KOGELO, Kenya — Barack Obama's Kenyan family erupted in cheers Wednesday, singing "we are going to the White House!" as Obama became the first African-American elected president.

In the western village of Kogelo, where the Democratic candidate's late father was born, police had tightened security to prevent hordes of media and onlookers from entering the rural homestead of Obama's step-grandmother, Sarah.

But the elderly woman and several other relatives came outside Wednesday to cheer for Obama in a country where the Democrat is seen as a "son of the soil."

Across Africa — where Obama is wildly popular — people stayed up all night or woke before dawn Wednesday to watch the U.S. election results roll in. In the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, people chanted "Obama! Obama!" as the results were announced on television.

"He's in!" said Rachel Ndimu, 23, a business student who joined hundreds of others at the residence of the U.S. ambassador for an election party that began at 5 a.m. "I think this is awesome, and the whole world is backing him."

Many hope an Obama presidency will help this vast continent, the poorest in the world. Some are looking for more U.S. aid to Africa, others simply bask in the glory of a successful black politician with African roots.

Obama was born in Hawaii, where he spent most of his childhood reared by his mother, a white American from Kansas. He barely knew his late father. But that has not stopped "Obamamania" from sweeping the continent and particularly Kenya, where his picture adorns billboards and minibuses.

In the western village of Kogelo, where the Democratic candidate's late father was born, police tightened security Tuesday to prevent hordes of media and others from entering the rural homestead of Obama's step-grandmother, Sarah.

Earlier in the day, Sarah Obama attended an open-air religious service where local bishop Ogonyo Ngende offered prayers for the candidate's maternal grandmother, 86-year-old Madelyn Payne Dunham, who died late Sunday in Hawaii.

In Uganda, hundreds of university students booked a hall on campus in the capital, Kampala, to watch the results.