By Tom Odhiambo
AllAfrica.com
December 11, 2010
Nairobi — Kenya may be the only country in Africa to produce an American president in the foreseeable future. I doubt that Americans will elect another man of colour in the next 100 years.
Well, this is mere speculation, but going by the racial vitriol that the name Obama invokes in many conservative and racist white Americans, the son of Hussein Obama will be lucky if he gets a second tenure in the White House.
Yet, two years away from a re-election campaign that will tell the rest of the world if Barrack Obama's election in 2008 was a fluke, Kenyans haven't even begun to make money out of the K'Ogelo son's name.
Shuttle buses
Where is a Kenyan film on Obama? The books by Kenyans on Obama? There was talk about "tourism" to Obama's ancestral land. Where are those shuttle buses full of Kenyans - yes, Kenyans and not Europeans or Americans or Asians - who don't know where Kisumu or Siaya or K'Ogelo is?
The "Yes We Can" man hasn't inspired us yet to spin tales about him, produce biographical documentaries about his tribe or clan, or even have a national conference on what his name and person signifies to us as a nation.
Where is a Kenyan film on Obama? The books by Kenyans on Obama? There was talk about "tourism" to Obama's ancestral land. Where are those shuttle buses full of Kenyans - yes, Kenyans and not Europeans or Americans or Asians - who don't know where Kisumu or Siaya or K'Ogelo is?
The "Yes We Can" man hasn't inspired us yet to spin tales about him, produce biographical documentaries about his tribe or clan, or even have a national conference on what his name and person signifies to us as a nation.
Yet "outsiders" continue to write books on Obama and his relatives. One such book is The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African Family by Peter Firstbrook.
[snip]
One feels, in the end, that probably Firstbrook should have written more about Obama Sr, whose story is really still untold. And now that his ancestry is traced to Southern Sudan, will Obama Jr also claim his citizenship, if Southern Sudan were to become independent?
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