 Here's how to tell.  If you answer YES to any of the following questions then you practice the principles of Kwanzaa  Do you strive to maintain unity in your family  Do you set goals and act upon them firmly in spite of opposition or difficulty  Do you help your friends at work, church, school, or in your community

 Here's how to tell  If you answer YES …  Do you belong to any organization that strives to make your neighborhoods clean, and safe  Do you help plan, participate, organize or support activities that benefit our children  Do you believe that YOU CAN make a difference

 Dr. Maulana Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966 focused on African/African-Americans celebrating themselves and their history, rather than simply imitating the practices of the dominant society  As an African/African American celebration Kwanzaa brings a cultural message speaking to the best of what it means to be African/African American and human in the fullest sense  The original time frame for the ceremony and celebration is December twenty six (26) through January one (1) in any given year

 The name KWANZAA derives from the Swahili phrase "matunda ya kwanza", "first fruits”  Swahili language evolved out of East Africa regions colonized by Dutch (Holland, Germany, Netherlands), Middle Easterners, Indians, and Portuguese; with its core emanating from the BANTU people of that region

 …organized around five fundamental activities:  the gathering of family, friends, and community;  reverence for the Elders and Ancestors  commemoration for the past, learning lessons and emulating achievements of historical figures;  commitment to the highest cultural ideals, for example, truth, justice, respect for people and nature, care for the vulnerable, and  celebration of the “Good of Life”

 Kwanzaa is celebrated through rituals, dialogue, narratives, poetry, dancing, singing, drumming and other music and feasting  Central practices are the Pouring of Libation  Lighting of the Mishumaa (seven candles) of Kwanzaa

Central practice is the Pouring of Libation Tamshi La Tambiko Means Libation statement The pouring of a liquid in reverence to our ancestors is an intricate part of the celebration

The philosophy behind the creation of Kwanzaa is KAWAIDA

 Kawaida is a philosophy of culture and social change  Defines culture as most important component in positive developing of people  Marcus Garvey, quoting an African Proverb said, “A people that do not know their own history are like a tree without roots”

Lighting of the Mishumaa (7 candles) of Kwanzaa Suggested goals  Restore lost history and culture  Serve as moral guide for community  Contribute to the development of African centered values

LIGHTING OF THE CANDLES December 26 UNITY to strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation

Family unity  maintaining family identity and togetherness  balancing family priorities with support for individual needs  creating daily routines as well as special traditions and celebrations  affirming members, connecting to family roots  is a feeling that all can depend on each other in “good” times and “bad” times.

LIGHTING OF THE CANDLES December 27 (KOO-GEE-CHA-GOO-LEE-YAH) SELF-DETERMINATION requires that we define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.

 Enslavers came with two great weapons, gun and bible. If you were not humbled by their “one and only god” you were pummeled to death by their guns  They engaged in a method of mental conditioning called “memory replacement”.  Our’ memories “lifted out” enslavers’ memory inserted in  That’s why people of African heritage living in the United States can not remember their connection to the continent Al-kebulan (Africa)  As a people of African Heritage we must recover our memory, history, culture, our ways of behaving  We must reconstruct the best of our History and Culture

 Particularly as a group, called African Americans, we have not looked at ourselves “naturally” since the psycho-social historical trauma of enslavement took place  We have taken the naturalistic observation of Euro-American scientist and their armchair theorizing and have arbitrarily attributed that reality and those hypothesis to ourselves

LIGHTING OF THE CANDLES December 28 (OO-GEE-MAH) COLLECTIVE WORK AND RESPONSIBILITY) To build and maintain our community together and to make our Brother's and Sister's problems, our problems and to solve them together

 African is not just an identity, but also a destiny and duty, i.e., a responsibility, in other words, our collective identity is a collective future  There is a need and obligation for us as self-conscious and committed people to shape our future with our own minds and hands and share its hardships and benefits together, we are collectively responsible for our failures and setbacks as well as our victories and achievements  As long as any African anywhere is oppressed, exploited, enslaved or wounded in any way in her or his humanity, the principle rejects the possibility or desirability of individual freedom in any unfree context  We are each cultural representatives of our people and have no right to misrepresent them, or willfully do less than is demanded of us by our history and must accept and live the principle of shared or collective work and responsibility in all things good, right and beneficial to community.

LIGHTING OF THE CANDLES December 29 (OO-JAH-MAH) COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS) To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together

 A commitment to the practice of shared social wealth and the work necessary to achieve it.  Social wealth belongs to the masses of people who created it; no one should have such an unequal amount of wealth that it gives him/her the capacity to impose unequal, exploitative or oppressive conditions on others  Without the principle and practice of shared wealth, the social conditions for exploitation, oppression and inequality as well as deprivation and suffering are increased.  Don’t shop, purchase, frequent, and contend with people, structures, or elements where you are NOT treated or served with dignity or represented in employment  Do not support any person, place or thing where ethnicity, class, and gender makes a difference where treatment make a difference  If there is doubt do without

LIGHTING OF THE CANDLES December 30 (NEE-YAH) PURPOSE To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness

 The principle of Nia makes us conscious of our purpose in light of our historical and cultural identity  It is this identity which gives us an overriding cultural purpose and suggests a direction  Cultural and historical identity is a necessary reference to and focus on generational responsibility  African philosophy teaches, we are first and foremost social beings whose reality and relevance are rooted in the quality and the kinds of relations we have with each other  A cooperative communal vocation is an excellent context and encouragement for quality social relations

LIGHTING OF THE CANDLES December 31 (KOO-OOM-BAH) is the special spirit of creativity and ingenuity that affirms the contributions of our ancestors, our entire community, and influential leaders

 The Principle has both a social and spiritual dimension and is deeply rooted both in social and sacred teachings of African societies  Commitment to being creative within the context of the national community means leaving our community more beneficial and beautiful than we, i.e., each generation, inherited it

LIGHTING OF THE CANDLES January 1 (EE-MAH-NEE) FAITH To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle

 Essentially a profound belief in and commitment to all that is of value to us as a family, community, people and culture  This logically leads to a belief in the essential goodness and possibility of the human personality  Let us dare struggle, free ourselves politically and culturally and raise images above the earth that reflect our capacity for human progress and greatness  EDUCATE: Yourself, Children, A Generation  KWANZAA is practiced all year long  Make it a part of your LIFESTYLE.

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