Obama must tame America for the continent of his ancestors [May his rain sprout a Union of Africa]

Daily Nation ^ | 2-15-08

[SJackson]

AFRICA INSIGHT - Obama must tame America for the continent of his ancestors

Story by OKELLO OCULI
Publication Date: 2/15/2008

His presidency could, besides pursuing a pro-African foreign policy, influence US transnational corporations, the Military Industrial Complex and scientific institutions to be fair to the continent, writes OKELLO OCULI, Nation Writer, Nigeria

US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama and his grandmother Sarah Hussein Obama at Kagelo village in Nyanza Province, Kenya, where his father was born. Picture/FILE

Barack Obama, now leading Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Party presidential primaries ahead of key battles in Texas, has come like rain on American politics.

His campaign theme – ‘the source of new hope on a parched land’  is a cleansing agent in a land weighed down by crusted blood of Iraqis murdered in their own territory by Americans who came to save them from “weapons of mass destruction”.

Obama has come as rain from a Kenyan cloud that seeded in the plains of Iowa and fell in Hawaii, but refuses to be tied down as just another “black candidate” pushing primarily for the restoration of justice for African-Americans by reminding white America of its guilt.

Instead, he insists on the freedom of a collective American Messiah who has come to mobilise all disillusioned children of American democracy to open up a new frontier in politics. This is Obama’s venture of building hope using the power of hope.

Like rain, Obama must rouse new winds that will blow away drought, which drought will not depart without a fight. The first facet of  the drought he must shove aside is the old establishment African-American politicians like Andrew Young in Atlanta and Charles Randle in New York whose powers rest on being called to the White House to carry forth addresses to black church congregations and assemblies of The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP). These workhorses are seasoned in lobbying Congress for legislation in favour of black America. Andrew Young gave that power a voice in a libidinal flavour when he said Bill Clinton was blacker than Obama because he has had relations with more black women.

Others put it differently, saying Obama will simply not be nominated by the Democratic Party when it assembles in its rainbow complexity at a convention and remembers that those who landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620 aboard the Mayflower and established the first permanent English colony were White Anglo Saxon Protestants. To them America is an un-melting rock of racism that will always melt down everything dressed in idealism.

The new winds in black America are talking of a change of guard. Arthur Clarke, a classmate of Obama at the Harvard Law School, believes that those who hold that Obama is unelectable  and therefore will not waste their vote, say exactly what a Caucasian American would be vilified for if they used  the argument for the opposite purpose of wishing away the very possibility of a black American president. In his view, there is a fear of getting hurt which becomes the very cause of perpetuating injury— in this case, historic injustice against a racial group.

In Nigeria, Obama draws similar conflicting perceptions. There are those who wish he would win but will not want to bank on his victory because they believe he will be assassinated by an irate American racist. The image of America in which even school children mow down fellow children with guns simply looms like a huge monster.

The prospect of a black man as the president of the most powerful country in the world is like a deluge that would wash away all the centuries of decay that slavery (which took millions of people from Africa) brought. Against this school of thought are those who are miffed by a sense of historic cheating that Kenya would achieve by being the African country from which this historic Obama has popped from.

Obama’s history does not help here. His father travelled to America as a post-independence beneficiary of the Tom Mboya - John F. Kennedy diplomatic and scholarships rumba. Nigeria’s earliest known migrant to America in search of education was the venerated Nnamdi Azikiwe. He studied at Lincoln University and the closest that a Kenyan became associated with his legacy there was when in 1994 when Kenya’s Prof Ali Mazrui was invited to give a lecture on Azikiwe.

The Rockefeller Foundation probably awarded fellowships for training academics for Nigerian universities and the University of Nairobi in a ratio of one hundred Nigerians to one Kenyan. By way of subsequent levels of exodus from Nigeria to America, the figure now probably stands at over two million Nigerians domiciled in the US. It is little wonder that a sense of daylight robbery would be felt by Nigerians if Obama, a Kenyan, grabs the biggest prize.

There are those who worry about other things, notably what to hope for from American foreign policy when, not if, Obama wins the presidency. A point of departure is the current perception of Obama as the John F. Kennedy of the new millennium. Kennedy brings back memories of his order for the brutal murder of Patrice Lumumba and the termination of democratic politics in newly independent Congo. Charles Devlin, an operative of the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, would have Joseph Desire Mobutu stage a coup whose consequences would ruin that rich land till his cowardly flight in 1997 to Togo and then Morocco where he died of prostate cancer in 1997.

That tradition of military coups would hurl Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah out of power in 1966 and threaten East Africa with coordinated coup attempts in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania between 1964 and 1965. It would bring civil war to Nigeria.

An Israeli newspaper would boast that Israeli intelligence recruited Aguiyi Ironsi as a coup plotter when he was serving in Nigeria’s military contingent to the UN peace keeping mission in the Congo.

In 1971 a coup booted Milton Obote out of power in Uganda when the American ambassador there was an African American. Uganda’s most barbaric rule under Idi Amin from 1971 t0 1978 was Obote’s reward for running one of the few African countries that was free of corruption.

American foreign policy, like their version of football, has little patience for players without brawn.

When Obama talks of a wind of change that will make American power an agent of positive world diplomacy, it is not clear to this group of Nigerians how he will turn the country’s military-industrial complex away from weapons and their usage abroad as tools of profit.

Obama grew up in Indonesia. It was an Indonesia which could never have anticipated the Bali bombings as long as memories of the slaughter of over one million “communists” by a CIA-foisted Suharto regime remained hidden through his regime’s economic miracle. When it faltered, the social cost of the regime bred an anger that became responsive to poisonous sermons from Saudi Arabia. It is not clear how Obama will tilt the sails of American’s multinational corporations, conservative fundamentalists and their surrogates in the Muslim world.

Obama’s African ancestry is seen to hold great potentialities. For one, it holds the promise of a return to the truncated will of Africa’s peoples to re-domocratise a western world whose legacy of pursuit of human freedom had been cut short by records of enslaving Africans followed by genocidal colonial invasions, settlement in, and administration of Africa. Bursts of liberation wars in Algeria, Kenya, Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa were countered by cynical exertions by NATO countries --- including support for military invasions by apartheid South Africa.

Basil Davidson and Susan George have asserted that deliberate efforts were made by Euro-American banks to paralyse new administrations in Africa by promoting widespread corruption. The resultant debt trap sounded the death knell for millions of Africans. The call by the first nationalists for ending poverty, illiteracy and disease” in their countries, let alone Nigeria’s dream of building the “black atomic bomb” for projecting Africa’s power, is paralysed.

Undeterred, new voices have continued to call for Africa’s rebirth. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development, NEPAD, is drawing more than yawns. As Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, sat in Nairobi to sort out the tragic conflict in Kenya over a presidential election dispute, Kenya’s Bethuel Kiplagat was in Nigeria to inspect records of governance within the framework of Nepad’s Peer Review Mechanism, a self-assessment tool invented by Africa’s rulers themselves.

Muhammar Gaddafi’s dream of being crowned Africa’s first emperor continues to serve the useful purpose of keeping alive, to a new generation of Africans, the old dream of Kwame Nkrumah’s generation for creating a United States of Africa.

Barack Obama is uniquely placed to support the fruition of this dream knowing, as he now does, the sublime challenges of conducting political rain on a scale as grand, in terrestrial and human space, as the United States of America.

May his rain come down to sprout a Union of Africa. To which some Nigerians  say “AMEN.”

Africa Insight is an initiative of the Nation Media Group’s Africa Media Network Project.

[abstracTT]

what has the world come to whe nthe front runners is the she-devil herself, hillary clinton, a muslim named hussein obama, and a far left liberal republican?

God help us.

[Sherman Logan]

Well, 50% of his ancestors are from Europe.

[YellowRoseofTx]

...the front runners is the she-devil herself, hillary clinton, a muslim named hussein obama, and a far left liberal republican?

This is certainly not the America I grew up in. Every time I think things can't get any crazier, it does. What I see in our future is not what I want my little grandkids to grow up in.

[John Robie]

Good post. Maybe some of the zealots on here will start to wake up to the realities of what an Obama Presidency would bring to America.

[John Robie]

They do not count.

[AbeKrieger]

In a recent exit poll analysis:

Whites: 51% for Obama, 49% for Clinton
Blacks: 88% for Obama, 11% for Clinton

And the news was that Obama has made serious inroads into the white electorate. Not a word about how blacks clearly don’t see past skin color.

Who’s got a problim with deep-seated racism?

[Mygirlsmom]

That’s not rain....he is p*ssing on a lot of legs.

[Minn. 4 Bush]

“Maybe some of the zealots on here will start to wake up to the realities of what an Obama Presidency would bring to America.”

You know - alot of the “zealots” you’re referring to have good reason to be very concerned that McCain is our nominee. Obviously, we are all responsible for taking our eye off of him and only focusing on making sure Rudy didn’t get the nomination.

That being said, Obama and Hillary would be a disaster as POTUS. What they could potentially do in 4 years with all 3 branches of government, could take years to undo - if we get the opportunity at all. I will not sit this election out.

[mathurine]

50% white weirdos + 50% black wierdos = 100% weirdo kid.

[Vor Lady]

Did you mean rain or reign?

[Tulane]

That being said, Obama and Hillary would be a disaster as POTUS. What they could potentially do in 4 years with all 3 branches of government, could take years to undo - if we get the opportunity at all. I will not sit this election out.
_________________

Well stated. I doubt many republicans would list McCain as in there top 3 candidates...but he is the guy...and he will be better than Obama+Harry+Nancy.

[boxerblues]

bttt for later

[sheik yerbouty]

His election would be an Obamination..

[blam]

What happens when Obama's Black, Muslim and African relatives arrive in the Rose Garden to sacrifice a sheep to Mohammed?

What's happened to my country?

[Niuhuru]

They want to ‘tame’ America so it breaks and they can take our money and enrich themselves while still demanding more reparations.

I hope to God Obama loses.

[societygirl]

And, in the general election, people WILL have trouble voting for a black.

[Niuhuru]

The Africans are not even bothering to hide their greed, are they?

[Southerngl]

You know Hitler was hailed as a great leader of change and Germany loved him too. At first.

[Southerngl]

There are those who worry about other things, notably what to hope for from American foreign policy when, not if, Obama wins the presidency

********************************

Why bother voting! It’s already been settled, eh?

[societygirl]

No, it’s SEXISM, and a weird reverse racism. Dem males have a HUGE problem with women in power, especially white women. They view white women as baby-makers, and sex symbols, period. They get FREAKY at the thought of a white woman in power. A lot of Dem white males will vote for McCain, in the general. But they will vote for Obama in the primary to keep the white women, Hillary, out of power.

[SJackson]

What happens when Obama's Black, Muslim and African relatives arrive in the Rose Garden to sacrifice a sheep to Mohammed?

PETA won't allow that.

[Jim Noble]

The question of what is wrong, that could allow Obama or any other nobody, spouting "Alles muss anders sein", to come to power, is very interesting.

Either we figure it out, or he wins.

His candidacy and his program are typical of those which would follow catastrophic changes - defeat in war, mass unemployment, hyperinflation, etc.

That our people are so receptive to this message at a time when the "by the numbers" picture of our nation shows "never had it so good" means that the numbers, the pundits, the experts, and the elected officials are missing something of vital importance.

The possibility - even if it were remote - of a person like Obama being elected President means that there is a very serious, very deep, spiritual and existential crisis among our people, so much so that they are looking for a savior.

What is it? What's wrong?

The man with the answer can beat Obama and be the next President.

[societygirl]

Forget that he’s black. Nail him good. Reagan could have easily. He knew the code words.

[evets]

Save America's white minority.

[puroresu]

They view white women as baby-makers, and sex symbols, period.

Are you sure about that? I work around a ton of Democrat men and most of them would drag their woman kicking & screaming to the local abortion mill if she turned up pregnant and wanted to keep the baby.

[thomasjefferson1215]

Actually Obama did chose the right political party to be a racist: The Jackass Party (Democrat) with a proud 200 plus year of Racism.

http://ronbosoldier.blogspot.com/2007/12/jackass-party-of-racism-also-called.html

[SJackson]

Some of the tenets of Obama’s Church are posted here

From some selections, you can see where the continent of his ancestors would think he’d be of great help.

4. A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA.

7. A congregation committed to the HISTORICAL EDUCATION OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN DIASPORA.

2. Commitment to the Black Community. The highest level of achievement for any Black person must be a contribution of strength and continuity of the Black Community.

9. Pledge to Make the Fruits of All Developing and Acquired Skills Available to the Black Community.

10. Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting Black Institutions.

----------------

It was ... at Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side of Chicago that I met Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., who took me on another journey and introduced me to a man named Jesus Christ. It was the best education I ever had,
Barak Obama

"Black women are being raped daily in Africa. One white girl from Alabama gets drunk at a graduation trip to Aruba, goes off and gives it up while in a foreign country and that stays in the news for months.”
Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr

White America got their wake-up call after 9-11. White America and the Western world came to realize people of color had not gone away, faded in the woodwork, or just disappeared as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns
Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr

[redstateconfidential]

“There are those who wish he would win but will not want to bank on his victory because they believe he will be assassinated by an irate American racist. The image of America in which even school children mow down fellow children with guns simply looms like a huge monster.”

As opposed to the little black school children who are taught to hack to death as many other children and adults in other tribes that they can.There are still tribes in the Congo that dine on decaying human flesh, because it tastes sweeter.

[YellowRoseofTx]

in the general election, people WILL have trouble voting for a black.

I think (hope) that by the end of the next many months, those young people who are so excited about Obamantion now will probably not make it to the voting booth. Hopefully the excitement will have cooled down.

[societygirl]

My lovely ex tells me about the “new America,” which is part of the “New World Order.” They planned it for years,says he. He says that all white women over 25 will be shot.... the rest will be put on breeding camps, to breed “little white boys.” They will be forbidden from going to school. Their children will be “taken away from them,” and “given to black and Third World women to raise.” He says ‘only white women stand between us and our goals.” I always thought it was one of his drunken rants, and laughed at him. He first said the US would cease to exist in 1975, then 1980, etc. He said only Bush stopped this “miracle” from happening. He says that they will achieve their goal with the “next Democratic President.” They also threaten to shoot Hillary if she makes it... after she has turned the country over to them. Hillary is no differentfrom any other old, white woman, even if she is gay, says he. All white women are the same to these whack jobs. Sick LW creeps. I used to laugh; not now.

[Mila]

Is the woman shown in the picture with Obama, his late father’s mother? If so, does anyone know and can speculate on her age? If Obama is 47 years of age, his father would be close to seventy wouldn’t he? Given that, this lady must be pretty old.

[societygirl]

Not deep down. They want to subjegate women, in ther “New World Order.” These guys think white women are “dumb.”

[Landru]

"Who’s got a problim with deep-seated racism?"

Well immediately I'd say the Clintons, both of 'em.

The Grifter himself started --& liberally used-- race as a weapon whenever & wherever he could, starting with but hardly limited to appointing one Deval Patrick.

They created a Frankenstein monster, and now it's on the loose.

...couldn't happen to a better pair of sleaze.

[Joan Kerrey]

What happens when Obama’s Black, Muslim and African relatives arrive in the Rose Garden to sacrifice a sheep to Mohammed?
++++++++++++++++++++
Would that be worse than Bill and Hillary’s broken bathroom fixtures, bathtubs, sinks, beer cans, old rusty cars etc. thrown all over the Whitehouse lawn?

[wardaddy]

The only group I would say would have a real issue voting for Malcolm O are Mexicans.

I sure hop folks do, he is poison.

Extremely far left

[SJackson]

Haven’t a clue, but he looks young in the picture so I doubt it’s from his trip 2 years ago.

[thomasjefferson1215]

Yes, Obama’s church is clearly Racist and Collectivist.

When all the facts are considered, Obama is clearly exposed as a Fascist.

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com/2008/02/more-on-fascist-element-in-obamas.html

[societygirl]

Yet bet Hispanics have a huge problem in voting for a black for President. And, so do a TON of whites, who just don’t tell pollsters that... but do anyway.

[Sherman Logan]

"Black women are being raped daily in Africa. One white girl from Alabama gets drunk at a graduation trip to Aruba, goes off and gives it up while in a foreign country and that stays in the news for months.”

The good rev has a darn good point here. Of course the young lady in question wasn't just raped, she disappeared and was presumably murdered. But the attention paid to her plight was bizarrely disproportionate. Especially on Fox.

Does anybody seriously think the disappearance of a very young black girl in this country would get the attention that little Jon Benet got? Much of this is "lookism" as much as racism, though. A homely poor little white girl who disappeared wouldn't get much airtime either.

[John Robie]

Thanks. Wright will be Obama’s ultimate undoing. This stuff will not fly with mainstream America.

[wardaddy]

Obama is carrying white democrats

I don’t think whites have any problem supporting a black, in fact from talking to many I can tell you they are absolutely orgasmic that Obama gives them a chance to vote black

especially white liberal women

[bert]

When 200 commuters on the DC metro were asked who is the president of Africa 23 did not know 42 said Mugabe and the balance said Nelson Mandela

[tapatio]

Barack Obama with his maternal grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham during a 1982 visit to New York, where Obama was attending Columbia

[societygirl]

But white MALES in particular, would have a HUGE problem voting for a black man in a general. They will vote for him in a primary ONLY to stop a woman from getting the nom. Dem men have a HUGE problem with ANY woman, especially a WHITE woman being in a position of author.ity

[societygirl]

Here is anohther reason that people won’tlike. An Asian cab driveronce told me that “ALL men want white women.”

[societygirl]

Many white women will NOT vote for a black man for President, as many have had, to put it politely, bad experiences with black men.

[wardaddy]

I have had disproportionately bad experiences since the early 1980s with young black males in the US. (prior to that I never experienced threatening behavior from blacks, may have been in Mississippi they were still scared of us up until then)

I don’t have much in common politically with blacks ...around 90% of them it looks like

but if Booker T Washington were running, I could support him.

[societygirl]

White women in particular, have bad experiences with black males of any age, as they tend to be FAR more sexually aggressive, and violent, than other man. White women tend to have bad experiences with black women, as black woman tend to hate, and especially resent white women.