Neil Armstrong, Weekly Gleaner Writer

Barack Obama

Award-winning author and filmmaker, M.K. Asante Jr., is throwing his support fully behind first-term senator from Illinois, 46-year-old Barack Obama in his run for presidential election in the United States. The 25-year-old college professor says race is not the issue in his choice of Obama who 'represents change in his country and has his pulse on the issues'.

"For me as someone who looks at the issues as a critical thinker, as someone who looks at the issues of universal healthcare, foreign policy, education, the war, to me, Barack Obama is the most apt and astute candidate. He really could take America in a new direction, a direction it needs to go," said Asante Jr., who visited Toronto in late December for a celebration of Kwanzaa.

Vote on war in Iraq

He said the other candidates of the Democrats, like former First Lady, Hilary Clinton, voted for the war in Iraq and she still supports the war and just thinks it was mismanaged. He also labelled candidate John Edwards a co-sponsor of the controversial Patriot Act.

"These people, even though they say they're Democrats, I mean I don't see much difference between them and (President George W.) Bush."

He added: "Obama's chances of winning are real. We had Shirley Chisolm in the '70s as the first woman and the first African American to run for president, but she didn't have any chance of winning. Sharpton had no chance, Alan Keyes had no chance. Obama really is the first African American who represents a chance," said Asante Jr. who teaches creative writing and screenwriting in the Department of English and language arts at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.

On Friday, Obama beat front-runner Hilary Clinton to win Iowa's Democratic caucus, with his message of hope and change, which resonated with young people and sparked record numbers to turn out to vote. He won in the first-in-the-nation vote to pick a Democratic presidential nominee for the November U.S. presidential race.

"So it really was a victory for the people of Iowa," Obama told reporters on a flight from Iowa to New Hampshire after his stunning victory over Clinton and Edwards, a former North Carolina senator. "I think it's a harbinger of what's going to happen around the country."

Obama said his message of hope and a desire for change hit home with Iowans, encouraging many to vote for the first time.

"I really think that the country is interested, not just in change in the abstract but in the very specific kind of change which involves them getting involved, paying attention, holding their elected officials accountable," he said. "That was reflected, I think, in the results."

Record turnout in voters

A record turnout - about 239,000 Democrats voted, up from 124,000 in 2004 - and there was strong support among women and voters under 29 years old.

Asante Jr. recently returned from Paris, France, and has also visited Guadeloupe to film Kwanzaa celebrations as part of his upcoming production, The Black Candle, a film he co-wrote with renowned poet, Maya Angelou, who narrates the film. The film is due out in 2008 and uses Kwanzaa as a vehicle to explore and celebrate the African experience worldwide. It features such notables as Amiri Baraka, Chuck D, Jill Scott and many others.

Born in Zimbabwe and raised in Philadelphia, Asante Jr. studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, earned his BA from Lafayette College, and an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA's School of Film and Television. He wrote and produced the internationally-acclaimed film, 500 Years Later, which won the Best Documentary at the Pan African Film Festival and accolades at other festivals throughout the world. His first book, Like Water Running Off My Back, won the Academy of American Poets Jean Corrie Prize for its title piece. He has also written, Beautiful, And Ugly Too, and his latest book, It's Bigger than Hip Hop, is forth-coming from St. Martin's Press.