What Africa Expects from Barack Obama

by Fred Obera    June 23, 2008

The premise of a Barack Obama presidency brings great expectations from Africa.  Kenyan journalist Fred Obera explores why.

"Africa is hurt by factors unique to the continent and our place in the world.  There is our distance from viable markets and problems with trade. And Senator Barack Obama is aware of this," says a Kenyan living in the backyard of Obama’s ancestral village in Alego Siaya, where his father used to herd goats.

Barack Obama is Kenya's beacon of hope.  His quest for the US presidency is timely and symbolic to both Kenya and the entire continent, and Kenyans identify with him so easily as a new African- American man in the land of hope.  We’re aware that Obama knows that Africa is gradually shrinking from prominence on the world stage, and that he knows some of the biggest issues plaguing Africa: ethnic conflict and conflict between groups living within the borders of the dual monarchy, democratization, accountability and transparency-- all these are expected to be addressed during his tenure.

Obama’s candidacy is welcomed with enthusiasm and an overwhelming audacity of Kenyan hope, even while most analysts say he will do little nil to usher in better African leadership. But there is plenty of hope as the senator infuses the continent with hope and ambition.

But even he must be wary of being perceived as righteous or condescending.

The  prodigal American son with Kenyan roots will severely tested if he manages to achieve his presidential quest.

What then are the implications of an Obama presidency for both Kenya and Africa? Are African’s expectations for an Obama presidency too high? Are they misplaced?

Africans have always appreciated the magnanimous help they’ve received from the superpowerful United States, especially in the war on terrorism, technology, conflict resolutions, poverty eradication and the HIV/AIDS pandemic fight.  But there are numerous issues which the superpower hasn’t solve for Africa!

After her independence, Africa was left with a pathetic leadership structure which has remained ever since autocratic, dictatorial, and tyrannical, thwarting the African economy and increasing poverty.   This headache would be Obama's burden.

Africa's problems seem too numerous to count, too overwhelming to catalogue.  The AIDS pandemic victimizes the sub-Saharan regions, even as high birth rates burden societies already unable to educate and absorb their youth.  Poverty remains a scourge, and wars between ethnic groups seem emblematic of Africa’s capacity for tolerance.

Besieged by problems, Africa is often dismissed as continent of hopelessness, consigned to a future as ward of the international aid community.

We expect Obama’s presidency to confront the real challenge of economic empowerment, by developing existing institutions and the technology to lift African lives out of abject poverty.

Despite aid and other assistance, poverty and corruption persist unabated in African institutions.  During the senator’s visit to Kenya two years bago, he dwelt on corruption, blaming it for preventing African development. In his speech he reiterated that it will not be easy to eliminate corruption in a day or in a year, but everything must be done to ensure that Africa does not sink further into abyss of corruption, bad governance and bad leadership.

The expansion of the African economy is another objective. Free international trade agreements will encourage traders and farmers in Africa to increase production.  For this to be achieved, we must end programs that specifically subsidize exports. For Africans, however, these changes are sometimes seen as cosmetic.  If they cannot be eliminated African will remain poor, as others reap our market and we fail to reap theirs.  Africans will expect Obama to address this once in office.

In some parts of Africa, however, farmers and traders ARE trying to expand their capacity and production, with the hope that if the US and Europe did somehow curtail their produce, they might reap the already existing gap. The Congo is a source of hope: rich with natural resources like cobalt, diamond, gold and lumber forests, its potential has been thwarted by ethnic cleansing, civil war and bad government. Foreign nations tend to overlook this untapped market as their merciless investors reap the country's resources by exploiting the indigenous.

Large multilateral firms uniformly bypass Africa when doling out investment and jobs, yet Africans remains the world’s largest productive and untapped market – and its greatest source of cheap labour.  But after benefitting from African resources, some firms abandon the country, leaving it in civil war.

These are the issues Africans are prepared to raise if Obama wins the US presidency.

Whatever happens will be a surprise. My personal wish is for Obama to tackle the reform agenda in Africa institutions-- especially turnover of the British rule of law, as in the Kenyan constitution stalemate.

But any positive change Obama brings to Africa will open the way to future development, and will be welcomed with open arms.

Most welcome of all would be a movement of Africans rising to the occasion, and engineering a managed change themselves.  This must start with presidents and leadership.

Zimbabwe comes to mind. Across the country, Kenyans are disgusted with Robert Mugabe; I think the man is insane.

Barack Obama has already achieved significant fame in Africa.

Millions of people in Africa, Asia (Japan, Korea) and around the world are captivated by his life and his achievements.

Obama's life is his message.  He is seen as an honest seeker of truth, a fearless defender of the weak and an uncompromising practitioner of non-violence. He is a believer in a democratic institution and the tenet that every life is equal.

And Barack Obama is the man that all of Africa wants in the White House next January.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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