What Will ‘Brother Barack’ Do for Africa?

Posted on Dec 26, 2008

AP photo / Riccardo Gangale

Kenyans in Kisumu, in the west of the country, celebrate the U.S. presidential election victory of Barack Obama.

By Gbemisola Olujobi

A mobile phone text message spread across Africa in the wake of Barack Obama’s victory. It said “Rosa [Parks] sat so Martin [Luther King] could walk, Martin walked so Obama could run. Obama ran so our children can fly!”
   
And why should African children not fly in the wake of the senator’s triumph in the U.S. presidential election? The president-elect’s father was Kenyan, and Africans, whose ties of kinship stretch beyond the limits of modern sociology, generally regard “our brother’s victory” as everyone’s victory.
   
“After all, he’s one of us,” says Frank Chikonga, one of hundreds of jobless people in Cape Town, South Africa. “He has to help us.”
   
Shamina from Malawi says of Obama, “Africans are supporting him, so he should support us as well.”
   
Ray Hartley, editor of The Times of South Africa, compares Obama to George W. Bush, whose administration has paid quite some attention to Africa, and says, “We expect so much more of Obama, who has a direct link to this continent via his family in Kenya. We look to him to finally turn decades of fine words about debt relief and open trade on the world stage into a job-creating reality for this continent. It’s a change we can believe in.”

Emmanuel Otaala, Uganda’s state minister for primary health care, says, “We have been receiving a lot of financial support from the Global Fund and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. If President Bush has been providing this much, what about our very own [Obama]? We expect increased support from Obama’s government.”
In anticipation of this “increased support” from Obama and the United States, Mohamed Shennawy, a Cairo resident, says, “Now we are hopeful that things will change for us.”   

Abdul-Azizi Kazembe, a Malawian, says in an interview with Voice of America, “We are asking him to consider increasing the aid package offered to African countries.”

Bayo Laja, an unemployed architect, of Lagos, Nigeria, says, “I hope he [Obama] would do something about the indignities the American Embassy visits on Nigerians who want to go to the United States. Some of us can make useful contributions to that country, but the obstacles in the way of going there are just too many. I hope Obama would address that situation urgently. After all, we are his brothers and sisters. We deserve more respect now that our man is in charge.”

Raymond Atuche, a retired civil servant, also of Lagos, says, “The man [Obama] should start by ensuring that all debts owed by African countries are written off so that we can start afresh. He can do it for us. He has the power.”

And according to Priscilla Oyibo, another Lagos resident, Obama should make reparation the cornerstone of his efforts to help Africa. “He should get back for us all that was stolen from us by the white man. This is payback time. He should do everything he can to put an end to our pain and suffering.”

Fazila Farouk of the South African Civil Society Information Service expects Obama “to finally admit to America’s complicity in Africa’s crisis areas” and possibly make amends.

Farouk waxed eloquent on Obama’s victory. “Miracles happen when people no longer believe in them. Barack Obama has now proven that he is the miracle that the entire world has been waiting for.” 

William Kioko, a bus driver in Nairobi, Kenya, also describes Obama’s victory as a miracle that could open a floodgate for miracles on the African continent. “If this change is possible in the United States, then curing African wars is easy.”

Kioko obviously shares the sentiment that Obama can work magic in Africa’s conflict zones as Africa’s new “favorite son.” Indeed, militants of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), who are fighting in the beleaguered Niger delta region of Nigeria, were reported to have stated recently that they would seriously consider adopting a cease-fire in response to a personal appeal from Obama.

Although Obama’s campaign denied reports that he had made such an appeal, MEND’s statement suggests he might be able to mediate in African conflicts.
Such sentiments, along with many others, may have prompted Meshack Nyakitare, a graduate student at the University of Nairobi, to declare after Obama’s victory, “We feel a sense of a new beginning, of possibilities.”

   

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