How does The Washington Post define excessive Barack Obama fandom? It might start at the idea that people would trek all the way to Africa to watch Obama’s step-grandmother feed her chickens in Kenyan garb. In an article headlined "Rookies of the Year," the Post’s Travel section on Sunday hyped little Kogelo, Kenya, the birthplace of Barack Hussein Obama the First as a "break-out" destination for tourists – even as they acknowledge it’s tiny and unsafe to visit after dark (emphasis theirs):
When TripAdvisor.com released its list of 2008's "Break-out Places" recently, we weren't surprised to see that it mentioned Wasilla, Alaska (courtesy of Sarah Palin), the French provincial town of Le Val (where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie holed up last year while awaiting twins) and Beijing (something about a bird's nest).
Noticeably absent from the illustrious group, however, was Kogelo, a small town in Kenya about 267 miles west of Nairobi. It's there that President-elect Barack Obama's father was born and there that a poor fishing village on Lake Victoria is struggling to come to terms with hitting the tourist jackpot.
"Being African, I see it from a very funny point of view," said Kenneth Hieber, whose company, 2Afrika...is just one of many seeking to capitalize on the intense public interest in Obama's family history. "It's a place so sleepy, so rural. How on earth are they going to deal with what will happen next?"
What will happen next is anybody's guess, but it's safe to say that while the proposed Obama stimulus package has yet to affect our own shores, it has already hit Kogelo with a vengeance. Roads have been built, infrastructure has been improved (or in some cases created) and souvenir stands have sprung up as if by magic, all in hopes that, as Hieber put it, "people are going to descend upon the town just for the value of saying, 'Oh, my goodness, I saw it.' "
In other words, the Posties want little Kogelo to be hyped as a "breakout" destination before it’s really had a massive infestation of Obama-worshipping tourists. It's a "jackpot" still waiting to happen. It doesn’t strike the Post as a little funny that an American tourist would arrive and exclaim "Oh, my goodness, I saw it! The birthplace of Barack Obama’s father – who almost never acknowledged his son’s existence!"
At least their description of what a tourist would find on an Obama "ancestry tour" is more modest in tone:
Kogelo, a stronghold of the Luo tribe, is a village of fewer than 1,000 inhabitants where "people live from hour to hour, as opposed to day to day." Draws include the home of Obama's step-grandmother, Mama Sarah, where you might see "her mud hut and her feeding chickens in Kenyan garb," Hieber said, or at the very least "a little patch of green with her eucalyptus trees."
It's a day trip, in other words.
Hieber's Obama ancestry tour comes at the end of an 11-day Kenyan safari with prices starting at $2,999 per person (including airfare from Washington). The trip begins with a night at a treehouse-style hotel on the slopes of Mount Kenya; subsequent days feature six-person groups visiting Lake Nakuru, with its famed pink flamingos, and the world-renowned Masai Mara game reserve. Then it's on to Kisumu, Kenya's third-largest city, your home base for the 30-mile trip to Kogelo.
"You don't want to be sleeping in Kogelo," Hieber said, a bit ominously.
A visit to Hieber’s blog shows that in fact, Kenya’s recent turbulence has made it less than a traveler’s hot spot right now, as he reported on January 4:
It saddens me to learn of the unnecessary strife currently taking place in Kenya – such a shame when people cannot live alongside each other in harmony. Particularly since my late 2007 visit to the Kingdom of Lesotho was such a ‘simple’ delight.
Please know that during our 13-years operating in the United States, our paramount consideration has always been and always will remain your ‘safety’ whilst on Safari with us.
To that (continuing) end, I would like you to rest assured that at this time, we are monitoring the unfortunate situation and will NOT (permit me to repeat) NOT put any one of our very valued passengers in harm’s way under any circumstances what so ever.
As I am currently in Africa, I will be making a side-trip to Kenya prior to returning to the United States where I will arrive on 1/14 at which time I will update you on the situation as I see it and where adjustments to itineraries need to be made, so will it be done. No one will be put in harm’s way and no one will loose – we will negotiate with the airlines and the lodges to ensure that everyone who has paid in full for a safari will always have a credit to use with us in the future toward another Safari of the same equal value.
Moving forward, I see no immediate need for concern but assure you that I will be personally monitoring the situation and will keep you apprised of my decisions concerning your safety!
