Post by jo on Sept 1, 2006 7:14:46 GMT 3
How Luo Is Barack Obama?
By Jerry Okungu
web posted: August 29, 2006
How Luo or Kenyan is Barrack Obama? Do the Luos need to own and patent Obama as their very own to the exclusion of other Kenyans and the rest of Africa? Is this a genuine and celebrated love or is it some kind of phenomenon that has come in handy to fill a void? Are Luos looking for a new kind of leadership or are they merely mesmerised by Americanism? If the latter were the case, how come they have never celebrated the coming home of thousands of Luos who live in America, a number of whom are also holders of Harvard degrees? The other day, Prof. Calestus Juma of Harvard University was in town. I never heard any one making noise about him!
Or is it this politics thing with Luos that has made Barry tantalise and mesmerise the young and the old alike along the lake?
The euphoria, the mania and sheer madness that greeted Obama could have been worse had Raila been allowed to be the main host of Obama or had Obama not declined partisan politics from the onset. In a way, Raila in confining his meetings with Obama in Kisumu and Siaya was even a wiser decision. Had Raila been in Kibera; his political bedrock when Obama visited the slums on Sunday, lives would have been lost. Imagine Agwambo Mania plus Obama Mania and you have a thingytail for mayhem irrespective of the presence of American Marines and the local GSU.
Obama mania aside; one fact that Luo Kenyans must come to terms with is that Barrack Obama is not a Kenyan. He is an American born and bred there. He is as American as they come, his love for his ancestral village not withstanding. Because he is an American, he is today a senator in the US Senate. Non Americans are not allowed to aspire to such high offices as the Senate or Congress let alone the presidency. But because we have blood connections with him, the most we can do is to let him pursue his higher dreams by allowing him to remain American. If we drag him back into the village politics of Kogelo, Siaya and Nyanza, we shall dim his rising star. He is better off as an American with better chances of helping not only the Kogelo clan but creating more productive and lasting linkages that can bring about tangible and long lasting benefits for the rest of the continent.
Like one columnist indicated the other day, Barrack Obama is no less American than great Americans like JF Kennedy and Martin Luther King who had their roots in Ireland and Africa respectively. Martin Luther King died without setting foot in Africa but never the less left his foot prints on the American and world history.
When the dust has finally settled, let us be grateful that Obama came to Kenya to touch base with us and be eye- witness to Africa’s problems. He saw the devastation that HIV and Aids, Malaria and abject poverty have caused in Africa.
But he also did not fail to notice that poor governance and mismanagement of our economies by our political governors had also contributed to the stagnation and backwardness of the continent.
Therefore, if we love Senator Barrack Obama as we profess to do; let us eradicate Aids in our communities by practising safe sex, discouraging widow inheritance, rejecting joters, testing for status information - starting with our leaders, accommodating and supporting the infected while giving material support to thousands of grand parents and their grand children affected by HIV/ Aids pandemic.
By Jerry Okungu
web posted: August 29, 2006
How Luo or Kenyan is Barrack Obama? Do the Luos need to own and patent Obama as their very own to the exclusion of other Kenyans and the rest of Africa? Is this a genuine and celebrated love or is it some kind of phenomenon that has come in handy to fill a void? Are Luos looking for a new kind of leadership or are they merely mesmerised by Americanism? If the latter were the case, how come they have never celebrated the coming home of thousands of Luos who live in America, a number of whom are also holders of Harvard degrees? The other day, Prof. Calestus Juma of Harvard University was in town. I never heard any one making noise about him!
Or is it this politics thing with Luos that has made Barry tantalise and mesmerise the young and the old alike along the lake?
The euphoria, the mania and sheer madness that greeted Obama could have been worse had Raila been allowed to be the main host of Obama or had Obama not declined partisan politics from the onset. In a way, Raila in confining his meetings with Obama in Kisumu and Siaya was even a wiser decision. Had Raila been in Kibera; his political bedrock when Obama visited the slums on Sunday, lives would have been lost. Imagine Agwambo Mania plus Obama Mania and you have a thingytail for mayhem irrespective of the presence of American Marines and the local GSU.
Obama mania aside; one fact that Luo Kenyans must come to terms with is that Barrack Obama is not a Kenyan. He is an American born and bred there. He is as American as they come, his love for his ancestral village not withstanding. Because he is an American, he is today a senator in the US Senate. Non Americans are not allowed to aspire to such high offices as the Senate or Congress let alone the presidency. But because we have blood connections with him, the most we can do is to let him pursue his higher dreams by allowing him to remain American. If we drag him back into the village politics of Kogelo, Siaya and Nyanza, we shall dim his rising star. He is better off as an American with better chances of helping not only the Kogelo clan but creating more productive and lasting linkages that can bring about tangible and long lasting benefits for the rest of the continent.
Like one columnist indicated the other day, Barrack Obama is no less American than great Americans like JF Kennedy and Martin Luther King who had their roots in Ireland and Africa respectively. Martin Luther King died without setting foot in Africa but never the less left his foot prints on the American and world history.
When the dust has finally settled, let us be grateful that Obama came to Kenya to touch base with us and be eye- witness to Africa’s problems. He saw the devastation that HIV and Aids, Malaria and abject poverty have caused in Africa.
But he also did not fail to notice that poor governance and mismanagement of our economies by our political governors had also contributed to the stagnation and backwardness of the continent.
Therefore, if we love Senator Barrack Obama as we profess to do; let us eradicate Aids in our communities by practising safe sex, discouraging widow inheritance, rejecting joters, testing for status information - starting with our leaders, accommodating and supporting the infected while giving material support to thousands of grand parents and their grand children affected by HIV/ Aids pandemic.