Obamas father had left his American family to complete his Ph.D studies in Kenya when Barack was a very small boy and the child had grown up never really knowing where he fitted in life. Its an experience shared by thousands of other people who grow up without a father but in his case it was further complicated by his bi-racial status and the state of American race relations at the time. Barack Obamas father had died before his son finally visited Kenya.
Father and son had met only once when Dr Obama had briefly visited him in the US and that brief visit had created more questions than it answered for the young Barack Obama. Upon his arrival at Nairobi Airport, Obama is astonished to find that his name is known. The African BA air steward asks him, You wouldnt be related to Dr Obama by any chance? and he answers, Well, yes he was my father. In the book, Obama comments, For the first time in my life, I felt the comfort, the firmness of identity that a name might provide no one here in Kenya would ask how to spell my name, or mangle it with an unfamiliar tongueMy name belonged and so I belonged, drawn into a web of relationships, alliances and grudges that I did not yet understand.
And this is the remarkable man who is now president of the United States. He is remarkable not just because of his experiences but because of the way he has internalised those experiences and learned from them. When he says as he did on Thursday just before his trip to Ghana at the weekend, Id say Im probably as knowledgeable about African history as anybody whos occupied my office. it is hard not to be convinced by his honesty and undoubted understanding of Africa.
I can give you chapter and verse, he says, on why the colonial maps that were drawn helped to spur on conflict and the terms of trade that were uneven emerging out of colonialism. And with direct relevance to Africa today he goes on, I believe that Africans are responsible for Africa. I think that part of whats hampered advancement in Africa is that for many years weve made excuses about corruption or poor governance, that this was somehow the consequence of neo-colonialism, or the West has been oppressive or racistAnd yet the fact is were in 2009.
The West and the US has not been responsible for whats happened to Zimbabwes economy over the past 15-20 years. It hasnt been responsible for some of the disastrous policies that weve seen elsewhere in Africa. And I think its very important for African leadership to take responsibility and be held accountable.
It will be interesting to see how, or if, Robert Mugabe reacts to President Obamas words. Will he dismiss Obama as an idiotic little man as he did Johnny Carson, the Under Secretary of State for African Affairs in Obamas government? Mugabe and Carson apparently met on the sidelines of the recent AU Conference in Libya. The meeting was not a happy one and afterwards Mugabe told the Herald that he was very angry with Carson who had apparently told him that he should stick to his side of the bargain according to the GPA. Who is he? Mugabe is alleged to have asked, adding
It is a shame, a great shame and he an African American. Now, heres another African American, this time the President of the most powerful country in the world, telling Africa and its Big Men that its time to stop blaming the colonial past for Africas problems. Is it likely, in the light of what we know about the man, that Mugabe will heed President Obamas advice? The signs are not good. Observers have noted that Mugabes rhetoric has of late become increasingly paranoid and racist. White farmers are representative of former colonisers and have supported the British against him, he maintains and, to quote Mugabe, Colonisers can never be friends so we turn our backs on them and face the east.
But it is not only whites he takes issue with, in a direct snub to the outspoken Ambassador, Mugabe failed to agree to an official farewell visit from the black American Ambassador, James McGee, thereby breaking with basic diplomatic courtesy. Irene Khan, the head of Amnesty International was also treated with his usual abusive language, I dont know where this little woman came from always shouting. Mugabe ranted, but then Khan had just issued an extremely unfavourable and honest report on Zimbabwes human rights record.
It is incomprehensible that the MDC partners in this Inclusive Government can continue to maintain, as Morgan Tsvangirai does, that this same Mugabe is part of the solution to the countrys problems. I for one cannot see any way in which the racism and vitriolic hatred which Mugabe espouses towards anyone who disagrees with him can have any part in Zimbabwes future. President Obama is right to remind African leaders and that includes Prime Minister Tsvangirai that they are accountable for their own misgovernance. For Kenya, for Zimbabwe and for so many other former colonised African countries where Big Men continue to rule after patently rigged elections, it is not yet uhuru.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle, PH. aka Pauline Henson author of Going Home and Countdown, political detective stories set in Zimbabwe and available on Lul.com