Obama as we knew him… man and boy

Indonesia 1969: Rully Dasaad — After Barack’s parents split up, he moved with his mother and Indonesian stepfather to Jakarta, aged seven, where he befriended classmate Dasaad – now a commercial photographer – at Basuki Primary School.

When the teacher introduced ‘Barry Soetoro’ [Obama went by his stepfather's name at the time] to the class, he was very exotic. He was the only non-Indonesian; he was taller than all of us and chubby. He was accompanied by his white mum and his Indonesian stepfather, who was wearing a military outfit, and I remember thinking, that’s strange, he looks half black, half white – maybe this is what a boy from Hawaii looks like.

   Barack Obama as a student in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1990.

He wore Bermuda pants that extended below the knee, whereas our short pants were halfway down our thigh, and he wore T-shirts with stripes whereas ours were plain. He was the only left-handed student in class – it’s not considered polite in Indonesia to be left-handed – so it was always amazing to see him writing with his left hand.

| READ MORE |