Auma Obama to deliver speech in honour of Tsitsi Dan-garembga

Auma Obama was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1960. In 1980, the sister of Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, began her university studies in Germany on a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). She studied German languages and literatures, sociology and education in Heidelberg and also attended the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. In 1996, she completed her doctorate at the University of Bayreuth with a dissertation on the topic of labour in German and Kenyan literature and culture.

Following the completion of her studies, Auma Obama worked for several years in Germany and the UK before returning to Kenya, where she worked on behalf of the aid organisation CARE International. In 2010, she founded the Sauti Kuu Foundation (Strong Voices Foundation), which has been active in Germany since 2012. The foundation works all over the world to foster disadvantaged children and adolescents, helping them to lead self-determined lives.

Auma Obama has received several awards for her social and humanitarian efforts – in particular for her work promoting economic, ecological and social sustainability – including the 2019 Walter Scheel Prize and the Hans Rosenthal Honorary Prize. She has been a member of the World Future Council since 2014. Auma Obama shares her deep commitment to social issues with Tsitsi Dangarembga, with whom she has been friends for many years.