For us in Kenya, "at this moment," here comes our son (wuodwa). He is far from prodigal, and is much beloved even if only lately beheld! Behold -- the son!
He has done us proud -- even though we waited, merely, in the villages; waited for him to arrive from a long and winding journey, with many forks along his path. We did not go half the way to meet him -- dying though we were, with the anxiety and pain of waiting. While he searched for the mythical White House, and a crown which no eye can see, we waited in villages we have occupied for centuries with the fortitude and memory and wariness of a people among whom migration is the very essence of folklore, and king-making is second nature.
For the world: Here comes the Sun!
It was a good thing that they did over there in America, last night -- this morning, here in Kenya -- as the world watched, waiting, as someone once said, to exhale. It was a good thing that they looked as deep into their conscience and their souls as they did, as Fall, ominous and tantalizing Fall, deepened and darkened amid all the buzz. And that they did not despair. They saw, reflected there, him. Him!
He had known for a while, for he could see with eyes that have seen farther than his age, that they saw what he strove so hard (despite his eloquence) to tell them -- that they saw in their minds' eyes what he saw in his -- and that they were in the end unperturbed by the choice that they were prepared, in their millions, to make. At this time. And though there is no telling until the choice is with finality made, we are free at last to have our sigh of relief -- to heave with possibility.
How "sweet" it is to have this day of euphoria, and even ectasy -- even if this once only, for now, and even if all over (for as long as we want this thing to last) --in which we can, finally, purge all that unspeakable fear of betrayal and bad faith we had firmly locked up inside; in which we can contemplate, with utter relief and the abundance of joy we allow ourselves, the solemnity and grandeur and historicity not of what is to come but of what is, unbelievably, right here, here right here, before our own very tired -- our very own -- eyes, and "at this moment." Eyes wrapped around the surreality of this real and impossible thing. How Mumias-Sugar "sweet" to have been here and, as he (epitome of love) loves to say, "at this time."
It is a good thing, too, that America, reaffirming the possibility of all that is good in all of us who are good, has caused the world to be not saddened but exceedingly happy, and awash in tears of joy and in the relief self-evident in Jackson's unabashed tears; and that the world has found a reason, in that same relief of happiness and happiness of relief, to embrace America as America has never perhaps been embraced, or imagined it could be. America has made the world happy, as perhaps the world has never been collectively and simultaneously and everywhere happy -- even if for a moment. And in embracing America the world in fact embraces itself -- in a tight circle of emergent, effervescent, audacious hybridity.
And so it is that what has come to pass has come to pass, so that what is is. And thus it is that he -- the very same Obama, the very apt Renegade, that verily singular Ker -- intones: "We are the people we have been waiting for!"
Has there never been (never, ever) such a meme -- at once powerful and improbable, at once political and cultural, at once special and one of us -- as Obama, that we allow ourselves so many praise-words? Perhaps not -- not that we can remember with euphoric memories. Will there ever be, again? We dare to hope yes, for our own sakes! Yes we can crawl up to our possibilities -- and fly past them. Yes we can fly!
P.S.
1. Here's a photostream of Team Obama, back-stage, on election night: Photostream
2. And here's a video of President-Elect Obama's November 4th Victory Speech
