Now, Barack Obama – you have a neo-liberal black president of the most powerful empire in the world; he was never a revolutionary figure in the way Nelson Mandela was. He has always been a neo-liberal politician. He was a black face of the American empire and he [has], in my view, commit[ted] war crimes with his drones in Pakistan and Yemen and Somalia and Libya. – Cornel West, Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy, Harvard Divinity School, US
Former US President Barack Obama’s second coming (or was it fifth?) was a sore disappointment for the media clergy. Perhaps a fitting warning to all those people who entertain delusions of messiahs.
The People Daily captured the little visit in its Monday, July 16 headline thus: “No fanfare as Obama returns.”
“No Beast, no hawk-eyed and intimidating security agents swarming the runway, no enthusiastic crowds lining up Mombasa Road all the way to State House from the airport,” the paper reported.
The highest-ranking state official who received the former US leader was Foreign Affairs CS Monica Juma.
Of course Obama came back as a former president. He isn’t the POTUS. Why did people still hope to see the razzmatazz of 2015?
The Nation’s attempt to rally the country around the visit fell flat. The paper’s Monday headline, “He’s home, finally,” sounded so contrived. There was no excitement.
Obama’s much-touted visit to his father’s village in K’ogelo, Siaya County, was equally colourless. Two Citizen TV reporters covering the trip filed nearly identical reports about tight security and the disappointment of residents who had expected to see Obama up close or to even shake hands.
Obama spoke about his memories of Kenya, praised the Uhuru-Raila handshake, pontificated about fighting corruption and negative ethnicity and tried to sell to Kenyan youth the false American dream – that everyone can make it in life, regardless of objective circumstances, if they only put their mind to it. Uh?
The media had expected a humongous homecoming, similar to that of 2015. “As the country welcomes its son ‘home’, this trip provides a fresh momentum to learn from Obama’s experience, while making us alive to the significance of Kenya’s relationship with the United States and the international community,” the Standard voiced its messianic hopes in an editorial published on Sunday, July 15.
Journalists who should understand world politics still write such inanities? Did the trip provide any fresh momentum? What exactly is fresh momentum, anyway?
But by far the most ecstatic (and misleading) reporting of the visit was by the Star – the fresh, independent and different newspaper.
“Oprah in Obama’s delegation to Kenya”, the paper jubilated on June 20.
“TV sensation Oprah Winfrey is among 350 celebrities and notables who will accompany former US President Barack Obama to Kenya on July 16”, the paper reported.
Mark that figure: 350 celebrities and notables.
“It is understood that State House is considering honouring Obama for the role he played in putting Kenya on the world map”, the story said.
Sorry, Kenya has been on the world map for decades, put there by British colonialists. Those are the plunderers State House should be demanding reparations from, not honouring.
According to the Star, Obama’s entourage would feature professionals, celebrities, philanthropists, activists, top lawyers, businessmen, diplomats and friends. The 350.
These glitterati were supposed bring us lots of goodies and change our miserable lives forever.
Anthropologists studying Melanesian communities in south Pacific discovered the cargo cult. It is a system of beliefs based on the expected arrival of ancestral spirits in ships bringing cargoes of food and other goods.
Kenya is a country waiting for messiahs. The cargo cult mentality explains the crowds of idiots traveling long distances, staying up all night, giving away the little they have and grovelling before “prophets” and other charlatans, hoping for a miracle.
That seems to be what the Star was priming the country for ahead of Obama’s visit.
“Well known businessman and golfer John Simba is scheduled to play a round of golf with Obama at Muthaiga Golf Club to raise money for Sauti Kuu Foundation,” the paper went on.
“US-based Senegalese musician Akon is also in the lot together with Zimbabwe’s renowned maestro Oliver Mutukudzi who will be travelling with his daughter Simona.”
The lies journalists get away with!
Well, Obama came and went, leaving us right here drinking tea fortified with mercury and copper.
