Dr Auma Obama – her life’s theme is social engagement. After several years with an international aid organisation in Africa, the sister of the former American president founded her own foundation “Sauti Kuu” in Germany and Kenya in 2010. The term comes from the Kiswahili language and means “strong voices”. The foundation wants to give disadvantaged children and young people a voice. Children should learn to awaken their potential and encourage them to take their destiny into their own hands.

For more than ten years, Dr. Auma Obama has been a sought-after keynote speaker and interview partner worldwide. She inspires with her knowledge, her humour and her uncomplicated approach to her audience. She talks openly about uncomfortable truths and shakes people up.

Lecture topics by Auma Obama

• The Future of Youth – Poor Rich Europe
• Out of the niche – how sustainability becomes attractive for consumers. What does sustainable consumption mean from a global perspective?
• The social pillar of sustainability – challenge and opportunity for the business community”.
• “You are Your Future” – development policy, situation in Africa in relation to the work of the Sauti Kuu Foundation

Auma Obama was born in Nairobi in 1960. Her fascination for German literature and authors such as Heinrich Böll and Wolfgang Borchert helped her to obtain a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service and to study German and Sociology in Saarbrücken and Heidelberg. She completed her doctorate in Bayreuth in 1996 with a thesis comparing the conception of work and attitudes to work in Germany and Kenya. At the same time she graduated from the German Film and Television Academy. During her studies she worked as a consultant for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Carl Duisberg Society in adult education. As a freelance journalist, she dealt thematically mainly with Africa and the Germans’ image of Africa.

In 1986 she moved to Great Britain, married and had a daughter. A graduate in German studies, sociologist, journalist and author, she became the focus of worldwide attention when she supported her brother Barack Obama in his campaign for the office of President of the United States in 2008.

Social commitment

She is Chair of the Children and Youth Commission of the World Future Council and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. She is also on the board of the Jim Button Foundation, which represents the philosophy and values of Michael Ende. Further she is patron of the largest African book festival “Storymoja”, which has set itself the goal that every child on the African continent should get their hands on a book. For several years she was on the board of the Jakobsfundation in Zurich, as well as on the board of trustees of the “Stiftung Lesen”.

Dr. Auma Obama has received several awards for her social and humanitarian commitment. Among others, she received the “International TÜV Rheinland Global Compact Award”, the “Hans Rosenthal Honorary Award”, the World Human Rights Award, Austria, the “Prix Courage Award” and many others.