Feature Article : "The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Modernghana.com."

'Can I find the words? Yes I can'

Senator Barack Obama's election as the first black president of the United States has been greeted by celebrations across Africa.

Ghanaian journalist Kwaku Sakyi-Addo gives his personal reaction to seeing an African-American becoming arguably the most powerful man in the world.

“I never quite realised how difficult it would be to write about A Day Like This.

Initially, I thought I could pre-cook a reaction piece in anticipation of what might be and, like bad journalists like me sometimes do, microwave and serve it after the event.

You can take that sort of risk if this was about a derby between two third-tier soccer sides across town.

You just fill in the blanks after the game, like a communique drafted ahead of a Heads of State summit.

But not for A Day Like This. Such A Day does not yield to fast food.

But now I cannot find the words. Words flood my senses. Yet none is fitting enough to describe Such A Day.

Perhaps the expressions that accurately capture it are yet to be woven.

The best linguists and wordsmiths didn't foresee A Day Like This.

So thanks for the space and can I go now?

In my lifetime (I'm 50) the most historic days have been Yuri Gagarin's blast into space in 1961; the moon-landing in 1969; the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989; Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990 and black people voting in South Africa in 1994.

Cracking codes

But the election of Barack Obama as the first black president of the United States beats them all:

• A first-term senator

• Whose middle name is Hussein

• Whose ethnic Luo surname doesn't quite open doors, even in his father's native

• Kenya

• Whose step-grandma still lives on a subsistence level in Kogelo Continued    Source: BBC - BBC News

"The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Modernghana.com." To have your articles publish, please submit them to editor@modernghana.com.

Other Articles by BBC