Although Obama was born in Honolulu in Hawaii, Africa is his father’s home continent. Barack Obama Sr. was a Kenyan. President Obama becoming the first African-American President was a major accomplishment.
During the election, Barack Obama’s running to be America’s first black president had a special resonance in Africa. People in Africa were delighted to find out that one African had the courage to join in the politics in the position of presidency.
Africans felt that there will be hope and a favorable outcome from Obama accomplishment. The president of that time in Kenya was Mwai Kibaki who declared the day as a holiday after the result of the election was announced.
Obama Day is celebrated annually on November 6 in Kenya. The celebration started in the year of 2008 in honor of Barack Obama’s victory in the United States presidential election.
His victory was greeted with wild celebration in his father’s home village in the rolling hills of western Kenya of Nyang’oma Kogelo, the provincial capital Kisumu and Nairobi. Obama’s winning is not only important for Kenyan, it also contributes huge impact to Africa over-all.
The South African president in 2008, Kgalema Motlanthe said that Obama’s election carries hope for millions of the countrymen and women in the United States. But it gives much hope for millions of people especially of African descent both in the continent of Africa and as well the people in the Diaspora.
Another South African that was pleased for Barack Obama’s triumph was Desmond Tutu. Desmond Tutu is a known Archbishop of Cape Town and a theologian famous for his work as a leader against apartheid and a human rights activist. He retells Obama’s winning moment as almost the same when Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa in 1994. He also said that Obama’s success proves that the people who have the same color as them are limitless.
Even Nelson Mandela was gratified with Obama’s achievement. He himself told the president-elect, Barack Obama, that his victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place.
In the United States, people hope that Barack Obama’s works will lead to more generous American policies on aid and immigration. Since the presidential election in 2008, people are aware that he will be constrained by the vast United States budget deficit and political realities. People also emphasized that they know he is American rather than a Kenyan but still, they also hope that the change he promised will encompass Africa with trade policy and tariffs cited as a particular concern.
Barack Obama has opened a way for hope in changing the world for a better place. His works give encouragement to people, not only in the government and people in the United States but all over the world. Obama Day is celebrated as a national holiday in honor of the person who leads to great changes around the world.