Ethiobamamania

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  Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tuesday, October 14, 2008

America is,
of course, the most important nation on the face of the earth. At least that's what we Americans like to
tell ourselves. You might even forgive
us for thinking so this year, however, as eyes and ears all around the world
tune in eagerly, anxiously, amusedly to the Presidential election that is being
billed by international media as, well, the most important on the face of the
earth.

For
Ethiopia, there is one point of interest concerning the U.S. elections and one
point only - Barack Obama. Ethiopia loves Barack Obama. Charismatic and eloquent son of a Kenyan
father, a black man who has risen meteorically in American politics and now stands
well positioned to assume the highest office in a country whose wealth and
freedom hold an almost mythical pull for most Ethiopians, he has captured
hearts and imaginations in this developing East African nation.

The
evidences of Ethiobamamania are everywhere.
Within the past five months, "Obama Café"s have sprung up all over the
country. The largest and most prominent
of these is in Bahirdar, where you can eat the best steak-and-cheese sandwich
in Ethiopia under multiple images of the man himself, smiling endearingly down
on you from the walls. Unsurprisingly,
the most extravagant display of Obama exuberance can be found in the capital
city of Addis Ababa, where an eight-story construction project has been
christened the Barack Obama Building. A
fellow volunteer reported to me an incident in which her Addis taxi driver told
a young street girl soliciting money, "Obama yistilin" - in Amharic, "May Obama
bless you." The driver remarked, "God
and Jesus, number 1. Obama, number 2!"

Ethiopia's affection
for Obama is grounded in both the personal and the political. Asked why they favor Obama, I have heard
Ethiopians respond, "He is a black man," "He is a youngster," and even, "He is
tall and handsome!" Black skin and
youthful optimism about the world have made Obama a compelling symbol of the
hope for a prosperous and respected Africa.
Yet, some of this hope reaches beyond the symbolic. Many local friends and colleagues have told
me of Obama, "I think he will bring good governance to Ethiopia." It is a belief that I hear echoed regularly
among Ethiopians.

Expressions
like these make me incredibly nervous. Inflated American sense of
self-importance aside, the American president's potential for real impact in
the internal governance of African nations like Ethiopia is extremely
limited. Diplomatic pressure and
economic sanctions can only go so far, as evidenced forcefully in the case of
Zimbabwe, for example. Moreover, the
limited success that was achieved
diplomatically in Zimbabwe was only realized through the mediation of fellow
African leader Thabo Mbeke, of South Africa.
Ultimately, real achievements in African governance have to come from
the African people themselves.

What should
it say, then, that so many Ethiopians are resting their hopes for their own
country on a U.S. presidential election?
For one, it should pose challenging questions about the way in which the
U.S. and other developed nations have interacted with Africa, and about the
appropriateness of the messages being sent by our methods. When the ingrained instinct is to wait for
help from the outside instead of mobilizing it from within, we have all taken
steps backward.

As this
historic election advances toward its conclusion, questions about an Obama
presidency hang expectantly in the air.
Would an Obama presidency in fact salvage America's tarnished image in
the global community? Would Obama
indeed bring an element of cooperation and dialogue that has been lacking in
recent American politics? Will Obama,
or any American leader for that matter, really deliver sound governance to
Ethiopia? In the last matter, at least,
I fear real risks for dependency and disillusionment on the part of the
Ethiopian people.

If nothing
else can be said for sure, however, it is clear that Ethiopians are allowing
themselves the audacity to hope.

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