5th November 2008

Tears came to my eyes this morning as I watched Americans celebrate the Presidential elections victory of Barack Obama. I was startled by this sudden rush of emotion.

Its cause was not Obama’s typically brilliant oratory, or John McCain’s heroic concession. The source was instead the story of hope written on the faces of the numerous Americans beamed into my bedroom by CNN and the BBC.

They had voted in unprecedented numbers to hand Obama an historic win. Black, white – skin colour was meaningless in that brief moment of euphoria. 

I haven’t felt that way since South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. That moment in time is burned into the memory of every South African who voted. I stood in the queue at the De La Rey voting station, west of Johannesburg. Shoulder to shoulder with people of all backgrounds. Our national identity was conceived in that brief moment of glory. Our skin colour superfluous. United in hope. 

America and the world shared in a similar experience this historic Wednesday the 5th of November 2008. The day Americans reminded South Africa and the world of the true value of democracy. Change, radical change can take place. The power structure, the edifice of patronage, can be challenged – but only through democratic means.

When I was a child I wrote in my diary the slogan: “Hope is Life”. I still have that school diary and sometimes marvel at that pimply teenage wisdom. Today that hope was written not only on the faces of most Americans – but on those of millions of Africans living under oppressive regimes. They live in hope that democracy may come to them. That freedom of choice, independent media, a working judiciary and political accountability will visit their shores. And stay. 

That is the lesson for South Africa and the African mother continent. Democracy is imperfect – but it works. A constitutional democracy is a state where the grundnorm is a democratic constitution. It means regular elections contested by many parties, independent media and an independent judiciary. There is no other way. That is the lesson for Africa and indeed the world!