Trump’s “Kenyan half brother”

Trump

The photograph has been trending since January, that of US President Donald Trump’s Kenyan “half brother”. They have the same cherubic face, tuft of hair brushed forward and shaggy bear physiognomy.

How can Trump, a man who has Aryan superiority “complex”, a xenophobic man to the core whose conception of Africans are cave dwelling, hunter gatherer apes, jumping from tree to tree, have an African half brother? To his followers, Trump could not have any link to Africa, not by any stretch of imagination.

Then what is the true state of things? BBC went to town, combing. And below is its story:

Okay, you’ve probably guessed it. This isn’t Donald Trump’s Kenyan half-brother.

But that hasn’t stopped the internet having a good laugh at this man’s uncannily Trump-esque locks. When the photo was shared on American comedian and radio host Ricky Smiley’s Facebook page back in January, hundreds joined in on the comments, and thousands more shared the post.

And that’s not the only comedy meme. Another makes the claim that the man in the photo is one ‘Nyirongo Trump’ of Malawi.

But who is the man in the memes? Well, we’ve had a dig round and we’ve deduced his identity. Are you ready?

It is in fact Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo.

A reverse image search on the meme led Trending to the original – un-Photoshopped – image, where he is seen greeting a celebrity supporter of his New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ghanaian actor Kofi Adu.

So how many have picked up on the man’s true identity?

Nana Akufo-Addo, meeting Ghanaian actor, Kofi Ado. Original photograph that was photo shoped

On the original Rickey Smiley show Facebook post, out of 311 comments, only two people seem to have noticed that the man is, in fact, the Ghanaian president.

Despite not being Trump’s half-brother, President Addo has been nicknamed ‘Nana Trump’ by some of his supporters, mainly due to the fact that his campaign and inauguration happened in very close time-proximity to President Trump’s.

And it seems that the meme traces its origin back to an image that was shared by some of his supporters back in December, with the text “Nana Trump: Make Ghana great again”.

Credit: BBC