To be blunt, the fact that Mwai Kibaki gave Kenya a public holiday in celebration of Barack Obama’s election is ridiculous to me.  I know that most of the world is thrilled with the results of the US presidential elections.  Here in Chicago, the excitement was and continues to be palpable.  The night before the elections, I walked down Michigan Avenue and breathed in the air of anticipation.  Folks were smiling nervously, rushing to their destinations, waiting for history to blossom.  And it did.  On Tuesday night, we watched as the Obama family took the stage and the president-elect gave his glorious victory speech.  I sat on the edge of my sofa and wiped a tear or two as I smiled at the screen.  I was overwhelmed by this beautiful sight.  Implications for  generations of people in the United States and around the world are far reaching.  Apart from numerous domestic celebratory calls, I received so many calls and texts from  friends and family in West Africa.  I know it’s as much a triumph for Africans as it is for the rest of the world. (However I can’t help wondering whether the African exuberance would have been as intense if Obama’s father had not been African.  I am too familiar with the frail and shaky bridge that exists between Africans and African-Americans, but that is food for another bloggish thought.)  When CNN flashed the ecstatic crowds in Kenya that night, I understood the elation. After all, the late father of the president-elect was Kenyan.  But then I heard that the president of Kenya,  Mwai Kibaki, declared November 6th a public holiday and my heart fell.  What this means is a whole day of lost productivity in a country still recovering from its own post-election unrest, continued ethnic tensions, harsh poverty, and a serious problem of HIV/AIDS.  To me, this public holiday was not a bright idea.  Instead it sheds light on the level of judgement of Kenyan leadership.  Even the US did not declare a public holiday.  Why did Kibaki feel the need to call this holiday for Obama’s victory?  What does he expect in return?  What message does this send the Kenyan people about the expectations they should build on the Obama presidency? All in all, an unreasonable action.

Recently, the New York Times ran a cynical piece about the King of Swaziland. When we think of African kingdoms, we usually think of  them with pride. After all, these kingdoms are evidence of how Africans ruled in ordered splendor before the invasion of European colonization.  So, I was irritated when I saw the article in the New York Times. None of the Africans I know like to see our people ridiculed by the western press. 

But alas, I had to agree wholeheartedly with the skepticism of the article. This month, the  40-year old King Mswati III, spent millions of dollars on his birthday celebrations.  Forbes has listed him as one of the wealthiest monarchs in the world.  He has 13 wives, each of whom received a brand new BMW and palace when he married them.  Apparently, eight lucky wives flew to Dubai to shop for their weddings.  A few months ago on MTV – or was it VH1 – one of the king’s daughters was listed as one of the wealthiest young monarchs in the world (along with Prince William and Harry of England.)

I have two questions:  First of all – never mind that he is a king – why does this one man have 13 wives?  Seriously. I wonder about the self-esteem level of those thirteen women. What were the 12th and the 13th wives thinking when they said yes?  And does the 13^th think she will be the last?  He’s only 40 years old.  The man could keep going on and on.  Some years ago, the king was ill.  The reports were that he was stressed and overworked.  Keeping thirteen wives happy and fulfilled is bound to stress any man, I imagine.

The second, more important question is this:  Why is he living so lavishly when Swaziland is one of the poorest countries in Africa with some of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS infections and deaths.  The life expectancy in Swaziland is about 35 years.  I suppose the real question is this:  what is the condition of a leader’s conscience when he and his family live so well on the nations money, yet the people are dying of poverty?  What does the king say to himself when he is alone at night and has time to contemplate on life?  I guess there are no such contemplative times – his thirteen wives probably keep him well away from the rigor of quiet nighttime self-reflection.

I ran into a Kenyan couple last weekend at a party in Chicago.  I thought I was being gracious when I mentioned to them how excited they must be to see Barak Obama do so well in the US presidential primaries.  To my utter amazement, they eyed me suspiciously.  So I persisted, “You know, he is half Kenyan.”  They vehemently responded, “No.  He is American!”  “But his father was Kenyan,” I stammered.  They huffed and puffed, “Well, he would do well to forget about that and identify as simply an American.”  I was speechless! 

I had never come across Africans who were so unwilling to claim a successful son of their soil!  For instance, I’ve watched Nigerians puff their chests with pride at the mere mention of Seal, Sade, or Akeem Olajuwon, even though some of these international stars hardly acknowledge Nigeria as home.  I’m sure folks from Benin and Senegal are equally proud of actor Djimon Hounsou and R&B singer Akon respectively.  So this encounter with the Kenyans was astounding.  Obama is no mere sports figure or entertainer.  He’s running – rather well - for the most powerful job in the world.  Why did this Kenyan couple not jump for joy at my suggestion that he was sort of one of them?

The man must have seen the shocked look on my face because he finally said, “Well, you know his father was Luo.  Those Luos are claiming him.  If Obama was nothing, they would not want to have anything to do with him.”  He said this with a very slight smirk.  His wife nodded vigorously. 

I now understood and was saddened.  This couple is Kikuyu.  Over the past year, we have seen the deeply rooted tensions between the Luo and the Kikuyu come to the surface.  The hostilities are so strong now that this Kikuyu couple would rather erase Obama’s Kenyan-ness than concede that he has Luo blood.  I insisted that Obama was part Kenyan but they refused to budge.  In their minds, the fact that his father was Luo expunged his Kenyan identity.  This is a fundamental African problem.  Many of us see ourselves more in terms of ethnicity than in terms of nationality.  This does not have to be a bad thing.  It could be a thing of pride and purpose if we could neatly complement each other.  However, our visions are fragmented and our destinations are paved with bitterness and hostility.

As I struggled to reason with this Kikuyu couple, I realized that this was an argument that would only frustrate and depress me.  I finally shrugged and changed the topic.

The fact that most Haitians live well below the poverty level should baffle us all. It should make us sit up and wonder how it is that such a proud nation, with such a revolutionary history, that started off as such a leader in the African Diaspora has fallen to this level. An article I read last week reminded me that today, there are many Haitians that are so poor and hungry that they make cookies out of dirt, salt, and a little oil.

This is tragic. My focus is not really on how Haiti has reached this stage. Of course, there are all sorts of theories about how US foreign policy and old French powers have interfered with the democracy that has limped along in Haiti. There are other theories about corrupt leadership. There are elements of truth in all of these ideas. My real focus is the present. How is it that the most powerful countries in the world have allowed this to happen? If the powers can spend billions of dollars removing a tyrant in the middle east, surely these billions of dollars could have been employed to help get rid of the tyrant of poverty in a small country like Haiti. I’m not talking about the World Bank or IMF. The debilitating effects of their “help” on the people of a country in need is legendary.

So now, more and more, I am coming to the realization that we cannot keep looking to the outside for salvation. Those we think should help have other priorities. So the real solution for countries like Haiti must come from within. Last week hungry Haitians, finally frustrated and fed up, stormed the palace and rioted. Today, the senate voted to dismiss the prime minister. I’m anxious to see what happens next. I’m eager to see if Haitians will finally succeed in pulling themselves up, regardless of what their wealthy neighbors do (or do not do) for them.

President Bush has embarked on a whirlwind tour of Africa - 5 African countries in 6 days! A few things strike me about this trip. First, how do you visit 5 countries in 6 days? Are you hoping to really visit or just touch down and make a point? For instance, if I am traveling to England and have a 2 hour layover in, say, Paris, have I visited Paris?

Secondly, he has waited till the end of his tenure to visit a continent that has been ravaged by genocide and war. When asked by a Tanzanian reporter why he has waited this long, Bush said he had no excuses except for the fact that he has been a “pretty busy guy.” Most reports I have read comment on the fact that Bush is probably trying to use this trip to improve his legacy as a compassionate president. After all, he has given millions of dollars in aid to some African countries to fight HIV/AIDS. I certainly applaud this. However, all I can see as a counter to this point is Darfur.

With the hundreds of thousands who have died and been displaced in Sudan, President Bush has grappled with his responsibility - first as to whether it actually was genocide, and now on how to handle China, a country that does healthy business with the suspect government of Sudan. Many international organizations and individuals are questioning China about their friendship with the Sudanese government. For example, Steven Spielberg has resigned as an adviser to the Beijing Olympics because of China’s involvement with Sudan. Bush said he would not boycott the Olympics in China because he views the Olympics as a “sporting event.” How compassionate is he, really?

The third aspect of this trip that has made me ponder is the fact that in Benin where, according to the BBC, he stopped over just long enough to refuel Air Force One and hug the president, he was awarded a medal - the highest honor in the land. What? The president of Benin and Tanzania have showered Bush with praise, saying they hope that the next president is as good as Bush has been. This reminds me of the imbalance of power in the world today. Would Bush receive and award any of these presidents in the same manner that he is being treated on his visit? I doubt it.

Bush in Africa reminds me a little bit of Michael Jackson in Africa in 1992 when he was treated like a returning prince and given an honorary kingship. Yet there were reports of him covering his nose when he was walking through the hundreds of adoring African fans. These visits remind me of a famous line from George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”

I’ve been watching, with a mixture of fear and horror, the fight for power between Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga in the wake of the last Kenyan presidential elections. People went to the polls in Kenya, hoping for a smooth political process. The Kikuyu, the Luo, and other ethnic groups worked to keep Kenya as the beacon of stability in a region that has struggled with drought and war. But things did not go smoothly in Kenya this time. Hundreds are dead and many more are displaced in a struggle that stems from old ethnic tensions.

It is a sad story but it is one that Africans are only too familiar with. For years, since independence, many African countries have been reaching for the dream of democracy, while navigating through a treacherous obstacle course filled with coups, military dictatorships, corruption, and overnight army-turned-civilian presidents.

African nations (as well as many South American and new European nations) have grappled with attaining and retaining democracy. A lot of qualified and unqualified pundits have said that Western-style democracy simply will not work in many parts of the world, including Africa.

Neither Kibaki nor Odinga seem willing to compromise in Kenya today. A Yoruba proverb states that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. It is the ordinary people that have died in Kenya, Nigeria, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Congo and many other countries, in their quest to exercise their democratic rights.

Maybe democracy does not work in some environments where ethnic tensions are old and entrenched, and where poverty is palpable. But if democracy leads to quick death for some, the alternative of military rule leads to a slow process of suffocation and oppression for all.