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Episode #2309
A Celebration of Kwanzaa
Brown: We are in the midst of the holiday season but not everyone celebrates Christmas. Today we will take a new look at a relatively young tradition that is inspiring young and old to personalize and take to heart the seven principles at the tradition’s core. We are talking about Kwanzaa and that’s next on Black Issues Forum.
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Brown:Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Black Issues Forum. I am Natalie Bullock Brown. In 1966 a California State University Black Studies professor named Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga created Kwanzaa as a way to reaffirm and restore African American roots and African culture. Kwanzaa was also created to serve as a communal celebration to reinforce the bonds between us as a people; bonds that Karenga envisioned would allow black people of all religious faiths to come together. Because Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday but a cultural one, black communities throughout the world have embraced the holiday as a time to celebrate with Dr. Karenga sees as our Africaness. African American communities in North Carolina are no different. In fact, there are quite a few annual Kwanzaa celebrations that take place all over the state and today we are going to talk to two people who work hard to keep the spirit of Kwanzaa alive in their communities. We’ll meet them in a moment. But first our producer, Deborah Holt, had the opportunity to attend a Kwanzaa celebration in Cary and also talked to Dr. Karenga. She brings us this report.
Holt: With the motion of dance and the rhythm of drums, with joyful gathering together, communities in North Carolina and all over the world lift up the nguzo saba in celebration of Kwanzaa. The nguzo saba is Swahili for seven guiding principles and they are the foundations for this African American and pan-African holiday founded in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga.
Karenga: Kwanza is lifted out of and become a duplication of First Fruitcelebrations in ancient Africa that go all the way back to ancient Egyptian harvest celebrations called ____. And they come up to modern day celebrations like __ Zulu land which is also a seven day holiday. So there is an authenticity I am looking for as an activist scholar because as Mary McLeod Bethune said, “Knowledge is a prime need of the hour but we want to know what you would do with your knowledge.” And we said in the ‘60s we must in fact use our knowledge to improve the human condition and enhance the human future beginning with our own people. We took from the First Fruit celebration and there are five fundamental aspects to them which have been incorporated in Kwanzaa. The first is the __ gathering of the people to reaffirm the bonds between them, to strengthen their unity. Second, is the special time for special reverence for the creator and the creation, time to show a deep, a profound concern for the health and wholeness of the world and to make a commitment to preserve and protect the environment that produced the harvest. The third aspect of these harvest celebrations was commemoration of the past, time to raise in praise the names of the ancestors to study our past in order to inform our present and future. Next was time for recommitment to our highest culture values, values that teach us to speak truth, to do justice, to honor our elders and our ancestors. And the final aspect of these harvest celebrations was just that, the celebration of the good. The good of life, the good of family and community and culture. The good of the earth, the good of the world, the good of rock and rivers, stone and stars. The good of being in love, of marriage, of family, of friendship, of brother and sister, all the good in and of the world.
Holt: In antiquity First Fruit ceremonies were held when the new season’s crops ripened at the end of spring and early summer. In the summer hemisphere this is around the end of December. That is why Kwanzaa is celebrated from December 26th through the first of January. The seven principles are: umoja, which means unity. kujichagulia, which means self-determination. ujima, which means collective work and responsibility. ujamaa means cooperative economics. Nia, means purpose. Kuumba is creativity and imani means faith. Most of the music and dancing are expressive interpretations of these principles plus they are also meaningful to the performers.
Hall: Every dance style that we share with them we teach them where it comes from, the people, if we can, the language, what the dance is about, what it means. And, of course, for Kwanzaa’s sake it is just a sharing.
Holt: And, of course, at any celebration there is going to be food. At the Kwanzaa celebration in Cary a Jamaican caterer served a menu suitable for a variety of dietary needs.
Clark: I think the food being that it is traditional food is African based. You know, it goes back to way before this time. It makes a difference to have this kind of food at this particular celebration.
Holt: At this event are also the symbols of Kwanzaa as displayed on this table. There is an mkeka or mat laying on the table symbolizing the foundation of the holiday. And mazao or crop which symbolized the roots of the holiday. The kinara or candleholder represents African American ancestors and holds the seven candles or mishumaa saba symbolizing the seven principles. There is also muhindi or corn which represents the number of children in the house. And the kikombe cha umoja or unity cup used to pour libations. Finally, there are sawed or gifts symbolizing the labor of love of parents and commitments made by the children. In addition to the artist performances there are workshops for children. You will also find an exhibitor area where small business owners offer goods for sale many of them items to reinforce the Kwanzaa principles.
For some this day long event will be a fun introduction to Kwanzaa but many of those attending are already knowledgeable and practice Kwanzaa fully on their own.
F: You were blessed with a power called ___
Holt: Azam, Nazaaka and Elohym form the futuristic poetry team.
J Leach: What we started out doing is a way of giving them positive messages and wisdom in case something happened to my wife or myself. A lot of what they talk about is directly in flow with the principles of Kwanzaa.
A Leach: Well, we believe that family should come together and love. And Kwanzaa especially is a time to show love and we feel that any religion, any celebration should be done out of love.
Stover: We light a candle and discuss each principle each day and probably share something creative. My son plays the drums, I play the drums. I do poetry, my daughter dances, we collage. So we all in some way celebrate because Kwanzaa is for us as it is for the rest of the larger community as a creative cultural celebration.
Brown: And now I would like to welcome to the show Lester Thomas, President of the Ujima Group and organizer of a Kwanzaa celebration in Cary. I would also like to welcome Zayd Malik Shakur, an artist who has hosted Kwanzaa celebrations numerous times in Durham and has performed with choreographer Chuck Davis’ African American Dance Ensemble during their seven day presentation and interpretation of Kwanzaa at the Hayti Heritage Center in Durham. Welcome both of you to Black Issues Forum.
Both:Glad to be here.
Brown: I would like to start out with Lester. I am going to ask you also Zayd. But tell me more or tell us more about the activities celebrating Kwanzaa in Cary.
Thomas: Well, the Kwanzaa celebration that we have in Cary originated in 1994 with the creation of the Ujima Group. And it is the 13th Annual Kwanzaa Celebration. And we have a great line up. We have the President of the NAACP who is Dr. Ron Barber. And the message that we are going to focus on this year is going to deal with the power of the spoken word. We have so many challenges today in regards to what we use to speak in the universe as it relates to us and who we are as African Americans. So we want to have a positive and uplifting message that will encourage our people to strive to even higher principles of the Kwanzaa.
Brown:So Dr. William Barber will be your keynote?
Thomas: He will be our keynote speaker, yes.
Brown: Okay. And, Zayd, what will you be doing in Durham?
Shakur: I am actually hosting and in Durham we have a six day celebration so we do from the 26th up until the 31st and __ Chuck does the January 1st celebration and this year we have the pleasure of it all being in one place in Hayti Heritage Center in Durham. It’s interesting because I come from being a child growing up in Durham going to Kwanzaa when they were at people’s homes. And so it is great to see the growth, it’s great to see the culture has lasted this long and has extended out beyond the homes. But it’s really where it is concentrated and it’s really where the focus mainly begins. It’s at the home with the family and then it goes out into the community.
Brown: Okay, and I just want to make sure that we are clear so that our viewers are clear, Baba Chuck is Chuck Davis, yes?
Shajur: Yes, Baba Chuck Davis. Baba is a term of endearment.
Brown: Okay. Tell us a little more about the six day, what happens during the six days and why six days.
Shakur: Well, we all—which we all know—we know that the seven days represent the seven principles and so it is a seven day celebration. Each day what I will do—especially on the first day, the first day is when we have the large traditional ceremony so we will have the pouring of libation, we will have the calling of the ancestors. It’s a larger processional. It’s also where I explain all the symbols, all of the principles. And then we have performances by different people in the community representing different kinds of art. There is spoken word poetry, African dance and drum. Live percussion. It just encompasses a large group or a large body of work, artistically. And each day there is a performance, each day, I also speak on that principle for that day. A greeting that we use is habari gani which means what’s the news?
Brown: And what language is that in?
Shakur: Swahili which is a pan-African language used by most people in the context of Africa. And the cool thing about it is habari gani is what is the word and each day or what’s the news and each day you answer so if it is the first day you would answer with umoja, which would be unity. The second day would be kujichagulia, self-determination and so on. And so it is a way for us to have our own kind of greeting. Hey, habari gani? Umoja. And then you go into __. And so it is a really nice comfortable communal affair.
Brown: Zayd mentioned, Lester, that the Kwanzaa celebration really starts in the home. How do you celebrate Kwanzaa in your home?
Thomas: Well, personally, myself, the way I celebrate it, we have a kinara that we set up.
Brown: What, exactly, is that?
Thomas: The kinara is a symbol in which holds the candles which represent the seven principles. And you light a candle each day and it brings light to the principles of the Kwanzaa. And we have seven candles and the seven candles, the green represents the actual land. The black represents the people and the red represents the blood. So it sir something that we do in our house to make sure that we are able to live the principles and make them a part of our life. And the extension of the celebration at my house would be the Kwanzaa celebration that we have in Cary where we involve a cross-section of different people from the community and we make it a communal affair by involving not only the ancestors but the children. We have a children village and we have activities for all ages, young, old and for the entire community.
Brown: My mind is reeling with questions but I want to follow up on something that you said. You said that the candles are three different colors: black for the people, green for the land, red for the blood. Now, I believe in our package that we used to introduce our whole discussion, we talk about black being for the people, but green being for hope and red being for the struggle. So why is there and I will direct this at you, Zayd, why is there the distinction?
Shakur: Well, I would say it is more of a—one is to make it more palatable. So to say red is for the blood being spilled may be a little graphic and if you wanted to sell it for children or you wanted to sell it to a community outside of the African American community then you may not want to bring such controversial issues like the bleeding of people for the pain we suffered or black being just for us or green being the land we were stolen from. It has a dramatic undertone. But it may not be as palatable for everyone. But there are two ways to look at it because there is also truthful. And the bendera or the flag which represents those three colors are initially for red being the blood that was spilled, green being the land that we were taken from and black representing the people. But the key thing to say or to note is that this in no means takes away from its communal connection to all people and so it is not an exclusionary holiday. It’s an inclusive holiday where we bring—we want people to come from outside of the African American community to witness and to accept and celebrate with us our culture and our connection to our Africaness. But also the best way to combat ignorance is through education and so if you have these preconceived notions about blacks or about culture or about Africanism, if you come and you celebrate with us and you see with us and you observe with us then you become enlightened and so you can’t be ignorant anymore.
Brown: I want to talk about the seven principles but I just have to ask this in the context of what we just discussed. And as we stated earlier in our intro there—Kwanzaa is a cultural tradition and not a religious one. But why is there often the misperception that it is a religious celebration? Where, Lester, do you think that might come from and how do you combat that so that people of all faiths will feel comfortable celebrating it?
Thomas: Well, I think in the beginning it is a lot of misconception, miseducation. And it is important to understand, one, that Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday, that is a cultural art celebration. And that it doesn’t take the place of Christmas and it is not a political organization. And there is tons of information out there and it is important that we do educate ourselves. But it is a time when African American people and all people can come together and celebrate the richness of African American culture and the contributions of African Americans to our society, to our community and to our state and world in general. So it is important that we try to educate ourselves and to participate in the actual celebrations of the Kwanzaa throughout the Triangle.
Shakur: To piggyback—I think really unfortunately when we are talking about ignorance in a sense, that those people who don’t understand what it represents then it is easy to say, well, you do celebrations and you have gifts so obviously it must be like a—for those people who don’t celebrate Christmas who aren’t Christian I guess this is you alls Christmas. Not necessarily so. And actually not so at all. It comes on the 26th, the day after Christmas. It doesn’t deal with any specific religion at all. It was really derivative of the First Fruits Harvest which in Africa they don’t call it Kwanzaa. It’s just Celebrations for Harvest. Dr. Karenga saw that in 1966 that there was a need for black people in America to find some way to cultivate a sense of self-pride.
Brown: And why was that? I mean, 1966, we know there was a lot of political unrest going on in the country.
Shakur: Well, it was kind of—the ‘60s, I am acting like I was there. [LAUGHS] The ‘60s actually seems to represent a time where African Americans had gotten past the mental and physical oppression of themselves and had decided to say, “You know, we need to take ownership of us and stop asking people outside of our community to save us or help us. This is something we must do for ourselves.” And not just like we tend to look at it and go, “Oh, the Black Panthers,” and then demonize the Black Panthers. The Black Panthers at their core were about protecting themselves. And so if you had a time, especially in California, with the police brutality, that has lasted to this day. You could see why they would want to carry arms or watch the police or police the police because that was their major enemy.
Brown: But they also—you know, Black Panthers, a lot of the organizations that were at the heart of the Black Power movement—and Lester, I would like to hear your comments on this as well, they were about community. I mean, the Panthers were doing the breakfast program and they had in some areas ambulance programs, free ambulance programs. So they were—I mean, they were really carrying forth the principles of Kwanzaa. Would you agree?
Thomas: Absolutely. I __ understand the context of that time. We had the Civil Rights era, we had the Viet Nam War, we had Woodstock. So it was a pivotal time in the United States history in terms of change and proactivism. Being able to make a difference, being able to make a change and during that time African Americans needed something to grab hold to. And Kwanzaa was primarily developed to develop a way of self-pride, of developing self-esteem, of feeling good about who you are, who you were at the time of the afro, the dashiki, time of black power, to really embrace who you were about. So it was just a natural transgression in order to move forward to find out who we are and to feel good about who we are.
Brown: Well, Zayd, again, I want to get to the seven principles because I think they are so important to what the whole celebration is about. I mean, they are at the core. But I can’t let go of this issue of how Kwanzaa developed in the culture without mentioning or asking that there are Christians that for good reason probably are afraid or are concerned that they cannot celebrate Kwanzaa because of the symbols from Africa that are involved. How would you talk to them about that? How would you respond to that concern?
Shakur: I would say we are not Irish but we celebrate St. Patty’s Day. None of us are pagans but we still observe Halloween in a sense. So there are certain celebrations and holidays that we observe even though we are not directly connected or even agree with. You know, there are people who go to church during Halloween. Not to celebrate Halloween but to celebrate or observe passing candy to the children without acknowledging the other end of Halloween. So what I would say to them is there is a lot of things you can observe and celebrate without it harming or contradicting your personal beliefs. And the fact that it is not a religious holiday especially for me because I am of a specific religion that doesn’t really like to connect other religious things to it. You know, as a Muslim you don’t want to have a lot of other religious impacts so to speak. So even for me, I don’t focus on idolatry or anything like that. And Kwanzaa doesn’t either. So it is not like you are going to get sculptures and Gods that we have to praise to—it’s none of that. It’s all strictly cultural. It’s all strictly about First Fruits Harvest which is why you have the mihindi for the corn which represents children. It also represents not just the children of your family but your extended family. So if you don’t have any children but your next door neighbor does, then you put out corn for their children which connects the community. The mazao being the crop. Well, we have tons of sharecroppers. We have—framing is in our culture. It’s a part of who we are as a people. It’s why we were brought here. You know, in a sense. So all these principles connect back to a general way to be. It’s almost like the ten commandments in a sense. It’s like these are general things. These aren’t religious things. These are principles that you can adhere to to become a better human being, not to be a better practitioner of a specific religion.
Brown: And I appreciate that because that is a great segue right into the principles. Lester, please, how do we not only put them into our celebration, how are they reflected in the celebrations of Kwanzaa but also in our personal lives.
Thomas: Well, the beauty of the principles is that anyone can embrace them. How can you be against unity? Unity in the family, unity in the community? And when we talk about cooperative economics, working together, being able to uplift your community, being able to have stores, when we talk about Kuumba.
Brown: Is that Ojama?
Thomas: Yeah, ujima. And we talk about working together and we talk about nia, purpose, having a purpose in your life, having a purpose in your community, having a purpose in your home. And being able to know what you are trying to do. And faith. Being able to believe in what you do, to believe in your ancestors, to believe in your family, to believe in your leaders. So it is important that we take the principles and internalize them and while we internalize them we let them be a part of our lives and the way we interact with each other and how we interact with our community and bring in good into the world.
Shakur: Which is ironic too because when we ask about religion in connection with Kwanzaa, well, imani being faith, all religion is faith. So there is a direct connection with the core beliefs and not anything specific in religion. When we talk about kujichagulia and self-determination where self-determination is how we as a people have stayed here—
Brown: Can you say that word one more time?
Shakur: Kujichagulia.
Brown: Thank you.
Shakur: That is a story of black people if you really want to look at it going all the way back to Africa. And actually it is the story of all people. America wouldn’t be America without self-determined people. People who said, “You know, I want to build such and such and so and so. I want to offer such and such and so and so. I want so I think I need to do.” And then to have collective work and responsibility which is ujamaa. To have ujima which is cooperative economics. Well, you can’t work together and make money for each other if you can’t work together. So those two principles are innately intertwined even into corporate America. So in a sense corporate America celebrates Kwanzaa if you look at it. Or they have taken from those principles. We have nia which is purpose where if you don’t have a purpose, you have no cause. If you have no cause, you have no reason. And so we look at it today, we have a lot of young people who are searching for a purpose. They are searching for a reason. They are searching for a reason to be. A reason to be proud. And when we have lost our way, we have lost—we have given ourselves to the media. We have given ourselves, we sold a lot of our decency. We sold a lot of what made us great. We sold a lot of what our ancestors died for. And so right now we are in a situation where Kwanzaa could be looked at as—let’s just say that Kwanzaa in 2007 is just as important as it was in 1966 when he began to create it.
Brown: Let me go to Lester. Do you agree with that?
Thomas: I agree and it gives you a chance to reassess yourself. Where am I at? Am I actually living by these principles? Am I really believing in what I do? And what I am? And what I am about? So it gives you time to take stock of where you are at. And sometimes we need that. We need to rejuvenate where we are and to say, “Hey, I’m really not practicing the principle of self-determination. I’m really not practicing the principle of purpose. I’m really not practicing the principle of unity. I’m really not practicing the principle of faith.” So this gives us a chance to just really think about those principles to sort of see how we can incorporate them in our lives.
Brown: It gives us a benchmark.
Shakur: Along with Kuumba.
Brown: I’m sorry. I’m sorry. We got to close. But I just want to thank you so much because you have really brought some wonderful light to a tradition that we are all familiar with but in a lot of ways we didn’t know that much about so thank you very much.
Shakur: Thank you.
Thomas: Thank you for having us.
Brown: We appreciate it. If you would like to get in touch with our guests or obtain a copy or a transcript of tonight’s show visit us online at unctv.org/bif. And when you visit be sure to give us your comments and program suggestions. You can also call us on the BIFline at 919-549-7167. For Black Issues Forum I am Natalie Bullock Brown reminding you to be encouraged no matter what. Have a good one.
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