OWINY
'A great warrior and leader'
His great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather Owiny was said to be a powerful leader of the Luo tribe, which moved into Kenya some 400 years ago.
" 'There were other tribes, who spoke Bantu, already living in Alego when the Luo came, and great wars were fought," Obama's step-grandmother Sarah Obama tells him in his book Dreams From My Father. "Our ancestor Owiny was known as a great warrior and leader of his people.
" 'He helped to defeat the Bantu armies, but the Bantu were allowed to stay on and marry Luo, and taught us many things about farming and the new land."
In the book, Sarah Obama traces Obama's male ancestral line in Africa back 12 generations, but admits "'The women who bore them, their names are forgotten, for that was the way of our people.' "