In the wake of the rising African Centered Movement in America, it is important that every segment of the African Community in America begin preparing for the Kwanzaa Season. It is estimated that more than 30 million Africans in America participate in some sort of Kwanzaa activity or event.

In order for this occurrence to continue, parents, teachers, principles, ministers, business people, and community activists must begin preparation immediately.

The first question, that obviously should be asked in preparation for the 2010 Kwanzaa Season is: “What is Kwanzaa and why is it so important for African people in America to celebrate?”

In 1966, the Black Power explosion shook up America. The call for Black Power was a major shift away from the Civil Rights Movement, during that era. A movement that had successfully dismantled the system of racial segregation (by law) in the southern region of the United States.

However, among the masses of Black people in America, there was a deeper meaning to the idea of freedom, justice and equality that had not been advocated by the Civil Rights Movement. The call for Black Power by Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Kwame Ture (a.k.a. Stokely Carmichael), and others, gave a new impetus for the Black Liberation Movement in America.

When the smoke cleared from the Watts Rebellion in 1965, an organization emerged in the Los Angeles, California area, called US. Its leader was Dr. Maulana Karenga. After intense study of African cultural traditions, Dr. Karenga and the US Organization established the only nationally celebrated, indigenous, non-heroic Black Holiday in the United States and they called it Kwanzaa.

The concept of Kwanzaa was established for Africans in America and was derived from the African custom of celebrating the harvest season.

In Dr. Karenga’s own words he says, “The origin of Kwanzaa on the African continent are in the agricultural celebrations called the ‘first fruits’ celebrations and to a lesser degree the full or general harvest celebration. It is from these first fruit celebrations that Kwanzaa gets its name which comes from the Swahili phrase Matunda Ya Kwanza.”

Further, “...Matunda means fruits and ya Kwanza means first. (The extra “a” at the end of Kwanzaa has become convention as a result of a particular history).”

Kwanzaa is officially celebrated December 26th to January 1st and each day, a value of the Nguzo Saba (seven principles of blackness) is celebrated. The Nguzo Saba (Seven Principles) are:

Under the leadership of Zerrie Campbell, President of Malcolm X College and Baba Hannibal Afrik, the Kwanzaa Celebration Committee, over the past several years, has sponsored Kwanzaa Celebrations and activities during the seven day observance. These celebrations have drawn thousands of people and added to the growing Kwanzaa movement in the Chicago area.

Kwanzaa is a step in helping African people in America fulfill the desire to be a united people, with a common set of experiences that lead us toward a common set of goals and objectives for freedom, independence and liberation.

KWANZAA: THE CHALLENGES OF A NEW SEASON

As we enter a New Kwanzaa Season, we must remind ourselves of the continued challenges that we face. The fundamental issue that Africans in America must face is centered around the continued assault by the systems of racism and white supremacy that keeps us in bondage, servitude, and often times, confusion. What is at stake is our survival as a race of people. We must come to grips with the following challenges as we enter a New Kwanzaa Season.

Family Development: There is no question that the African in American family is in major disarray and is in need of major repair. Without strong African in America families, raising and nurturing our children, the future will remain bleak. Families are the foundation for the survival and development of a people. African men and women need to close ranks and reestablish the tradition of strong Black families in America.

Economic Development: Many Africans in America women and men continue to remind us that we earn in excess of 600 billion dollars a year in this country. The tragedy of this economic potential in the African Community in America is that the overwhelming majority of this income we earn, we spend with other people and not with our own. Other people still continue to dominate and maximize profits from our communities for their own advancement. When are we going to stop this awful practice of allowing other people to benefit from the dollars we earn?

Political Development: We have often said that politics is the science of who gets what, when, where, and how. And in this regard, we should recognize that the white power structure and its Black allies are doing everything possible to rupture our continuing movement for Black political empowerment. In electoral politics the lessons are clear. Personality clashes and individual personal conflicts have no place in the world of politics! The only thing that matters is what is best for African people in America. If we don't remain unified politically, we will not benefit from our efforts to increase Black political power in Chicago or in any other cities in which we live.

Cultural Development: Why should other people profit from our artistic and creative endeavors? It is clear that we are a creative people with a unique culture of our own. However, in this area the writers, poets, musicians, dancers, singers, actors, etc. must strive to control what we create and the entire African Community should aggressively support their efforts.

International Affairs: We must work harder to support the struggle of our brothers and sisters in Africa, the Caribbean, and South America in their continued liberation struggle for land and independence.

Historical Discontinuity: It appears the more we are oppressed under the system of racism and white supremacy, the more we forget our history. One generation from the next has difficulty remembering our great struggles, battles, and movements.

Harold Cruse points out in his book, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, “The farther the Negro [Black person] gets from his [her] historical antecedents in time, the more tenuous become his conceptual ties, the emptier his [her] social conceptions, the more superficial his visions.”

It must be clear, at this point in history that African people need to determine for ourselves solutions to the many serious problems we face. We should realize going into this New Kwanzaa Season that no one will do for us what we really need to do for ourselves.

It is time we begin providing for ourselves in all areas of life. No longer should we listen and adhere to how other people define us and our struggle. Accomplishing the objective of elevating our struggle to a higher level will require that we become more skilled in organizing our communities toward our liberation and freedom.

As an old African proverb points out, “Those who are dead have not gone forever. They are in the woman’s womb. They are in the child who whimpers.”

 

KWANZAA: AN OPPORTUNITY TO REBUILD BLACK FAMILY LIFE

Since the early 1900’s, Black and white scholars have written much on the Black family. When one examines the card catalogue of any library in America they will find volumes of books, articles and newspaper clippings discussing some aspect of Black family life.

Kwanzaa is a season when the importance of family life is elevated and the spirit of the season is felt by many. Kwanzaa is a firm step in helping African people in America to fulfill a desire and need to be a united people, with a common set of experiences that lead us toward a common set of goals and objectives for freedom, independence and liberation.

During this Kwanzaa Season what we need in the African in American community is a framework to examine and solve the problems of Black family life on our own terms.

The capturing of African people, who were placed in chattel slavery in North America, has left some devastating scars on the most basic unit or any group - the family.

There is no question that the family has been that unit that provides the basic foundation for any group of people to survive and develop.

Families constitute grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and in-laws. Sometimes families extend beyond blood relatives to those persons we bring into our families for whatever reason.

Families function in the context of their racial and ethnic identity. This identity is shaped by the historical and external forces of a given society.

Although the problems of the Black family appear to be very complex on the one hand, on the other, the problem is very simple.

First of all, African people who were captured and introduced into the western hemisphere as property and commodities were removed from their land and institutional arrangements of African life.

Second, this process of white takeover of Black life, through the most brutal form of oppression - the slave trade and the eventual enslavement of African people on the plantations of North America, has been a back breaking experience for our people.

Even through our survival techniques have been superior, in the face of brutal psychological and physical violence against us, we are now at the crossroads.

We face the challenge of preserving some of the traditions of the Black family, developed by our ancestors, who fought so hard against racism and white supremacy in this country.

This must be done, in part, through the rising and growing African Centered Education Movement. As our renowned ancestor and deep thinker Dr. Jacob H. Carruthers explained, African Centered Education should focus on the following:

We must not abandon family life. It is the basis for our survival and development. It is the strategy of our white oppressors to place so much pressure on us that we give up our fight for independence and freedom.

When the family unit begins to wither away, we must rise to the occasion and fight to keep its basic elements alive in our communities.

It is the duty of all Black people to understand that we are faced with a genocidal set of circumstances in America. Look around our communities and what do we/you see?

We witness the absence of that fighting family spirit among us that has been so much a part of Black family life.

The family is the support mechanism for all that we do and it is a sacred institution that we must preserve and protect on our own terms. Let us use this Kwanzaa season to fortify, protect and preserve this sacred institution of Black Family Life.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Conrad W. Worrill, PhD, is the National Chairman Emeritas of the National Black United Front (NBUF). Click here to contact Dr. Worrill.