The election of Barack Obama as President of the US continues, as with what is happening all over the world, to be a hot subject in the Angolan press.
I was among a few people to whom the weekly Angolan newspaper Semanario Angolense posed three questions on the issue:

I. As an African what do you expect of the new US President?
As an African, I expect that Obama will relate to Africa with the profound understanding of the reality and the soul of Africa he revealed in his book Dreams From My Father. That was in fact the main reason I decided to support his campaign practically from the beginning. Obviously, as President of the US, he will always be, first and foremost, an American, being expected to serve his country’s foreign policy. However, I would like to believe that Obama will show a unique sensibility in his relationship with Africa, which I hope will reflect on the diplomatic, political and even economic relations between the US and our continent.

II. Do you think that President Obama will measure up to Candidate Obama?
I have no doubt that he will. He has shown, not only during the presidential campaign but during his life trajectory, either as a student, a social activist, a politician or a family man, to be someone with very strong values, high intelligence, honesty and seriousness, which will surely serve the delivery of his electoral promises. But over and above his own individual qualities, one of the virtues he has shown particularly during this campaign is the ability to surround himself with a well chosen team and the capacity to listen, not only but first and foremost the voters but also his team members, starting by his wife – it is interesting to note that they met in a professional situation where she was his mentor. And, in the end, given the level of hope and expectations not just Americans but almost the entire world placed on him, he would have too much to lose if he were to disappoint all of us. Certainly he will not please everybody, but I believe that he will meet the core of his campaign pledges particularly as they refer to the relationship between the US and the rest of the world.

III. Will the election of Obama, a Black man, to the US Presidency have a snow ball effect in Europe and, inversely, in Sub-Saharan Africa?
It will certainly have an effect in race relations in the rest of the world, including in Europe and Africa (both to the South and the North of the Sahara). However, I wouldn’t call it a ‘snow ball effect’. In effect, one aspect that shouldn’t be overlooked is that Obama’s election does not mean necessarily the end of racism in the US itself, albeit an historical mark that can be viewed as the highest achievement in a centuries long struggle – since slavery, through segregationism and widespread racial discrimination – for the civic and political rights of African-Americans. I would therefore suggest some caution when trying to extrapolate that American experience to the rest of the world, since the social, cultural, political and economic history of Black Americans corresponds to a unique experience that will probably have effects in inter-racial relations in Africa and Europe, but it shouldn’t be expected to be repeated or replicated exactly in the same way in other societies, which also have their own histories and socio-cultural and economic peculiarities different from those of the US.