Obama

It has not been easy to ground what I think about this newly elected President. But my ideas have been orbiting around the clarity Barack Obama seems to offer American political culture, after decades of a politics informed by what Stephen Colbert calls 'truthiness-' a politics of spin, dissem¬blance, and manipulation, a politics in which mythology takes precedence over what we know our experience to be.

In a recent trip to Israel I was exposed to what many Israelis refer to as “The Obama Effect.” Following the elections in the US, the Barack Obama campaign slogans, as well as the use of the Internet during the campaign, is making it way into the Israel political system as it’s preparing for parliamentary elections in February 2009. Nowhere is this “Obama effect” felt more than in the Shas Party campaign. This must be a twisted joke when Shas, an Ultra-orthodox religious party, representing largely the Mizrahi religious Jews (Jews of Middle Eastern and Northern African descent), is adopting Obama’s slogan “Yes We Can.” Walking in the street of Israel, one cannot escape the Shas slogan – on buses, on posters and even bumper stickers.

Senator Barack Obama was the underdog in this presidential election for obvious historical reasons, but his family and personal story, along with a dynamic and wonderful people (Americans are decent people, no matter what you think) who believed in his message of change was the fountain of inspiration that saw him breast the tape of victory (see Kal’s cartoon in the Economist of November 7). Thus, as we savor this historical moment, let us take time to consider its significance for Africa.