The United States, the most technologically advanced nation, politically mature, and the strongest military power in the world, witnessed, on Tuesday the 4th of November, 2008, the most out of the ordinary historical tidal wave when Barack Obama, son of an immigrant black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother was elected the 44th President. For 232 years, beginning in 1776 when it gained independence from England after a brutal war of independence, “the Land of Milk and Honey” as it is popularly called, the United States has been predominantly ruled by white presidents some of whom owned slaves brought from Africa during the slave trade.
The former Senator from Illinois garnered 364 of the electoral votes and 51% of the popular votes, while his opponent, Republican Presidential contender and Senator, John McCain of Arizona, trailed behind with 162 and 49% of the electoral and popular votes respectively. Delivering a passionate speech that echoed across the globe in his famous political power base and hometown of Chicago in the splendid Grant Park which was packed to the brim with over a 100 thousand estimated spectators, the President-elect who is known for veracity, competency and thoughtfulness, raised many broad issues including the difficult tasks ahead for his presidency.
As a result of the economic meltdown that began with the collapse of gigantic financial institutions, the new President will need a tough economic team to steer the nation to a new direction. As the election results trickled in from the 50 states, territories, and overseas absentee ballots, millions across the country remained glued to their television screens to watch the most spectacular political event in American history. Obama’s rival, Senator John McCain of Arizona, a decorated Vietnam War veteran and a political juggernaut in Washington politics, spoke to his supporters though in a low tone with less applause from his followers. However, Senator McCain heaped praiseD on Barack Obama while at the same time sending his supporters a poignant appeal to support and rally behind the initiatives of the new President-elect. Likewise, the incumbent President of the U.S., George W. Bush relayed a similar message.
On the other hand, world leaders, friends and foes alike, delivered messages of congratulations and felicitations to the man who shook the political conundrum of the world’s only superpower.
According to reports by election observers, political analysts, Washington pundits, media houses, and polls, the titling of balance of power to the side of the Democratic Party was made possible by Obama’s articulate speech delivery and powerful energy, the exceptional strategic planning of the party electioneering team, the trust and discipline demonstrated by his aides and volunteers, the meticulous fundraising skills, the scrupulous thrust of house-to-house visitations, e-mail contacts, telephonic and text messaging and the outstanding communication techniques put into force by the party’s political maestros from day one until the final finish. The swearing of the top stratum of the campaigning team to secrecy coupled with strict observation of the essential schedules culminated in a well organized mix of willing supporters who set the ball rolling day and night without any conceivable difference of opinion or divergence from point of departure.
Despite harangues from his opponent, malicious misinformation circulated by racially prejudiced publications, loquacious radio hosts regurgitating propaganda, deplorably doctored malevolent accusations by racist media houses and incredulous insinuations by powerful individual political misfits, Obama repulsed his foes with sheer force and unbending articulation using double-edged sword of philosophical expressions that transformed him into an immovable barrier and a force to reckon with. Going by the old adage “what man has done man can do”, Obama saw himself as an indispensable pioneer whose intended objectives if effectively managed will open a path for millions of citizens politically decapitated either by color, creed, religion, gender, and national origin. Thus, the election of Obama as the first African-American President of the United States heralds the evolvement of a political platform for all hyphenated racial classes who were denied a place in many secluded, alienated, and subjective arenas reserved for and commandeered by peers of the realms.
In his father’s birthplace nation of Kenya, in Indonesia, Australia, and almost in every habitable landscape of our planet earth, the name Barack Obama received incomparable celebrity status. No doubt many children who were born the night Obama was pronounced the winner, will have their birth certificates decorated with the first, middle, and last names of the most famous man of this century. Barack, Hussein or Obama-three out of the ordinary African and Arabian names that resonate with blessings, courage, knowledge, and other favorable predilections will resonate with any language, topography, and demography. If African-Americans of today carry names like Kwame, Kenyatta, Tunisia, Aaliyah, Kunta, and Kalindi, why not get rid of colonial baptismal names and switch to beautiful African names like Ndebele, Meygag, Koroma, Bakarow, Njagi, Barack, Hussein, and Obama.
In Kenya, a land familiar to the President-elect, witchdoctors, sages, and jugglers scrupulously prognosticated and then promulgated Obama’s ascendancy of the White House long before the pronouncement of the election results.
There was a night when several volcanoes that were to erupt burped and instead secretly spewed aroma that nourished the surrounding fauna and flora; that was the night when many spiritual worshipers communicated with the spirits of the dead to find out their special man in the making; thereafter, it was my turn to fry my favorite bun iyo cambuulo galley to close the chapter for the day ahead.
The day before the election, I received a phone call from a sweet talking mademoiselle who wanted to know whether I had a few hours to volunteer to the cause of democracy. My message to her was “you don’t need me as the message has been clearly spelled out and that it has been confirmed to me by my own ruuxaan that the winner of the election will be a man called Barack Obama.”
African Sangomas uncovered extraordinary microscopic messages intricately splashed across the linings of abdominal and intestinal organs of squirrels, salamander lizards, and porcupines that prophesied the reclamation of black and other minority inalienable rights that had been trampled upon for centuries in the northern hemisphere. Intercommunication between witchdoctors and the spirits of the mountains, oceans, and the crust of the earth yielded fruitful results after painstakingly offering sacrifices and performing rituals that appeased the invisible powerful spirits they so profoundly depend upon for the disclosure of relevant information that are of vital significance to their material and spiritual world.
Pro-life supporters found solace in Obama’s respect for the inviolability of human life- priestly thoughts that were in conformity with their sacerdotal beliefs. Obama received blessings, votes, and unparalleled prayers of African-American voters; a great number of Latino electors threw their weight behind him; women cast their ballots in great numbers for they had votes that were of crucial importance as that of the other opposite gender; adherents of various denominations supplicated against the racially obsessed few while keeping vigil all night long for a once-in-a-lifetime miracle to shake America’s bloated racial divide, and millions of young and elderly whites joined the election fever in support of Barack Obama’s attractive economic and health packages. Many red states switched allegiance to Barack Obama because they found John McCain’s policies were a continuation of George Bush’s failed policies.
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