Dreams from Our Ancestors: Obama and Africa

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama. Three Rivers Press, 1995, 453 pgs, ISBN: I-4000-8277-3, $13.95The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama. Crown Publishers, 2006, 375 pgs, ISBN: 978-1-84767-083-0, $16.50Obama: From Promise to Power by David Mendell. HarperCollins, 2007, 406 pgs, ISBN: 978-0-06-085821-6, $14.95 When Barack (‘blessed’) Obama – the child of a Kenyan father and Kansan mother – was elected as the first African-American president of the United States in November 2008, a wave of ‘Obamamania’ swept across the African continent, its Diaspora, and the world. Former South African president, Nelson Mandela, noted: ‘Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place’. Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki said: ‘The victory of Senator Obama is our own victory because of his roots here in Kenya. As a country, we are full of pride for his success’. South African president at the time, Kgalema Motlanthe, opined: ‘Your election…. carries with it hope formillions…. of people of …African descent both in Africa and in the diaspora’. Nigerian president, Umaru Yar’Adua noted: ‘Obama’s election has finally broken the greatest barrier of prejudice in human history. For us in Nigeria, we have a great lesson to draw from this historic event.’ Finally, the former United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, the Ghanaian Kofi Annan, exclaimed: ‘Obama’s victory demonstrates America’s extraordinary capacity to renew itself.’...