HOPE and VICTORY

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. It would appear that the 6 th principle of Kwanzaa finally speaks to not just Black people but to all people. Creating beauty is not just endemic to an African American culture, but it speaks to all people and cultures of the world. Maybe this was the intent of the author (to speak to all people of the world) to make Kwanzaa principles universal, to speak to all people. The problem with that is that why create Kwanzaa in the first place for Black people? In a recent article, a Jewish author ( Joshua Neuman , Huffington Post, 12/23/08) writes What happened to Kwanzaa ? Articles like this should solicit some reaction from Blacks, especially those tenured Black professors of History or Theology who have the titles that reflect their fluency in African American heritage and the Black community, and the many religious leaders who d...

Nia (Purpose) - To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness. It is worth the restating the meaning of the word Nia (Purpose) as found on the Official Kwanzaa Website. However, that meaning may be distorted. It may be unrealistic to tell Black people to restore their traditional greatness when so many Black traditional values are rooted in the values of the master. Notice the popularity of magazines like The Jet, Ebony, Black Enterprise, through the years and today, all have successfully contributed to the indoctrination of Black people to foreign values (white values). This may sound harsh, but it is what it is. It is not necessary to pull up a lot of statistics to confirm this reality. Just ask the neighbor next door, or better yet, ask anybody in the family about what they want to be when they grow up. 9 chances out of 10 most will probably say that they want to be materialistically rich...