I received the most delightful email from a friend today.
His name is Kene Umeasiegbu, he works with Cadbury-Schweppes in the UK and we have been friends for a decade now.
He was there live in Washington DC for the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama and I spoke to him on the eve of the day as he sat on a train "going with the flow" of people as they celebrated this most historic of moments
I have to get his permission to reproduce his email here on my blog but the gist of it, I can provide.
Kene drew a distinction between the different roles and identities that a single person can have. Father, Brother, Son, Idealogue, historian, global citizen, Nigerian. All different but still able to reside in the same consciousness.
The convergence of his (Kene's) role as amateur historian, idealogue and black man from Africa had convinced him that he HAD to be physically present for the inauguration of the 44th President of the US.
"SO where were you when Nelson Mandela was released from Prison; ...when the Berlin wall came down?; ...when the planes struck the twin towers?"
Kene's email concluded by asking the rhetorical question, "What does the inauguration of Barack Obama mean to you who witnessed it?"
First let us get one thing straight. This is a uniquely American event. Only in America is this actually possible that a member of the minority racial group can aspire AND attain the highest office in the land when his father would probably not have been served in a local Washington restaurant a mere 60 years ago. Only in America I tell you.
At least for now.
I read an absolutely brilliant article on the Time Magazine website during the US election primaries that delved a bit more into this point of view. It seems ludricous to imagine a 3rd generation Briton of Pakistani origin becoming Prime Minister in the UK. Germany has some 3 million Germans of Turkish ancestry and yet you can count on one hand the number of German-Turks in the German parliament. Ludricous to imagine one becoming Chancellor.
And yet 3 years ago, it was ludricous to think a guy with a middle name of Hussein would become President in America.
The article also described the sheer blatant racism still being faced in China by African students and talking about Africa, the whole continent has been a measure of tribal wars and genocide among disparate nations living within the same political contraption.
The Nigerian constitution states that you can run for elective office in a state as long as you have been resident in that state for 10 years. But in a country where you have Nineteen (19) distinct ethnic groups (Different language, different culture and history, all hobbled together by the colonial empire of Great Britain), practical realities guarantee that it is a pipe dream for a Yoruba man from the South-West of the country to become Governor of Kano State which is in the northern part.
Forget about it.
What am I saying?
A Yoruba man from Ekiti state cannot become Governor of Ogun State (which is also Yoruba). They will ask him if his father does not have a house in his 'home state'. Never mind the fact he has lived in Ogun state all his life and his father as well before him.
America has lost a great deal of respect and moral authority in the last 8 years. They are facing an economic recession which is the worst in many decades. (and pulled the rest of the world down with them), they are in the middle of two wars and they do not command that aura of invincibility that they had.
And yet.... by electing the first African-American to the office of POTUS, the son of an African student and a white woman from Kansas, they have shown to the rest of the world exactly WHY they are the sole remaining super-power in the world. That ability to re-invent themselves and constantly innovate in all spheres of life has been spectacularly captured in this historic achievement.
And achievement it is indeed.
So Barack Obama's election shows me that nothing can stop an idea whose time has come. That idea did not come suddenly and unexpectedly (maybe a bit unexpected ok!) but it has its foundations from the work of giants like Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks and Lyndon Baines Johnson. The millions of people who marched, demonstrated and boycotted buses all across America for the dream, the hope of a just society. All these people laid the path for this historic event in America.
America has again led. It is time for us across the world to follow.
