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Child Watch™ Column CELEBRATING KWANZAA, CELEBRATING COMMUNITY
During the last week of December, many Black families and communities observe Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is a unique celebration because it’s not a religious or national holiday but a cultural one. It doesn’t celebrate a person or an event but a set of ideas. In a year when Americans have heard a lot about “values,” values are what Kwanzaa is all about. As Dr. Maulana Karenga, the originator of Kwanzaa, explains, “There is no way to understand and appreciate the meaning and message of Kwanzaa without understanding and appreciating its profound and pervasive concern with values. In fact, Kwanzaa's reason for existence, its length of seven days, its core focus and its foundation are all rooted in its concern with values.” And the values Kwanzaa celebrates and asks people to live up to aren’t about individual private behavior but the values a community needs to be strong and thrive. The Nguzo Saba, or seven principles, are the framework of a Kwanzaa celebration. Dr. Karenga explains that they are the key building blocks of community in general. Each day during Kwanzaa focuses on one of these principles and reminds celebrants to recommit to that value: “Umoja (unity), to strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race. Kujichagulia (self-determination), to define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves. 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 (cooperative 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. And 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.” Not everyone celebrates Kwanzaa but these values contain many universal principles for building strong communities. Kwanzaa ends on New Year’s Day in the Kwanzaa celebration, the Day of Meditation. Many people already spend New Year’s Day thinking about how they can resolve to improve themselves during the next year. But imagine if this year we all resolved to take steps to improve our communities instead. Imagine if every child in this nation were being raised in a community resolved to seeing any member’s problems as everyone’s problems and solving them together, or to making sure that all community members live together harmoniously and support each other in their common goals, or that every community decision would leave the community healthier and more beautiful tomorrow than it is today. What kinds of places would these communities be for our children and, by extension, for all of us? During a traditional Kwanzaa celebration muhindi, ears of corn, are laid on a mkeke, a straw mat. The mat symbolizes African peoples’ history and traditions, and the corn symbolizes children and the future. Families place one ear of corn on the mkeke for each child in the household, but they’re instructed to put at least two ears down even if they don’t have children, because in African tradition every adult is considered a parent to every child in the community. Many people talk about this belief, but imagine if every one of us really put it into action. And then imagine what kind of a world we could build for our children if our local, national, and global communities all committed to making it our most important community value. During that final Day of Meditation in Kwanzaa, people are supposed to ask themselves three questions: “Who am I? Am I really who I say I am? And am I all I ought to be?” Everyone answers these questions as an individual, but their answers should reflect how well they are playing their part in making their community function as a whole and with justice. A person’s success is deeply connected to how much value they are giving to others. At a time when our children desperately need adults to reweave the fabric of family and community for them, all of us need to think and ask ourselves these questions. Are we all that we ought to be?
Marian Wright Edelman is President and Founder of the Children's Defense Fund and its Action Council, whose Leave No Child Behind? mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.
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