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In November 2008, millions of Kenyan citizens expressed their happiness about the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. Four years later, people still cheered upon receiving the news of his reelection, but their enthusiasm was nowhere near the euphoria of those earlier days. This article focuses on the consequences of Obama's presidency over four years in western Kenya-where Obama's father was raised-and argues that the appropriation of Obama serves multiple purposes, including the negotiation of identity, enabling social and political change, facilitating processes of healing and harmony, and creating conditions for peace after the 2007 postelection violence. Looking at the appropriation of Obama in Kenya enables us to study the processes of change, the localization of global flows, and the ongoing dialogical process of identity negotiation within a sociopolitical context.
The grandmother of the whole world, as she was kindly introduced to me by a grandson years ago, opens her arms enthusiastically when she walks toward me over a tiny dirt road. With a warm "Karibu!" she welcomes her Dutch visitor back into her blue-roofed home, surrounded by loudly gobbling turkeys. What has happened in Kogelo since my stays in 2009 and 2010, when I was privileged enough to witness the inauguration of the new American president in the company of some of his Kenyan relatives? It was almost four years later when I found myself back in the village, embracing grandmother Obama while congratulating her on her grandson's reelection. Mama Sarah (figure 1) was one of Barack Obama's grandfather's three wives. She accounted for a great share of raising Obama's father in the village of Nyang'oma Kogelo in western Kenya, where now dozens of visitors show up every day, following in the footsteps of America's first black president and taking pictures of the grave of Obama's father. In the book Dreams from My Father (1995, 2004), Obama describes his visit to his (step) grandmother-"with sparkling, laughing eyes"-and the place where his father grew up.
Years have passed since Barack Obama's first inauguration as President of the United States, which was celebrated by millions of Kenyans expressing excitement over this event. Global approval of Obama's policies has declined significantly since then (Pew Research Center 2012), but enthusiasm for the American...