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The Day an African will rule America
by Melody Mbira

Barrack Hussein Obama Jnr, son to a Kenyan father of the Luo tribe is in the run for the White House. He has been widely tipped to be the man to watch as he has a viable chance to become America’s 44th and first Black President. Currently Senator for Illinois, Obama, 45 years old, tall, handsome and articulate, is the rising star of American politics and hope for Africa and the rest of the world.

Being Afro-American as he is and with such close links with Africa, Obama is likely to be more embracing to African issues. He gives hope to Africa as the prospect of having one of our own running ‘Super America’ injects a new ray of hope in the world held at ransom by America courtesy of its aggressive foreign policy and militarism as exhibited in Iraq and the whole of the Middle East in recent years. It is heartbreaking that America has continued to be the bully of the world, chief inpector of nuclea power development, manager of democracy in every corner of the world and has assumed a semi-god figure, who you either agree with, or you are doomed – And Africa has not been spared. From wars and insurgency to economic sanctions and diplomatic wars, the American link cannot be missed. Yet now there is hope, hope for that day an African will rule America.

Whether Obama is nominated to represent the Democrats and goes on to win the election or not, it is the courage that he has shown, the hope he has raised in populations throughout the world that we as Africa should applaud and support until the day Americans go to the polls. Obama as much as he is an American agenda, he also is our agenda as Africa as we wait for that US president who can rewrite history forever and change the way the US and the rest of the first world view the developing world and world affairs at large. “We can neither retreat from the world nor try to bully it into submission,” Foreign Affairs publication quoted Obama to have said in its July/August 2007 issue. He is also quoted calling on Americans to “lead the world, by deed and by example.” Such ideology in his policy makes Obama our agenda, not only because of his skin colour or African roots but because of his ‘equals’ approach to international relations. Unlike his fellow Democrat, Hillary Clinton, Obama said he would resume dialogue with Cuba without pre-conditions in the face of Fidel Castro’s retirement. It is such an approach, which has been lacking in American foreign policy, which has made America the monster she is today.
This would be a huge paradigm shift in the US foreign policy especially in comparison to that of the outgoing Bush adminstration. The days of tow the line or be isolated could be history. It could be a dawn of a new era, an era of diplomatic and moral leadership in the world.
Obama was an early opponent of Bush administration policies on Iraq. “I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world. I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars” said Obama as quoted in the July/August issue of the Foreign Affairs. What hope and illumination for a new world order, an order of peace and security and moral diplomacy.
Writing about Obama’s political image in a March 2007 Washington Post opinion column, Eugene Robinson characterized him as “the personification of both-and,” a messenger who rejects “either-or” political choices, and could “move the nation beyond the culture wars”. Such personality could reduce polarisation in the world, what with a cautious American leader who has respect and cares for and about either. Not an extrimist or radical but rather a diplomat who believes the other side is equally important. There is no black without white or vice versa. It is that American leader on the ‘grey area’ the world has been waiting for. Christian but with respect for other religions especially given his Islamic roots.

Let the world wait for the day the first African will be making orders from the White House, orders that will help shape the world for the better, orders that the black world will benefit from, the Arab world will embrace and will please the Americans and the world at large and help make the world peaceful.