The Inauguration/Oprah really got to me

One unforgettable moment, five words: The Inauguration of Barack Obama! It was my intention to join the 1.5+ million people in DC and stand face to face with the man whose story is the stuff of legends. But the $800+ airlines were asking for plane tickets to DC made me rethink how I was going to celebrate this moment in history. I normally do not praise Memphis but the city actually came through during the Inauguration. The relationship that many drew between President (hee-hee. I can say that now) Obama and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made Memphis the 2nd best place to watch the Inauguration. Memphis is the city where MLK was assassinated 40 years ago and I was able to view the inauguration at the exact location MLK was assassinated, the Lorraine Motel, which has been transformed into the historic Civil Rights Museum. I even managed to make it on CNN....well not me exactly but the auditorium of the Civil Rights Museum made it onto CNN. I was honestly almost brought to tears (and I am not one to shed them, but I was at the brink of complete exposure) when I saw Pres. Obama cross the threshold of the Capital and take his place on the podium. I mean I definitely felt the presence of something in that room and felt a great wave of joy and confidence overtake my body. But as all things, my reflection of the moment did not mimic my sentiment of the experience.

I began to wonder why I was so invested in this election and what it meant for me as a Nigerian to be excited that this man is now the President of the United States. How can I and do I relate to this moment? Pres. Obama is not Nigerian; his father is from Kenya so that makes him partly African and I can relate to the occasion because of his ancestry. But he's not known as the first African President of the United States but the first African American President of the United States. He does make a point to acknowledge and re-emphasize the diversity of his background, especially his African roots, but is this simply it? Does it even make a difference? I know most of you all are thinking that I should just be happy for this moment and rejoice in the triumph of truth, justice, faith and hope, and in the power of democracy.....but as a Philosopher I must ask these tough and trying questions. Do I have a place in President's Obama's legacy? Is his dream the same as mine? How deep is the bond between President and constituent? Obama includes me in his dream on the condition that I keep my end of the bargain and work to make the Dream a reality not only for myself as an resident of the Americas but as a citizen of the world, a believer in a more perfect, harmonious and equal utopia. The thing that me, MLK and Obama have in common is that we are all Dreamers and we all believe that our dreams will one day be a reality. Whereas I tried to cause division by making the Dream about country lines, the Dream is really about the width of one's heart and the triumph of one person who will work to elevate millions. That's the significance of January 20, 2009 and the legacy of President Barack Obama.

Then enters Oprah Winfrey. One particular statement she made during her Inauguration recap show with Gail, Forest Whittaker, and Bon Jovi really boiled my blood. Everyone was commenting on how the entire world tuned in to watch President Obama take the oath of office and Oprah made a comment that aggravated the biggest pet peeve I have about references to Africa, bigger than the question "Do you all wear clothes/shoes?"It is the pet peeve of referring to Africa as a country. Oprah said that even her girls in Africa were watching the Inauguration, as if to say that from this statement one could pinpoint the location of the girls. The picture I imagined was a small cottage with the words "Africa" written on the mailbox and all of Oprah's girls sitting around cross-legged watching the tv screen as President Obama took his oath. Africa is not a small cottage but an enormous palace with 54 rooms, all with unique decores, structures, and styles. I am sure she did not intend to mean that Africa was a country but when I heard her statement I immediately heard her saying: Africa = country, not continent. I would rather, in circumstances where you know the specific country in reference, people call the country by name. If it is not a country that most people know you can do them dual service to list the country AND the continent. That way they will know that the country is within the continent and not continue to think that the continent is a county. She could have said that (1) her girls in Johannesburg were watching the Inauguration or (2) her girls in Johannesburg, South Africa were watching the Inauguration. Truly, I would have liked for her to say that her girls in Henley-on-Klip were watching the Inauguration. I opt for the latter statement because I think it would encourage people to do research on their own and figure out exactly where it is located. A significant majority of people (and I will go out on a limb and say Americans) are not aware of a world outside of their country, especially the world of Africa (and here I can sayAfrica because I am referring to the continent and not to a specific country or locale. And I also know that Africa is a continent not a country).

Well I guess that's it for now. I'm sure you have a lot to say in response to this blog and I LOVE IT! I welcome all opinions and comments. This is a discussion not a personal rant (even though at times it could read as such :-P). Even if you agree with my statements, the whole point is to make your voice heard. If you don't then that's even better. Make your point so we can talk about the world around us and open up the world around us......

Much Love,

Ronke A. Oke
Miss Nigeria in America, 2008

Some days it really is HARD!

Good ideas are fairly easy to come up with, but every good idea is never as easy to implement. I guess this becomes the ever growing pile of discouragement that some Nigerian men and women cite as reasons they are spectators to the perpetuating problems and fail to contribute to the solution. The problems facing Nigeria are, without a doubt, overwhelming, and before a sign of hope appears in the horizon, it is met with more obstacles and increasing problems at every corner. Some believe that in order to defeat the obstacles they must secure better positions that enable them with the capacity and resources to make a difference (i.e. being a citizen with one vote cannot guarantee that your voice is heard but being an elected official with one vote can move and shake a multitude of things), but that too doesn't make matters easy. Sometimes it really is the state of things, and in particular the state of a nation, that is the impediment. Sometimes it really is HARD!!

As Miss Nigeria in America it is assumed that I am in a position to "move and shake." It is true that I have resources and a wide network of individuals and, even if I cannot manage to make direct contact with a resource, I can quickly be put in contact with someone who can. But with all these benefits I am still having difficulty trying to get what I want DONE. It is not a lack of passion or because of an impeding schedule but rather the difficulty in understanding what is really going on in Nigeria. It is at this point when I try to wrap my head around the fact that my call to the Orphanage in Okwelle just will not go through and added to that the fact that no one in Owerri knows where the orphanage is, that I realize what has happened: I have become Westernized. I operate with Western ideals and hopes, clouded expectancies in which I expect that answers to my questions will return to me in an "instant"; spoiled by the luxuries of communication devices, transportation systems, and other "advancements". I erroneously think that the world resembles my immediate surroundings and commonplace experiences. I have shut myself in from the outside world and have lost touch with reality. And the reality for most, including those in Nigeria and from Nigeria, is that my tunnel vision focus is surreal or rather, no reality at all.

Its not that I was disappointed that I could not get through to anyone at the orphanage but I honestly could not and do not understand why I couldn't get through and ultimately, why Nigeria is the way it is. Why don't we have better communication devices? Why aren't the roads paved and the transportation vehicles reliable? Why aren't we more advanced (technological and otherwise)? It is definitely not because we suffer from a lack of ingenuity. There are thousands of Nigerians in the States and all across the globe that are Engineers of all sorts, Entrepreneurs, Nurses and Doctors, Lawyers, Politicians, Educators, Inventors and Scientists, and who hold a host of other occupations and degrees, and whose opulence and intelligence would shock us all. This should at least warrant us a multitude of progressive staples in our country but to our dismay Nigeria is still the way it is and I am still a bit disconnected from it all.

I wanted to write this entry as my attempt to communicate to you the difficulty in getting anything of substance accomplished in Nigeria. I truly wanted to discuss the relentless attempts MNIA has made to make the dream of free education possible to the children at the Motherless Babies Home in Okwelle. I wanted to describe the setbacks of such a dream and the setbacks of Nigeria, but all I seem to point out are the setbacks of being away from home. I have spent 23 years way from my home and have let ambitions and other commitments prevent me from getting in touch with my roots. And though it really is hard some days to hold on to a dream, its even harder to let go of it. The great thing about this dream is that it not only allows me to be of service to others but it also keeps me grounded in Nigeria.

Much Love,

Ronke A. Oke
Miss Nigeria in America, 2008