Title
The Rhetoric of Power: Obamanics
Description
Rhetoric (Greek word for speaker) was conceived in ancient times (around 500BC) to inform, persuade, entertain and motivate audiences. Like all art, rhetoric was, in those ancient times, mainly performed by those with a gift for public speaking who used the art to persuade and sway audiences to the side of rulers. Indeed, rhetoric and its audience-effect on world or African politics and public speaking tended to be unobtrusive because it didn‘t seem to matter much to many a people how public or political speeches were delivered. What appeared germane to them was whether a speech was either delivered or not. But all that changed when the audacious Barack Hussein Obama II (son of a recent immigrant from Kenya to the United States of America) emerged as a presidential hopeful for the Democratic Party in the build-up to the 2008 presidential election in the United States of America. Barack Obama told his story with exceptional skill, weaving it around the achievements of such emblematic Black personalities as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X (in Americas recent history) and the venerated Nelson Mandela of South Africa. His ability to dig deep into his rhetorical reserve to sway even the most apathetic of American voters to his advantage clearly underpinned his extraordinary personality which was as captivating as it was magical. That was the Obama-effect!
Subject
The Rhetoric of Power: Obamanics
Creator
Juliet Nkane Ekpang
Publisher
Published by: University of Calabar Press Calabar – Nigeria. Email: mathiassunday440@gmail.com Website: unicalpress.edu.ng Telephone: +234 8061587467 +234 8062556950
Date
2025
Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or otherwise without written permission from the copyright owner. The use of short quotations or occasional copying for personal or group study and not commercial purposes is, however, exempted
Leave a remark about this book.