Kwanzaa is an annual celebration of African-American culture. It is a non -religious celebration and is held December 26 to January 1. It was created by Dr. Maulana Karenga based on African harvest festival traditions from various parts of Africa. It is a meaningful holiday that gives African Americans an opportunity to pay tribute to our rich cultural heritage. It was first celebrated in 1966, yet many people are not aware of this celebration honoring our ancestors.
I became aware of Kwanzaa as a young adult. My maternal grand-parents parents were brought from Africa and forced to become enslaved people. My grandparents didn’t start off in poverty. They were not sharecroppers. My older brothers told me the story of their farm life. They lived in the South and rented their land from a local businessman. Even though both grandparents were hard workers with a “can do” attitude, their education was limited. None of their children finished school because they had to help with the farm work. In 1954, John Deere tractors were introduced to the farmers. In order to continue renting, the landowner insisted they had to mechanize. This was a way to produce more crops. This was a new innovation that my grandparents were not familiar with. They wanted to stay with the familiar way of farming. They were not able to read well and their children did not read well enough to understand the legal documents. They lost their farm and had to start over by sharecropping. They maintained their morality and humanity.
My children were original members of an African dance troupe and they participated for many years. It was important for them to learn and understand their heritage. I bought and read a book by Dorothy Winbush Riley entitled, The Compete Kwanzaa, Celebrating Our Cultural Harvest. I found her fascinating book included guidance that can be used year round. They learned their cultural and historical past and began to focus on creating their future.
Riley, wrote “During the stone ages, Africans survived by hunting wild animals and gathering berries, roots and seeds. Over time, they learned to cultivate crops and tame animals. Need, promise, fulfillment and harvest were key milestones in the eternal cycle of winter, spring, summer and fall. Our ancestors believed that each season was delicate, crucial, and sacred, so they created specific rites to ensure the completion of the universe.”
Riley offered inspiration and guidance throughout her book. She wrote “We must awake and reclaim the ancestors who gave us the shape of our heads, the slant of our eyes, the roundness of our buttocks, the rhythm of our feet, the fullness of our lips, the color of our eyes, and the earth tones of our skin. If we look into the brown eyes of our children, we will see our ancestors peering back at us. Our ancestors speak with our voice, walk with our stride, smile through our mouths, and hear with our ears. We must reclaim those who struggled for life and our right to look in a mirror to see our grandchildren’s ancestors.” These powerful words and other powerful words resonated throughout her book.
My maternal grandparents passed away when I was a young child. We called them Momma and Poppa. All their grandchildren spent some summers with them. Poppa passed away when I was around five. We continued to spend summers with Momma. Most of the time Momma wore a headscarf tied in an African front knot, an apron and an even bigger smile. My mother and her sisters wore headscarves like Momma. Momma passed away about two years after Poppa but I remember her teaching her other grandchildren and me about the ground. As a child, I preferred to be bare feet. I loved how my feet felt free and close to nature. Sometimes, I didn’t have a choice because I didn’t have proper shoes. It was easier to keep them off and run freely. Momma said being close to the ground is humbling. She told us not to be afraid of getting our hands dirty.
We didn’t have toys so Momma amused us with colorful stories. Our eyes grew wide and her smile grew bigger. One day, she told us to keep our ears close to the ground.She said her mother told her children to keep their ears to the ground. Sometimes people try to sneak up on you. She told us that slaves kept their ears to the ground. She said if you kept your ear to the ground, you can hear the horses from far away. When their hoofs touched the ground, the ground shook. You can hear something before you see it. As a child, they heard footsteps and hoof steps from a long way off and knew someone was coming. This gave them time to plan what they needed to do before they got close. Momma and Poppa taught their 10 children that they have the ability to overcome any obstacles. These teachings were passed down to us.
Ms. Riley’s insightful book teaches us how to have thoughts of success, improved self-esteem and achievements. She wrote “The first ingredient of success is a positive sense of who and what you are. Success demands that you set and reach goals through a focused vision that includes educational preparation, decision making, and commitments early in life-values celebrated by Kwanzaa.
Kwanzaa is not an alternative to Christmas. Many Christians celebrate Christmas and Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is a celebration of the seven principles of African heritage.
The seven principles of Kwanzaa are:
Umoja (Unity) – This is the first principle. It means to strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) –Knowing who we are. To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves.
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) – To build and maintain our community together, to solve problems together.
Ujamaa (Cooperative economics) – To build and maintain businesses using our collective economic strength and profit from them together.
Nia (Purpose) – We must take pride in ourselves and our ancestry. To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (Creativity) – Using our individual talents to do as much as we can in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (Faith) – Believing in our people, our parents, our teachers, and our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
Riley wrote, “Success is available to everyone, and the principles of Kwanzaa present universal beliefs that are found in many other cultures. If we are to succeed, we must throw off the mental chains placed on us historically and become confident, positive, and poised to take our rightful place in the universal order.” These are valuable teachings we can use every day to become successful.
“We are one, our cause is one, and we must help each other, if we are to succeed.”-Fredrick Douglass
Francie Mae. December 26, 2020.
References
Riley Winbush, Dorothy,1995, The Complete Kwanzaa, Celebrating Our Cultural Harvest. New York, NY, HarperCollins Publishers.
Kwanzaa. Wikipedia. Website. Accessed December 26, 2020.