 “The hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him.” Senator
Obama hopes to bring to light the plight of the African, however, he
cannot solve the problems in his ancestral village nor nation.
But is
Obama really a son of an African man who he barely knew? No, I am not
questioning his heritage, but his identity. Will he raise his
grandmother’s village from its knees? Will he fall short of the
expectations of his people?
As I sat at the balcony of the Senate gallery in Washington DC, I
could not help, but feel the power that the men and women below me
yielded. So these are the men that run America, well, and try to run
the rest of the world. I could not help, but notice that even America,
the world leader in all that is right, sic, had a disproportionate
number of women and people of color. And as Barack Obama walks into the
senate floor I wonder what his thoughts are. Having read Senator
Obama’s Dreams of My Father which I found enchanting and
encouraging, I feel as if I know what he could be thinking. In his
narration, he walks one through his journey as a young man of mixed
heritage in America.
Barack Obama, through his struggle to find himself, discovers and begins his political journey.
As most first generation immigrants, whether permanent or
temporary, will attest the memory of all that was good back home is
still very fresh. And for many Africans in the Diaspora, we now see a
time when we can change the political thus economic scene back home.
Our families have great expectations have great plans for us. When a
whole village raises funds to send a child “abroad” to get an
education, it is their dream that this child will return home to “help”
the community. Ours is a community nation, where one’s success is
considered that of the community. And so the dream lies with Obama.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama has a dream for America. “The hope of
a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place
for him.” (Keynote address to the Democratic Convention, 2004) And that
too should be our hope. A hope that Africa too will have a place, not
only for Senator Obama, but also for many like his father who left the
motherland as either economic or political refugees.
Senator Obama hopes to bring to light the plight of the
African, however, he cannot solve the problems in his ancestral village
nor nation. But is Obama really a son of an African man who he barely
knew? No, I am not questioning his heritage, but his identity. Will he
raise his grandmother’s village from its knees? Will he fall short of
the expectations of his people?
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