Afro-Colombians celebrate Obama’s win

The election of the candidate of hope and change as president of the most powerful nation on Earth (for now, whether we like it or not) was celebrated all over the world, from Kenya (where his father was born) to Japan (where there’s a city named Obama). In Colombia, of course, black people felt identified with Barack Obama and celebrated his win their way, as this clip from 7 p.m. Noticias Caracol newscast shows:

For those of you who don’t understand Spanish, this is a little summary:

• First, people from San Basilio de Palenque (located in Bolívar, northern Colombia, declared by UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity) appear, celebrating Obama’s win. One of the members of the community says that all black people are family, no matter if Obama is African, because they all are black. People from this village preserve the traditions of their African ancestors to this day.
• Later, the former mayor of Turbaco, a small town also in Bolívar, created a local Obama chapter and organized a "symbolic" election on 4 November. The results (from a longer clip broadcast earlier by the same network) were as follows: void votes, 10; blank votes: 10; John McCain: 47; Barack Obama: 1,128 votes. The former mayor wants to call Obama’s attention on Colombia.
• Now we go to Nueva Colombia, a suburb in Barranquilla, a city near the Caribbean coast. Its school suspended temporarily its activities to celebrate with music Obama’s win. One of the community leaders speaks to the children about the US president-elect saying "he was a poor man like us."
• After that we see some people in Cali, Colombia’s second largest city by population, walking and cheering for Obama. In the longer clip linked above, we see two businessmen from this city who decided to give their employees a free day to celebrate Obama’s win.
• Finally, we go to Puerto Tejada, Cauca (southwestern Colombia, near the Pacific coast), where its inhabitants also celebrated this historic moment.

In Colombia, around 21% of population is from African descent, but they are heavily discriminated. Current Minister of Culture, Paula Moreno Zapata, was allegedly appointed there by President Uribe in order to satisfy some requirements from African-American Democrat congresspeople for the approval of a Free Trade Agreement between Colombia and the United States. A recently published book claims Colombia had a black president during six months in 1861: Bolívar State governor Juan José Nieto, from the Liberal Party, during the war that overthrew conservative president Mariano Ospina Rodríguez (at the time, Colombia was a federal state known as Granadine Confederation). Nieto, nevertheless, is not officially recognized as president of Colombia, and the few portraits known show him as a white man.

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