Brown’s Town celebrates history-making Kamala Harris

The rise of Kamala Harris to vice-president-in-waiting of the United States has been welcomed with jubilation in Brown’s Town, St Ann, the birthplace of her father, Professor Donald Harris, and where several of her relatives still reside.

Harris is the first woman to be elected vice-president and will assume office on January 20, 2021.

“It’s a joyous moment in the family through her success and we are happy for her,” her cousin, Sherman Harris, told The Gleaner Saturday night.

“We’re having a little thing. It’s not really a public affair, but a lot of people are joyful and the community is excited about it,” he added.

Harris, Joe Biden’s running mate on the Democratic ticket for the November 3 election, was also born to Shyamala Gopalan Harris, an Indian national.

But while Harris praised her late mother and embraced her Indian ancestry in her victory speech in Wilmington, Delaware, Saturday night, there was silence about her father and her roots in Jamaica – evidence of the fractured relationship she has had with the professor, who is still alive.

BAD BLOOD

That bad blood resurfaced when she joked in an interview about the smoking of ganja as second nature to Jamaicans – a reference that irritated her father, who publicly reprimanded her.

However, that rift is not top of mind for Sherman Harris, who last saw Kamala years ago when they were much younger. He describes her as a go-getter.

“I knew from the beginning that she would have won because anything she is involved in becomes a total success; she’s not an easy girl,” he told The Gleaner.

Kamala, a graduate of Howard University and the University of California, was elected attorney general of California in 2010 and re-elected in 2014.

In 2016, she was elected to the US Senate, becoming the second woman of African American descent and first South Asian American to serve in the Upper House.

“We are accustomed to success and I think we are all elated about her success; we are very happy for her, very happy,” Sherman said.

“And all the family, the rest of family that lives in Miami, they are joyful, too. Everybody is elated and happy,” Sherman said.

He hailed Kamala’s father as one of the best professors that ever passed through Stanford University, citing that he also served as adviser to former prime minister of Jamaica, Michael Manley.