These ideologues do really get carried away, with the law of history, revolutions, blah, blah. In the end Obama is an American story. His father (half hardware) may have come from Africa but is a product of America (half hardware and full software engineered). That is 3:1 American made. These is no such as thing as a law of history as most social science type would want to believe. It is one reason why the world economy (social science theoretic-based) is going belly up. The economists also wrongly - to be taken seriously like physicists - dream of their discipline having "natural laws". A perfect market is fiction, just as Marxism (science of history) laws are fictions.

Obviously the struggles of the black Americans has paid off by preparing the groundwork and conditions that enabled Obama to have an opportunity to stand for the presidency. That and women and minorities rights, and the fact that the demographics are changing such that America is becoming more and more multiracials.

In the final days it was the economy (the Chinese syndrome in the financial markets) that delivered the verdict. It is practical American democracy that is achieving something that others can only theorize and dream about.

Africa if it adopted practical democratic systems instead of corruption-driven glorified tribal-based chieftancies run by despots, would have their own share of real Obamas, instead of just theorising, with child-like wonderment about others history.

Onyango Ollo's article about "the Global Left and Obama's election in the U.S." is just fiction. As someone who has lived and taught in Chicago for 40 years, here is the unique facts upon which Obama's election stands.

All other black leaders before Obama failed in the U.S. because they based their campaigns on racism. The accused every white European, Asian, Oriental, Arab, and Latin person for being racists. And they told the blacks that they were victims of rampant racism, and that they had to struggle and fight with the other races to gain their due status.

Sure, the blacks were discriminated against, but after the upheavals and protests of the 1950s and 1960s, and the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the formation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and other tough regulations, they became equal by force of law. They started to get preferential hiring treatment for public jobs -even where there were better qualifying white applicants; they were admitted to universities with scores much lower than whites; contractors doing work with the State had to have a minimum number of blacks employees, and a minimum of public works in Chicago were reserved for black owned companies only.

Still, the Black leaders thought black didn't get enough. They continued to radicalize blacks, and that resulted in high crime in black neighborhoods. White stayed away, and black leaders accused them of racism for not patronizing black restaurants in black neighborhoods. The late Chicago Tribune columnist, Mike Royco, told blacks that whites didn't go for dinners there because they didn't "want to be shot." Blacks also accused Chinese, Korean, and Arab grocers in black neighborhoods of racism for higher prices than the national average. Mike Royco also said that those grocers put their life at risk to operate in high crime black streets, and they had to make more to cover high insurance rates, theft, etc.

The black leaders continue to radicalize blacks, and crime by them skyrocketed with 70% of the prison population being blacks. On the meantime, those leaders lived the high life, Louis Frrrakhan with a $ 5 million from Libya's Muammar Qaddafi for his Nation of Islam, Jesse Jackson with his mistress on high salary and an extramarital child, and Alan Sharpton defending any black accused of any crime, and blaming the police for brutality whenever a black was arrested.

The crime by radicalized blacks went out of control, and it started to affect other blacks too. When the Cabrini-Green public housing was closed, and its mostly black residents were move into other black neighborhoods, local blacks were outraged. One black woman called the newcomers "garbage." To slow down the rising black crime, Oprah Winfrey and other blacks launched a public campaign with the slogan "Stop Black-to-Black Crime!" This campaign outraged the whites because it told blacks "not to kill other blacks" -leaving the whites, Asians and Latinos as targets.

The radicalization and crime by blacks had created a wasteland in black neighborhoods, and a famous black, Bill Cosby, TV personality, and a Ph.D in Education, decided to launch a campaign and straighten their twisted and violent social attitude. He told blacks: "Get out of the hole [of racism]; Stop beating your wife; Go to school, get and education, and get a life; crime will get you nowhere." Other rational black leaders agree. One black criminal judge looked at his docket one day and saw 14 defendants - all black. He asked their lawyers to get out of the room, and chastised them for screwing their lives, then told them "to get a life, and that he didn't want to see them in his court room again."

This was the black wasteland that Obama made his career. But he was level headed. He was no leftist; he did not excuse, or protect any black who committed a crime; he did not accused police of brutality when a black was arrested, and he never accused whites, Asians, Arabs or Latinos for being racists for not pampering blacks. Obama, therefore, did not come into the American national scene as the typical black demagogue that exploited other blacks for fame [as their protector], or for a high lifestyle on their backs.

Obama cemented the above image on the 2004 speech at the Democratic Convention that catapulted him into the national spotlight. His projected humble Kenyan heritage, an image as a unifier among social classes, had a good education and oratory skills, and his mixed race -as oppose to pure bred black- made him a favorite. If Obama was 100% black, and if he had supported blacks unconditionally -as other pure bred blacks have done - he would not have had the widespread support and vote of whites to be president elect today.

And Obama had the good luck to be at the right place at the right time. Most American -no matter blacks or whites- have been aghast with the ongoing disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the economic collapse on Wall Street that they blame on the old guard in Washington - and that includes George Bush, John McCain, and Hillary Clinton - a Bush supporter for the Iraq War. He was just a freshman senator in Washington, and he had not acquired any baggage yet. The Americans wanted CHANGE; he promised them change, and they trusted him. Case closed!

This is the story of Baraq Obama's rise to the presidency of the United States. The "Global Left, Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez," and other scraps in the Oyango Oloo configuration of how Baraq Obama was elected are just irrelevant fantasies and concepts that are not connected to Obama's election as president of the United States. Nikos Retsos, retired professor of Pol.Sci. & history from Obama's hometown.

Once again we have someone who is so enamored by an individual based on race bi-race that accomplishments count for very little. Obama is an individual who in his own right has done absolutely nothing in the political realm, social realm or educational realm except to better his personal position. If you care to look at the composition of his staff, you might rename the President -elect Barrack OClinton. Over half of his staff are former Clinton aides and staff members. Where is the new era of change? Where is the independent policy making position that he so eloquently stated during the campaign? Like most people, who were pandered too during the election, you were given a sense of expectation of handouts. Barrack Obama will say anything to anyone at anytime to pursue his personal agenda. You like most Africans have demonized Bush, no one is justifying some of the blunders he has made and every president INCLUDING OBAMA will make some. But, Bush has given more to the African continent in Aid than any previous U.S.administration and in fact, African Aid will be reduced under the Obama administration by a considerable amount, you better read the proposed budget. Then you will understand the impact that "one of your own" will have on aid and investment back to the mother land. Don't stand around and wait with your hand out, it will remain empty as will your hopes and dreams for an unproven politician to meet your expectations based on pandering promises made to impoverished voters who are also looking for handouts. Mr Obama will not be able to live up to the many promises he has made, he never been a decision maker, has never taken a stand for good or bad, and will side with which ever direction the political wind blows. Unfortunately for Africa (and Kenya), the wind has shifted, no matter what will be said, until there is quantified proof, you cannot trust the President elect. I have been serving in Kenya for a number of years, and understand the plight of average Kenyan citizen, but for Kenya to rise up and be the power of Africa, you have to stop relying on pandering politicians and handouts. It all has to start withing Kenya and the citizens of kenya to be self reliant and invest in themselves. the US and a feeble administration will not do that for you.

A NOTE OF CAUTION FROM A SILENT VOICE

People of African descent can and should celebrate as much as possible in the ascendance of a seed of Africa to the highest political office in the USA. As president of the USA, President Barack Obama will be the most powerful political leader of the free world. However, after all the dancing and jubilation, and when the dust has settled, when everybody fully understands and appreciates the national and international implications of the results of this election, I hope that those despotic and oppressive leaders, particularly those in Africa, will not lose sight of the fact that Present-Elect Obama was democratically elected by the people of American through a transparent and accountable democratic process to work as their “Chief Executive Employee” and not as their “Chief Executive Lord” guided by the dictates of the constitution and not by the whimsical dictates of his person agenda. As for those European leaders, especially those in countries with former colonial empires that have large “subject-descendents” citizens as part of their populations, please remember that America has set the bar of democracy a notch or two higher. No longer will it be enough for you to tout your democratic ideals when the “subject-descendents” in your countries cannot attain the heights that a member of the minority group in the USA has just achieved. America is now the “democratic stem cell” that your “Subject-Descendent” minorities cannot wait to clone so that they too can have their own President (or Prime Minister) Barack Obama. Their fore bearers were made to entertain the notion that they were “Citizens Of The Commonwealth” (or whatever designation the former colonizers used) after they fought, bled and died in your wars for freedom and democracy. They followed and their descendents continue to make the “Mother Country” (London, France etc.) home because of these very ideals that have so far been elusive. To all the leaders in Africa, I humbly ask you to retreat to the deepest recesses of your hearts and souls to introspect and reflect on the following: • The challenges that lie ahead for you against the back drop of a Seed of Africa about to be the most powerful president of the USA. • The reasons you are in power (legitimately or otherwise). • The conditions of the citizens you rule and lord over who have been reduced to the most “Wretched Of The Earth”- the most economically, politically and educationally backward in the world. • The reasons why Africa, the most endowed continent, is on a permanent state of desolation and destitution. • Plans to present to the new USA administration that would indicate a new sense of purpose and direction • Plans that should signal to the USA and to the rest of the world that Africa is ready to embark on meaningful partnerships to eradicate the perennial abject poverty and ignorance that permeate the entire continent. • Plans to end all fratricidal wars that deplete precious human and natural resources. • Plans to ensure that the bulk of national budgets are spent on building infrastructures. • Plans to eliminate all arms and drug trafficking in Africa and table for consideration, ratification and implementation by the UN plans to criminalize arms trafficking. • Plans to ensure that Africa’s resources are processed in Africa to enable her to reap the full benefits of its resources. Processing has been the most vital component in the “Production, Processing and Consumption” industrialization equation. • Plans to tap into the vast resources that the African Diaspora provides to help catapult Africa into the twenty first century. Do African leaders know how many doctors, teachers, scientists of African descent, active or retired, are waiting for the clarinet call to come and participate in the development of the ancestral homeland?

My words of caution to African leaders: Americans take justifiably, without any equivocation, take pride in their democratic process, even if it is imperfect, that has made it possible for a President Barack Obama. It is the checks and balances inherent in this same democratic process that will constrain him and guide his actions to observe and respect the laws of the land and deliver the goods that he had promised to the electorate. He has to curb any whimsical demonic and despotic tendencies he, his friends and party might harbor because this same democratic process enables and empowers Americans to either let him continue in office beyond 2012 or replace him. The BIGGEST challenge to you, African leaders, is to talk the talk and walk the walk of people who believe and practice democracy. President Obama knows and understands Africa. Business will not be as usual with Africa in his “African Desk” in his White House. Finally, I hope African leaders will not see President Barack Obama’s presidency as an occasion to weave the biggest charity basket (or Poti Almudu). You oversee the continent with vast resources. President Barack Obama inherits an “Armageddon” like world that has already dictated his priorities and agenda before he is even sworn into office. He will have enough on his plate starting January 20th, 2009. As Africans, with our peculiar history, let us remember how and why Martin Luther King ended his speech to the 1959 Hawaii Legislature by quoting the prayer below from a preacher who was once a slave: “Lord, we ain’t what we want to be; we ain’t what we ought to be; we ain’t what we gonna be, but, thank God, we ain’t what we was.”

Univocal causal grounds are rarely found in the determination of human events. Generally, every human circumstance or situation is determined by multiple causal factors, "circumstance," being one of them.

That said, all the theorizing of Obama's victory is for the birds: Americans are a pragmatic people. It happened; let us move on. The dude won. Unless you are steeped in the historiography of "history as the mother of examples for future conduct," Kenyans or other Africans should just accept that neither the left nor the right wins in American politics: the center, sometimes leaning left, sometimes right, always wins.

Obama was, during the campaigns, in dead center; whether he will (what matters is the future) lean to the left or the right during his 'reign' (American presidents are not African Big Men: they are effectively checked by the Judiciary and the Congress), not even the most gifted mendacious AFRICAN JUJUMAN OR JUJUMWOMAN can decipher.

By the way, Clinton basher, get over it: Obama graciously, unlike you, knows how to throw people under the bus with raising a tantrum: the lethal, judicious judgment that enacts without the percussive ambience of BIG TALK."

On the radical obscurantist, outsted 'black' leaders of 'blacks'---Jesse Jackson, the philander, Sharpton, the unpricipled benjamins junkey, and others, too numerous to name, I say: HISTORY HAS SHUT THEIR VILE MOUTHS. And, when history sentences, there ain't no appeal, baby.

Kindest Felicitations.

It has been interesting- and in a sense amusing- browsing some of the comments on my original article. After some initial rage, I have decided not to dignify with a response some of the outlandish, racist takes on my piece.

It would have been useful if some of the commentators actually bothered to read my essay before posting their thoughts. For instance, even a cursory skimming of my essay would have made it clear that the Obama story is NOT just about his "bi-racial background".

Other than that, I see no need to defend, justify or otherwise rationalize my essay.

Thanks to all those people around the world who took time to read it.

Onyango Oloo Nairobi, Kenya