A Gambian journalist experience of the US election

As America prepares to inaugurate its 44th president, Barack Obama, on January 20 becoming the first black occupant of the White House, Africa experts are praising the special role a Gambian-born senior newspaper editor played in giving Obama the much needed victory in the state of Michigan where he won by 57 percent to Sen. John McCain’s 42 percent.

Bankole Thompson, originally a native of The Gambia and former writer of that nation’s Daily Observer newspaper made history when he was among the few top Black journalists around the world who had several face-to-face interviews with President-elect Obama on the campaign trail.

Mr. Thompson’s three sit-down interviews with Obama on the campaign in addition to phone interviews with him are now being cited as a contributing factor to delivering the struggling manufacturing state to the Obama column.

Mr. Thompson serves as senior editor/executive editor of the Michigan Chronicle newspaper founded in 1936 and widely read by policy makers across the country.
Noted for being one of the most influential African American newspapers in the U.S., the Michigan Chronicle was one of the first media outlets in America to endorse Mr. Obama for president three weeks before the election.  Excerpts of that endorsement can be found on Obama’s website alongside other endorsements from the New York Times, Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune. 

When contacted Mr. Thompson said it was an interesting experience for any journalist who covered the race giving the historic nature of the campaign.   

"We have to understand that Mr.. Obama ran an effective campaign and he was willing to sit down with any media that he thought was crucial to the success of his presidential run," Mr. Thompson said. "

When he first came to Michigan last year to address the Detroit Economic Club, his campaign headquarter in Chicago called ahead of his visit to request that I sit down with their candidate for an interview.

I took that request from the campaign to mean that Mr. Obama understands how important Michigan was to win because the Wolverine state has been hardest hit by the economy. Moreover as journalists our job is to report the news."

That first sit-down interview with then Democratic presidential nominee Mr. Obama held at Detroit’s downtown Cobo Hall, led to two more face-to-face encounters with the man who would become the first black president of the world’s superpower.

Mr. Thompson’s most recent sit-down interview with Mr. Obama took place in Grand Rapids, Michigan four weeks before the November 4 election.
Even though President-elect Obama has a powerful American story, Thompson said he found him to be a humble person whose intelligence comes across quickly when you start engaging him in discussions.

"As a journalist of African descent I understand the implications of this election for Africa and the rest of the world because Mr. Obama is just one generation away from Kenya," Thompson said. "Mr. Obama had a compelling message and an unbelievable story that can only happen in America. That’s the fact.

Let’s face it. America is a land of immense opportunities and the rise of Mr. Obama to the pinnacle of power is testament to this fact." 
At 29, Mr. Thompson, is one of the youngest leading newspaper editors in America, and is also a correspondent for the North America bureau of the global news agency Inter Press Service based at the United Nations in New York.
 
In 2006, during its 70th anniversary, the Michigan Chronicle, did what some Michigan media analysts like WXYZ-ABC editorial director and host of the Sunday morning talk show Spotlight, Chuck Stokes, called a "journalistic coup."

 The newspaper tapped the 27-year-old Thompson, who had already made his mark as a sought-after analyst and a regular face on the top rated Sunday morning political shows in the state such as Flashpoint on WDIV-NBC, American Black Journal on WTVS-PBS and Spotlight on WXYZ-ABC and radio programs. 

Thompson, left the Michigan Citizen where he was city editor and lead political writer to join the Michigan Chronicle, becoming the youngest editor in the paper’s 72-year-old history.

The newspaper is credited for producing editors that have made significant impact on the national and global scene.  For example, Louis Emanuel Martin, served as the Michigan Chronicle’s first editor for 11 years and went on to become a senior adviser to three Democratic presidents.

 His views about African American politics were highly sought in all areas including the historic appointment of Thurgood Marshall as the first black justice of the U.S. Supreme Court to former president Lyndon Johnson’s commitment to civil rights. Martin who died in 1997 founded the Joint Center for Economic and Political Studies, a respected think tank in Washington DC. 

Another example is Ofield Dukes, often referred to as the dean of public relations in Washington DC. Mr. Dukes was an editorial editor at the Michigan Chronicle writing editorials and columns when former vice president Hubert Humphrey tapped him in 1964 to become deputy director of information for the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity chaired by president Lyndon B. Johnson.

"I’m aware of the history of the institution that am associated with and what it means to people," Mr. Thompson said. "That is why I take my role seriously with the support of our publisher Sam Logan," Thompson said.

"He gave me an opportunity and believed in me understanding that talent and capability are key ingredients for any successful institution." 
President-elect Obama’s victory believed to derive from a massive support of young people including voters and volunteers, has  ushered in an era of young people playing major roles in U.S. politics as never before.

For example, his chief speechwriter is 26-years-old Jon Favreau, who leads a team of two young speechwriters for the president Adam Frankel, 26, and Ben Rhodes, who at 30, calls himself the "elder statesman" of the team.

Erstwhile Gambian resident, Iowa-based C. Paschal Eze, said the rise of Thompson to the top of American journalism and his coverage of the 2008 U.S. presidential election is a victory for Africa and Gambia in particular. 

Eze, a notable AGOA specialist and certified training consultant, said being assigned to cover a presidential campaign in American politics and interviewing the would-be president several times as Thompson did is a big prize that most journalists in America seek. 

"I’m pleased Bankole played such a remarkable role especially because of the significance it has to the relationship between America and African countries like Kenya and particularly the Gambia, the country of his extraction," Eze said.

Former U.S. ambassador to Gambia George W.B. Haley who has been a longtime mentor and fatherhood figure to Mr. Thompson said the newspaper editor is a gifted writer and communicator. 
"Bankole is extremely brilliant and wise beyond his age," Haley said. "Very few people at his age are where he is today. I am always proud to call him my son." 
 
Haley, brother of Roots author Alex Haley, said he became involved in Mr. Thompson life after realizing how talented he was at a younger age and also discovered that he was being single handedly raised by his late grandmother Hannah Lucy Krubally. 

Eze, noted that President-elect Obama’s rise to the most powerful job in the world places resplendent focus on African countries like The Gambia, especially within the context of tourism and the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

"The challenge therefore is for African countries to reach out to notable professionals of African extraction like Bankole in their efforts to promote their tourism, trade and investment opportunities, and in building bridges of goodwill, understanding and partnership," Eze said.

Mr. Thompson’s work has earned him admiration and respect and he is often asked to keynote or moderate important events.  In August, he served as the moderator of the heated 13th Congressional District race in Michigan between incumbent Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick [head of the Congressional Black Caucus] and opponents State Senator Martha Scott and former State Representative Mary Waters at Perfecting Church. 

Mr. Thompson and WWJ-CBS (Newsradio 950AM) anchor Marie Osborne co-moderated Southeast Michigan’s Presidential Debate Watch Forum Panel on Oct 15 at the Music Hall in downtown Detroit.

In April of 2007, he conducted an hour long one-on-one public discussion with University of Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman about the future of affirmative action at the Charles Wright Museum of African American History.

His first book Ignoring The Underprivileged, a critique of the news media’s coverage on race and class in America released in 2006 was an instant success when it became required reading at Eastern Michigan University School of Journalism and Wayne State University Department of Africana Studies.

His second book A Matter of Black Transformation, which deals with blacks, China and globalization is also used in colleges. In writing the foreword to the book, University of Rhode Island's Bernard LaFayette who coordinated the 1968 Poor People's Campaign with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said Thompson "ponders the most important issues of our time and explores the theoretical as well as the practical application of concepts that can indeed lead to a matter of Black transformation."

In 2003, Thompson directed lecture series on Third World issues for the Washington-based foreign policy think tank, the Africa Faith and Justice Network at the Brookings Institute, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the National Press Club.

"Bankole Thompson is a real ambassador for the black Diaspora. Despite his successes he never forgets his roots. He always reaches out when he call upon him," said MacDonald franchise owner and Jamaican-born Errol Service, who heads the African Caribbean Chamber of Commerce in the Midwest.

In the wake of Mr. Obama’s victory, the chamber hosted a forum and reception at the Detroit Renaissance Club in downtown Detroit Nov 8 to reflect on the significance of Tuesday’s election and its meaning for all people.

The forum titled "A Conversation between Obama Surrogate John Conyers Jr. and Journalist Bankole Thompson," was a standing room only event where Thompson had an hour long conversation with Conyers about Mr. Obama riding to victory. Mr. Obama has said Conyers who is chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee and the second longest serving member of Congress, was one of the first major politicians to endorse him for president. 

"The forum with Congressman Conyers and Mr. Thompson was the most successful event we ever had for the chamber," Service said. "The Congressman was completely at ease with Mr. Thompson which is why it was not difficult to get him to take part at the event because we informed his staffers that the forum was going to be moderated by Mr. Thompson."

Thompson has testified before august bodies such as the Kerner Commission, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, whose current chairman former Senator Fred Harris and Eisenhower Foundation President Alan Curtis described him as a "courageous voice on behalf of the dispossessed and disenfranchised, a shining example of journalism for the public good."

His views on the election and other issues are sought by CNN Newsroom, Black Enterprise Magazine, The Tom Joyner Morning Show amongst others.