Practical Nguzo Saba: Why Kwanzaa should be 24/7/365

By: Tafari Melisizwe

12.27.6250

It’s that time of year again; where capitalism’s propaganda machine hits high gear, pillaging Afrikan communities of vital resources that could (should/need to be/must) be directed towards accomplishing other, more beneficial and ultimately more rewarding objectives. When Thanks”givng” ends, the holiday shopping season begins, and for 27 days our people are subjected to a steady dose of emotionally captivating marketing schemes, “once and a life time deals” and the wonders of materialistic assimilation through credit card over-consumption, to be ingested mentally, daily. Let us be frank; the holiday season is nothing more than a overt form of physco-economic warfare; it is Corporate America’s annual stimulus package, and for Afrikan people residing within it’s repulsive grasps, the holiday shopping season can at the absolute minimum be classified as rape; by any standard.

Fortunately for us there is a viable, and if applied correctly, communally empowering alternative to the western holiday season, and that alternative is known as Kwanzaa.

Rooted in Afrikan cultural concepts that transcend both (colonial) geographic boundary and time; Kwanzaa was formalized into its contemporary construct by Dr. Maulana Karenga in 1966. Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase “matunda ya kwanza” which means “first fruits” in Swahili.[1] Its foundation, based upon the harvest of the matunda ya kwanza, is celebrated through the recognition of the “Nguzo Saba”, or Seven communally based principals that are necessary for the  community to bear the fruits of their labor. From this vantage, Kwanzaa at its outset possess a tangible functionality in our society that is non-existent in the hyper-consumption/material based Christmas/western holiday season. For one, Kwanzaa is not based on any hierarchical construct that implies that the more capital (money) one gives away for a product (gifts) can somehow be communicated as loving a significant other more or caring about ones children more. Secondly, as alluded to earlier; Kwanzaa is a principle based celebration; Kwanzaa is something to be worked towards and embodied; whereas, with other holidays it is often merely things that are hoped for. Thiscultural construct of material based instant-gratification has it’s multitude of flaws; the primary of which is that it almost absolutely undermines (or to be put more bluntly retards) any long-term communal developmental goals. Wal-Mart is not making a concerted effort to teach our children about their history, Best Buy doesn’t care whether or not our comminutes are subjected daily to martial law-esq police terrorism, and McDonald’s is not putting Amos Wilson books in the hands of our youth; all that matters to them (and corporations like them) is what their net profit is at the end of the year and how much its projected to be in the next. Where is our national plan for community development? How many of us are thinking three months in advance let alone five years from now? Based on our uncanny ability to save enough to buy things like that ’52 plasma screen with surround sound, and at the same time not have enough to attend a Professor Griff lecture (2K versus $20, literally), It’s a safe bet to say that not many of us are in a practical sense.

In a capitalistic society, those who posses or have the ability to create the root of the word (capital) are those who have power; the Afrikan community in America possess a substantial economic foundation, as evidenced by the fact that we will have earned well in excess of $744 Billion[2] dollars by years end. In generating this type of collective income, one could make the argument that progress is truly being made in the Black community; that integration somehow was beneficial and that we finally got our piece of the pie. (Chairmen Fred Hampton Jr. reminds us that “That capitalism is such a foul entity that even if we were offered a piece of its pie we shouldn’t take it.”) However, taking a drive through Baltimore, Maryland, Detroit, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois or Gary, Indiana; and to go international, through Accra, Ghana, Port-Au-Prince, Haiti or Kigali, Rwanda, would provide a far more accurate depiction of what we have done with the capital we have earned; nothing of substance.

What is the reasoning behind the oxymoronic predicament we find ourselves in? In this context, what our definition of progress is in the 21^st century of the Gregorian calendar begs examination. How is it that a national community (speaking purely in socio-economic terms) can report nominal gains in income for nine consecutive years and in that same time move four or five steps backward in the development of those very same communities they live in? Most importantly, how can we reverse this trend? The answer to these questions, along with the vast majority of our plight(s) as Afrikan people globally can be found in the re-aligning of our socio-economic cultural foundation to those our ancestors; An Afrikan-centered value system; the Nguzo Saba.

Why the Nguzo Saba?

As spoken to earlier, the Nguzo Saba are a series of communally based principals that if applied, allow the community to enjoy the “matunda ya kwanza”, or “first fruits” of their harvest. These seven principles are as following:

Or, in a sentence: Unification is a process rooted in the faith of creatively directing our energies towards the purpose of moving into a self-determining environment that can only exist by engaging in the collective work and responsibility of the liberation of our people; practicing cooperative economics can serve the immediate means through which the aforementioned principles can manifest in our lives.

Now, take a second to consider if any other “holidays” ask its celebrators to engage in Collective Work and Responsibility or Cooperative Economics. If none come to mind; don’t be alarmed, there are none (other Afrikan/indigenous cultures excluded). This is where the true beauty, genius and wisdom of our ancestors truly show; because as Baba John Henrick Clark teaches us, “People are putting new coats on old things, formulizing them and dogmatizing them and giving you the illusion that they are giving you something new…all they did was formulize it, dogmatize it, and give it a name.”[3] Kwanzaa’s principles have always existed within our civilization in some form or another. From the banks of Ta-Merry[4] to the ancient civilizations of Ashantiland and Yorubaland and even celebrated as far south as among the Zulu people; however, after nearly 2,000 years of enduring the unrelenting “Nuclear bombing of the Afrikan mind”[5], we’ve lost the practical understanding of the overwhelming benefits that living a life principled in our own Afrikan culture can bring.

We can create a society where Afrikan people actively engage in culturally relevant, international communal development, where the Nguzo Saba act as a standard to be worked towards daily rather than a just a series of days with Swahili names, candles and a few friends and family. We can make Kwanzaa a lifestyle, we can/must collectively grow by applying these principles to our daily lives; supporting Black Businesses is Ujamaa, organizing a book club/study group/organization is Umoja, creating a community garden is Kuumba, envisioning the creation of a Afrikan nation and teaching nation-building skills to our youth is dually Nia and Kujichagulia, creating our own businesses and schools is Ujima, and having the faith (idea+application) that we will be victorious before we begin is Imani. These are all things that can be done and worked towards every day without allocating massive amounts of funds towards or galvanizing thousands of people for; practical things that if applied, can provide immense dividends for our people immediately. Failure to do otherwise is committing the highest form treason against our ancestors, ourselves and most importantly, our children.

Kwanzaa is not an alternative to Christmas; Kwanzaa is a framework, an echo of our culture that we must revive the spirit of not just between December 26^th and January 1^st, but in all the days leading up to and after its celebration. Let us begin building the future we want right now, this moment. Kwanzaa is the very powerful celebration of what it means to be Afrikan; living the Nugzo Saba, the means to be an Afrikan.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Tafari Melisizwe resides in Tubman City, Md. He is a Co-founder of Black Power Media, professional photographer and unrelenting advocate of pan-afrikan solidarity and prosperity.

[1] http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/origins1.shtml

[2] http://targetmarketnews.com/buyingpowerstats.htm :: Based on income trends from 1996-2006::

[3] Clark, John Henrik, “Who Betrayed the African World Revolution” p100-101

[4] Known today as the Nile River

[5] Quoted from Ivan Van Sertima