Op-Ed: Barack Obama: Are African Relatives Expecting Too Much?

Barack Obama’s forthcoming inauguration as the 44th Presidentof the United States has electrified Africa, the continent of his father. Hopes and expectations are high as mountains, but are they justified?

Barack Obama -US President Elect - was unknown to nearly all Kenyans until a few months ago. But that has not prevented them from celebrating his success in the US as if he were truly one of their own. As Tuesday 20th January, 2009 - the day Obama will be installed as the 44th American President approaches, everything in the Kenya has caught what is being called the “Obama mania.” Newspapers and radio stations are full of self-advertisement promoting their live casts and special supplements on the great day. Colleges are up with adverts calling on potential students to register for new courses in hotel management, hospitality and tourism as they expect the installation of “our man” as the most powerful man in the world, to increase tourism into the country. And public transport vehicles are decorated with Obama posters. Already Obama’s grandmother - the mother of his father Barack Obama senior - is in the United States with a retinue of her grandchildren to await the day one of their own will rise into unexpected heights in the power world. And Kenyan politicians - including ministers - are on the way, using unauthorized Kenyan taxpayers money, to travel to the US, uninvited. The excitement is such that even respected ministers want to be in the vicinity, if they cannot be in the inauguration square. Obama’s Parents Mr. Obama,as everyone in the world now knows, is the son of Kenyan man and an American White woman. And that’s the reason for Kenyans going wild about his success. Deep inside, they hope he will change their destinies for the better. But will he? Or can he? It’s true that although Mr. Obama’s parents divorced a long time ago, he has shown an unusual commitment in tracing his roots and identifying with his African kin. He has twice visited the country and has written extensively about his relationship with his father, who died tragically in a road accident in Kenya. But this commitment and desire to establish their African roots is not unusual among black Americans, and does not necessarily show a commitment to African person. In deed, among great american leaders, only Martin Lurther King didn’t exploit his African connection to rise. More like Obama, however was Alex Haley, author of the bestselling novel, Roots. Alex Haley Family Saga The book, based on the author’s research into his African parentage, was turned into what Wikipedia calls “a hugely popular 12 hour television miniseries” of the same name in 1977, a year after it was published. In the Family Saga, Haley claimed to have traced his family to an African man named Kunta Kinte in the Gambia. In deed, he claimed to have found his cousins and relatives. And in the small West African country, excitement and expectation ran high.Their son was in deed, going to change their lives. But once Haley achieved what he wanted - to become a celebrated writer and to tell the myths collected over years from his parents and grandparents, nothing was heard any more. Haley became more American than other black Americans. Tracing “roots” became a profitable American pass time, color not withstanding.Leading American writer, James Baldwin, author of Another Country, said, he loved the Africa that he imagined, not the Africa that he saw when he visited the continent.Many other American celebrities have said the same. Profitable American Passtime No one should expect Barack Obama to be anything different. Now that he has satisfied his curiosity by finding his African roots, and now that he has used that as a stepping stone to US presidency, Kenyans should not expect anything more from Mr. Obama. Americans are Americans, black or white. And when the euphoria is over, Obama will readily down play his Kenyan connection. And Kenyans, like the Gambians, will be hurt because they have invested so much hope and emotions on a man they didn’t know.