Dr Leahcim Semaj - file

Jamaicans here and in the United States are welcoming Barack Obama showing in the Us presidential election as a fillip for all persons of African descent.

"It gives us one more option and places one more thing within our grasp and all of us can see that it is one more thing that we can achieve," Dr Leahcim Semaj told The Gleaner yesterday.

Obama's arrived at this point 40 years and seven months after Dr Martin Luther King Jr was assasinated as he led the struggle in the United States to end discrimination against black people.

In his most famous public speech, King told of his dream that all people would one day be treated equally, despite the colour of their skin. Semaj believes an Obama victory signals the fulfilment of that dream and the birth of several others.

"Here is something that has never happened before and nobody could believe that this could happen so soon. The election of Obama could provide a kind of transformational component," Semaj added.

According to the psychologist and motivational speaker, young black men in the US, Jamaica and around the world could be motivated by Obama's achievement.

"So far, the main thing that black youths in the US have identified with is to become a rapper or a gang banger, but now someone can say, 'why not become the president of the United States' and they cannot say it can't be done or that it is impossible," Semaj added.

Garveyite and black historian, Sister Marion Samad, agreed with Semaj as she pointed to the overwhelming support for Obama in black communities around the world.

Good for the black man

"The other day someone said he would lose because this wasn't the time for a black man, but I said the time was 500 years ago," Semaj said.

"His election would be good for the black man if for no other reason than the black man will say, if he (Obama) did it, then I can do it."

Semaj said the international black community has been short of positive role models for many years and Obama has filled this void.

"I'm so thrilled, I'm dizzy," Samad added with a chuckle.

Attorney-at-law Michael Lorne was equally upbeat about the expected victory which he argued would provide a tremendous lift for black people around the world.

"The main effect of the victory is physiological. The fact that a black man rules the most powerful country in the world, that will give us a tremendous lift to know that it was achieved against all the odds," Lorne said.

But the attorney warned that a President Obama would have to implement measures to assist persons of African descent around the world and in Africa itself.

"It would take more than imagery to assist the youth in the Bronx in New York or the youth in the garrison in Jamaica who needs opportunities in the world of work or skills training centre that he can benefit from," Lorne said.