Obama-mania encroaches on Kenyan village in US city

It looks like a typical storefront in a poor and black-dominated part of any large US city.

It is in a tough neighbourhood of Jersey City — and Jersey City is tough by American standards— flanked by bars, liquor stores and other enterprises probably dealing in more disreputable activities.

Not very far away young men in hoods, sagging jeans and expensive sneakers lounge around, while older men with little better to do sip from bottles concealed in brown paper bags.

But the particular address of 215 Martin Luther King Boulevard seems to be an oasis of peace in a rough and tough neighbourhood.

Entering the Community Services Centre of the Beth-El Seventh Day Adventist Church last Saturday afternoon, the Nation team was in for a cultural shock.

In a flash, we were transported from one of the toughest US black inner-city neighbourhoods to a corner of Kenya planted here.

All the people in the room are Kenyan and the language one hears is not just Kiswahili, but Ekegusii, the Kisii language.

Even when English is spoken, it does not come with the American drawl, but the distinctive Kisii accent.

The food, too, is traditional fare, with some twists because of the ingredients available.

Church elders are just finishing their lunch after a service and are preparing another meeting to plan their activities.

Upstairs, younger people are holding their own meeting, and also discussing church and community matters.

It is only at the younger people’s meeting that one hears various American accents — ranging from the black inner city one to the white mid-west drawl and the cultivated Ivy League.

But every so often as the conversation gets animated, some vernacular, or at least the accent, would break into the conversation.

Jersey City has one of the largest concentrations of Kenyans in the US, but what makes it peculiar is that a large majority are Abagusii, turning some neighbourhoods into virtual Kisii enclaves.

This particular church is, in fact, a branch of Maxwell of Nairobi’s Milimani Road.

When our team arrived, there was much excitement because many people at the meeting are also actively involved at the community and local levels in Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama’s campaign for the US presidency.

They shared with us their motivation:

Richard Maburi