Obama Fever In Ethiopia

How many days left to the election? It has become day to day conversation in people’s lives in Ethiopia. What happened in the debate? His speech was great, better than John McCain’s?

It has become a common subject of discussion not only for Americans, but for the rest of the world. A man who won so many hearts in the world will now find out whether he has won the US presidential election on November 4.

Ethiopians seem crazy about Barack Obama, not only Ethio-Americans, but also Ethiopians who live here.

Many people who were not interested in global politics have now become fans of Obama – as a man who represents change.

For so long America’s corridors of power have been dominated by white America males. Even though many African Americans have lived in the States for so long, very few of them have held positions in power.

Africans relate to Obama as him being one of them; he gives hope to the second and the third generation of colored people, to immigrants, and to all Americans who stayed this long to see a change.

He strives for unity in diversified belief; as his speech says:“There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America. There’s the United States of America. We worship an awesome God in the blue states. There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America. There’s the United States of America. And we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states. We coach Little League in the blue states, and have gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war, and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.”

He has got support from every corner for many reasons: he is a hero by-passing a racist system; he overcame teasing as a kid in Indonesia; and he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. Many people are inspired by him because of the barriers he has had to overcome to become the American president.

Many Ethiopians were also inspired by the speech which won him a Grammy for the best spoken word and for the CD version of his autobiography ‘dreams from my father’ (2006) where he confessed to teenage drug use, advising people not to be imprisoned by their past deeds.

His support came from contributing money and people volunteering for his campaign. Even Ethio-Americans pledge money. Ethiopians here also call their relatives who live in the States to vote for Obama. His Ethiopians supporters who live in Ethiopia expressed their admiration in many ways; one being wearing the T-shirt which has a picture of Obama.

One of the shop in Addis Ababa around Arat Kilo named VIP Advertising and Printing House, print T-shirts with Obama pictures on it and it has been around two months since demand of the T-shirt increased. As one of the printers, Abirham Berhe explains: “Obama’s election controlled the market.” This made the shirt the next biggest seller after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in their seven years in the business.

As Abirham explained the T-shirts cost 40-80 Birr according to the size of the photo on the T-shirt. So far more than 300 people have bought the T-shirt and as the election approaches the demand has increased.

Obama’s Ethiopian supporters are not just wearing his T-shirt, but also becoming fans on websites such as Facebook, a social networking site. More than 200,000 people have become fans, altough the exact figure of Ethiopians is not known.

There are also websites, blogs by Ethiopians about Obama. Even the internet centers in Addis are using Barack Obama’s poster to promote the US diversity visa lottery. Also, a big hotel has opened with his name in Bahir Dar by Ethiopians. Where ever you go in Addis, in taxis or wherever people gather, you get to hear his name mentioned at least once. In the event that when he won the Democratic nomination people’s hopes were high and some people are not even doubting that he will win. Maybe history will be made and the world will see an African American finally taking the presidency.