THE FIRST FRUIT CELEBRATION
Monday, December 26, 2011—Sunday, January 1, 2012
From December 26 to January 1, millions of people will celebrate Kwanzaa around the world. This is a celebration of the "First Fruits of the Harvest" which began in the mid-sixties when America was experiencing the civil rights movement.
In 1966, a young visionary living on the west coast who was also the founder and chair of the Black Nationalist Organization created Kwanzaa. Dr. Maulana Karenga, a trained political and cultural scientist and participant and theoretician of the Black Liberation Movement, postulated that significant and meaningful Black movement in the U.S. was improbable, if not impossible, without a cultural component base. He felt that at the base of any movement must be the cultural imperative that gives the people a clear and precise sense of "identity, purpose, and direction”.
Dr. Maulana Karenga, was quoted in News Review Online saying: “Kwanzaa is a celebration of the family which first forms us, names, nurtures and sustains us, and teaches us upright and uplifting ways to understand and assert ourselves in the world."
Kwanzaa, derived from the Swahili word, KWANZA, which means first fruits and is part of the phrase Matunda Ya. Dr. Karenga added the extra "a" to distinguish the Afro-American from the African. The idea and conceptions of Kwanzaa developed out the system of social and political thought of Kawaida (Tradition and Reason), also developed by Dr. Karenga.
The roots of Kwanzaa are continental African, but the branches and fruit are distinctly Afro-American. Dr. Karenga sought to make the natural and profound connection of Afro-American people to their ancestral beginnings, therefore, Kwanzaa as a holiday of the first fruits comes directly out of the tradition of agricultural people of Africa, who celebrate and express gratitude for harvest at designated times during the year.
Each tribe or community in Africa gathers together to sing, dance, eat, drink, and celebrate the harvest of the first fruits and vegetables. They would bring homegrown food or items they made contributing to the feast.
Although Afro-Americans are essentially an urban people and, have few crops to harvest, the concept of in gathering and celebration formed a conceptual basis for Kwanzaa.
The cultural dynamism of Kwanzaa is best displayed through its progressive value base, the NGUZA SABA (the Seven Principles) and its unique absence of a dependency on mystical or disturbing distortion of the world. The NGUAO SABA created by Dr. Karenga in 1965 and represents the "minimum set of principles by which Black people must live in order to receive and reconstruct our history and lives. . .they are social principles, dealing with ways for relating to others and rebuilding lives and positive images.
The focus was and continues to be on family, community, and culture within the African American perspective. For almost forty years, the weeklong event focused on providing a context and commitment of common ground, cooperative practice and shared in the black community and with all others.
Kwanzaa is neither a religious nor a political holiday, but a celebration of African heritage and traditional African values. Kwanzaa celebrates in addition to Christmas or Hanukkah, not meant as a replacement for either holiday.
There are seven principles of Kwanzaa: Unity, Self-determination, Work, Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity, and Faith.
Happy Kwanzaa to our brothers and sisters everywhere, disregarding religion, politics, or ethnic background.
Nancy Morgan www.newdawnink.com
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