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  Alexander Tetenta (University of Glasgow) wrote

Alexander Tetenta (University of Glasgow) wrote

It is very easy for us to get carried away in the euphoria of this victory, but we must not define this historic event in terms of “Black and White”, as it does very little justice to the subject matter of the question. Whilst staying focused on its implication beyond the shores of the United States, let me reiterate what I had written about previously on barackobama.com, i.e, that this is a dawn of a new era for global politics in a sense that nations with anti-American, anti-western, anti-democratic tendencies could look upon the US when she goes about “spreading democracy” and democratic ideals and say, “We can now listen to America for their system is fair and just, having produced a leader based on the will of the people, his message of truth, hope and change, and his sincerity of purpose regardless of where he hailed from”.

This is the world we should all aspire to, particularly on the African continent, which, not only sowed the seed of “Obama”, but also finds her people pitched against one another for reasons ranging from the Tutsi-Hutu divide, or Muslim/Christian conflicts of interest, to the Yoruba-Igbo-Hausa competition; from the Shona-Ndebele rivalry, to the civilian-military struggle for power, and to other divisions too numerous to mention.

Whatever these differences between people of Africa, or amongst the Arabs for instance, who are now exploiting the division between the Shiites and the Sunnis, for political reasons, they are not as stark as that which was overcome on Tuesday night, when a first Generation Black Man who originally hailed from Kenya became elected to the Position of the President of a majority white country.

Regardless of the color of his skin, here we see a leader who calls on his people to a “common purpose, to a higher purpose”, particularly in time of crisis and anticipated socio-economic and political decline. Here we see a leader who reminds us of the fact that we are all interconnected; that the fact of globalization means that events in one obscure corner of the world can have adverse effects on even the most sophisticated nations of the world.

He invokes the Bible to remind us to “be your Brother’s keeper” and similar to the Koran, he implicitly tells us that “in our colors and in our tongues are signs of God, they are not reasons to have hostilities, but reasons to marvel at this extra-ordinary creation of diversity.”

He reminds us that you cannot be your brother’s keeper if you are an oil company or a government that flares millions of cubic metric tones of gas, or spills oil in the rivers and creeks as a by-product of oil drilling in the Niger-Delta for instance, whilst people still cut firewood to cook, with a double-impact on the environment, and at the same time neglecting the demands of your people for change!

He demands that corporations and big business begin to act socially responsible, and is on the path to restoring accountability to government, whilst hoping that America once more sets an example to the world by reminding corrupt leaders that the people are the government, and that when the time comes, nothing shall come in the way of “millions of voices” of brothers and sisters asking for change!

In Berlin, he called upon the people of the world, not to dwell on the blunders of our past but to learn from our mistakes through history, and to think progressively of the kind of planet we want to leave for our children.

Personally, on the day I first met and shook the hand of the President-elect for the first time with a group of small supporters from Camp Obama, Bronx for Obama and Brooklyn for Barack, at a small gathering where he thanked us for participating in “Camp Obama” a weekend long workshop about community organizing, and again at the Brooklyn Marriot Hotel on the 22nd of August 2007, he said to us, “don't go round admiring Obama, don't go around talking about Obama, you need to be Obama”, adding that by that he meant, "You need to be the leader , you need to be the organiser, you need to lead the way, you need to carve that new path", in words, there is a leader in everyone of us and when the time comes "nothing can stop us from bringing about the change we want to see..."

Whilst acknowledging this self evident truth, it is pertinent to note that just as the Civil Rights movement in the 60s gave added momentum to the Clamors for independence in Africa, the election of a Black man to the highest office in the US shall undoubtedly give added momentum to the growing agitation for, honest, righteous, accountable and transparent leadership in Africa and most of the developing world.

But first, Obama must lead by example for all those future “Obamas” to follow- He must make Darfur not just a campaign rhetoric, but use his common sense approach to politics to challenge the rationale of the veto-wielding members of the UN security council when it comes to ending the killing of Black people, and move quickly to end the killing of Black Africans by the Janjaweed militia, and to show the world that we now operate on a system where an equal international standard operates- after all, there should not be a different international standard when it comes to “liberating” Africans.

Obama, must now put action to the words of Tony Blair in October 2001 (seeking Africa’s support on the war on terror), when he said, “Africa is a scar on the conscience of the world” bearing in mind that unless this scar is healed, the justice and peace we seek to achieve in the world would not be possible.

He must now demonstrate his commitment to bring a sensible solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict; he must now send a signal to the rest of the world that America is ready to do business based on a “fair system of co-operation”, and that in this ever growing competitive world, he should be poised to turn economic rivals into partners of sustainable development for the sake of the deprived people of the world. He must now keep his promises regarding Iraq, and his commitments to NAFTA, to America’s neighbors and to the global citizenry.

Let us not get carried away thinking Obama would now spoon-feed every deprived corner of the world, but when his work is done, people of the world would have learnt that indeed, “we are the change we seek”, and that “our history shall no longer be written for us, but by us”.

The ball is in the court of our generation to learn from people like Obama and all those who had come before him, and when the time is come to use it for the benefit of the people, as we seek common sense answers to the challenges we shall face in our time. Let us not forget that the full impact of Obama’s presidency may not be felt immediately across the world and in some places the impact may even get there long after he’s served, but the promise offered by this possibility is one which we must all now use for the benefit of our respective home countries when the time comes.

In the meantime, we have had “a dream”, we have hoped for change- let us now seek the courage to change and to restore the dignity of our people by putting a complete end to “the philosophy which makes one race superior and another inferior”- a philosophy only made worse by corrupt leadership on the African continent, wars, ethnic divisions, "Politics as usual", and the failure to think and plan ahead for generations of Blacks and Africans yet unborn.

May this change lead us to a more just, more tolerant, more progressive, more united world, and lead us closer to Peace- for Peace - Shalom in Hebrew, Salam in Arabic- comes from an Ottoman word Saleema, which means “To be whole”, or “integrity”.

I pray that Obama leads with integrity and I hope Africa and the world would be “whole” again during and beyond Obama’s administration.

Thank you.
Regards,
Alexander Tetenta, Esq.
B.A (Hons), LL.M