Obama’s half-brother is a reluctant star in China

Mark Ndesanjo is a self taught musician who offers piano lessons at an orphanage school in Beijing

HONG KONG: Barack Obama’s election as US President has given rise to celebrations in many corners of the world. But in southern China, one of Obama’s little-known relatives is holding his own quiet celebrations, away from the glare of the media.

Obama’s half-brother Mark Ndesandjo — he is the son of Obama’s late father and his third wife Ruth Nidesand — has lived in Shenzhen in southern China for over six years, and on Wednesday, sent his congratulations to Obama immediately after his historic election as the first African-American President of the US, according to Shenzhen Daily.

Ndesandjo’s business partner and friend Sui Zhengjun was quoted as saying that Ndesandjo has “very high hopes about Obama’s concept of change”, and was “delighted — not only as Obama’s half-brother but as an American.”

Obama refers to Ndesandjo as “my brother” but the two are believed to have had a strained relationship, which Obama records in his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father.

Ndesandjo has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid public attention, particularly after he was ‘outed’ by the media in July.

He is believed to have a long-time Chinese girlfriend, and his acquaintances describe him as being “big, strong and full of energy” and “a really easygoing guy” who “wears a hat over his shaven head”.

Ndesandjo, who gets his surname from his Kenyan mother, is associated with a Shenzhen-based company, Worldnexus Ltd, which provides corporate communications and website design services for Chinese firms seeking customers in English-speaking markets, principally the US.

Despite his reclusive nature, Ndesandjo has become something of a reluctant star in China, and a Chinese wine manufacturer even invited him to be its brand ambassador. But Ndesandjo is believed to have declined the offer; the Shenzen Daily quoted Sui as saying that Ndesandjo “preferred a quiet life.”

Earlier Chinese media reports have noted that Ndesandjo, a self-taught musician, offers piano lessons at an orphanage in Shenzhen. A 2004 article claimed that Ndesandjo wished to “bring the art of music to the orphans.”

Ndesandjo is known to have come to China in 2002 on a Sino-American culture exchange programme. As part of this programme, he worked in a Shenzhen foreign language school, and during that period, he established a non-profit organisation in China to help orphans.

According to Sui, before coming to China, Ndesandjo contacted several philanthropist agencies, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with a proposal, but had received no response. He then secured some donations from his MBA classmates in Emory and moved to China.