Colombia - Page loaded 08.01.2009 13:41:00 COT

Afro-Colombians celebrate Obama’s win

Thursday 6 November 2008 1:01 COT

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.

Tags: Barack Obama, Barranquilla, Bolívar, Cali, Cauca, Colombia, Colombian politics, John McCain, Nueva Colombia, Puerto Tejada, San Basilio de Palenque, Turbaco, United States, United States election 2008, US in Latin America, video

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3 comments to “Afro-Colombians celebrate Obama’s win”

Tequendamia
monday 24 november 2008, 14:27 COT
1

Don’t you guys in equinoXio think that we could have some copycat effect in extremely racist Colombia? There are some similarities: In US, the Wall Street pyramids caused havoc in the US economy at the epilogue of the worst presidency the US had ever seen. The resulting mood cleared the path for the election of Barak Obama. In Colombia we can find a Latino Obama and take advantage of the havoc caused by Uribe’s pyramids to seat him in the presidential palace. Like Obama, Latino Obama will appoint a former first lady (Uribe’s wife) as chancellor and like Obama lead the nation out of nowhere to nothing, because there is nothing left that can be done that will pay the nation’s huge debts.
tequendamia
wednesday 3 december 2008, 9:58 COT
2

I am afraid an Obama eager to show how “patriotic” he is may betray those who voted for him. I don’t like the hawkish cabinet he has appointed. I hope he does well, but I am cautious, after all he grew up and was educated in the US, which means he not necessarily understands what it is to be a non-American.
Tequendamia
friday 2 january 2009, 17:35 COT
3

Colombians, this is how people on the other side of the world is thinking about the current situation of the world:

Open Letter To Barack Hussein Obama
President-Elect Of The United States Of America
By Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
Former Prime Minister of Malaysia

Dear Mr. President,

I did not vote for you in the Presidential Election because I am Malaysian.

But I consider myself one of your constituents because what you do or say will affect me and my country as well.

I welcome your promise for change. Certainly your country, the United States of America needs a lot of changes.

That is because America and Americans have become the best hated people in the world. Even Europeans dislike your arrogance. Yet you were once admired and liked because you freed a lot of countries from conquest and subjugation.

It is the custom on New Year’s day for people to make resolutions. You must have listed your good resolutions already. But may I politely suggest that you also resolve to do the following in pursuit of Change.

1) Stop killing people. The United States is too fond of killing people in order to achieve its objectives. You call it war, but today’s wars are not about professional soldiers fighting and killing each other. It is about killing people, ordinary innocent people by the hundreds of thousands. Whole countries will be devastated.

War is primitive, the cavemen’s way of dealing with a problem. Stop your arms build up and your planning for future wars.

2) Stop indiscriminate support of Israeli killers with your money and your weapons. The planes and the bombs killing the people of Gaza are from you.

3) Stop applying sanctions against countries which cannot do the same against you.

In Iraq your sanctions killed 500,000 children through depriving them of medicine and food. Others were born deformed.

What have you achieved with this cruelty? Nothing except the hatred of the victims and right-thinking people.

4) Stop your scientists and researchers from inventing new and more diabolical weapons to kill more people more efficiently.

5) Stop your arms manufacturers from producing them. Stop your sales of arms to the world. It is blood money that you earn. It is un-Christian.

6) Stop trying to democratize all the countries of the world. Democracy may work for the United States but it does not always work for other countries.

Don’t kill people because they are not democratic. Your crusade to democratize countries has killed more people than the authoritarian Governments which you overthrew. And you have not succeeded anyway.

7) Stop the casinos which you call financial institutions. Stop hedge funds, derivatives and currency trading. Stop banks from lending non-existent money by the billions.

Regulate and supervise your banks. Jail the miscreants who made profits from abusing the system.

8 ) Sign the Kyoto Protocol and other international agreements.

9) Show respect for the United Nations.

I have many other resolutions for change which I think you should consider and undertake.

But I think you have enough on your plate for this 2009th year of the Christian Era.

If you can do only a few of what I suggest, you will be remembered by the world as a great leader. Then the United States will again be the most admired nation. Your embassies will be able to take down the high fences and razor-wire coils that surround them.

May I wish you a Happy New Year and a great Presidency.

Yours Sincerely,
Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad