DURHAM, N.C. - "Obama!" yells one man.

"Obama!" chimes in another

"Obama, Obama!!!" echoes a sympathetic third.

They are referring to me. As a 32-year-old white guy, this is a novelty. I am rarely mistaken for the president at home.

I learn quickly enough that I have not been mistaken for our new president, but that "Obama" has become the catcall of choice for Ugandan vendors attempting to flag down Americans.

This is a distinct improvement over the old catcall of choice: "mzungu." While being called "mzungu" -- which translates roughly as "white man" -- is technically more accurate than being called "Obama," it is distinctly less pleasant, at least if one is a Democrat.

Obama has replaced more than just epithets in Kampala. Teens who once wore shirts bearing the graven image of Tupac Shakur now sport Obamawear. Little shack restaurants now bear his name and visage. One restaurant has chosen the name "Obama Take Away." The eatery's marquee shows the president looking confidently into the future, a future that I presume from the sign includes a plate of matoke, Uganda's ubiquitous mashed plantains, and beans.

I am an Obama supporter. I voted for him, in part because I believed that his election would change how the world sees America. But as a Duke University grad student who is working for the Duke Microfinance Leadership Initiative in Nkokonjeru, Uganda, now I am face-to-face with the reality of that change. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but to Africans, at least, we are Obama and Obama is us.

On the face of it, this is a good thing. It is proof to the world that in the U.S. everyone not only has a place at the table, but has a shot at sitting at the head. It is proof that American exceptionalism means more than exceptionally powerful or exceptionally rich. Long oppressed and despised minorities do not get voted into power in other countries -- either they seize power, as did the Sunnis in Iraq, or they remain forever oppressed. We have proved we are different, exceptional.

Yet I worry about the Obamamania in Africa; I fear that he is being set up to fail.

The American relationship with Africa is not in a particular state of disrepair. In Christian Africa, the Bush years were not the diplomatic catastrophe they were in the rest of the world. While Africans are generally ecstatic over the election of Obama, many have kind words for Bush as well. Bush's PEPFAR initiative has provided massive assistance to African nations in their efforts to halt the spread of HIV and provide drugs to those afflicted. The program is not perfect and some of the prohibitions on family planning are strictly political, but thousands of Africans received anti-retroviral medicines thanks to George W. Bush and are alive as a result. Following this successful Africa policy leaves Obama with a higher burden for success

I also worry that Africans might expect too much.

On a recent bus trip, Ken, a chatty Ugandan fellow, denounced Obama.

"I don't like Obama," said Ken. "He's selfish."

This is why I worry. Obama can do a lot for Africa. He can support democracy, increase aid, facilitate trade and treat Africans with respect. What he cannot do, however, is make Africa as rich as America. And I worry that that is what people like Ken are hoping for, that Obama will lead a transfer of wealth from his country to the continent of his ancestors.

Fortunately, I don't think we actually have to make Africa as rich as the U.S. to win over guys like Ken because most Africans have no idea how rich America is. They know we are rich, but the level of difference is unimaginable.

If we help them to get a little richer, if we can increase access to medicine, clean water and decent governments, if we take their concerns seriously, that will be enough. It will be more than anyone has done since Europe eviscerated the continent.

But risks remain. If Obama does not give Africa some speck of his attention, if he does not improve on the humane HIV policies of the Bush Administration, then Ken will be right. Obama will have been selfish, and because to the people here Obama is us, we will have been selfish, too.