Obama, my Family and I

[Xudeedi]

Obama, my Family and I

By Faisal A. Roble

Jan 31 , 2008

 

 

Despite this past weekend’s enviably nice weather in Los Angeles - sunny, clear and unusually blue skies with a comfortable temp. - my entire family sat in front of the TV all day, including my 3-year-old son, Samatar, who can now name Obama with ease.

 

While listening to CNN pundits’ round-the-clock reportage with unending suspense, the wait for the final tally of the South Carolina Democratic primary was nerve-wracking. For a family that averages not more than mere-7-hours -a week TV time, this was unprecedented.

 

The Obama fever first infected me. But once the bug bit my 8-year-old son, Heban, the Obama phenomenon became a family obsession. Time was Obama’s conspirator; His campaign came into the family conversation, mainly because the South Carolina primary coincided with the holiday of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the nation’s father of inclusion and civil rights, as well as a true translator of the forefathers’ E Pluribus Unum “out of many, one.” With our local schools taking time every year to inculcate the civil rights leader’s positive ideals, my son’s sense of inter-group dynamics is more acute, that is in a positive way. He equates Obama with King and Kennedy.

 

“What will happen,” he asks, “if Obama gets elected?”

More poor people would get access to education and housing, I would reply.

“Dad,” he would say, every now and then, “Obama looks like me.”

Sure, he does. You know his father came from Africa, Kenya, I would emphasise.

“Does that mean his family’s heritage is similar to ours; that we both have roots in Africa?”

Yes, that is right, I would emphatically respond.

 

The Obama factor seems to fill void for myself and for my son. We rarely talk about African politics, and I purposely avoid some of the painful news reports coming from home. But we revel on the nightly news accounting successful stories about Obama’s campaign; we exchange views on tolerance, inter-faith and inter-racial relationship in this mosaic cultural melting pot.

 

As a first generation Somali American, the issues of inclusion and exclusion are always with me. To be Black, Muslim, and Somali raising children in America’s suburbs could in difficult times invite what Said Samatar of Rutgers University calls a “Dostoyevsky self-hating Somali syndrome.”

 

As a father, though, I am constantly guarding those feelings from creeping into the psyche of my children. In a country where a black man is, in the words of Ralph Alison, “invisible” and teenage black boys are an “endangered species,” the Obama candidacy is a reprieve.

Obama’s candidacy is one that undoubtedly represents to my 8-year-old son, who is just beginning to have a grasp of inter-group dynamism, a new beginning with a bright and promising future. The exhilaration in his eyes after CNN declared Obama the winner of the South Carolina primary will remain a moment I will cherish for many years to come.

The Obama candidacy signifies inclusion. Although Hillary Clinton does not represent forces of exclusion, an African American president would represent more: it brings the ultimate reckoning and atonement about race relations, or what Gundder Myrdal called “the American Dilemma” to a closure.

 

But it also brings us close to reality what Ali Mazrui, the Kenyan born scholar, has been preaching; that Africa’s hope of greatness lies in Africa’s Diaspora children, primarily those in America and Brazil. Mazrui has postulated that where the West exports technology and knowhow to Africa, Africa exports to the West its short-supply of highly educated immigrants. Obama’s father was incidentally from Kenya who came to America to do a Doctorate degree in Economics.

 

With its multi-layered message to blacks, white women and young white adults, immigrants, and to those of us who are Africa’s first generation immigrants, the Obama candidacy has a huge symbolic import beyond politics; To everyone, though, it is telling of the globalization of the world’s children. More importantly, it represents a milestone for America’s bumpy journey towards multi-culturalism, where my 8-year-old son would dream big both for America, his adopted home, and for his home of origin, Africa, where his kith and kin are still toiling for survival.

 

The Obama candidacy pushes America forth towards the dream of J. F Kennedy, exonerates multiculturalism, and authenticates the idea that Africa’s export of its best and brightest is not in vain.

 

Despite the many hours that I have uncharacteristically committed the family to watching news and pundits’ analysis of every twist and turn of vote counting - by region, race and gender - this past Saturday of January 26, 2008 is nonetheless historic. Win or no win, unlike the establishment of the Black leadership in this country, my family and I have been deeply impacted by the Obama candidacy.

 

Faisla A. Roble

Email: fabroble@aol.com

[Allamagan]

Going well for the Obama man so far. Wishing him good luck although if he gets elected he probably wont be xtra special or different from those ones in the past. we'll see!