The ongoing primary elections in the United States of America are being described as the most exciting in many decades. Much, if not most, of this excitement can be directly attributed the performance of one man – the 46 year old Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. To say that this second generation African American has electrified the election in a way which has never been witnessed in US election history is, perhaps, to put it quite mildly. As far as I can remember, this is the first time I have really followed with keen interest the progress of the primary elections in America, although I have always been fascinated by this democratic phenomenon from a very early age.
What has made this race for the Whitehouse different and exciting is that it has, for the first time, defied if not shuttered all political logic and conventional wisdom. Going into the primaries, there were a few “truths” and “certainties” about the 2008 US elections. The first was that the next president of the US will be a Democrat. This truth was informed by the sheer incompetence and high unpopularity of the serving Republican government of President George W Bush. There was little doubt and, even less, debate that come January 2009, a Democrat would be sworn in as President of the world’s most powerful nation. The other truth and dead certainty was that that person would be the former first lady of the US, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. After all, the lady had pretty well spent her whole life preparing to be the first female president of the great nation.
Given these almost certainties, the 2008 elections were considered as less of a contest than a coronation of Mrs Clinton as the 44th President of the US. In so doing she would have registered a large number of very unique records – the first female president, the first former first lady to be become “The Man”, etc. Unfortunately no one told that to the Senator from Illinois who had come into prominence when he lighted up the Democratic Convention in Boston in July 2004 with a stump speech that left many delegates on their feet applauding for more. Within two years he was elected to the US Senate and in another short while, he decided there was another and higher call to duty and he threw in his hat into the presidential ring. Not many gave him a chance and some felt that he was there to just make up the numbers.
Not any more. After scoring an upset and impressive victory in Iowa, Senator Obama has gone on to win primaries in many more states across the US and he is now considered the hot favourite to clinch the Democratic Party nomination. Senator Obama has galvanised public interest in the presidential elections in a way no other politician has done before him. He is doing to the American politics and to the presidential race what Mohammed Ali did to boxing, what Micheal Jordan did to basketball, what Tiger Woods has done to golf and what Lewis Hamilton is doing to Formula 1 motor racing. He has torn the form book to shreds and redefined the political landscape in a manner which is both wonderful and awesome. Wonderful in the sheer brilliance with which he has got the American people to believe in his vision and project and awesome in the manner he is grinding his opponents into the ground.
It may be too early to say, but the world would be better advised to start preparing to deal with a president of the US who is non-white. I prefer to use the term non-white rather than black because I think that is a more accurate description of Senator Obama’s demographic classification. Here in Africa, a person of Obama’s background would not be classified as black. In my country, a person of mixed parentage would be called a coloured. But I do not think that this presidential race is about colour and Obama has done very well to steer himself clear of such stereotype issues. Obama’s rallying call has been about change and, implicit in that call, is a challenge to the US to break with its past – good and bad – and move forward in a new and probably better direction.
That is the message that is desperately needed for Africa and this makes me believe that a President Obama would be a very good thing indeed for Africa. There is little doubt in my mind that Africa is regressing at a rapid and alarming pace and, so far, no one seems to have a solution to the problem. In the past two months there have been two major international incidents – the first being the elections crisis in Kenya which has seen hundreds of people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes and the other being the attempted overthrow of President Idriss Déby in Chad by some rebels. President Déby has, with a little help from his French friends, been spared for a little longer while Kenya, with a great help from many friends from all over the world, is still struggling to find a solution to its quandary.
These are the latest additions to an already overcrowded state of misery and suffering in many other countries on the continent including in Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Zimbabwe. The continent is bleeding badly and is in desperate need of real and practical measures to resolve its problems. The world at large has claimed that Africa’s problems should be solved by the Africans themselves. This is both erroneous and too simplistic an approach to the problem. Africans have consistently proved themselves to be incapable of resolving their problems and, to the contrary, have proved very adept at compounding those problems. The African Union has failed to assert any degree of moral authority and leadership on events taking place on its soils and regional bodies such as SADC, ECOWAS, etc have not been any more successful.
Chinua Achebe, the great Nigerian author, has averred that the problem of Nigeria (and by extension, Africa) is one of bad and incompetent leadership. Africa has too many leaders who have overstayed their welcome and ground their countries to abject poverty through corruption and poor policies. There is very little renewal or “change” taking place as those in power continue to entrench themselves and those in need (the poor) continue to multiply. An Obama presidency represents a significant opportunity and hope for Africa. As a non-white president, Obama will probably confirm what is already known – that there is nothing inherently and intellectually inferior about the African race. It will confirm that leadership incompetence is Africa is more about the individual leaders themselves than about the African race generally.
An Obama president will provide the first ever opportunity for America and, indeed the world, to make the call on Africa’s bad leadership without being accused of racism. Until now, any criticism of Africa by the US and other developed countries has been quickly dismissed as being motivated by racist and imperialistic tendencies. With President Obama in the Whitehouse, that will become too lame an excuse. Apart from that, the youthfulness of President Obama will make it that much more difficult to relate and empathise with the current and antiquated stock of leadership on the African continent. This will provide a motivation and impetus for the emergence of a new breed of younger and more zestful leaders on the continent.
I am highly optimistic and excited about the prospects of an Obama presidency in the US. But I do recognise that there remain immense obstacles and dangers lucking on his relentless march to the Whitehouse. There is still the wild but possible prospect that some crazy lunatic may physically eliminate him from the race as happened to Robert Kennedy those many years ago or has so recently happened to Benazier Bhutto in Pakistan. There is also a possibility that Mr Osama bin Laden may decide to lend a little help to Obama’s campaign, as he did to John Kerry’s effort in the last elections, thereby handing over the presidency back to the Republicans. Many, I suspect, will not wish any such misfortunes on Senator Obama.
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