Election Night Snapshots

Several times in the past 8 months in Nairobi, I've told friends who credit "Yes We Can" to Barack Obama, that the phrase was actually coined by Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, co-founders of the United Farmworkers of America labor union.

7pm, November 4th, La Peña Cultural Center, Berkeley:
This is a gathering place for so many of the communities I call home - activist, internationalist, performing arts, social justice. I am surrounded by friends, keep bumping into people who saw my shows here. It really feels like a homecoming. Over 300 of us pack the theatre and restaurant to watch the live election coverage on big screens.

Indra has brought a gigantic round loaf of bread, with Barack Obama's face on it. It sits in the middle of the table, like a communion loaf. We joke about whether it would be bad luck to cut it before the winner is declared.

7.30pm:
He's got Pennsylvania. He takes Ohio. We're all jumping and yelling, throwing victory fists up at the ceiling. How much of a landslide could this be? What if he takes Florida, Nevada, Kansas, Arizona, Missouri? What if ALASKA goes to Obama, humiliates Palin beyond recovery?

7.50pm:
Polls are about to close in California. Obama has 210 electoral votes to McCain's 107. There's no question he'll get California's 25, so it's in the bag. I want to call my parents in Nairobi and tell them, but I don't want to deprive them of the suspense and anticipation.

Then it flashes up, fills the whole screen. No warning.

The 44th president of the United States: Barack Obama.

For a moment, I think: Whoops. They're flashing the pre-prepared "Obama Victory" graphic. Of course there's one for McCain too. Someone at NBC is gonna get fired for this.

It stays up. We are all on our feet, laughing, cheering, laughing, hugging, crying, laughing, saying ohmigod ohmigod, and It. Is. True.

8pm:
I keep saying: Before 8pm! I just didn't expect it to wrap up so quickly.

I think: This is what we deserved, what we worked for, in Kenya last year. This is how we were waiting to feel on December 27th - and it was taken from us. It still hurts.

9pm (or thereabouts):
Before Obama went to Grant Park for the victory speech, he emailed his list to say thank you.

He said gay and straight in his speech. Without missing a beat.

The loaf of bread is passing hand to hand. People break off small pieces to eat around the crust of Obama's face on the top.

We chant Sí Se Puede in time to each repetition of his Yes We Can. We are almost levitating on the buoyant joy, the triumph and relief.

Camera pans in on Oprah crying in Grant Park.

Camera pans in on Jesse Jackson crying in Grant Park.

People are leaving for the Oakland Convention Centre, HQ of the Obama campaign. Horns and joyous whoops sound from the street outside. We begin to clear the theatre for dancing.

A musician comes on stage - leader of an Irish band from the Starry Plough Irish Pub next door. Apparently, Obama has an Irish ancestor on his mother's side. He gets the whole crowd in on the chorus to their Obama victory anthem:

O'Leary, O'Reilly,
O' Donnell and O'Hara
There's no one as Irish
as Barack O'Bama

9.30pm:
Berkeley is a giant open air party. Cars horns fill the streets, students run down the middle of Shattuck Avenue, counter to the traffic, arms flung wide in jubilation.

I think: Kisumu must be 10 times, 20 times, crazier than this right now. And Kogelo ? My god.

10.30pm:
I'm hungry now to see and hear what's happening in Kenya. I'm trawling Kenyan news sites for live footage. I can't get through to my parents. I call a Kenyan friend, political exile in the UK. She tells me tomorrow has been declared a national holiday in Kenya. She shares my sadness about how this should have been our experience too, in Kenya, on December 27th .

Ten minutes later, she sends me this poem. I offer it to you with her permission (she asked not to be named):

OBAMA MORNING TO SHAILJA

Yes, we can because
It is written in blood
In history
On your hand
We will because
The time has come
and cannot be held back
by old
greedy
men
so passe
We can
because
we owe it
to us
and we are many
we are bold
and bolder still
and our time too has come
and we will
we will
god knows
we will