World | Other World Stories
Hopes inspired by US dream go only so far in Kenya as graduates struggle for jobs
President-elect has fired up a generation but corruption wins over integrity and hard work in a country struggling to stimulate development.
- By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
- Published: 23:19 January 3, 2009
Kobama: He's from the same family that produced President-elect Barack Obama. He shares many of the same hopes and dreams. He's even got the same name.
This Barack Obama, 26, a cousin who was named after the president-elect's Kenyan father, was elated when someone with African roots rose to the world's most powerful job.
"I felt I could do anything," said the lanky student, whose buddies now call him "the president" after his famous US relative. "I felt anything is possible."
There is no question the US president-elect's victory has encouraged countless Africans to reach for new heights. But as the euphoria over his election begins to fade here, young Africans are beginning to see his inspirational story as bittersweet.
As the American Obama's success is institutionalised in pictures hanging in schools and buses and in speeches in Parliament promoting change, many are coming to see his against-the-odds accomplishment as something that was really only possible in the US.
In Africa, money, ethnicity and family connections still count more toward success than does hard work. Bribes usually trump talent; corruption tops integrity. Young Africans hoping to follow in Obama's footsteps - even those with the same name - might face disappointment and disillusionment.
Future tense
"The hope might be false," said youth activist Joshua Nyamori. "Today Obama's story is not possible in Kenya. If Barack ran in Kenya, he would have failed."
Last month, the president-elect's young cousin finished his college exams and is hitting the pavement in search of work as an electrical engineer. But fewer than half of Kenya's university graduates find employment, and this Barack Obama is feeling decidedly more sombre about his future. He can count only two friends in four years who have been hired after graduation.
"We have diplomas but no jobs," he said. "It's almost a waste of time."
Yet all around him is Obama-inspired hype. The mythology surrounding the presidential campaign is as deeply rooted as the mango trees around Lake Victoria.
From the campus of Senator Barack Obama Secondary School to Obama's ancestral homestead, teachers, parents and elders wag their fingers at the young, repeating the mantra: See what can happen if you work hard?
At Obama Secondary School, in rural western Kenya, officials say students were so electrified by the US election that teachers are expecting to see an improvement in year-end test scores.
"Young people are clamouring for change," said Principal Yuanita Obiero.
Share this article
News Editor's choice
-
A year after 173 defenceless people were killed
Mumbai itself is far from safe from another deadly attack, even though the level of security consciousness of the average Mumbaikar has been raised since 26/11
-
Nato supports Obama's plea
European and other allies to send around 6,000 troops to Afghanistan
-
Official confirms mayor is the suspect
Many witnesses have come forward, justice secretary says
-
Into an oasis of values
A place to snuggle in the warmth of old manners away from the bustle of city life
