By Muli wa Kyendo

Now that Barack Obama has been elected the first Afro-American President of the United States of America, should we not ask the question: Is a new world order in the offing? Is Barack Obama the new Messiah?

2,000-Year World Order Rule
It may sound preposterous to ask, but according to those who “see” events beyond human eyes, a new Messiah always comes after every 2,000 years. And now that we have clocked 2,000 years, we are beginning to witness momentous things taking place—things that were never thought possible only yesterday.

In asserting this, I am following the words of the Nobel Prize winner in physics, Robert Milliken, who said, “We have come from somewhere and we are going somewhere. The great architect of the world never built a stairway that leads nowhere.” Obama is a stairway, but where is it leading to?

Saving the West from Itself?

The Obama stairway could lead the redeeming of the West from its self-destructive ways by reinstating family values. Individualism, insecurity at individual level and loneliness are slowly killing the West. When I was a student in Berlin, I noticed that you could stay a whole day, nay, a whole month and more, without opening your mouth to say a word to anyone. You woke up in a room by yourself, you got ready to go “out” by yourself, you punched your travel card at the bus or U-bahn (subway) by yourself, and you shopped at a supermarket by yourself and paid at the counter without opening your mouth to say a word to anyone.

One day, I said “hallo” to an old lady whose misery was written all over her face. She broke down crying. No one had said hallo to her for years. “You must be from Africa. It’s the place I hear people are still human!”

Jane Tapsubei Creider, a Kenyan married to a Canadian, describes her surprise at receiving a call from an insurance company immediately after her wedding asking her if she had already arranged for her funeral. Prof. John Mbiti, an internationally famous Kenyan scholar of religion would aptly describe the Canadians as the “Living Dead.”

Can Polygamy Help?
Studies show that the African family values are healthy and much better suited to human living conditions. An old man or woman is secure in the knowledge that they live within a family and that their children are naturally obligated to care for them even as they themselves cared for the children. I dare even say that the securest family is the polygamous family. And I am pleased to see that many women groups around the world, including powerful American and Canadian women groups such as NOW, are calling for its legalization in the in those countries because it is more suited to current situation where women are working mothers.

Obama’s concern for his grandmothers on both maternal and paternal is clear demonstration that the African family values did rub into him. If he starts there, and if he succeeds in saving the West from itself, he will deserve the title of a messiah.