the obruni experience: an outsider's view of american politics in ghana

So I've got a column in my paper. It should be coming out on Mondays. It's called "The Obroni Experience" (the editor only gave me five minutes to come up with the name; I thought I did pretty well at it... anyways, this is my first column that should be in next Monday's paper:

On my first day in Ghana, I had heard a local band engage the crowd in an enthusiastic chant: “When I say Barack, you say Obama... Barack!”

“Obama!”

“Barack!”

“Obama!”

By my third day in Ghana, several hawkers had tried to sell me “Obama” bracelets. On my fifth day I spent in this lovely country, I heard the Obama song playing on the radio.

I never expected to see a foreign candidate get so much attention in a country thousands of miles away.

As far as I have seen, it seems that the Obama fever here eclipses even the energy behind this year’s Ghanaian presidential elections.

Where are the Akufo-Addo bracelets? I wonder. Where are the Prof. Mills songs?

These are questions that perhaps only Ghanaians are able to answer... but still, I have my theories.

At first, I assumed the charismatic leader received so much attention here because he is the first black candidate to really have a chance in an American presidential election.

However, I have heard that when Bill Clinton visited Ghana a few years ago, he caused a lot of excitement, too.

This leads me to believe that the attention paid to Obama here is not because of his skin colour alone, but because of the attention Obama pays to Africa, a continent that is so often unjustly ignored by Western politicians.

Of course, Obama’s race and the attention he pays to Africa may be inextricable explanations for his popularity. It is undoubtedly because of his African heritage that Obama gives this continent so much attention.

Whatever the reasons may be for his popularity here, I am proud to come from the same country as Barack Obama. The world needs more leaders that understand and care about countries other than their own.

An American friend of mine staying with me in Ghana said that he thinks Obama’s popularity here is just more proof that the 2008 presidential hopeful lives up to his campaign slogan, “Change We Can Believe In.”

I only hope that the man that has inspired both Americans and Ghanaians can fulfil all of our expectations.