Pensativities: Selected Essays

What If Obama Were African?

Africans rejoiced in the victory of Obama. I was one of them. After a sleepless night, in the unreal half-light of early morning, my tears flowed as he delivered his victory speech. At that moment, I too had won a victory. The same happiness ran through me when Nelson Mandela was freed and elected as a new South African statesman, thus opening up a new route to the dignification of Africa.

On the night of 5th November, the new American president wasn’t just a man who was speaking. It was the suffocated voice of hope re-emerging, liberated, within us. My heart had cast its vote, even without permission: not accustomed to asking for much, I celebrated a boundless victory. When I went out into the street, my city had relocated to Chicago, and blacks and whites were sharing their same joyous surprise. For Obama’s victory wasn’t that of one race over another: without the massive participation of Americans of all races (including that of the white majority), the United States of America would not have given us a reason to celebrate.

On the following days, I gradually gauged the joyous reactions from the most diverse corners of our continent. Anonymous people, ordinary citizens, wanted to register their happiness. At the same time, and with some reservations, I made a note of the messages of solidarity coming from African leaders. Almost all of them called Obama “our brother.” And I thought: are all these leaders being honest? Could it be that Barack Obama is the relative of so many politically diverse folk? I have my doubts. In our haste to see prejudices only in others, we are unable to see our own racism and xenophobia. In our haste to condemn the West, we forget to take on board the lessons that reach us from that other side of the world.

It was then that I got hold of a text by the Cameroonian writer, Patrice Nganang, entitled: “What if Obama were Cameroonian?” The issues raised by my colleague from Cameroon suggested various questions to me, formulated around the following hypothesis: what if Obama were African and campaigning for the presidency of an African country? These are the questions I should like to explore in this text.

What if Obama Were African and

Running for an African presidency?

1. If Obama were African, his rival (some African George Bush) would invent changes to the Constitution, enabling him to extend his mandate beyond that initially foreseen. And our Obama would have to wait a few more years before he could run again. He might have to wait a long time, if we take into account the period an African president can be in power: some 41 years in Gabon, 39 in Lybia, 28 in Zimbabwe, 28 in Equatorial Guinea, 28 in Angola, 27 in Egypt, 26 in Cameroon. The list goes on, including fifteen presidents who have governed for more than twenty consecutive years. Mugabe will be ninety years of age when he completes his mandate, which he imposed over and above the will of the people.

2. If Obama were African, it is likely that, as a candidate of the opposition, he wouldn’t be given freedom to conduct a campaign. The same actions would be taken against him as occurred, for example, in Zimbabwe or Cameroon: he would be physically assaulted, he would then be arrested, and his passport would be confiscated. The George Bushes of Africa don’t tolerate opponents or democracy.

3. If Obama were African, he wouldn’t be an eligible candidate in most countries, because the elites in power have invented restrictive laws that close the doors of the presidency to the sons of foreigners and the descendants of immigrants. The Zambian nationalist, Kenneth Kaunda, is undergoing questioning in his own country because his parents were from Malawi. They conveniently “discovered” that the man who took Zambia to independence and governed the country for more than 25 years was, in fact, the son of Malawians, and had therefore governed “illegally” all that time. Arrested for an alleged plot to carry out a coup, our Kenneth Kaunda (who gave his name to one of the main avenues in Maputo) will be barred from political activity, just so the current regime will see itself free of an opponent.

4. Let us be clear: Obama is black in the United States. In Africa, he’s a mulatto. If Obama were African, he would have his ethnic identity thrown in his face. Not because skin colour is important for people who expect their leaders to be competent and to work hard. But our predatory elites would mount a campaign against someone they would designate as “not truly African.” The same black brother who is today greeted as the new American president would be vilified at home for being a representative of the “others,” those of another race, of another flag (or of no flag at all?).

5. If our “brother” were African, he would have a lot of explaining to do to the local moralists when he included in his speech of thanks the support received from the homosexual community: a mortal sin for the proponents of so-called “African purity.” For these moralists — so often in power, so often with power — homosexuality is an unacceptable vice that is foreign to Africa and to Africans.

6. If he won the elections, Obama would probably have to sit down and share power with his defeated opponent, in a degrading process of negotiation that proves in some African countries the sacrosanct — the will of the people expressed in the ballot box — can be eroded by the loser. At this stage, Barack Obama would be sitting at a table with some Bush or other, in the middle of endless rounds of discussion with African mediators, who are there to teach us that we should be satisfied with those crumbs of the electoral process that don’t favour dictators.

Inconclusive conclusions

Let us be clear: there are exceptions to this generalized view of the situation. We all know what exceptions we are talking about and we Mozambicans were able to constitute one of them.

Let us also be clear: impediments to an African Obama would not be imposed by the people, but by those in power, by the elites who turn governing into a source of unscrupulous self-enrichment.

The truth of the matter is that Obama is not an African. It’s true that Africans — the simple people and anonymous workers — celebrated Obama’s American victory with all their hearts. But I don’t think the dictators and corrupt leaders of Africa have any right to an invitation to this celebration; the joy which millions of Africans felt on 5th November arose because they had invested in Obama precisely the opposite of what they have experienced with their own leaders. No matter how painful it is to admit this, only a minority of African states have had, or have, leaders concerned with the public good.

On the same day that Obama acknowledged his victory, the international news bulletins were packed with horrifying stories from Africa. Africa was still being crushed by wars, bad management, and the unbridled ambition of profit-seeking politicians. Having killed democracy, these leaders were killing politics. In some cases, war was still being waged. In others, hope had been abandoned and cynicism prevails.

There’s only one real way to celebrate Obama in African countries: that is to fight so that more flags of hope may be unfurled in our continent. To fight so that African Obamas may win. So that we Africans, of all ethnic backgrounds and races, may win through these Obamas and celebrate in our own home that which we celebrate now in someone else’s.

Article originally published in

Savana, Maputo, 2008.