by Janny Scott
First and foremost, there is Ann Dunham’s family. I could not have begun to understand her childhood and the lives of her parents without the cooperation and openness of Charles Payne, Arlene Payne, Jon Payne, and Ralph Dunham. I do not underestimate the magnitude of what I asked of Maya Soetoro-Ng, whose memories and insights were a gift, bestowed with a graceful balance of candor, loyalty, and discretion. I am indebted, too, to her brother for having made the time to talk with me in the White House and for the frankness and feeling with which he did it.
In Hawaii, Alice Dewey, an inspiration to generations of anthropologists, shared with me her infectious passion for Java, her wide-ranging wisdom, and countless letters and papers. Garrett and Bron Solyom gave me access to Ann’s field notebooks and other papers, meticulously archived by Bron. They fed me, gave me a place to work, and explained mysteries of Java that they surely doubted I would ever comprehend. Marguerite Robinson, in Brookline, Massachusetts, gave me a brilliant tutorial in the development of microfinance in Indonesia, as well as invaluable introductions to her former colleagues at Bank Rakyat Indonesia.
In Jakarta, I am especially thankful to Agus Rachmadi of Bank Rakyat Indonesia for serving as my guide to the bank, and to Kamardy Arief, the former chief executive officer. Made Suarjana took time away from his job to travel from East Kalimantan to Yogyakarta and spend several days with me there and in Kajar and other villages where Ann worked. Julia Suryakusuma shared with me her wonderfully illuminating correspondence with Ann. John McGlynn, the American writer and translator of Indonesian literature, took me on an unforgettable walk through one of the last neighborhoods that resemble Jakarta as Ann found it in 1967. Taluki Sasmitarsi accompanied me to villages and markets, and took me all over Yogyakarta on the backseat of her motorbike.
Kris Hartadi, pressed into service at the last minute after another translator was quarantined in Singapore during the H1N1 pandemic, did two consecutive days of simultaneous interpreting in Yogyakarta. Tita Suhartono and Yan Matius in Jakarta helped with research and gave me invaluable practical advice. In the United States, Alan M. Stevens, one of the two coauthors of A Comprehensive Indonesian-English Dictionary, generously translated documents, proofread my manuscript, and enlightened me about such things as Indonesian orthography and honorifics.
At the Ford Foundation in New York, Tony Maloney and Marcy Goldstein made it possible for me to read dozens of grant files in the foundation’s archives. In Kansas, Kim Baker combed the public record for clues to the lives of Ann Dunham’s forebears. Michael J. Rosenfeld, author of The Age of Independence: Interracial Unions, Same-Sex Unions, and the Changing American Family (Harvard University Press, 2007), supplied me with statistics on interracial marriage. In New York, Steven Rattazzi kept my computer running and made my manuscript look flawless. Catherine Talese secured permission to use certain photographs. Jill Bokor and Sandy Smith made available a serene and sunlit aerie in which to write.
At The New York Times, Bill Keller, Jill Abramson, and Dick Stevenson gave me the opportunity to write at length about Barack Obama, starting in the spring of 2007, not long after he declared his candidacy, and continuing for a year. Rebecca Corbett, who edited those articles, did not flinch when I proposed a detour to consider the candidate’s mom. On the basis of that article, Sarah McGrath at Riverhead Books proposed a book on Ann, and Riverhead gave me the time and the means to research her life in depth. Sarah proved to be as incisive and supportive an editor as one could possibly hope. I am grateful to Geoff Kloske at Riverhead, and to Sarah Stein. Scott Moyers of the Wylie Agency inspired utter confidence that nothing could go awry. Arthur Gelb, the former managing editor of The New York Times, encouraged the project from its very beginning.
Mia and Owen Ritter, who have taught me much of what little I understand about being a mother, tolerated my absences, took an interest in my work, and provided joy and comic relief. As for Joe Lelyveld, to whom I am indebted in too many ways to count, I will say here simply that he gave me unfailingly wise advice, perfectly grilled sardines, great happiness, and best of all, himself.
Notes
Works cited in brief in the Notes are cited in full in the Bibliography.
PROLOGUE
Page
6 modernized the spelling: The spelling of certain Indonesian words changed after Indonesia gained its independence from the Dutch in 1949, and again under a 1972 agreement between Indonesia and Malaysia. Dj, as in Djakarta, was replaced with J, as in Jakarta. The letter J, as in Jogjakarta, became Y, as in Yogyakarta. Names containing oe, such as Soeharto, are now often spelled with a u, as in Suharto. However, older spellings are still used in some personal names. Both “Soeharto” and “Suharto” are used for the name of the former president of Indonesia. After her divorce from Lolo Soetoro, Ann Dunham Soetoro kept his last name for a number of years while she was still working in Indonesia, but she changed the spelling to Sutoro. Their daughter, Maya Soetoro-Ng, chose to keep the traditional spelling of her Indonesian surname.
7 “the single constant”: Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father, xii.
7 put those values to work: Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope, 205–206.
8 “I gave you an interesting life”: Interview with President Obama, July 21, 2010.
CHAPTER ONE. DREAMS FROM THE PRAIRIE
For the history of Kansas, I am indebted to Craig Miner, a professor of history at Wichita State University, and to his book, Kansas: The History of the Sunflower State, 1854–2000. For the history of Butler County, I received invaluable help from Lisa Cooley, the curator of education at the Butler County History Center and Kansas Oil Museum in El Dorado, and from Jay M. Price, an associate professor of history at Wichita State University and the author of El Dorado: Legacy of an Oil Boom. I benefited by reading Augusta, Kansas 1868–1990, by Burl Allison Jr., in the Augusta public library, and an unpublished paper, “The Klan in Butler County,” by Roxie Olmstead, on file in the Butler County History Center library. Kim Baker, a researcher based in Topeka, combed newspaper archives and public records for the history of the Dunham and Payne families. Most of what I have written about the early lives of Stanley Dunham and Madelyn Payne came from long interviews with his brother, Ralph Dunham, and her siblings, Charles, Arlene, and Jon Payne. A cousin of the Paynes, Margaret McCurry Wolf, also helped me with family history. Clarence Kerns, Mack Gilkeson, and Virginia Ewalt, contemporaries of Stanley Dunham and Madelyn Payne, helped me understand the place and time in which they grew up. Ian Dunham, the grandson of Ralph Dunham, gave me valuable guidance.
17 grasshoppers blanketed the ground: Burl Allison Jr., Augusta, Kansas 1868–1990 (Hillsboro, KS: Multi Business Press, 1993).
18 planted with kaffir corn: Jay M. Price, El Dorado: Legacy of an Oil Boom.
26 “dabbling in moonshine, cards, and women”: Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father, 14.
30 campaign weakened the Klan: Jack Wayne Traylor, “William Allen White’s 1924 Gubernatorial Campaign,” Kansas Historical Quarterly, 42, no. 2, 180–191.
37 “‘He looks like a wop’ ”: Obama, Dreams from My Father, 14.
41 The transformation had begun: Martin Shingler, “Bette Davis Made Over in Wartime: The Feminization of an Androgynous Star in Now, Voyager (1942),” Film History, 20 (2008), 269–280.
42 “One of Gramps’s less judicious ideas”: Obama, Dreams from My Father, 19.
CHAPTER TWO. COMING OF AGE IN SEATTLE
This chapter is based largely on interviews and correspondence with Marilyn McMeekin Bauer, Susan Botkin Blake, Maxine Hanson Box, Bill Byers, John Hunt, Elaine Bowe Johnson, Stephen McCord, Jane Waddell Morris, Marilyn O’Neill, Raleigh Roark, Iona Stenhouse, Jim Sullivan, Kathy Powell Sullivan, Chip Wall, Jim Wichterman, and Linda Hall Wylie. I also interviewed Thomas Farner and Judy Farner Ware, whose late sister, Jackie Farner, was a friend of Stanley Ann’s. On the subject of Madelyn and Stanley Dunham during this period, I am again indebted to their siblings Charles Payne, Arlene Payne, Jon Payne,
and Ralph Dunham. The Reverend Dr. Peter J. Luton, senior minister at East Shore Unitarian Church, helped me with the history of the church, as did Judy Ware. The account of the case against John Stenhouse is based on information from his daughter, Iona, and on contemporaneous reporting in The Seattle Times.
71 “my grandfather forbade her”: Obama, Dreams from My Father, 16.
CHAPTER THREE. EAST-WEST
For statistics on Hawaii in 1960, I relied on the State of Hawaii Data Book, published in 1967 by the Department of Planning and Economic Development. On the University of Hawai‘i and the East-West Center, I read several years’ worth of issues of the student newspaper, Ka Leo O Hawai‘i, and back issues of Impulse, a magazine published later by East-West Center grant recipients. At the East-West Center, I received help from Karen Knudsen, director of the Office of External Affairs; Derek Ferrar, a media relations specialist; and Phyllis Tabusa, a research information specialist. Jeannette “Benji” Bennington, now retired from the center, provided invaluable insight and stories. Mia Noguchi, director of public relations for the university, and Stuart Lau, the registrar, helped me with statistics and facts. I benefited from interviews with former students, including Bill Collier, Gerald Krausse, Sylvia Krausse, Jeanette Takamura, Mark Wimbush and Pake Zane. On the subject of the Dunham family, I drew on interviews with Charles, Arlene, and Jon Payne; Ralph Dunham, and Maya Soetoro-Ng. I also used information from interviews with Marilyn Bauer, Maxine Box, Bill Byers, Takeshi Harada, Renske Heringa, Richard Hook, John Hunt, Kay Ikranagara, Kadi Warner, and Linda Hall Wylie. On the subject of Lolo Soetoro, I spoke with Benji Bennington, Bill Collier, Gerald and Sylvia Krausse, Kismardhani S-Roni, Maya Soetoro-Ng, Trisulo, Sonny Trisulo, and Pete Vayda. For the account of the events of September 30, 1965, and afterward in Indonesia, I am indebted to Adam Schwarz’s A Nation in Waiting: Indonesia’s Search for Stability and Adrian Vickers’s A History of Modern Indonesia.
80 “Gramps’s relationship with my mother”: Obama, Dreams from My Father, 21.
81 Russian language class: Ibid., 9.
81 He had been flown to the United States: Michael Dobbs, “Obama Overstates Kennedys’ Role in Helping His Father,” The Washington Post, March 30, 2008, A1.
81 received “invitations to campus”: Ka Leo O Hawai‘i, October 8, 1959, 3.
82 interview in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Honolulu Star-Bulletin, November 28, 1959, 5.
82 “If the people cannot rule themselves”: “First African Enrolled in Hawaii Studied Two Years by Mail,” Ka Leo O Hawai‘i, October 8, 1959, 3.
85 “many things I didn’t understand”: Obama, Dreams from My Father, 10.
86 “There’s no record of a real wedding”: Ibid., 22.
86 left in late June: Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 20, 1962, 7.
86 “No mention is made”: Obama, Dreams from My Father, 26–27.
89 little thought to black people: Ibid., 18.
89 encountered race hatred: Ibid., 19–20.
90 “the condition of the black race”: Ibid., 21.
90 Obama only imagines their reaction: Ibid., 17–18.
91 “I am a little dubious”: David Mendell, Obama: From Promise to Power (New York: Amistad, 2007), 29.
91 “weren’t happy with the idea”: Obama, Dreams from My Father, 125.
92 “he didn’t want the Obama blood sullied”: Ibid., 126.
93 “grande dame of escrow”: Dan Nakaso, “Obama’s Tutu a Hawaii Banking Female Pioneer,” Honolulu Advertiser, March 30, 2008.
99 Like some Javanese: Indonesians are addressed by their first name, usually preceded by a title—never by their last name, if they have one. The Indonesian equivalent of Mr. is Bapak, meaning “father,” or its abbreviated form, Pak, as in Pak Soetoro. The title is an expression of respect for age, position, and other attributes. Sometimes the name is shortened, as in Pak Harto for Soeharto. The equivalent of Mrs. is Ibu, meaning “mother” or “married woman,” or Bu, as in Bu Ann. However, because I have written this book in English and many of the names are Western, I have tended to use, for consistency’s sake and where possible, surnames on subsequent references. For family members of Ann Dunham, I have often used first names.
100 “beyond her parents’ reach”: Obama, Dreams from My Father, 42.
102 “choked with bodies”: Adam Schwarz, A Nation in Waiting, 21.
102 “one of the worst mass murders”: Ibid., 20.
103 married on March 5, 1964: Date given on passport application filled out by Ann Dunham in early 1980s, from her personal papers.
CHAPTER FOUR. INITIATION IN JAVA
The description of Jakarta and Indonesia in the late 1960s and early 1970s and details of Ann’s life there come from interviews with Halimah Bellows, Halimah Brugger, Elizabeth Bryant, Bill Collier, Stephen des Tombes, Michael Dove, Rens Heringa, Ikranagara, Kay Ikranagara, Samardal Manan, Wahyono Martowikrido, John McGlynn, Saman, Garrett and Bronwen Solyom, Sumastuti Sumukti, and Yang Suwan. I also relied on A History of Modern Indonesia by Adrian Vickers and A Nation in Waiting by Adam Schwarz. On the subject of Ann’s employment, I am indebted to Irwan Holmes, Kay Ikranagara, Trusti Jarwadi, Leonard Kibble, Samardal Manan, Felina Pramono, Joseph Sigit, Sudibyo Siyam, and Stephen des Tombes. Information on the Institute for Management Education and Development also came from the archives of the Ford Foundation. For the facts of Lolo’s work, I relied on his brother-in-law, Trisulo, and on Sonny Trisulo, Lolo’s nephew. Insight into Ann as a parent came from her children as well as from Richard Hook, Kay Ikranagara, Don Johnston, Saman, Julia Suryakusuma, and Kadi Warner, among others.
108 “join in the killings”: Adrian Vickers, A History of Modern Indonesia, 158.
111 Indonesia’s Prague Spring: Schwarz, A Nation in Waiting, 33.
115 “The Indonesian businessmen”: Obama, Dreams from My Father, 43.
124 “They are not my people”: Ibid., 47.
124 Ann’s loneliness was a constant: Ibid., 42–43.
126 “power had taken Lolo”: Ibid., 45.
128 “She loved to take children”: Obama, The Audacity of Hope, 205.
129 “you’re going to need some values”: Obama, Dreams from My Father, 49.
129 ideal human virtues: Koentjaraningrat, Javanese Culture, 122.
133 “I was an American, she decided”: Obama, Dreams from My Father, 47.
133 “no picnic for me either, buster”: Ibid., 48.
134 “in Hawaii very soon—a year, tops”: Ibid., 54.
134 “never would have made the trip”: Obama, The Audacity of Hope, 273.
CHAPTER FIVE. TRESPASSERS WILL BE EATEN
For the details of Ann’s 1973 bus trip, I relied on her letter to Bill Byers and interviews with Jon Payne and Arlene Payne. The information on Ann’s life as a graduate student came from Benji Bennington, Evelyn Caballero, Alice Dewey, Mendl Djunaidy, Ben Finney, Jean Kennedy, John Raintree, Garrett and Bronwen Solyom, Kadi Warner, and Brent Watanabe. For the sections on her experiences in Jakarta and Yogyakarta in the mid-1970s, I spoke with Rens Heringa, Terence Hull, Kay Ikranagara, Wahyono Martowikrido, Nancy Peluso, and Maya Soetoro-Ng. I also had access to some of Ann’s academic records and correspondence with Alice Dewey.
143 “‘You two will become great friends’”: Obama, Dreams from My Father, 64.
143 Obama’s account of his father’s Christmas visit: Ibid., 67–69.
146 baking cookies was not at the top: Ibid., 75.
149 Her most important market informants: Alice G. Dewey, Peasant Marketing in Java, xiv.
150 “the best and most comprehensive study”: Koentjaraningrat, Javanese Culture, 176.
154 Her interest was function: Bronwen Solyom, Symposium on Ann Dunham, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, September 12, 2008.
155 “was interested in the place where vision meets execution”: Maya Soetoro-Ng, foreword to S. Ann Dunham, Surviving Against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia, ix–x.
156 course in entrepr
eneurship: Interview with Mendl W. Djunaidy, associate dean, East-West Center, October 7, 2008.
157 “I immediately said no”: Obama, Dreams from My Father, 76–77.
CHAPTER SIX. IN THE FIELD
Most of the material in this chapter comes from Ann Dunham’s field notes, proposals, papers, and drafts, and the unpublished version of her dissertation, “Peasant Blacksmithing in Indonesia: Surviving and Thriving Against All Odds.” I also drew on Garrett and Bronwen Solyom’s writings on the Javanese kris; correspondence between Ann Dunham and Alice Dewey, and a 1974 edition of Guide to Java by Peter Hutton and Hans Hoefer. I used material from interviews with Clare Blenkinsop, Nancy Cooper, Alice Dewey, Michael Dove, Maggie Norobangun, President Obama, John Raintree, Khismardani S-Roni, Taluki Sasmitarsi, Maya Soetoro-Ng, the Solyoms, Sumarni and Djaka Waluja, and from e-mails written by Haryo Soetendro.
172 Clifford Geertz confessed: Richard Bernstein, “Anthropologist, Retracing Steps After 3 Decades, Is Shocked by Change,” The New York Times, May 11, 1988.
173 part-time unpaid cottage-industry workers: S. Ann Dunham, “Women’s Work in Village Industries on Java,” unpublished paper from the 1980s.
175 But Ann intended to expand the concept: Ann Dunham, “Occupational Multiplicity as a Peasant Strategy,” early draft of dissertation.
176 sounds of forging: S. Ann Dunham, “Peasant Blacksmithing in Indonesia: Surviving and Thriving Against All Odds,” unpublished dissertation, 1992, 499.
183 One scene of Pak Sastro and his wife: Ibid., 556–560.
184 “men of Kajar are fated”: Ibid., 495.