Bisi Ojediran
11 November 2008
column
Lagos — Ecstatic, overjoyed Africans are dancing on cloud nine and popping champagne because a brother (as African-Americans call themselves) is going to occupy the most powerful office in the world. Why not? Success has many fathers, as Africans say. But pray, is Barack Obama an African, a Blackman? Considering that African leaders are failures, is it not a bad omen to wish that he is an African?
And shame to African leaders who were falling on one another to congratulate the President-elect. How many Obamas have they produced in their countries? Do they know that Barack repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal? African leaders make you want to cry. The hands of most of them are dripping with the blood of many Obamas they have killed, and their conscience heavy with guilt over the many potential Obamas they have suppressed with misrule, poverty and unbearable living conditions.
Obama owes so much to America that it is becoming difficult to credit his ascendency to Africa. For nine months, he was nurtured in the womb of a white woman, Ann Dunham, and raised in his formative years by his grandmother, a white woman. He has lived all his adult life in the United States of America, from where he is going to superintend over the rest of the world.
True. Obama's father was a Kenyan who went to Hawaii on a US-sponsored scholarship. Once he was enrolled in school there, Barack Obama Sr. married an 18-year-old white student named Ann, to whom Barack Obama Jr. was born in August, 1961. Two years later, Barack Sr. left Ann and the baby when he was accepted to Harvard. While he claims the marriage was broken up by racism, it actually dissolved when Ann discovered the inconvenient truth that he already had another wife.
This line of discussion launches the heredity and environment, or nature, nurture debate, which dates back to the 13th Century. Some scientists argue that people behave as they do according to genetic predispositions or even "animal instincts." Other scientists believe that people think and behave in certain ways because they are taught by their environment to do so. Without trivializing the issue, it is right, as most scientists agree, to say that they play complementary roles.
Perhaps, we should not overstretch the debate, but the role of US in moulding a world beater in Obama is unmistakable. I believe that African and Caucasian bloods have their respective strengths and weaknesses. And I am persuaded by the successes of former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings, who transformed Ghana and Obama's to think that a mix of Caucasian and African blood removes or tones down greed. Raw, primitive greed is the fundamental cause of failed leadership in Africa. Rawlings's father is a Whiteman and I will tell his story I saw playout before my very eyes another time. But careful, please. This blood thing is for now an unscientific observation. It must be noted also that Obama was lucky to have a good Mum and grandmother. There are bad, irresponsible parents in the US too.
Going back to Kenya, I really don't understand what the government there meant by declaring a public holiday over Obama's victory. At best that was hypocritical. At his age, if he was born in Kenya, he would have lived his formative years during the regimes of the founding president and liberation struggle icon Jomo Kenyatta, who led the country from independence in 1963 until his death in 1978, and President Daniel Toroitich arap Moi who ruled the country for 24 years. Twenty four years! He performed so poorly that he has asked for forgiveness for acts of misrule during his regime.
Although Kenya is the communications and finance hub of East Africa, if Barack lived there he would have been a victim of the plundered country's economic decline. The decline started in 1974 and worsened between 1991 and 1993. Growth in GDP stagnated, and inflation reached a record 100 per cent. Bilateral and multilateral donors suspended programme aid to Kenya, insisting that the country should fight corruption.
And who knows, whether Obama would have been alive today in a country with an infant mortality rate of 56 deaths/1,000 live births. Many more die at birth. And most of these deaths, like in the rest of Africa, are avoidable.
Who also knows if Barack would have survived the post-election "tribal war" last year? According to a report, tribalism in Kenya had been fed venom by decades of Kenyatta and Moi's corrupt misrule. Both governments stole so much that they left Kenya in poverty. While Kenyatta favoured Kikuyu tribe with patronage, Moi favoured his Kalenjin people. They left most of the country in appallingly slums or decrepit villages. The result was seething resentment which manifested itself in terrible cases of violence and mob justice. The outbreak of a major crisis was only a matter of time. It did break in two months of violence from December 2007 after the re-election of President Mwai Kibaki, and over 1,500 people were hacked to death in bizarre vampire manner.
Barack may have survived it like his half brother, George. In this scenario of comparing Barack and George, Kenya, as the environment, is held as a constant. Same father, but there are variations in their heredity because they are half brothers.
George told Vanity Fair, "Last January during the elections there was rioting and six people were hacked to death. The police don't even arrest you they just shoot you. I have seen two of my friends killed. I have scars from defending myself with my fists. I am good with my fists."
George Hussein Onyango Obama, Barack's youngest half brother, lives in a hut in a ramshackle town of Huruma on the outskirts of Nairobi."No-one knows who I am," he told the magazine, before claiming: "I live here on less than a dollar a month . I live like a recluse, no-one knows I exist If anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed." George added he was no longer in contact with his mother and said:"I have had to learn to live and take what I need."
So could Barack also have been a victim of polygamy if he lived in Kenya with his Dad? He has eight half-siblings by four other marriages or relationships of his parents. His father had four children by a woman he married in Kenya before his 1960 marriage to Obama's mother in Hawaii. Two of those children - son Abongo (Roy) and daughter Auma - were born before Barack Obama Jr. After Obama Sr. divorced Obama's mother in 1963, he married another American woman he brought to Kenya and had two more sons - Mark and David, who was killed in a motorcycle accident. That marriage ended in a divorce, after Obama Sr. resumed his relationship with his first wife. He had two other sons - Abo and Bernard - by his first wife, though Obama wrote in his memoirs that there is some question whether another man actually fathered Bernard. Obama Sr. later had another son, George, by a woman he was involved with but apparently did not marry. Tragically, Obama Sr. died in a drunken automobile crash when Obama was 21.
Obama has lived on to make history, but as the euphoria dies down, it gives room for sober reflection. Should Barack Obama be the pride of African leaders? On a continent plagued by poor, failed leadership, how many successful leaders can we count? Madiba Nelson Mandela, but in the dark, black Africa firmament, he is a lone star. An exception, rather than the rule. Sadly, to wish that Obama is an African is to wish him failure. That would be tragic because he will break many hearts. Unlike in Africa where many leaders fail but live to enjoy their stolen wealth, Barack may not be so lucky. Failure can't be an option for a man who has been celebrated by the whole world, America's enemies inclusive. Already, his inbox of expectations has been described as an inbox from hell. He needs prayers, not wild hypocritical celebration.
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I disagree w/the premise. The writer of the article seems to have a discourse or at best seem angered by the atrocities of African Leaders. I believe, and rightly so as a mother that you are shaped by not only nature but nurture. I must also add your genes from whence stems the nature and nurture argument.
I disagree w/the so called African leaders who have added their people's plight as a footnote to their existence through the perpetuations of greed and lack of regard for human lives in that continent rendering most all these leaders except Mandela to a… [Read Full Text]
You have a point there sister, but the latter part of your ideas are wrapped up in Sarahpalinese
You wrote a very commendable article except your use of Jerry Rawlings of Ghana as an example was very shallow, poor and disingenous to the integrity Ghanaians. If you had done your research you'll have found that Rawlings was no different than Mogabe, Idi Amin, etc. For the records Rawlings ruled Ghana for 20 years( remember he had white blood too.He is still fighting to come back to power read the Ghanaina news you will hear him on the campaign trails. He killed and maimed anybody that opposed him during those terrible years; including a Suprime Court Judge a… [Read Full Text]
I think it flawed at best to somehow attribute greed, insensitivity and brutality to any one nationality and surely not based upon blood. Well, I take that back. It is true that it is a blood issue. But in my opinion it is a human blood issue. My point being- we are all capable of the most heinous acts imaginable without regeneration that comes from knowing Christ. I think it is extremely important to realize the atrocities of individuals in power but a grave mistake to somehow attribute good or bad to their actions based upon their nationality. Didn't Dr… [Read Full Text]
I think thts why we have problems in Africa if its not about tribe its about colour
I am like Barack Obama but I have a White father from the european continent and a Black mother from the African Continent and I was born on the African continent I am VERY PROUD ABOUT BARACK's achievement AND WISH HIM AND HIS FAMILY ALL THE BEST AFTER ALL ITS ABOUT BRAINS AND HE MAY DO MUCH BETTER THAN THE OTHER US PRESIDENTS GIVE HIM A BREAK
I think thts why we have problems in Africa if its not about tribe its about colour
I am like Barack Obama but I have a White father from the european continent and a Black mother from the African Continent and I was born on the African continent I am VERY PROUD ABOUT BARACK's achievement AND WISH HIM AND HIS FAMILY ALL THE BEST AFTER ALL ITS ABOUT BRAINS AND HE MAY DO MUCH BETTER THAN THE OTHER US PRESIDENTS GIVE HIM A BREAK
I think thts why we have problems in Africa if its not about tribe its about colour
I am like Barack Obama but I have a White father from the european continent and a Black mother from the African Continent and I was born on the African continent I am VERY PROUD ABOUT BARACK's achievement AND WISH HIM AND HIS FAMILY ALL THE BEST AFTER ALL ITS ABOUT BRAINS AND HE MAY DO MUCH BETTER THAN THE OTHER US PRESIDENTS GIVE HIM A BREAK
See all comments (52).
I disagree w/the premise. The writer of the article seems to have a discourse or at best seem angered by the atrocities of African Leaders. I believe, and rightly so as a mother that you are shaped by not only nature but nurture. I must also add your genes from whence stems the nature and nurture argument.
I disagree w/the so called African leaders who have added their people's plight as a footnote to their existence through the perpetuations of greed and lack of regard for human lives in that continent rendering most all these leaders except Mandela to a… [Read Full Text]