Barack Obama’s Kenyan family erupted in cheers today, singing “We are going to the White House!” as their relative became the first African-American to be elected US president.

Africans stayed up at all-night parties or woke before dawn today, gathering around televisions and radios as Barack Obama seized command of the race for the White House in his bid to become the first black US president.

Barack Obama’s nomination as the Democratic Party’s candidate for the US presidency has sparked off a wave of Obamamania in Africa, the continent where his father was born and where many of his relatives live.