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U K L Lee
(Ukulele)
Lolo Soetoro
Lolo Soetoro Mangunharjo
Lolo Soetoro Mangundikardjo
Barack Obama's
Step-dad
The one who paid the
bills,
slept with his
mother, and "brought
him up" as a liberal
Muslim
WIKIPEDIA
Lolo Soetoro, also known as Lolo Soetoro Mangunharjo
or Mangundikardjo
(EYD:
Lolo Sutoro) (Javanese: [ˈlɒlɒ
suːˈtɒrɒː]; 2 January 1935
− 2 March 1987), was the
Indonesian
step-father of
Barack Obama, the 44th
President of the United States.
Early life and education
"Born in
Bandung,
West
Java,
Dutch East Indies (now
Indonesia), Soetoro was the ninth of ten children of Martodihardjo,
who was an employee of a mining office from
Yogyakarta.
Soetoro's father and eldest brother were killed during the
Indonesian National Revolution, when Indonesia won independence from
the Dutch, and the Dutch army burned the family's home. Soetoro fled
with his mother to the countryside."
"Soetoro earned his
bachelor's degree in
geography from
Gadjah Mada University, in
Yogyakarta.
In 1962, Soetoro, then a civilian employee of the
Indonesian Army Topographic Service, obtained an
East-West Center grant for graduate study in geography at the
University of Hawaii at Manoa.
He arrived in
Honolulu in September 1962 and graduated from the university with a
M.A. in geography in June 1964."
Marriage to
Ann Dunham
"After living in
Seattle,
Washington, with her infant son Barack from September 1961 to June
1962 while taking classes at the
University of Washington,
Ann Dunham returned to Honolulu and resumed her undergraduate
education at the University of Hawaii in January 1963.
In January 1964 she filed for divorce
from her estranged husband,
Barack Obama Sr., who had left Hawaii in June 1962 to pursue
graduate study at
Harvard University."
"Soetoro and Dunham met at the East-West Center while both were
students at the University of Hawaii.
Soetoro and Dunham married in Hawaii on 15 March 1965.
Soetoro, a
geographer,
returned to
Indonesia in 1966,
to help map
Western New Guinea
for the Indonesian government, while Dunham and her son moved into her
parents' house in Honolulu to complete her studies at the University of
Hawaii;
she earned a
B.A. in
anthropology in 1967.
Her son attended kindergarten from 1966 to 1967 at
Noelani Elementary School in Honolulu."
"In 1967, Dunham and her six-year-old son moved to
Jakarta
to rejoin Soetoro.
The reunited family initially lived in a new modest stucco and red tile
house at 16 Kyai Haji Ramli Tengah Street in a newly built neighborhood
in the Menteng Dalam
administrative village of the
Tebet
subdistrict in
South Jakarta for two and a half years,
and owned a new Japanese motorcycle.
From January 1968 to December 1969, Dunham taught English and was an
assistant director of the Lembaga Persahabatan Indonesia Amerika (LIA)–the
Indonesia-America Friendship Institute–which was subsidized by U.S.
government.
Obama attended the Indonesian-language Santo Fransiskus Asisi (St.
Francis of Assisi) Catholic School around the corner from their house
for 1st, 2nd, and part of 3rd grade."
"In 1970, with his financial situation improved by a new job in
government relations
at
Union Oil Company,
Soetoro moved his family two miles north to a rented house at 22 Taman
Amir Hamzah Street in the Matraman Dalam neighborhood in the Pegangsaan
administrative village of the
Menteng
subdistrict in
Central Jakarta,
with a car replacing their motorcycle.
From January 1970 to August 1972, Dunham taught English and was a
department head and a director of the Lembaga Pendidikan dan
Pengembangan Manajemen (LPPM)–the Institute of Management Education and
Development.
Obama attended the Indonesian-language government-run
Besuki School one and a half miles west in the exclusive
Menteng administrative village of the Menteng subdistrict for part
of 3rd grade and for 4th grade."
"In mid-1970, between 3rd and 4th grades at the Besuki School, Obama
spent the summer in Hawaii with his grandparents,
Stanley and
Madelyn Dunham, and interviewed for admission to the
Punahou School in Honolulu.
On 15 August 1970, Soetoro and Dunham had a daughter,
Maya Kassandra Soetoro."
"In mid-1971, Obama moved back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents
and attend Punahou School starting in 5th grade.
A year later, in August 1972, Dunham, with the help of her employer (LPPM),
obtained an
Asia Foundation grant to begin graduate study in anthropology at the
University of Hawaii at Manoa.
She and her daughter moved back to Hawaii where they rejoined Obama."
"Dunham completed her coursework at the University of Hawaii for a
M.A. in anthropology in December 1974,
and after three years in Hawaii, returned with her daughter to Jakarta
in 1975 to complete her contract with LPPM and do anthropological field
work.
Obama chose to stay with his grandparents in Hawaii to continue
attending Punahou School for high school.
In 1976, Dunham and her daughter moved to
Yogyakarta, living for half a year with Soetoro's 76-year-old
mother."
"During their years in Indonesia, Dunham became increasingly
interested in the country's culture, while Soetoro became more
interested in Western culture,
and their relationship was in conflict over differing values.
Their divorce became final on 6 November 1980."
"In his 1995 memoir
Dreams from My Father, Obama described Soetoro as well-mannered,
even-tempered, and easy with people; he wrote of the struggles he felt
Soetoro had to deal with after his return to Indonesia from Hawaii.
He described his stepfather as following "a brand of
Islam
that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu
faiths."
In a 2007 article,
Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent Kim Barker reported that
Soetoro "was much more of a free spirit than a devout Muslim, according
to former friends and neighbors."
Later life
"Soetoro married Erna Kustina in 1980 and had two children, a son,
Yusuf Aji Soetoro (born 1981), and daughter, Rahayu Nurmaida Soetoro
(born 1987).
"Soetoro died, age 52, on 2 March 1987, of liver failure,
and was buried in Tanah Kusir Cemetery,
South Jakarta."
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