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It is likely that virtually
everybody on the surface of this earth has now come to terms
with the reality that a “Black” man has been elected the new
president of the United States of America, after all. That
may not interest many anymore; but the interest should not
die off soon. The history is just unfolding and what's more,
January 21, 2009, a residence that was built by African
slaves more than two centuries ago will be inhabited by an
African-American, his wife and the two young children.
Barak Obama, his wife Michelle and their two daughters will
become United States first family by January. A 47 year old
junior senator called Barak Hussein Obama, whose father grew
up herding goats in Kenya and whose wife is descended from
African Slaves will reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They
will move in not as builders, cleaners or aides, but as the
nation's first family.
About 147 years after the official end of the civil war and
44years after the civil rights act, America has finally
exorcised its most stubborn ghost of the past -the original
sin of slavery. In spite of all milestones of the recent
past, including two African-American secretaries of state
under George Bush, the legacy of shame lingered on quietly.
Frequently, it was met with a wall of silence or a welter of
euphemisms. Although racial prejudice may not end after
this, the debate about it will surely become more honest.
Americans voted for Barak Obama for a variety of reasons.
Some voted him because he is an African-American, others
because he is young, cool and clever. But almost everyone
who did vote for him surely came to the conclusion that this
was a man with sober judgment and that history needs be
re-written. Obama's election is also a vehement rejection of
the (white) Bush legacy and the candidate who had become
attached to it. Mr. McCain's opponents worked hard to tie
him to the Bush legacy.
In an election in which change had become the resounding
mantra, any Republican, even the erstwhile maverick McCain,
was swimming against the tide. But it would be wrong to
think of this as a tidal wave in favour of the Democrats.
Their grandees on Capitol Hill are almost as unpopular as
their counterparts from the Grand Old Party. The 2008 race
was a people's revolt against American's political
establishment. Yes, even Sarah Palin, the moose slayer,
shared the revulsion at the smug politics of dynastic
entitlement.
Mr. Obama's genius was to understand this yearning for
change, give it a blindingly obvious name and then plan for
it meticulously. The “Skinny Kid with a funny name”, who
grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia and came of age in Harvard
and Chicago embodied the uprooted, multicultural, messy
reality of modern America and made no excuses about it. As
the president-elect used to put it; “It's all about you”.
The first time I heard it, it reminded me of one of the
advertisement slogans of a company in Nigeria.
Unlike the campaign of calumny adopted by Nigerian
politicians, Obama may have started his campaign as an
insurgent. But he ran it like a field marshal. He didn't
just receive Colin Powell's cherished endorsement, he also
used his strategy of overwhelming force to win one battle
after another -either ground, air, war-internet, text
messaging, or phone calls; and on November 4, it all worked
out.
There was the message of hope and change. Yes, this is
dangerously open to wishful thinking, it raises expectations
that the new president may never be able to meet, but it
“has been music to American ears, tired of the cacophony of
fear and resentment”. Then there was the meticulous planning
of a disciplined campaign that didn't leak, didn't quarrel,
kept wedded to one central theme and crucially, didn't panic
when the American economy was having a nervous breakdown.
Last Tuesday showed us once again that history travels in
packs. Mr. “Black” Obama's victory represents a generational
change.
November 4 was the day that politics caught up with
demographics; that multi-cultural America gave voice to
African-Americans as never before; even also to
Asian-Americans and Hispanics. I would expect some of them
to cry and “praise the Lord for this gift”. Some of them
couldn't even sit in the front of the bus or share a cheese
sandwich with white Americans 45 years ago. That again is
history and on January 21, 2009 when “Black” Obama will move
into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the world would accept him as
the change we need. .  |
