Barack Obama

I had an interesting conversation a few weeks back. I rarely it is very little that I hear anything about politics from the people around me though I know that it is something in their minds since a few months ago the days were filled with cars, motorcycles and bicycles flying flags of the different parties here in Mozambique as the municipalities had elections for each town. Half the time I think it gave people an excuse to yell, run, shout and party, after all there is not a lot to look forward to in the day to day here. In fact, a number of people driving cars and shouting had beer bottles in their outstretched hand…Scary. I tried to stay in as much as possible. Southern Africa has a history of political suffering, “Lording it over” as the Bible puts it. Examples such as Apartheid, colonialism, Zimbabwe today have caused great pain. Mozambique’s are shy about politics, after all theirs is a history of Portuguese domination, using local political power to gain the regions resource and a recent history of civil war which created a lot of distrust between people. Mozambicans are not ones to be easily critical. It is more important that things are in harmony.

I had a conversation today that was quite interesting. In church our secretary brought up the conflict in Gaza. “Too many people are dying. We need to pray that God will resolve things so no more death happens.” I never here things like this in church here. After church, I was talking with him. He happened to be quite attentive to the news of late and it must have been weighing on him.

He looked at me and said, “Barack Obama”.

That was all he said.

“Yeah,” I responded, “He is going to enter into office soon.”

He asked me, “Will Bush leave office.” He said this with a hint that makes one think of the situation that is happening with Mugabe in Zimbabwe where the leader is refusing to relinquish power. It is something that is on many people’s minds here and has happened so often in recent African history.

He went on.

“America, they like to use force don’t they.” This struck as quite interesting as the people in our church are not very well educated, maybe 6^th grade at the most for some of the older people, and usually do not notice these things.

I responded, “What do you mean.”

“You start a lot of wars, like Iraq. And for no good reason. And without consulting others. “

You see this is not the Mozambican way. You avoid conflict at all costs and people sit down to resolve it by whatever means until people are satisfied but force is the last option.

I was afraid to ask but did,”So, tell me, what Mozambicans think about the leadership of America in the last decade. “

“They have created a mess, so many people have died, so many soldiers and all because of arms that were not there. You know I think it is because of those buildings. America was shamed and they had to make themselves look good.” No lie, that is what he said. Maybe, I thought, after all it is natural human tendency to make ourselves look good at all costs. Stand up for ourselves when we are shamed. It is part of our sinful nature. It happens to all of us, why not to nations. But is that the reason?

“It has gone downhill,” He went on, “But I think things will change. Barack will listen. “

This takes me back to conversations I have had over the last few months. After the US elections, people in the country were more excited about the results than their own elections. We were invited by our neighbors to watch the acceptance speech on TV because they thought important that we watch.

I also had a conversation with a pastor for one of the church’s we worked with. “We always thought that America is the great democracy. But we thought it was dead. Now that Barack is elected, we know that America is truly a democracy.” He gave me congratulations over and over. I guess after centuries and centuries of being forgotten, treated as slaves, house workers and less than human, this is a great sign of hope that the world as God created was indeed created to be fair, just and equal.

When I was in South Africa, black and white, asked me what I thought of the upcoming elections. But they always asked me, “So how is Barack doing.” One guy even asked me, “What is the other guy’s name.” I got so many handshakes that day.

“The American people have spoken, “I heard. These are people of color congratulating me, of European descent, on the fact that we, a mostly European nation were brave enough to elect an African (though partly African, he is African to them none the less). So it is clear who has been chosen by the people I live and work with in Southern Africa.

So, I thought, it is obvious to me why Africans think this is a good thing but what about other people. Christians, from other countries, they would think differently.

After elections, several missionaries asked me if we were happy. I was a little scared. Why, because I had been treated on several occasions in the past as almost a heretic for even thinking of voting one way or another. “Politics is very dangerous for us as Christians to talk about,” I said. It splits our churches and we demonize each other, I said.

They understood me, though only partially because it was not the case in their country.

Of my missionary friends from Brazil, Wales, England, Netherlands and others as well as Christian groups coming through Mozambique from other countries, it was clear to them who was best for the job.

Politics. It is a dangerous subject, it destroys the peoples, countries, regions….and even God’s church. It makes me wonder what Jesus thinks of all our political guffaw.

“Barack Obama” my friend said.

I just smiled.