Response | Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
Could Obama Have Become a Candidate in Many African Countries?
There is great celebration about Senator Obama becoming the Presidential candidate for the Democrats in next November elections in the US. The excitement is such that one would be forgiven to think that Obama was about to be sworn in soon. The enthusiasm ignores the fact that he is yet to be formally adopted and still has an election to fight against the Republicans. No where is this excitement more infectious than in Kenya, the homeland of Obama's father. Even Kenyans who in the closely fought Presidential elections of last year swore that Raila would never be president , not because of anything other than being Luo, without any sense of irony, are part of the Obamamania. A 100% Luo is not good enough for them as President of Kenya but they are supporting a 5O% Luo to be president of the USA!
Kenyans are not alone in these contradictory responses. I am not sure how many of the millions of Africans now jubilating about Obama's possible victory will be that enthusiastic were Obama to be standing for office in their countries. Can you imagine an Obama as a presidential candidate in Ivory Coast? Would he not be reminded that he is not African enough? How could he pass the ‘ivoirite' test when even a former Prime Minister of the country, born in the country was disqualified? If Obama had stood in a Nigerian election would he have generated the same mass adulation?
This a continent in which a former President (Kenneth Kaunda) , who was founding father of the country , a man who served as President for 25 years had his citizenship stripped off him by his successor (a little minded little man, Chiluba) because his parents allegedly came from a neighbouring country, not another continent! The former President of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa, had the citizenship of a number of Tanzanians annulled just because they disagreed or he suspected that they did not agree with him politically. One of them was a serving High Commissioner and the other a former Member of Parliament and leading member of the ruling party. As part of his campaign of prolonging his gerontocracy President Mugabe stripped some Zimbabweans of their citizenship. The journalist, Trevor Ncube, was declared a Malawian but his siblings who were not considered sympathizers of the opposition remained Zimbabweans. Ethiopia and Eritrea shamelessly engaged in tit for tat denationalization of innocent citizens because of the senseless war between the two leaders. There are so many extremely bad examples of routine denial of citizenship across Africa.
The ease with which political opponents are foreignized across Africa will never have given any hope for an Obama to even dream of becoming a local councillor let alone aspiring to the Presidency.
Even within the same country claims of who is an indigene, a settler, a resident, etc. are used to disempower fellow citizens. And if you are a woman who married across ethnic or national boundaries you are doubly disempowered. You may not be fully accepted by the Man's group or country and your group/country will disown you for marrying out.
Obama's nomination and his eventual victory should make us re examine our legal, political, cultural and social attitudes about citizenship and stop using it as a means of exclusion and marginalization. Obama did not have to hide his African and non-African origins and heritage and both are not considered to be disadvantages to his political ascendancy. Instead he is celebrating them and using them as a political selling point that the diversity of his heritage and upbringing particularly equip him to lead a multicultural America in an even more diverse world. Without stating it directly he challenges the WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) hegemony with a global cosmopolitanism that makes the provincialism of the likes of Bush antithetical to the wider interests of the US in the world. When he says he understood the world and could make the world understand America it is believable coming from him than from any of his opponents.
Obama's victory should open the doors of opportunity for the enjoyment of full citizenship rights to all Africans wherever they may be from Cape Town to Cairo and lift the veal from the injustices that continue to surround citizenship across the continent. If we can be expectant of an Obama victory in the US elections we should equally be prepared to accept that a Muyarwanda raised in Uganda can be president of Uganda; A Nigerian of Ghanaian or Togolese extraction can be President of Nigeria; an immigrant from Zimbabwe or Mozambique who are targets of negrophobic attacks in South Africa today or their descendants can aspire to be president of South Africa in our life time.
If we cannot accept this we should stop the hypocrisy about supporting Obama. If an Obama is good for America he or she should be good for Africa too. Show that you really care about Obama's promised brave new world of tolerance and inclusion by recognizing the many Obamas near you.
"Forward ever, backward never".....Kwame Nkrumah (1909 - 1972)