Obama makes hope possible again!

Barack Obama, 47 years old, son of an African from Kenya and a white American was on 5 November 2008 declared the 44th president-elect of the most powerful country in the world, the United States of America. When he was born in 1961 black people were still unable to vote effectively and if his Kenyan Dad had been an American he would have had little in the way of electoral representation. In the year when we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the assassination another African-American icon, Martin Luther King Jr, how more just can it be that the first ever black president of the US was elected. Just imagine a black couple and their two girls in the White House, not mowing the lawns or as 'selected' advisers holding office through patronage but as elected president and family occupying the Oval Office, the West Wing and with the buck stopping at his table!

But the election of Obama has too many symbolisms not just for America, for Africa, but for the whole world. Across the world many people felt connected to him and able to claim him for their own dreams of a better world.

There are many angles to look at this victory and hopefully, barring the assassin's bullet, we will have four or even eight years to judge this captivating personality against performance. Today is for celebration of the possibilities and the ways in which the campaign and the candidate has touched so many people.

One, it is a victory for all mothers, especially those forced to raise their children alone. It is a victory for family, in the broader sense of the word, not the very narrow and increasingly narrower nuclearism of the West and the middle classes globally. Here was a man raised by his maternal grandparents and from all accounts with love, emotional security and extreme confidence to believe he could beat the best in a world that set limitations based on race and class on his ambitions. Can you imagine how challenging it must have been to raise a mixed-race kid in the 1960s? It is a shame that his grandmother was not able to hold out to see the promise come through. It must touch Obama most deeply too that neither his father nor mother whose 'forbidden love' that gave life to him were alive to see this great moment. It is prove that love across all kinds of divide is not wrong.

Two, in a world distinctly lacking in visionary and inspiring leaders Obama's message of hope and 'yes we can' resonates with the frustration of the young and all marginalised peoples, giving rise to the notion that they can do better for themselves and are not hopeless or powerless.

Three, American democracy has been described as 'the best democracy money can buy.' While this is true – and this election is by far the costliest ever in the US – the balance has shifted in favour of ordinary people. Money was traditionally seen as in the big corporations and financial houses, and in special interests more generally, but Obama's faith in the ordinary people who donated $5, $10, $100 forged a formidable movement and force buoyed by his vision, a vision eloquently carried across the length and breadth of the world and echoed thanks to the new information technology bringing 'unyielding hope' to many.

Four, in a cynical world, dominated by the 'me me' ideology of greed from which decades of neoliberalism decreed TINA (There Is No Alternative), Obama made ‘change’ relevant and inspired millions to believe that business should not and cannot continue as usual. So successful was he that even his opponent became a candidate for both of them effectively repudiating Bush's legacy of right-wing extremism. It is a triumph of Obama's possible change, and McCain not being seen as a credible agent of change, that won it for Obama.

Five, the pride that Kenyans and other Africans and peoples of the world take in Obama's candidacy and victory is not just the fact of his partial African ancestry, but the potential for it to inspire a new way of playing politics in our own countries where candidates may be judged ‘not by the colour of their skin’ or their ethnic, religious or social affiliations but – as Martin Luther King put it – ‘by the content of their character.’

Six, Obama becoming president of America does not mean that racism has ended in America or the poor will suddenly become rich, but they will be able to count on the listening ear of someone they trust and who understands their plight as a result of his own experience.

Finally Obama's presidency may not mean that the US will suddenly be at peace with the rest of the world, but there is hope that his administration will stop treating the rest of us as tenants and be able to listen to other peoples and take their interests and sensitivities seriously, ushering in a real multilateralism in sharp contrast to the unilateralism of the Bush years. It may be ‘good morning’ again not just for America but potentially for the whole world.

* Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is general secretary of the Global Pan-African Movement, based in Kampala, Uganda, and is also director of Justice Africa, based in London, UK.
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