Owei Lakemfa
7 November 2008
column
When Reverend Jesse Jackson wept on Tuesday night as Barrack Obama made his acceptance speech, they were tears that had welled up for five decades. He had walked the long freedom trail with men like Reverend Martin Luther King and women like Rosa Parks.
Jackson had gone to the top of the mountain with such greats who have passed on; but here he was witnessing history. He is witness to the reality that an African-America has won the American Presidency for the first time and in such an emphatic manner.
To better understand the implications of Obama's victory, we should consider the fact that if his parents were living in Virginia when he was born forty eight years ago, they would have committed a crime and been sent to prison because it was unlawful for a white and black to marry or copulate.
The African - American people suffered so much discrimination, segregation and lynching that many of them thought the best thing to do was not to be part of the country; to them, the American Dream was a nightmare.
In the Eighteenth Century, many blacks broke away from the established churches which were run by whites to found their separate churches where they sang 'Negro spirituals'.
In 1817, convinced that there can be no equality or justice for the Blackman in America, some of them founded the African Colonization Society whose goal was to search for an homeland. In 1847, they founded Liberia and many moved there.
Tired of their condition, and seeking physical, mental and social liberation, African-Americans gathered in 1919 for the first Pan-African Conference. But in all these, the issue of separation from the rest of America did not diminish. The next powerful wave was the "Back to Africa Movement" led by Marcus Garvey.
The next movement was built by the Honourable Elijah Mohammed who founded the Black Muslim organisation. This Movement rather than leave America, decided to carve out some states exclusively for blacks.
Ironically, Chicago where Obama made his acceptance speech was supposed to be the capital of the new Black States. The most famous members of this Movement were Malcolm X, Mohammed Ali and Louis Farakhan.
Into the late 1960s, the campaign for African-Americans to leave the United States did not abate. Stokely Carmichael, who as a student leader in the 1960s invented the slogan "Black Power" wrote that African-Americans need land and that "The best place, it seems to me, and the quickest place that we can obtain land is in Africa."
On the more cultural level, Carmichael's contemporary, James Brown made famous the slogan: "Say it loud, I'm black and proud" while people like Angela Davis made famous the Afro Hair.
So Obama's victory is the culmination of the struggles of the African-American peoples, as well as the peoples of other races. But this is more on the symbolic level, as the victory would not, at least on the short run, fundamentally change things.
It would not change the fact that a quarter of African-Americans are poor compared to 8 per cent whites or that the largest prison populace are black. This victory does not mean an end to racial struggles or police brutality.
It is more a symbolic victory for the coloured peoples of America including Asians and Latinos and an affirmation, as Obama said in his acceptance speech that, America is a place where all things are possible.
Much more fundamental is that in electing Obama, the United States has at last emancipated itself. The American story itself began when Christopher Columbus "discovered" America and rewarded the indigenous Indians he met with enslavement.
This he began in 1494 by capturing five hundred Indians and selling them as slaves to other Europeans. Later, blacks were captured and hurled into the " New World ". Since then until Tuesday when Obama was elected, it had been a long struggle on the road to emancipation.
Although in the American war of independence from Britain, the first person to lay down his life was an African-American, Crispus Attucks, this fact itself did not lead to the newly emergent nation agreeing to free blacks from slavery or regarding them as equal citizens.
Thomas Jefferson, although a slave owner, had in his draft of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 included emancipation of slaves, and, condemned in the Declaration "the Christian King of Britain" for Keeping "... open a market where Men should be bought and sold (and) ... suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce". In the final document, this clause was expunged.
Obama has ridden to victory on the backs of many who sacrificed themselves for the emancipation of the African-American people. He has ridden on the back of David Walker who on September 28, 1828 published "Walker's Appeal" calling for blacks to rise, and of Frederick Douglas who campaigned that
"Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow" Obama's victory owes a lot of gratitude to women like Hariet Tubman who led hundreds of black slaves to freedom in the "Underground Train" Mary McLeod Bethune who brought education to many African-Americans and Rosa Parks whose defiant action of refusing to vacate her seat in a public bus for a Whiteman, ignited the Civil Rights Movement.
The Obama victory is one not just to African-Americans but also to all Americans as it is a true emancipation of the American people from the myopia of racism. It is also in a sense, a victory for us non-Americans as our world may become more peaceful.
Obama's Presidency is likely to be a departure from the war-mongering presidency of the Bush administration. So in a sense, this is a victory for peace loving peoples all over the world.
But we must moderate our expectations; Obama will be president not of Africans, Arabs or Asians, but of Americans.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
