Obama's half brother recalls their 'abusive' father

GUANGZHOU, China (AP) -- President Barack Obama's half-brother has finally spoken out, discussing his new, semi-autobiographical novel...

TheGrio Staff

Nov 4, 2009

GUANGZHOU, China (AP) — President Barack Obama’s half-brother has finally spoken out, discussing his new, semi-autobiographical novel.

It’s the story of an abusive parent patterned on their late father, the mostly absent figure Obama wrote about in his own memoir.

In his first interview, Mark Ndesandjo (nuh-SAHN’-joh) tells The Associated Press that he wrote “Nairobi to Shenzhen” in part to raise awareness of domestic violence.

He says he and his mother were beaten by their father “and you don’t do that.” His mother was Barack Obama Sr.’s third wife.

For the past seven years, Ndesandjo has been living in the booming southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, and has refused all interview requests until now.

The novel is on sale today by the self-publishing company Aventine Press.

President Obama’s parents separated two years after he was born in Hawaii in 1961.