HALF-BROTHER MARK

'I just don't ask myself a lot of questions'

The marriage to Ruth also fell apart, and she married another man, who gave Mark and his brother, David, his last name, Obama wrote In Dreams From My Father.

Obama described Mark as "a black man of my height and complexion with a bush Afro and horn-rimmed glasses" who was studying physics at Berkeley during the 1987 visit.

Mark told Barack Obama he felt no great yearning for knowledge about their dead father.

" 'At a certain point, I made a decision not to think about who my real father was,' " Obama quotes Mark as saying. " 'He was dead to me even when he was still alive. I knew that he was a drunk and showed no concern for his wife or children.' "

Mark tells Obama: " 'Understand, I'm not ashamed of being half Kenyan. I just don't ask myself a lot of questions about what it all means. About who I really am.' "