On several occasions Marcus Garvey said, "Look to the East (or Africa) when a black king shall be crowned ... ." His name, Obama, means 'sent by God' in Swahili, the language of his father. In Arabic, the Muslim tongue, its meaning is 'eagle'. Barack means 'the blessed one' in Swahili and Arabic. In Hebrew, it means 'lightning and thunder'. Tell me, is this the blessed American eagle sent by God, who created a storm? After all, Kenya is in East Africa and in the birth country of Garvey as we watched, it rained and thundered.
Add to that his middle name, 'Hussein', and far from being the dictator, it means the good and handsome man. The only way his name could have been more prophetic was if he were named 'Sikio Kubwa' (Big Ears).
The whole thing seems so ordained that our reverends who dabble in demagoguery would be proud that I predicted it. All scientists agree that Homo sapiens were 'created' in the general East Rift Valley area of Ethiopia and Kenya. This second generation son, from the region where the Garden of Eden was located, defeated McCain because he was 'able'.
In the intense battle, he resisted the temptation of the female senator from the 'Big Apple' on the eve of his democratic nomination. With just over a month to go, his lead shrank as Sarah Palin was added to the Republican ticket, which suddenly began to make headway.
another Hudsucker Proxy
But as she opened her mouth, the inexperience fell out, and whether ignorance or slips of the tongue, one wondered if this was another version of the Hudsucker Proxy, the 1994 movie about a supposedly inept person appointed to head a company by persons intending to ruin it. On the other hand, the Democrats' choice of Obama was deliberate and well-thought out.
It cannot be accidental that he was selected to address the Democratic National Convention in 2004, although he was a very new kid on the block. True, Hillary Clinton is the wife of the most popular Democrat in recent times but being out of office, Bill could only back her with one fist. The clenched fist of the black electorate had to swing away from the 'swinger'.
Not that my prediction in The Voice, two years ago means anything, but Obama was just what the doctor ordered and was 'tailor-made' for the Democrats. He is a hybrid, who has strong affections for his deceased white mother, sister and then ailing grandmother. That made him 'all right' if not 'all white'. Furthermore, he is African-American but not of slave descent. This takes away the sense of collective guilt that white America has for having enslaved and mistreated his ancestors and his own residual resentment.
Being born in the Pacific and partially schooled in Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation, gives him a sort of immigrant appeal that truly epitomises America. His self-acknowledged drug use like George W Bush, but without the intellectual side effects, makes him real. And the brother can 'speechify'!
Nevertheless, his selection is an amazing turnaround for a party that supported the formation of the Ku Klux Klan in 1866, and as in 1875 last week suppressed the black vote by violence, intimidation and fraud in Mississippi. Say whatever you want about American racism, that country has come a far way in a short time.
the wretched 'poll tax'
With a population of 13 per cent black - including those passing for white - it has elected its first obviously black president. Believe it or not, Jamaica has had universal adult suffrage 20 years longer than the Americans. It was not until 1964 that the Constitution was amended, invalidating the wretched 'poll tax' that placed an unaffordable levy, effectively preventing African-Americans from voting. Another year passed before Southern voters were freed from the literacy requirement by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Only 40 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated for daring to believe that he could dream in the middle of a nightmare.
England abolished slavery in 1838. France did so in 1794, restored it in 1802 and then definitively so in 1848. France and Canada were places of safety if American slaves escaped before 1865. However, up to today, no black person has ever been elected as head of state in those countries. Canada has parliamentarians of colour but reggae-loving, alleged weed smoker Pierre Trudeau is the nearest thing to black that has sat in the driver's seat. Pardon my French, but France has one black among 555 mainland representatives. Thank God for the French Antilles islands. In the 2007 elections, only 19 of 3,777 candidates were black although blacks comprise between four and eight per cent of the populace. Liberal France has a hidden, more subtle racism that is less visible in sports.
still not enough
Racism traverses the English Channel but we have a few 'Darkies' in the House of Commons and Afro-Saxons in the House of Lords. Nevertheless, blacks are seen as only good enough to get designer products like FCUK (French Connection UK).
Still, Carter G. Woodson knew what he was doing when in 1926, on November 5, a date that would later see the birth of this columnist, he inaugurated Negro History Week. In this first week of November, Obama's ascendancy is another in a series of great historic moments. Ras Tafari was crowned Haile Selassie this week in 1930; Clarence Lighter and Coleman Young became Raleigh, North Carolina's and Detroit's first black mayors, respectively in 1973; Jesse Jackson became the first realistic black presidential candidate in 1983 and David Dinkins debuted as New York's black mayor in 1989.
This week, in 1983, November 2, was declared Martin Luther King's Day.
Obama in the highest!
Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at UWI, Mona. Feedback may be sent to orville.taylor@uwimona.edu.jm.