Postcard from Kogelo

As Barack Obama becomes the first black U.S. President, his relatives adopt his win as their own. In western Kenya, watching the dream become reality

Thomas Mukoya / Reuters

Villagers line up to cast a mock ballot next to a poster of Barack Obama in Kogelo, the town in Kenya where Obama's ancestors are from

Blood flowed as election day dawned in Barack Obama's ancestral village in western Kenya. The presidential candidate's half brother, Malik, tied a bull to a tree, then hobbled it and asked me to hold the beast's head to the ground as he drew a machete across its jugular. "Hold this guy down now," said Malik, 50, eyeing the animal's horns as blood poured from its throat. "He could kill me." After five minutes, the blood flow began to slow, and the fight went out of the animal, which stopped kicking and lay still, breathing heavily. "O.K., it's over," said Malik. "Fine...

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