tansali paparazzi

By Leonard Quarshie

Washington D.C.  

For many Africans living in the U.S, Barack Obama’s election as the first African-American President is a significant milestone in history.  The election of Mr. Obama and his swearing in as America’s 44^th President on Tuesday January 20, 2009 —has touched Africans deeply and revived hopes of change in Africa.

The reaction to Mr. Obama’s election among Africans has been at turns emotional and soul-searching.   Many say their faith in the American dream and what it represents—upward mobility and personal success if one works hard—has been renewed.

“When he first started, I thought it was a wasted vote,” said Cecilia Gugu Vilakazi, a South African native and business owner.  For Vilakazi, a naturalized American who moved here from South Africa more than 30 years ago, Mr. Obama’s election “is unbelievable.”  “It’s not real for people who know the history of this country. No one thought it would happen.”   Mr. Obama’s election happened, Vilakazi notes, because 43% of white Americans overcame their fears and voted their hopes.

 
“It’s almost like waking up and wondering whether I am still dreaming,” said Kofi Okyere, 60, a chef from Ghana who relocated to the U.S, 30 years ago. “I still haven’t quite woken up yet. I’m still in a daze.”  For Okyere, who donated $500 dollars to Mr. Obama’s campaign and volunteered as an election judge at his precinct in Baltimore; the idea of an African American president in the 70’s when he moved here was unthinkable. Mr. Obama’s election, Okyere said, showed that “there is something about America that is uniquely dynamic about this country which is capable of moving people in directions we can’t even think of.”

 
“It’s a vindication of what America stands for,” said Isaac Oppong, a native of Ghana and a naturalized American who voted for the first time on November 4. For Oppong, Mr. Obama’s election means that his son who is biracial “can be whatever he wants to be in America.”

Mr. Obama’s election demonstrates, Mildred Okwo, a lawyer and a Nollywood filmmaker said by email, that “in spite of all its deficiencies,” America is “still the greatest country on earth for any human to thrive regardless of creed, color or status.”  For Okwo, who moved back to Nigeria to join that country’s burgeoning film industry after living in California for 20 years— African and minority children no longer have an excuse to fail.  “If you think it, plan it, organize, work and execute it, you may just achieve it.”

 
Africans should not expect too much from Mr. Obama, warns Vilakazi.  “I don’t think we should expect anything great. It’s going to be a continuation of Africa policy,” she said. Mr. Obama, Vilakazi notes, “has some learning to do,” when it comes to the reality of the political situation in Africa. “He is going to be like any President. He would make mistakes. He is going to falter. But he has a good team and he is very bright.”

 “I don’t think we can look at Obama as another conduit to a handout,” Okyere said. Okyere hopes however that the symbolism of Mr. Obama’s election motivates Africans “to take responsibility for themselves.”  “Africans should start believing in themselves again, that what everybody else has done, we are capable of doing.”

 “Your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy,” Mr. Obama said in his inaugural address --reminding leaders everywhere of what their people would ultimately remember them for.

 “He might hold Africa to a higher standard. He has a connection there that others do not. He has family in Africa, so he sees the real pain. He might put the good of America to better use,” Oppong said.  Mr. Obama possesses a unique ability because of his heritage, Oppong added “to speak beyond the presidents in Africa and reach people directly.”

Mr.Obama, Okwo hopes, “would recognize that Africa is the next frontier and use his influence as a person of African descent to push forth policies that will benefit both continents.”

I was there on the Mall on January 20^th.  I came with my girlfriend and her family. We arrived by Metro from Bethesda station and got off at Farragut North. We made the journey on the train along with thousands of people from all over the country to the nation’s capital to witness history.

 I woke up at 4:30 am to be there. What drew us there-away from the comfort and warmth of our beds in 17 degree weather-was the inauguration of Barack Obama as the first African-American president of the United States. It was not just the symbolism. It was what his election said about America in the 21^st century: here in this country, you can rise as high as you allow yourself; notwithstanding the circumstances of your birth or the color of your skin.

 This is not a cliché. It is real. But it is not a given. You have to assimilate into the larger society. You have to learn to read and write. Speak English. Speak properly; whatever that means.  You have to sweat it out with odd jobs to pay the bills and make the payments. To get a foot at the door, you have to earn that single most valuable American possession: a college diploma.

 All these will still not guarantee you a place at the top. If you are a black person or a person of color, you have to deal with discrimination at the workplace and elsewhere, albeit of a subtle kind.   To succeed, you need that unquantifiable element to be present: the element of luck. And a network. Talent and ability is not enough.

The 25-minute ride from Bethesda Metro to Farragut North was eventful. Hundreds lined up along the rails anxiously awaiting their turn to board the train to D.C. Winter coats. Jackets. Headwear. The very look of warmth.

 As we trekked from the Farragut North station to the Capitol, through Constitution Avenue, I could not help but reflect on what Obama’s election meant to me as an immigrant from Ghana.

You see, I came here two days before 9/11.  Once here, I sweated it out like everybody else to make a living. I’m still sweating. Odd jobs. Retail. The normal route all immigrants take when they first arrive in this country.

But wait!  Here I was, walking to the inauguration of a man, who half a century ago, would not have been allowed to sit at the front of a bus or allowed to eat at the same lunch counter with a white person. I thought about the things we black people take for granted today. Mundane, everyday things we do without thinking about it.  

Sometimes, African immigrants like myself, don’t sufficiently appreciate the sacrifices our African-American brethren had to make for us to enjoy the things we do today. The fact is-a lot of things we take for granted today-we owe to their struggle for equal and civil rights: Integrated restrooms, drinking fountains, schools, buses, restaurants, apartments.

 The fact that I as an African immigrant can apply for a job today in America -and at the very least, expect to be considered -the issue of discrimination notwithstanding-is because my African-American brothers and sisters made it possible. They paved the way for me. I can’t thank them enough.

 As we walked passed Constitution Hall, I could not help but remember Marian Anderson, the iconic African-American singer, who was denied the opportunity to sing there in 1939 by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) because she was black.

 You know, Jim Crow was not an experience unique only to African-Americans. It affected all black and dark-skinned people who happened to find themselves in America in the 1960s.

 On October 10, 1957, Ghana’s visiting Finance Minister, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, was denied service at a Howard Johnson restaurant in Dover, Delaware because he was black. The bar attendant didn’t care whether Gbedemah had an accent or whether he was a government official. All she saw was the color of his skin.  As far as she was concerned, he was just another black man up to no good.

The poor man was shocked. The press reported it. And President Eisenhower had no choice but to apologize to Gbedemah at the White House. That is the history of America.

  But these United States was now bestowing the highest office of the land on a man whose father was an African immigrant student; a man who the framers of the U.S. constitution designated as three-fifths of a human being in 1787.

 But that is the thing about America that many people do not understand. This is a country of contradictions. The founders of this nation-inspired by a higher calling-while still owning slaves-produced a blueprint for freedom and human dignity for everyman: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident,” they wrote in the Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable Rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

 As the crowd roared and screamed as Obama murmured the words “so help me, God!;-I  felt the hands of Obama’s ancestors on his shoulders-men and women who had paved the way for this moment-praying for him . Olaudah Equiano… Frederick Douglas… Sojourner Truth… Harriet Tubman… Martin Luther King Jr…

 And I wondered what David Hume would have thought of this moment--the idea of a non white person—taking the helm of a majority white nation. “I am apt to suspect the Negroes,” he wrote in his 1748 essay, National Characters, “and in general all other species of men to be naturally inferior to the whites.”

“We remain a young nation. But in the words of scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness,” President Obama began, breaking my reverie.

 The speech was short, about 18 minutes long and sobering. A call to arms. A thinking man’s speech. I expected to jump and shout like the almost two million other people on the Mall. But all I could do was think. Think about my own life. My shortcomings; the many ways, I had fallen short of fulfilling my potential. The many ways I had sold myself short; been irresponsible.  

 “Our challenges may be new,” the new president continued, “the instruments with which we meet them may be new, but those values upon which our success depends—honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism—these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility—a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.”

 As I rode the train back home that afternoon, the words kept ringing in my ears: “there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit… than giving our all to a difficult task.”  I resolved to work harder, to be more responsible, to be tolerant and fair to all in this nation; this place that had been generous enough to let me see this moment in history.

 Leonard Quarshie is a freelance writer and a student at the University of Maryland, University College.

Nigeria ....Which ....Way?......

“Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country” JFK - January 20th 1961 –“

The average American is fanatical about their country and will die protecting and promoting it which could explain why American is a great nation (whether you are anti American or not, it still is a great nation). Now let us explore this fact in a little detail.

Citizenship is defined as a covenant or agreement between a citizen and a country where by the former agrees to abide by the laws of the country, protect and promote her as necessary amongst other things. The country on the hand provides protection, where possible a welfare system, good governance, health care, law /order and other relevant amenities and services.

America as a nation has always kept its own side of the covenant (arguably to a fault sometimes) and the citizens have reciprocated which is why most Americans are very fanatical in the way they talk about their country and will go to any length to protect it..

I refer to a book  written (over twenty five years ago)  by the Late Amino Kano - PDP Presidential candidate in the second Nigerian republic, titled “the trouble with Nigeria” in which after a few chapters of analysing the issues we have had since independence, the aftermath of colonialism etc he concluded that the trouble with Nigeria is  leadership.

I completely agree with the late Amino Kano we have never had true and responsible leadership and that my fellow Nigerians may well be our cross to bear.

I am suggesting, in fact I am stating, here and now  that it is about time that we take our destiny in our hands and stop blaming our failings as a country on colonialism, tribalism, religion etc .

Nigeria is blessed with very intelligent people, mineral resources (to include oil, gas deposits,, cocoa and many others), however we have always lacked charismatic, focused, dedicated and committed leadership which will continue to hinder us as a nation in realising our true potential.

 I challenge any one to carry out an experiment, pick out ten of the most reputable organisations in the world to work in and I dare say that you will find a significant percentage of Nigerians or (of Nigerian descent) in these organisations and in well established positions of authority taking decisions that affect many lives on a daily basis.

I mentioned earlier that citizenship is a covenant between a citizen and a country. We as citizens need to ensure that in whatever little way, we are contributing in promoting and protecting our country. From the trader who goes to china and buys substandard products to sell to his fellow countrymen(especially poisonous healthcare products) to the supplier who is awarded a contract to supply cement in the building of a primary school. We all need to lend a hand in developing our beloved country

We as Nigerians need to stand up and say enough is enough, I am somebody and I am a proud Nigerian.

In my view the problems with Nigeria are as follows;

·         Irresponsible Leadership

·         Large scale bribery & corruption even at the highest quarters of government

·         Tribalism and nepotism

·         Lack of moral values

·         The quest for wealth by whatever means necessary

Each of us as individuals have to contribute in ensuring that our nation is a great nation, the true giant of Africa offering leadership to other smaller African nations who look to Nigeria as a country for guidance

From ensuring that whatever service you provide, the job that you do, you execute it in such a way that you are contributing in your own little way in creating a better Nigerian society both for the present and next generation. Carry out our work diligently; strive for the best in any service we provide, emphasis should be on quality and deliverables.

In Martin Luther King’s words, I have a dream that one day, we will vote in, a charismatic, focussed, intelligent and wise leadership. I have a dream that one day this great thing that happened in America that brought Obama to power will happen in Nigeria. And on that fateful day, together with our renewed attitude to strive for the best for our country, we will create an even greater nation.

Next week I will put my thoughts to pen again, this time on South Africa and their recent elections.

Remain blessed and have a good day.

Kojak – United Kingdom – 04/05/09