YES WE CAN!!

Obama's victory today has been a powerful reminder of the capacity of the human spirit to bring forth change. The importance of hope at a time like this! The power of building relationships, and inspiring people to dig deep within, and to step forward and do their part in bringing forth a change. I have just been skyping with my cousin John, who is an American citizen, and who has been campaigning and running a phone thingy to get people to vote, and he said Obama has inspired many of us, who have not really been involved in politics to stand up, get involved and be part of making a change. He said this morning a couple brought their 11 year old daughter to his operation because she wanted to phone people and tell them to go out and vote, and she was inspirational. Today I am hopeful

What does Obama represent for me? I see a young man who could have believed that he had all the cards stacked against him - half African, half white American, a father who abandoned him, his age, a minority, - and yet knowing also that he had a lot that was for him - he is highly intelligent, well educated, ambitious, focused, caring, working with his head and his heart, loving grandparents, wife .... and we could go on, who has fought for what he believes in, who has known that he cannot do it alone, and has rallied people to go with him, and I believe again. For all the children - from whatever walk of life (and adults to) who were told that they could never achieve their dream becasue of their biology, or history, or geography, or passion - Obama has shown us that we can!!

For me, as an African, there is a deeper message in his win. For so long we have believed in the colonial lie that we cant. We forget our own inspirational leaders who against all odds have made a difference - Kwame Nkurumah, Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyerere, Wangari Mathai, Patrice Lumumba .... and the more local ones - people who have against all odds made a difference in the lives of others, teachers who have inspired us, people who have brought about change, united communities - We can make a difference, if we step up, if we stop believing that life is done to us, and start to do life, if we dare to build relationships that are strong and resilient, even when we come from different view points, different tribes, different religions! Stepping into that space requires courage, it requires that we believe in the fundamental goodness of people, and the power of human agency - it is not easy, but it is soooo powerful. So come fellow Africans, let us stand in that place where we believe we can because we know we can!!!

I will, when the dust rests from this high that I am on, ponder what it is that I so passionately want to do and be in the world, and remind myself that 'Yes, I can', with the help of those around me; I will remind my children that 'Yes, you can.' Join me....