Reflections on Obama's victory and Africa

Reflections on Obama's victory and Africa

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By Hilton Mendelsohn
Posted to the web: 13/11/2008 02:01:17
ANYONE who has ever lived in northern counties of the United Kingdom or any areas like them will tell you that there are times when all you get is a glimmer of the sun as night turns to day and day night, weeks after week after week. All you get is periods of damp light that you grow to savour and sometimes, people even smile as you walk past them on the street.

The last few years of being Zimbabwean can probably be compared to this; periods of darkness interrupted by periods of damp light that promise sunshine that then quickly recedes before your very eyes. False start, after false start, after false start!

On November 4, 2008, the sun shone brightly for those who believe in the possibility of change. Something that had seemed improbable as recently as a year ago happened as Barack Obama the son of an African was elected the next President of the United States of America.

Armed with only his own unique heritage, unfailing hope, the ability to inspire and a spirit of a grassroots movement the likes of which had never been seen before; a little know Senator from Chicago, Illinois, took on and beat the Clinton machine, the Republican Party and a prejudice that had been maintained for generations.

This story probably does not mean much to us directly as Zimbabweans but the symbolic significance cannot be diminished. In a country where the black majority was once oppressed by a white minority, where a black minority group oppressed and slain by another black majority, where a white minority found itself being oppressed in a role reversal and eventually where an entire nation has found itself on it's knees and scattered around the world, surely this story of overcoming the odds and making a way where no way seemed possible should hold some special resonance.

America has travelled a path of even greater division, even greater oppression. They engaged in 300 years of slavery, have seen the presidents and other great leaders assassinated and have lived with a deep distrust amongst its people that some say may never heal. Even during this historic election, prejudice reared its ugly head, threatening to force the election of an obviously inferior ticket as the argument sometimes swayed away from merit to mediocrity and from fact to fear.

Obama was accused, amongst other things, of being un-American, “palling around with terrorists”, a terrorist himself and even more bizarrely – the Anti-Christ. He was said to be unlike “real” Americans like Joe the Plumber, Joe Six-pack, Bo… I mean Tito the Builder and Sarah the Hockey-mom.

The baseline argument was: he is not like you; he does not understand you and you should therefore fear him. Thankfully, America realised that plumbers should mend leaks and builders should build. Most importantly, hockey-moms from Alaska are not necessarily Vice President material!

So now the questions have shifted to us: Will we continue down the path that sews the seeds of fear and prejudice that suggests that some people are more deserving than others to be President because of their skin colour or ethnicity?

Will we continue to be held at ransom by a group of people who seem to think that they are more deserving because of their military service?

Will we continue to convince ourselves that change is not possible and that because we are African we are somehow less deserving of the same standard of living or leadership than the rest of the world?

Will we continue to sigh, shrug our shoulders and shuffle on to whatever it is that fills that hole in our being where our sense of national pride should be?

For months Zimbabwean politicians have been negotiating a settlement to appease a defeated political party that has failed the people. This organisation has denied foreign-based citizens their right to vote and their opposition the right to campaign freely. They have denied the people most of the rights enshrined in the universal declaration of human rights and ultimately the right to have the government of our choice.

That the leaders of SADC would seek to lend this party legitimacy is a sad indictment of the motivation of African leaders. An attempt to deny the people the government of their choice is an attempt at a coup. Imagine how they would all respond if McCain and the Republicans had not conceded defeat in the US election, called the prejudiced rabble to arms and forced a man whose father is African and the party he leads into negotiating their victory?

Our responsibility as Zimbabweans is to come together and where we have shrugged our shoulders and told the dishonourable leaders of Africa Yes You Can, we must now respond with a determined and firm - No You Can’t!

It is one thing to accept a coalition government that eases the transfer of power to the government chosen by the people. It is a different thing entirely to accept a coup orchestrated by the leaders of SADC against the will of the people of Zimbabwe.

Mendelsohn is a director of the WEZIMBABWE Trust and organiser of the ZIMFEST festival
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