KISUMU, Kenya – Africans organized all-night parties to watch the U.S. election results roll in, determined to celebrate a moment in history as Barack Obama tries to become the first black American president.
“Tonight we are not going to sleep,” said Valentine Wambi, 23, a student at the University of Nairobi. “It will be celebrations throughout.”
Some of America’s leading black voices, including Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Spike Lee and Tiger Woods share what it means to them.
…you have to continue to prepare yourself, continue to build yourself, continue to elevate yourself and be a benefit, be a blessing rather than a curse, and things will get better. And they have, so when I think of Dr. King and Malcolm, Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers, I also think of Chief Albert Luthuli, one of the first Africans to earn the Nobel Prize.I mean that after Chief Luthuli, apartheid was so rigid, unbreakable that men had to carry their IDs on plastic cards that were too large for any suit, so they flapped, reminding them constantly who they were. It was my blessing to meet Nelson Mandela before he went into prison and I’ve seen him many times since. He knew this day would come, and to be able to stay in prison for 27 years, knowing that the day would come.