Africabeat

A bit belated, but here is a collection of personal anecdotes about being in Kenya when Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee for next President of the United States.  Written for EbonyJet.

36 Hours in Obamaland

When you’re a citizen of the world’s only superpower, and you travel
abroad, you become a symbol of all kinds of things that probably have
nothing to do with you–wealth, power, Hollywood fairy tales, and, most
recently, the unmitigated hubris of cowboy-kings. Being American in
2005 was to invite a million questions and reproaches and lectures. It
was to have blood on your hands. So for a long time, I’d hold my
passport eagle side down while waiting on the customs line, not wanting
to invite that conversation.

But now it’s 2008.  Goodbye to all that?

(Keep reading)

Just as a P.S., Africabeat recently got a shout out on Katine Chronicles, a Guardian blog (along with several of my favorite African/Africanist bloggers; I’m tickled to be in such good company).  Katy Taylor says Africabeat is: “Passionate but not too opinionated, this is an energetic and well-informed blog.”  Thanks for the kudos, Katy, but I often think I am too opinionated.  Or at least I’ve put my foot in my mouth on more than a few occasions.

This photo is from Mental Acrobatics.  I don’t know if the media is still operating under a blackout, but at least they’re working together now to articulate what must be every Kenyan’s collective wish: “Save Our Beloved Country.”  Read an amazing piece of citizen journalism from Mental Acrobatics, who braved the empty, boarded up streets to document the planned rally by Odinga supporters in Nairobi yesterday.