prince george obama, obama george prince

Id: M0XIBCGbtRU

Length: 44min 28sec (2668 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 13 2018