The New African President

Here's my first post from a new side of history. For the past couple of weeks, Batswana have asked me if I come from the "Land of Obama," an almost inverted reference to my location in the "Land of Obama's Ancestors." The students at UB tell me that they are in a do-or-die competition with the other regions of the world, all of which wish to claim Obama as their own president. But what surprised me was the subdued excitement surrounding his inauguration . . . on Tuesday they looked at me incredulously, as if to ask, "Hasn't he been president since November?" Yes, maybe he has, but the moment lost none of its impact on the American students here.

In order to continue, I must quickly jump back. Last Friday, my CIEE group along with the four students here with the Associated Colleges of the Midwest were invited to the US Embassy for a briefing on security and lifestyle issues here in Botswana. There was nothing said that was scarier than my security briefing back in Baltimore freshman year. The most interesting tidbit is a variant of Texas justice here called African Street Justice. Example: man grabs my backpack, I yell "thief!", people in street run after said thief until he finds a policeman to protect him from the mob. Moral of my story: I still have my backpack.

I digress. While at the Embassy, we discussed the upcoming inauguration and one of the staff generously invited us to her home to watch it on a big screen. Thus we return to the original subject of this blog.

We arrived at her practically palatial home, strategically placed across the street from the Botswana Vice President's home. The meal was quite American, with a great helping of meatballs with veggies and dip. Some peri peri chicken kabobs stayed off my plate, due to their intense heat, although they might have warmed me up while watching everyone shiver in frigid January temps.

My personal observations about the inauguration are quite unimportant, as most of the New York Times op-ed writers have them pretty much covered. The only part of Obama's speech which stood out above the rest was his call for us to own up to our own faults. Perhaps that is merely the Catholic guilt in me searching for atonement, but I think we have a great moral teacher leading our nation, a person who will shape the way we view America.

On a more pertinent note vis-a-vis Botswana, Bush may have left office with historical disapproval ratings but one of his best legacies was/is his work right here in Africa. His unprecedented increase in AIDS/HIV funding has been felt in every corner of my host country, reaching beyond the pharmacies and research labs into the villages via the reintroduction of Peace Corps members. For this, we must be thankful.

In the next post, I'm going to put up a couple poems of Langston Hughes which I think are very prescient as well as at least one of picture of Botswana. It's hard to promise images because of the slow connection here, but I will try my darndest.

Cheers!