Africans Rev Up to Celebrate an Obama Victory

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Source: Associated Press

Africans rev up to celebrate an Obama victory

By TOM MALITI, Associated Press Writer – 17 mins ago

KISUMU, Kenya – Africans stayed up at all-night parties or woke before dawn Wednesday, gathering around televisions and radios as Barack Obama took the lead in his election bid to become the first black U.S. president. "I'm not tired even, though I have been watching the results through the night," Josiah Otupa, 30, said early Wednesday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. "Our man is in the lead but we are still praying hard."

In Nairobi's Kibera shantytown, one of the largest slums in Africa, hundreds gathered around a massive bonfire of burning tires. Residents joyfully held up Obama posters, blew whistles and waved American flags. "We will be here until morning, and we will continue with celebrations if Obama wins," said organizer Sam Ouma, 32. "If Obama loses I don't know what this crowd will do."

Obama, the son of an economist from Kenya, is wildly popular across Africa. Many people hope an Obama presidency will help this vast continent, the poorest in the world. Some are looking for more U.S. aid to Africa, others simply bask in the glory of a successful black politician with African roots. "Obama, being partly African, has the moral obligation to intervene in Africa," said Samuel Conteh, managing editor of The New Citizen newspaper in Freetown, Sierra Leone. "The aspirations of Africans are very high, believing that he will change the social and economic situations of Africans."

Those hopes come even after President George W. Bush made a special effort to combat disease and promote democracy in Africa.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081105/ap_on_re_af/af_kenya_obama