Otto English (né Andrew Scott) doesn’t like what he calls “fake history”. He hates it so much he has written a book called Fake History, wherein he tries to describe and debunk “ten great lies and how they shaped the world”. Of Winston Churchill, Mr. English writes
Hero-fashioning is all in the edit. Churchill the racist, Churchill the useless post-war leader and Churchill the suppressor of Irish, Kenyan and Indian freedom has to be left on the cutting room floor if the legend is to work” (English, Fake History, p.34)
However, in promoting this alternative Churchillian black
legend, Mr. English – like so many before him– has to resort to some careful
editing of his own. In their case, it involves adding debunked tall tales to
Churchill’s record. He writes:
On becoming President of the United States in 2009, one of Barack Obama’s first acts was to remove a bust of Churchill from the Oval Office. At the time he claimed he was simply returning it to its original place elsewhere in the White House. But it cannot have been a coincidence that Obama’s own grandfather was a survivor of what has been dubbed “Britain’s gulag” in 1950s Kenya during Churchill’s second term of office as Prime Minister” (English, Fake History, pp.33-34).
English doesn’t give any citations for this claim (at least in the version I am reading). But I can’t really blame him. It has been reported time and time again that Obama removed the bust of Churchill from the Oval Office. It has been alleged that he did this because he disliked Churchill because his paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama had been imprisoned and tortured in colonial Kenya while Churchill was Prime Minister. It’s common knowledge, right
Wrong. Shockingly the book Fake History contains some
fake history of its own. There are several problems with this theory:
Problem #1: Obama Actually Likes Churchill
Not much else to say here. Obama is reported as saying “I love Winston Churchill. Love the guy.” He has also quoted Churchill (or claimed to quote Churchill) several times throughout his Presidency.
Problem #2: Churchill was Not Kicked Out of the White House
Well, not entirely. In 2001 then-President George W. Bush
received a loan of a Jacob Epstein bust from the British Embassy in Washington
DC. This loan expired in 2008 and the incoming administration did not take up
an offer to extend the loan. However, another bust of Churchill, in the Treaty
Room, remained in the White House throughout Obama’s term of office. Obama said
he saw it every single day he was working there:
Problem #3: The Return of the Bust was Expected and had Nothing to do with Churchill Per Se
Obama, being an African American, thought it was appropriate
that he honour the memory of people who struggled and gave their lives for the
rights of African Americans. Initially, it was reported that Obama was making
space for a bust of Abraham Lincoln but then later it was reported that he was making space for Martin Luther King Jr. This
seems pretty reasonable to me, and it takes a very Anglo-centric
person to regard this reason as a slight on either Britain or Churchill. The British Ambassador at the time did not regard it as a dig at Britain:
Sir Peter Westmacott, who next month finishes his stint as British ambassador to “the single most important country in the world”, says the bust was only ever on loan as a personal gift from Tony Blair to George W Bush for the duration of his presidency.
“So, to be honest, we always expected that to leave the Oval Office just like everything else that a president has tends to be changed,” he explained in a valedictory interview with the Guardian. “Even the carpet is usually changed when the president changes.”
Unfortunately, you can only have so many busts before the
Oval Office furniture looks untidy.
Problem #4: Obama’s Grandfather Probably Wasn’t Imprisoned
For all the times this story has been repeated you’d think journalists
would, I dunno, check the veracity of the claim that Hussein Onyango Obama was
imprisoned. David Maraniss, in his biography of Barack Obama, noted that that
numerous associates of Onyango Obama denied that he was ever imprisoned or
tortured.
[I]n its specifics the story seems unlikely. There are no remaining records of any detention, imprisonment or trial of Hussein Onyango Obama. Sarah did not witness any of it, and she is the only person to offer details. While there would be no obvious reason for her to contrive such a tale, her accuracy on other matters that can be documented is uneven. She speaks only in Luo, knowing some Swahili and no English, so her quotes are dependent upon the inclinations of the interpreter. And five people who had close connections to Hussein Onyango said they doubted the story or were certain that it did not happen.
John Ndalo Aguk, who worked with him before the alleged incident and kept in touch with him on a weekly basis in Nairobi thereafter, when he was placed in the homes of several employers at Hussein Onyango’s recommendation, said he knew nothing about a detention or imprisonment and would have noticed if his mentor had gone missing for several months. Zablon Okatch, a Luo who worked with Onyango after the supposed incarceration, when they were servants in the house of American embassy personnel, said, “Hussein was never jailed. I know that for a fact. It would have been difficult for him to get a job with a white family, let alone a diplomat, if he once served in jail… All prospective workers had to have details about themselves scrutinized at the Labour Office”. Charles Oluoch, whose father, Peter, had been adopted by Hussein Onyango when he was a young boy, said he doubted the story: “He did not take part in politics, nor did he have any trouble with the government in any way.” Auma Magak, Hussein Onyango’s daughter, disputed the story but offered a different version: “He was not detained. There was an incident where some thugs kidnapped him. He mysteriously disappeared. He was taken to a river where he was tied and left there. Some leopards were around him but left him alone. But the detainment never happened. He was working in Nairobi during those years. He never disappeared [for six months].” Perhaps the most authoritative account disputing Sarah’s story came from Dick Opar, who went on to become a senior police official in Kenya. “At that time, I would have known”, Opar said. “It may have been a day or two. People make up stories. If you get arrested for another thing. No. No. I would have known. I would have known. If he was in Kamiti prison for only a day, even if for a day, I would have known.” (Maraniss, Barack Obama, pp.54-55)
Maraniss also pointed out:
Several pieces of logic contradict the story. First if Hussein Onyango had been imprisoned, even if one were to further accept that he was eventually cleared of whatever charges were against him, he likely would have had difficulty, as Zablon Okatch noted, securing employment in the homes of security-conscious white officials in the following years, when the country was in turmoil and there were increasing concerns about the motives and loyalties of Kenyan workers. Yet he continued to be hired throughout the next decade…. Second, it is also unlikely that his son would have been accepted into the most prestigious boarding school in western Kenya within a year of his father’s imprisonment, or that after many months without a salary the family would have been able to afford the tuition” (Maraniss, Barack Obama, pp.55-56)
So, to sum up, the story that Obama’s grandfather was imprisoned and tortured has:
- No documentary evidence supporting it
- Is contradicted by five people who knew the man
- Makes it really, really weird that the man was employed by white settlers in subsequent years
Problem #5: Churchill Wasn’t Prime Minister When Obama's Grandfather was Allegedly Detained
The most glaring problem with the story is that Sarah
Onyango Obama, Hussein Onyango Obama’s wife, said that Onyango Obama was arrested and
imprisoned in 1949,
i.e., while Clement Attlee was Prime Minister and a whole two years before
Churchill’s re-election. She claimed that her husband was held for two years. Churchill did become Prime Minister until after the election on the 25th
of October 1951. If her story is true (see problem #4) it is likely that he was released while Attlee was still Prime
Minister or shortly after Churchill became Prime
Minister again. In the former scenario, this story doesn't concern Churchill at all. In the latter scenario then shouldn't Churchill be credited for setting Obama's Grandfather free (assuming the decision to detain one particular African was taken in 10 Downing Street and not in Colonial Kenya)?
Conclusion
For some reason, Otto English is taken seriously, despite
being a playwright and not a historian, even by people who are normally pretty sound.
It doesn’t take much effort to find the truth about the Returned Churchill Bust
fable. That’s all the story is - a fable. Many on the right-wing of the
political spectrum bring it up as a jab at Obama and now many on the
centre-to-left wing are uncritically repeating it as a dig at Churchill. The
fact that English repeated the fable suggests his research isn’t very thorough
or he doesn’t really care about inaccurate history, provided the inaccuracies
go a certain way.
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| Obama and British PM David Cameron admire a bust of Churchill in the White House |
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