Obama-inspired hope goes only so far in Kenya
As euphoria over his election begins to fade, young people are reminded that in Africa, money, ethnicity and family connections count more toward success than does hard work.
Reporting from Kobama, Kenya — He's from the same family that produced President-elect Barack Obama. He shares many of the same hopes and dreams. He's even got the same name.
This Barack Obama, 26, a cousin who was named after the president-elect's Kenyan father, was elated when someone with African roots rose to the world's most powerful job.
"I felt I could do anything," said the lanky student, whose buddies now call him "the President" after his famous U.S. relative. "I felt anything is possible."
There is no question the U.S. president-elect's victory has encouraged countless Africans to reach for new heights. But as the euphoria over his election begins to fade here, young Africans are beginning to see his inspirational story as bittersweet.
As the American Obama's success is institutionalized in pictures hanging in schools and buses and in speeches in parliament promoting change, many are coming to see his against-the-odds accomplishment as something that was really only possible in the United States.
In Africa, money, ethnicity and family connections still count more toward success than does hard work. Bribes usually trump talent; corruption tops integrity. Young Africans hoping to follow in Obama's footsteps -- even those with the same name -- may face disappointment and disillusionment.
"The hope might be false," said youth activist Joshua Nyamori. "Today Obama's story is not possible in Kenya. If Barack ran in Kenya, he would have failed."
This month, the president-elect's young cousin finished his college exams and is now hitting the pavement in search of work as an electrical engineer. But fewer than half of Kenya's university graduates find employment, and this Barack Obama is already feeling decidedly more somber about his future. He can count only two of his friends in the last four years who have been hired after graduation.
"We have diplomas but no jobs," he said. "It's almost a waste of time."
Yet all around him is Obama-inspired hype. The mythology surrounding the presidential campaign is already as deeply rooted as the mango trees around Lake Victoria.
From the campus of Sen. Barack Obama Secondary School to Obama's ancestral homestead, teachers, parents and elders wag their fingers at the young, repeating the mantra: See what can happen if you work hard?
