January 30th - Kwanzaa

The traditional greeting during Kwanzaa is "Habari Gani?" which is Swahili for "What's the news?"

The holiday for today is Kwanzaa, the celebration of African-American culture that usually takes place during the last week of December in conjunction with other religious holidays.  This is important to remember, as many view Kwanzaa as some kind of "Black Christmas" (no relation to the groovy 70's horror flick).  Instead, it is a celebration of African-American achievement, culture, and history.

Kwanzaa was created in the late 1960's by Professor Maulana Karenga.  A prominent figure during the Black Power movement, Karenga wanted to create a holiday that would give Blacks an alternative to going along with what he saw as the "dominant society." Primarily practiced in the United States, it has spread into Canada as well.

There are seven basic principles of Kwanzaa.  They are:

Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race. 
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves stand up. 
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together. 
Ujamaa (Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it. 
Imani (Faith): To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.


For information about this, please check out www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org.


To celebrate, I got candles that represented the Pan-African colors of Red, Green, and Yellow.  Because of the fascist building manager who rules my office with an iron fist of oppression, I was unable to light them.  However, I made do with what I could...

Yes, those are tiny paper flames

I also made use of a great cultural site that's located right here in High Point, NC.  Jazz is a uniquely American art form, and  is one that was developed and invented by the Black community.  One of it's legends, John Coltrane, was born right here in High Point.  So I went to pay him a visit.

And I listened to his music for much of the day...

And yes, I did wear what I thought could be identified as a traditional African shawl.  So what if it's a dress I bought at WalMart and then cut up...

As with all the holidays, I tried to celebrate today without one iota of disrespect.  I know that race is still an incredibly touchy issue in our country, and I have not had the experience of being on the oppressed end of the stick.  I've never know what it feels like to be discriminated against because of my ethnic background, so my perspective on today might not be as deep as someone else.

But when I looked around where I lived today, it was really easy to find things that would help me celebrate this holiday.  There's the Coltrane statue, but also the Cultural Center in Greensboro which showcases dance and art from around the world (in addition to the Civil Rights Museum discussed on MLK Jr. Day).  No, I might not understand what it is to be a Black person, but that's what this project has been all about.  It's been about learning a little bit more about a perspective different from my own and celebrating it.  And it's been about recognizing that there really is something around us worth celebrating each and every day.

Joyous Kwanzaa everyone!