Obama is in, but the fat lady hasn’t sung just yet

Posted by metroafrican • July 22, 2009 • Printer-friendly

By JESSE MASAI in Washington, D.C

I was privileged to be in Washington, D.C, during last year's historic American electoral process. Five years before, I had equally been privileged to be in the United States, though at that time in central Pennsylvania. Then, as now, I could not help but think about the import of the electoral process on the African psyche.

Living in greater DC and covering various people, issues and events on the Hill as a reporter this past year increasingly convinced me that the London-based Economist had not been off the mark in May 2000 when it had declared Africa the “dark continent in one breath,” and called for increased faith on our part in our own capacities in another.

The Obama victory, particularly in its organization and execution, ought to remain etched in our minds. Substantively, it also behooves us to begin examining issue-positions in the American public square that we could relevantly contextualize for the African experience.
On a personal level, I remain concerned about traditional family values, ordered liberty and religious freedom - issues about which I might be at odds with the Kenyan-American occupying the famous address along Pennsylvania Avenue.

Going forward, the many of us here of African descent must endeavor to raise the level of public debate on issues that matter, and put ourselves – as indeed our people – on the winning side of such debates.

Jesse Masai is a Kenyan journalist and blogger. He studied Media at Messiah College (PA, USA) and Daystar University (Nairobi, Kenya). He maintains an active interest in African and global media, popular literature, faith and politics.