News is full of the troubles in Democratic Republic of Congo again. There has been renewed fighting around Kanya Bayonga, north of Goma, and rebel leader, Laurent Nkunde, has established his stronghold in and around the Virunga National Park.

Virunga was the first national park to be established in Africa in 1925, to protect the variety of wildlife found there, including mountain gorillas and okapi. One can jump to conclusions as to what’s happening to the wildlife populations under such conditions. The hippos have been under fire for a decade or more now, but that’s another story. Or perhaps we would be surprised to learn that Mr Nkunde has instituted some kind of martial lawfulness in an otherwise lawless country?

I visited Kanya Bayonga and Virunga some years ago and a vivid memory is of an outdoor restaurant on the shores of Lake Edward where delicious banana chips and bream were served. Marabou storks wandered between the tables looking for titbits. For those unaccustomed to them it was a little disconcerting to have a long, ugly face suddenly appear silently at your shoulder. However, what was remarkable was that they were accepted and tolerated by the restaurant owner and the customers!

I like to think that this innate forbearance, so typical of Africa, would return once all the ignominious influences either dissipate or are brought under control.

Yes. You guessed it. There has been a surge of newborn baby name registrations in Africa beginning with B and O. Barack and Obama are the flavour of the month right now.

There is something endearing, something that makes one smile, about this.  As a highly qualified psychologist told me recently, Africans tend to be more emotionally literate than Westerners.  What better way to display all your hopes for the future than to name your child after someone who stands for Change.

I find it gratifying.

News of Obama’s win in the U.S. has buoyed many in Africa. Africans are proud that one of their own occupies the most powerful seat in the world.

Apart from the hype and glory I think there will be a subtle advantage for Africa as this man of Kenyan blood serves in office. Undoubtedly, there are many who think that as a “homeboy” he will not forget the people back home, that Western largesse will continue to pour, sometimes quite undeservedly, into Africa. However, with the world in recession, the U.S. in a diabolical financial fix, I suspect that charity will start at home with Obama and that he will, ever so gently,  tell Africans that they need to get up and do it for themselves.  Hearing it from one of our own will, hopefully, have a much greater effect than hearing it from the big-stick ex- colonials.  And, one expects, he won’t fall into the trap of vanity that has fed this longwinded donor culture.   “What do you mean you can’t.  Yes, we can.   You won’t appeal to my sense of patrimony because I’m one of you, brother.”

This is a great day for Africa.

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