Posted on 12/27/2004 6:45:37 AM PST by ConservativeDude
Kwanzaa, a time to foster pride in African culture Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services
Associated Press Gary Harvey stands behind a kinara, a candleholder similar to a menorah, as he gives a Kwanzaa presentation Sunday at the Hope Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church in Utica, N.Y. The seven-day festival, which was established 38 years ago by Maulana Karenga, celebrates family, community and culture.
HACKENSACK, N.J. -- For Marlene Ware, a teacher at Teaneck High School, Kwanzaa is an opportunity to demystify Africa.
"A lot of African-Americans to this day really don't acknowledge the role that Africa has in the world," Ware said.
As organizer of the high school's annual Kwanzaa celebration, which was held earlier this month, Ware uses the holiday to demonstrate the importance of Africa to people of all races.
She understands that Kwanzaa, which began Sunday, can be of particular value to young African-Americans. Ware said many young people have distorted impressions of Africa, and Kwanzaa can correct that.
"We're really hoping it does raise self-esteem, particularly of African-Americans about their culture. They really don't know about Africa," she said.
In addition to organizing the high school's Kwanzaa festival, Ware teaches African dance and organizes trips to the continent every few years. At the Kwanzaa celebration on Dec. 12, Ware had classes teaching African drumming and jewelry-making as well as a ceremony explaining the seven principles of Kwanzaa.
"It's a time when the community comes together and celebrates African culture, and that's why we did it."
Families and educators look to Kwanzaa as a way to educate young people, particularly young African-Americans, about Africa as well as the struggles blacks have faced in the United States.
"It invites family time and family unity and it gives them another sense of who they are," said Keli Drew Lockhart-Ba of Trenton, a psychologist who celebrates the holiday with her family and runs a business, Creative Memories, that constructs family scrapbooks for special occasions like Kwanzaa.
"It connects people to their heritage," said Verushka Spirito, associate director for performances at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, which held its annual children's festival earlier this month and drew about 5,000 youths from around the state. The event included African dance classes, where young people attempted to soar and twirl down the dance floor, as well as face-painting, music concerts and storytelling.
Kwanzaa was first observed in 1966. It was created by Maulana Karenga, now the chairman of the black studies department at California State University at Long Beach, as a way for African-Americans to celebrate their roots in Africa. It is now observed by millions of people around the world.
The holiday's name comes from the Swahili matunda ya kwanza, which means "first fruits." And Kwanzaa uses as its inspiration for its ceremonies the early harvest celebrations in Africa.
Kwanzaa celebrates the Nguzo Saba, or the seven principles. They are umoja, or unity; kujichagulia, or self-determination; ujima, or collective work and responsibility; ujamaa, or cooperative economics; nia, or purpose; kuumba, or creativity; and imani, or faith. During each night of the holiday, celebrants light a candle on the kinara, a candleholder similar to a menorah, to recognize each of the principles. Each day a different principle is celebrated.
For Lockhart-Ba, the non-religious nature of the holiday makes it a great way to share a special moment with her family since her husband is Muslim and she is Christian.
"It's not a religious holiday, it gives our family an opportunity to understand our heritage and we go over all the principles and for each principle we have the kids read them," Lockhart-Ba said.
Ware said it's important to tear down stereotypes about Africa.
Bridgette Johnson, a senior at Teaneck High School, said that many of her peers only think of famine and AIDS when they imagine the subcontinent.
"I think when people think of Africa, they think of HIV and the commercials on TV with the hungry kids," said Johnson. "If people asked me if there is one place I wanted to go, I would say Africa."
Johnson and Ware, along with 18 other fine- and performing-arts students and another teacher, are traveling to Ghana this spring to experience Africa firsthand. The group, called THREAD -- Teaneck High Represents Education Art and Diversity -- has held bake sales and talent shows to raise money for its trip, which isn't officially being sponsored by the board of education.
"Ghana is a big part of the middle passage," Ware said. The middle passage is the journey African slaves took to reach the United States from Africa. Ghana is one of the countries where slaves were transported to the New World. "It's really going to be an excellent experience." The students will exchange lessons with their peers from Ghana during the trip.
Johnson said many friends were shocked she wanted to travel to Ghana.
"When I told a lot of people I was going to Africa they told me, `Don't talk to me,' when I get back, `You'll have AIDS,'" Johnson said.
"It's a chance to get out of America and in school everyone always talk about the facts about Africa and nobody really knows," said Sade Henry, also a senior at Teaneck High School. "I think we should learn more about Africa."
Johnson said that if more people celebrated Kwanzaa, there would be a greater understanding of the importance of the continent.
"Unless you celebrate the holiday, you don't know the gist of it," Henry said.
This is actually turning into a serious dicussion, which I did not intend....I merely posted the article without comment, because it speaks for itself. As usual, however, many of the genius freepers offered side-splittingly hilarious commentary.
Now for the serious part.
Kzanzaa is really almost a parody of liberalism, which above all else, fails to comprehend a) the human person and b) the nature of culture (politics being on aspect of culture).
As already pointed out, the idea of creating a holiday which has no organic link to a civilization, which does not already permeate through society in some way (even in a cheap and commercialized way, ie, Valentine's Day) is culturally insane.
Also as already pointed out, even the fabricated historical elements of the holiday are non-existent. Even a small amount of investigatin should convince someone of this. But obviously that is not their game. This is about ideology.
The holiday also suggests something sad and tragic about the few who shockingly celebrate this in America today. The sickening life of the founder has been noted. Who would want to be part of this? It also does seem to suggest that celebrants of Kzanzaa want to be at the table during December. Covetousness is not a sign of a healthy culture, which is why the two religions who have real holidays acknowledge that it is forbidden in the Decalogue.
The idea of a current, contemporary American subculture which is seeking some sort of tradition from "Africa" which is not European, not Christian, not religious, etc. is sort of a concentrated statement of liberalism. All in all, I'm glad we have Kwanzaa to kick around because its existence reminds us of exactly what liberalism is about.
I think the black community should use their clout to celebrate Their roots on MLK day. Its in the middle of black history month. They can tell the truth about where they come from and try to learn more about it.
But for the black community to swallow this fraud hoisted upon them by a conman makes them look ridiculous. It is a bunch of nonsense.
Diversity will be the downfall of America.
It is another way to segregate society. They now have separate holiday from the rest of us. Geez this multicultural sh*t is ridiculous.
Ouch! True, but ouch!
LOL! Ya beat me to it.
Corn isn't a native plant either.
"Every time I see people celebrating this fake holiday, I don't know whether to laugh or cry."
-Those are the exact words a Liberian woman friend of mine said to me when she first came to this country. She laughed and said, "Kwanzaa, what is Kwanzaa? It is a stupid made up holiday."
Can I get my Kwanzaa soldering iron in a kente cloth carrying case?
Helpless black women, no less. And you can bet your behind that most of the female Kwanzaa-boosters in the above article are feminists.
Radical lefties can be misogynists and even torturers and murderers, and the press and academia don't care as long as they espouse the proper ideology. You never, ever hear about elementary school teachers telling the little kiddies about Ira Einhorn chopping up his girlfriend and storing the pieces in a trunk, when they're pushing Earth Day on them. What the Earth Day founder was just isn't important to them.
I took the liberty of telling my nine-year-old stepkids that Kwanzaa was a completely non-African holiday invented by a communist who liked to torture women and spent time in prison for it. I had to do this, because they were singing a Kwanzaa song in their multiculti Holiday concert. I also warned them that this was one of those things that was "true, but controversial" so they might get into trouble if they tried to enlighten their teachers about it.
Can you believe it, their teacher had some kid introduce the song with "Kwanzaa is an African holiday"? Obiously the teacher didn't know better, or maybe didn't care. Makes me want to go out and kick walls.
Agreed!
My first-grader was told by his teacher that Kwanzaa orignated from Southern African harvest festivals, and was required to make that minora-thingie from paper. We very quickly objected, on the basis that we never saw anything of the like while living there, and he was excused from further Kwanzaa indoctrination.
She goes on to point out that:
Coincidentally, the seven principles of Kwanzaa are the very same seven principles of the Symbionese Liberation Army, another charming invention of the Least-Great Generation. In 1974, Patricia Hearst, kidnap victim-cum-SLA revolutionary, posed next to the banner of her alleged captors, a seven-headed cobra. Each snake head stood for one of the SLA's revolutionary principles: Umojo, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba and Imani -- precisely the seven "principles" of Kwanzaa.
With his Kwanzaa greetings, President Bush is saluting the intellectual sibling of the Symbionese Liberation Army, killer of housewives and police. He is saluting the founder of United Slaves, who were such lunatics that they shot Panthers for not being sufficiently insane -- all with the FBI as their covert ally. It's as if David Duke invented a holiday called "Anglica," and the president of the United States issued a presidential proclamation honoring the synthetic holiday. People might well stand up and take notice if that happened.
We must never forget that the vast, vast, vast majority of "teachers" out there are not qualified to teach our children. They are unintelligent and uneducated, mixing up people like Martin Luther and Martin Luther King. They are typically given a "certificate" by the government which says that they are qualified. That in and of itself is Orwellian.
I'm delighted that you straightened out the ding dong who professes to be qualified to teach. I hope others will follow your lead.
From WND 2002:
I'm a little late in asking, forgive me.
But, did you have a happy Kwanzaa? I know the celebration officially ended 10 days ago, but the news has kept me busy until now.
President Bush was quicker to the trigger than I was.
Back on Dec. 20 – a full six days before onset of this very spiritual weeklong rite – he sent "warm greetings to all who are celebrating Kwanzaa." It gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over – even though I don't personally celebrate this sacred event.
Why did Bush issue a proclamation on Kwanzaa? Well, he explained that this important holiday was established in 1966 as an African-American celebration of "family, community and culture. The seven-day observance, beginning Dec. 26 and ending Jan. 1, serves as a special time to recognize and reaffirm the Nguzo Saba, or Seven Principles, of African culture. These are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith."
Bush continued: "Kwanzaa provides an opportunity for people of African heritage regardless of their religious background or faith, to come together and to show reverence for their Creator and creation, to commemorate the past, to recommit to high ideals, and to celebrate the good life. These life-affirming traditions take on particular resonance this year, as the United States and the world face new challenges to peace. As individuals, families and communities take part in this celebration of unity and enduring values, I extend best wishes to people throughout the globe for a wonderful and memorable Kwanzaa."
Touching, moving, multi-cultural.
Bush was correct in pointing out that this new high holy day is a very recent invention. There are few holidays we can actually attribute to one man's vision. Kwanzaa is such a holiday – coined by Ron Karenga in 1966.
Who was Ron Karenga?
Glad you asked.
He is a convicted felon – sentenced five years after inventing Kwanzaa for torturing two black women by whipping them with electrical cords and beating them with a karate baton after stripping them naked. He placed in the mouth of one of the victims a hot soldering iron, also scarring her face with the device. He put one of her big toes in a vise, and detergent and running water in both of their mouths.
But that wasn't the beginning of the bizarre and violent behavior of Karenga, the patron saint of Kwanzaa – not by a long shot.
Just about the time he was dreaming up this new holiday, he was also inventing a new political movement on the campus of UCLA. That movement was called "black cultural nationalism." His group was called United Slaves. And it was defined mainly by violent confrontations with the Black Panthers at UCLA. Two of his followers shot dead two members of the Panthers in 1969.
But no sooner did Karenga get out of prison on the torture charges in 1975 than all was forgotten about his criminal and violent past. He was proclaimed Saint Karenga. Four years later, he was running the Black Studies Department at California State University in Long Beach.
How did he get that job in academia with his record?
Glad you asked again.
Paul Mulshine, who has done an admirable job of chronicling Karenga's history for FrontPagemag.com, has a theory.
Karenga had a jailhouse conversion.
No, he did not become a born-again Christian. He did not renounce violence. He did not even repudiate his past. But he did become a Marxist.
And, while becoming a Christian might have disqualified him for a role in the world of the modern U.S. university, a conversion to Marxism was perceived as a sign of rehabilitation. The one-time psychopath had seen the light.
In conclusion, I hope this little cultural and history lesson helps you see the light – about Kwanzaa. It's being taught to your kids in your government schools. It's become a commercial bonanza in black communities through the United States. And, now, even the president of the United States is praising it as a legitimate holiday.
Good grief. What's wrong with America?
Why does it affect you so?
Sometimes GWB shows true political prowess, as in the election. Sometimes he shows colossal ineptitude, as in giving any lip service to Kwanzaa.
What is he trying to accomplish here? Winning over the votes of the hundreds of millions of Kzanwaa celebrants (snigger)? Seriously, the scores who celebrate the holiday are probably not going to ever be GOP voters. So, why is he doing this?
Also, acknowledging this immoral fake holiday discourages those who worked hardest for him.
A Nigerian fellow I worked with once asked: " Tell me. What is this Kwanzaa? We have never heard of it in Africa." I told him the truth, that some ex convict made it up.
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