What does dress have to do with anything?  George Bush wore a Liberian African dress on his recent visit to Africa, and Bill Clinton on his first trip to Africa wore a Ghanaian dress.  What is the fussed about Obama's dress?  It is a traditional ethnic dress.







-----Original Message-----
From: pasamba jow <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 6:51 pm
Subject: The meaning of Obama's robes



          The meaning of Obama's robes 
                 The photo has sparked a storm over who released the image
A photo of US presidential candidate Barack Obama wearing Somali clothing is 
ausing a storm after it got released to the Drudge Report website.   Yusuf 
araad Omar, head of the BBC's Somali Service, explains the meaning of the 
obes.   These are the normal clothes that nomadic people wear.   The head 
urban is especially used by elderly people as a suggestion of respect. It is 
omething that has no meaning whatsoever in Somalia culture.   If you see 
omeone dressed like that in Somalia, you think it is a nomadic person - that is 
ll.   There is no religious significance to it whatsoever. It is mainly the 
omadic people who use it. Some of them are religious, some are not.   It is 
imply a tradition of the place where they are from.   In this particular place, 
ajir in north-east Kenya, the community is majority ethnic Somali.   They have 
 council for Peace and Development, and when they get delegates they dress them 
s a nomadic person.   I have been trying to track down
the old man in the photo with Mr Obama, and I have been told he is Mohammed 
assan, the chair of the council itself. But he is not in town today, and we 
ould not get hold of him.   This debate reminds me of people back home in 
omalia, who say that women should not wear trousers, or other cultures who say 
en should not wear a tie. I just don't think it makes sense. 


True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of 
ustice." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
      
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