1999 - 2000 Broadcast Season
Broadcast Program Transcripts
"Kwanzaa from the East"
Episode #1510

Holloway: It's Christmas eve, and we are taking a look at the seven principles of Kwanzaa. Stay tuned next for Black Issues Forum.

Voiceover: This program is made possible in part by contributions from UNC-TV viewers like you. [THEME MUSIC]

Female: At the core of the celebration of Kwanzaa, which is a seven-day holiday, are the seven principles, in Swahili called the "Nguzo Saba." They are, first in Swahili, and then in English, Umoja, unity, unity in the family, of the neighborhood and community, the nation and the world, the African community. And that means peaceful and principled togetherness. The second principle is Kujichagulia, self-determination, which is a principle of speaking for ourselves, building for ourselves, developing for ourselves, instead of having others to do that. The third principle is Ujima, collective work and responsibility, understanding that our future depends upon our collected effort, that freedom and dignity for black people is indivisible. Four, Ujamaa, cooperative economics, shares work and wealth. Nia is the fifth principle, and it's purpose is the collective vocation of making our people in our community strong and productive and able to exchange on the basis of equality and mutual benefit of other peoples in the world. Kuumba or creativity is a commitment to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than the way we inherited it. And finally the last principle is [Imani] faith, faith in ourselves, faith in our creator, faith in our mothers, our fathers, our sisters, our brothers, our grandmothers and grandfathers, our elders, our youth, out future, faith in all that makes us beautiful and strong, and faith in the righteousness and victory of our cause, faith that to do hard work, long struggle and a whole lot of love and understanding, we can again step back self-consciously on the stage of human history as a free, proud and productive people.

Holloway: Good evening and welcome to another edition of Black Issues Forum. I'm Jay Holloway, your host. Tonight we are in Tarboro, and just across the bridge is Princeville. Well, tonight we are taking a departure, a slight departure that is, from the issues to discuss the seven principles of Kwanzaa. We will be visiting with Theresa Williams, who has been featured on our program before, and her family. Let's now visit with them and take a look at the seven principles of Kwanzaa.

[MUSIC]

Well, we are here at the house where Theresa Williams has been spending almost the last three months since she was flooded out of Princeville. She lost her home, her job, and her church, and she is staying here now with her aunt, Patricia Dickens.

Dickens: Hi!

Holloway: Hi Patricia, I'm Jay Holloway. How are you doing?

Dickens: Okay, all right. Come on in.

Holloway: Thank you.

[MUSIC]

Hi, we are here with Theresa's family. Theresa, let me ask you to start off with, after this terrible disaster of the flood, who did you turn to?

Williams: I turned to, well, we came to my aunt's house after the flood. We came and stayed with her and her husband.

Holloway: And to your left is Patricia and Fred Dickens. We are talking about striving and maintaining unity. It has to be tremendous for you all to accept all these people into your house. Tell us how you did at first, what happened?

PDickens: Well, first of all, when I heard that the Floyd was coming I called some of my family members and told them that maybe they could come over here. And at first some said that they would be okay if they stayed home, but as the night went on and the water began to rise and everything, and we called them again, and so then the next thing I knew my mother and my sisters and my niece here, they came here around 3 o'clock in the morning and said the water had risen up to the porch of their house, and I just opened my door and told them to come on in, because I knew that they needed somewhere to go.

Holloway: Fred, I know you all have been striving to maintain unity here, but how do you do that with 30 and, I understand, up to 40 people at one time in your house?

FDickens: [CHUCKLING] There are a lot of people in the house, and we know it has been crowded and stressful, but we do have prayer and we believe in God. Each and every day we have prayed, life has these stressors, and we leave the home sometimes, ride around, just to get some comfort you know, in and out, come in and out, at different times during the day. Not that I stay here all the time, you know, because there is tension. But just going out and meeting up with people on the street, talking with them, they come back to my home and see how things are going on in here. And during the flood, also if there was anyone in here without, we would give them, if they were distributing food we would go out and get food and bring it in, go out and get water and bring it in everyday. So what I've done, everyday go out all during the day, bring in stuff, all during the day. So that gives me a chance not to stay in the house all the time, it gives me a chance to be in and out, because we know that, we are glad to be able to open up our doors to people to come in. Although the house was awful crowded, even though like, a lot of times I would come in, I work a part-time job on the weekends, then I would come in at about 11 at night, there were so many people in the house, lying on floors or everywhere, sometimes I could hardly get in because of people were laying, and I had to step over them [LAUGHTER], and they'd be on the floor when I came in and I'd say, "hey, let me get by!" and people are stepping over, even in the morning when I'd go out going to work, you could come in here, and this whole floor here, whole chairs full, whole floors full. Couldn't get in the carport-full! [LAUGHTER] Folks were sleeping in the carport out there, couldn't get out there!

Holloway: No where else to go!

FDickens: I was going out that door right there, going out to the front, and out there it is the same thing-chairs full, on the floor even, and I would have to say, "let me get by, let me get by," like that. People going in and out. But I know God will make a way for us. And I know it isn't going to be like that all the time. And I say again, I am glad that we were able to open the door for them.

Williams: I do thank God for my sister and her husband Fred, that they opened the door for me and my family, because the four of us came in, and I do thank God for that. You know, that they even had a house. And his patience, I am very, I tell you, when we are all, my brother-in-law, I think he is one of the favorites, because he is very patient, and he will come in and if you understand what he was saying right then, we didn't think he was going through all he was going through, because he would come in and he would never say anything. He would just come in, "how y'all doing? Everything all right? I'm going to get this, I'm going to get that," and whatever needed to be done he would just do it. And I know we had his house tore upside down, but he would just say, "that's all right, mmhmmm" - his favorite word was "mmhmmm!" [LAUGHTER] But I thank God for my brother-in-law Fred and my sister Patricia.

Holloway: Let's talk about the roles. I'm sitting here next to the matriarch of this family, the grandmother, and you probably have instilled this unity in your daughters and sons. But what would you say, when you think about all this unity you have seen in this family as a result of something so terrible, the principle in Kwanzaa is called Umoja, to strive to maintain unity in the family, and that is what we have seen here.

Grandmother: Well, all my children, I think I raised them well. I tried to teach them the right way, and give them love and heart and understanding. I've got 11 kids, six girls and five boys. And we've just always been a family that's pulled together. Prayed, you gotta learn how to pray now, because without prayers there wouldn't be nothing. And all of us pull together so if something goes wrong with one everybody has the same meaning to help out. And they were saying about my son-in-law and my daughter, yes sir, they had to be some good people to put up with what we have been through, I tell you. But now thanks to the Lord, I got my little bitty ________, and I love her to death. And I, you ought to see it, I got it decorated, I got it decorated for Christmas. And I just thank God, I tell you, to have a family like I've got. My other children who don't live here, they come in and they do their part too. So I've just got a beautiful, wonderful family.

[MUSIC]

Female: I was born and raised in Princeville on this side of the dyke. And I'm very happy and very comfortable here, and I'm just proud of the heritage that I came to be a part of. Not only that, I am a pioneer of Princeville, I have been here through many changes, I have been a part of those changes, and I have no intentions of living anyplace else. I don't know if this can happen again today, but I don't feel it will happen again in the near future. But I don't have any intentions of living anywhere else. I'm coming back home.

Holloway: We're here at the historic Princeville Town Hall. I thought this would be an appropriate place to discuss the second principle of Kwanzaa, Kujichagulia, self-determination. And we are with Theresa again. The principle of Kujichagulia, Theresa, talks about self-determination. Naming for yourself, speaking for yourself. You are part of a historic town that was founded after slavery by former slaves. What does it mean to you to be a part of such a historic town that has done so much for itself?

Williams: As far as being part of the historic town, that's, it makes you feel good because it was done by black people, something that you don't, that is rare to find, a town that has been founded by black people. So that makes me feel good to know that, that black people founded a town and it is still standing, even though the flood came, we are still able to rebuild.

Holloway: And you have made that decision today, going into a new century, what does it mean to you to make that decision again today as you move into a new century after this flood, to rebuild and do for yourself?

Williams: To do for myself, that going into a new century, it is going to be a great, I feel there is going to be a great move to start in the new century. Even though we have to go and just start over again, and rebuild and everything like that, but I think it is going to be better than it was before.

Holloway: This building symbolizes where a lot of your people in this town got together to make that decision to rebuild. What does that mean to you to be a part of a group like that today who made a decision to rebuild?

Williams: Oooh! That is like shouting hallelujah! [LAUGHING] You know, it makes you feel good that they didn't sell out, they stood for something that was built way back, you know it was started a long time before our time, and it was something that they wanted to do, and everybody just decided to go and help start rebuilding, so that makes you feel good, it makes you feel happy that you can stay at your home, that's the main thing. Staying at home.

Holloway: How do you relay this to your kids, about doing these things for yourself and deciding to rebuild and making these decisions?

Williams: That is, you sit down and you tell them that they, you know, it's taking time but you just have to have patience, and we are going back home but it is going to take a while before we get there. But we'll get there, we may have to move here and there, but we'll get back home. So they understand a little bit but not a lot. They still ask questions.

Holloway: Let me ask you one last question. I would imagine that so many people gave a lot of advice to residents of Princeville about whether to rebuild or not. But ultimately you had to make that decision yourself. Were you aware of a lot of advice, and how did that play into your final decision?

Williams: Well, my decision was already planned, because even if, I was hoping and praying that they would rebuild, and a lot of people said if they were, even though I was a renter, it would have affected me still, because they would have , if they would have sold out I wouldn't even have been able to come back. So people that were told to sell out, even though I was a renter I talked to them also, "hey, you've been here all your life, there is no reason to sell out. Keep you home, this is where you started at, and if you go somewhere else you are going to have to start over." And who is to say it wouldn't happen somewhere else?

[MUSIC]

Female: This is my apartment where me and my boys stay. I have two boys and this is where we stayed at before the flood.

Female: This is not city property, this is privately owned, and the owner is going to reconstruct this property. We are going to gut out all of the units and refurnish them with new materials, and we will start out as if this was a brand new property by accepting applications, and any of the residents that were formerly living here will have an opportunity to come back.

Female: My aunt took us in, and you know, we had to evacuate and go out to the Park Hill Mall, and we decided to go out to her home. And now it has been good, and it has been exciting, because we have been with a family, and everybody has gotten closer, since the flood it has brought us closer together. And the citizens, everybody that we knew before the flood and now after the flood, we are still communicating and telling how we feel, and trying to give somebody some encouraging words to help them along the way, you know, because everybody needs prayer and everybody needs a helping hand, and everybody needs, you know, just to let them know that, hey, God is still in charge. Don't feel bad, count it out of joy, be happy. We have lost everything we have but still we have our life, so that is the main key. We have our life and we are still living, so we have a lot to be thankful for.

[MUSIC]

Holloway: There is another principle in Kwanzaa called Ujamaa, cooperative economics, to build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit together from them. You've got your own business, and I understand that you are still doing well, and maybe it's something that others can grow together with you. Explain that.

Female: Okay. I'm in a company called Primary Financial Service, and it's a very good company because it shows people how they can get out of debt, and show people how they can get more life insurance for themselves because, through the tragedy that we had, having a big insurance policy would aid a family very well because a lot of times you don't have enough coverage on your family and if something happens you don't have the income to put back into the family, most of the money goes into the ground, and we try to show people that they can have, you know, replace their income if they would get out _________ plan. And it's a good business for anybody who would like to become a part of it, make income, and it's just out here to be a blessing to people, and it gives you recognition for your hard work. And by looking at the things that go around in your neighborhood, people have learned that having your own business you can become very successful. And you don't have to report to work with someone else telling you to come, you can be your own boss.

[MUSIC]

Holloway: We've seen through this family quite clear a sense of purpose, making their collective vocation a sense of rebuilding and focusing on what is important to them to restore their community and their family back to their great traditions. Let's talk to Ellen once again about how do you see this purpose in this family and in this community?

Ellen: I see it as we are working together and rebuilding the home, and Princeville, and just beginning to rebuild the family, pulling together, and help working. My purpose is to get my home back, to where I can be a help to my family and the neighborhood. Because we do a lot of work at the schools around in the area, and my purpose is making sure my home is rebuilt, and that we all have somewhere to stay. And keeping my kids in schools here.

[MUSIC]

Female: I'm not a decorator and I'm not one who likes to cook or anything like that. I don't know why I didn't inherit that, because my mom, I give a hats off to her, because she cooks, she cooks for everybody, I mean the whole big family, all the time. Ever since I have been little on up, and she still does it now. She decorates, she is the decorator if the family and the cook of the family. She can go and get the decorations, and you know, everything like that. And she decorated my grandma's house, like this time of the year, like she said. She'll be decorating the house, the outside, inside, and everything, and then be getting ready to cook a pig, you know! We'll be ready for the pig now! [LAUGHTER] We'll be getting ready to cook the pig and everything, trying to get some barbecue ready for the holiday. So, she is a very good person, decorating and cooking.

Holloway: Okay, well let's go to your mother, Betty Saunders, and ask her how she is able to do all that.

Saunders: When you've got a big family you've got to hang in there. I do all the preparing, like you said, I do all the preparing. And I guess I got that from my mama. I always stood, I've been cooking since I was 9 years old, and I always watched her, everything she did, and there was always a lot of us, so I always had to, when I cooked I always had to prepare for a lot of people.

[MUSIC]

Female: Even though we have been through this flood, but hey, it is not the end. Because as long as God still is among us we have strength, and unity. If families will stay together and just pray and just listen to one another. Because I mean, sometimes around here it is just like, "ahhhhhh!" I mean it is just like you want to pull your hair out. And there was a point where it got where you could see everything that was going on, but you've got to have somebody who will stand back and just pray. Just pray that that guy is still around, and then when you get a chance you can go in there and talk to him and say, "look, it is not going to always be like this," just kind of calm down and work together. We had our disappointments here. We had our arguments and, to the point where you just stop talking and just stand back and let it, blow off your steam. And then at the end of the day.

[TAPE EDIT]

[FAINT SOUNDS OF GROUP/FAMILY]

Female: So, there are a lot of us. It is an honor. We can start our own little ________.

FDickens: [PRAYING] God we thank you for being here one more time, oh God.

Several: Yes, God.

FDickens: God, oh God we thank you for all the people here, oh Lord.

Several: Yes.

FDickens: God, we thank you for allowing us to heal, oh, Lord.

Several: Yes, Lord.

FDickens: We ask you God for all those who want to heal, oh God.

Several: Yes, Lord.

Female: All day and through the night and.

FDickens: We ask you God to bring us closer together, oh Lord.

Several: Yes, Lord.

FDickens: And we ask you God in the name of Jesus bless us, oh Lord.

Several: Yes.

FDickens: We ask you God [INAUDIBLE].

Female: I teach my kids that, you know, they have to have patience, have faith, and believe in God, that things are going to work out. It may seem bad for the moment but you have to have faith and trust God that it will work out. And we have lost our home, we talk about it, we, and we have sessions, and my kids, I allow them time to ask me questions too, so that they can get the feel of what they want. And I let them know how to go about doing it. And I try to teach them the right way, not going out, taking it out on people because things are not going right, because that's not the way and that's not the answer. But teaching them to pray and ask God to help me, to get along and to get through whatever is going on.

Holloway: We've just seen how the seven principles of Kwanzaa can be practiced in one family here from Princeville, formerly known as Freedom Hill. Well, you know it is easy to get caught up in the gift giving and laughter of Christmas, and get caught up in those material things that can be destroyed. Kwanzaa is a way of life, celebrating our heritage and honoring our traditions. We'll be back in the new millennium with another season of Black Issues Forum, have a blessed evening, and Merry Christmas. Have a good night.

[FADE IN MUSIC]