Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast

"Call Me By My Name": Kwanzaa Coda 2

Wait wait wait! One more Kwanzaa 2005 entry. This one is by guest blogger, Chris Hayden. A St. Louis Native, his first novel, "A Vampyre Blues: The Passion of Varnado," was published in 2004 by Door of Kush Multimedia. (See here for a book review; See here for a short story featuring characters from the book.) He is also a poet (Kongo Groove, "St. Louis Muse")--and some of his poems can be found on the Web.

I went to a Kwanzaa celebration Tuesday night, December 27, 2005 (the day of Kujichagulia) that was held by the St. Louis chapters of Sisters Nineties Literary Group and the Yari Yari Youth Poetry Group.

A good time was had by all. There was music, the kids put on spoken word and individual recitation, many adult spoken word and poetry artists contributed (including my humble self--I was called "St. Louis Poet Laureate"--which I am not--and I got an award for contributing to the works of the organization, which I do, and I was even invited to perform one of my pieces-- "Mound City Luv").

Afterward there was bread, cheese, fruit, sparkling grape juice.

No cussing, no fighting, no getting high, all the generations mingling without any dissing, nary a discouraging word. All up at the Prince Hall Center on Newstead in St. Louis--which is in the inner city.

Of course there was nothing bad going on so the media doesn't worry about it.

I wanted to report on that and give praise and honor to Debra Morrow Loving, local poet retired from the big time publishing industry who really puts her heart and soul and money into it.

If it takes a village, this is the way you start building it.

Kwanzaa Coda

Well, here at my house we packed away the Kwanzaa stuff for another year. Thanks to everyone who dropped by this blog during the past week, and to my first two SITBB "guest bloggers," Deb and Lisa!

In 2006, as I have in past years, I will attempt to keep the principles of Kwanzaa in my mind as I go through my daily life. For a time I will likely forget some of the rancor that has seemed to go along with discussions of Kwanzaa in recent years--that is, until Black History Month or the next racial "incident" or some other occassion that may reveal the fault lines among and between groups of people.

Then this December (12 brief months away) I will once again unearth our Kwanzaa box, and unpack all the paraphenalia with great hopes for what the special reflection and celebration will do for me, my family, my friends, the country at large.

Happy 2006!

Kwanzaa Greetings from the White House

Presidential Message: Kwanzaa 2005

I send greetings to those observing Kwanzaa.

African Americans and people around the world reflect on African heritage during Kwanzaa. The seven days of this celebration emphasize the seven principles of Nguzo Saba -- unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. These values contribute to a culture of citizenship and compassion, and Kwanzaa activities help pass on African values and traditions to future generations.

As families and friends gather for Kwanzaa, Americans remember the many contributions African Americans have made to our country's character and celebrate the diversity that makes our Nation strong. May your commitment to family, faith, and community thrive during this holiday season and throughout the coming year.

Laura and I send our best wishes for a happy Kwanzaa.

GEORGE W. BUSH

...And from Hallmark

From the Hallmark press room:

For 2005, Hallmark’s Mahogany brand offers 10 Kwanzaa card designs that celebrate African-American culture and heritage, as well as the seven guiding principles of Kwanzaa. Two value-priced multi-card packages make it easy to send Kwanzaa greetings to family and friends.

Mahogany focuses on the celebratory aspects of Kwanzaa with upscale designs and meaningful messages that reflect the essence of the holiday.

For added convenience, Hallmark.com offers free Kwanzaa e-cards with animation and sound. Consumers can add their personal message to the greeting on the e-card and send it immediately or on any designated date. Paper Kwanzaa cards also can be ordered online, personalized and either mailed to the buyer or the card recipient on any designated date.

Strength and Ritual: Researching Kwanzaa

Well, yesterday I posted a trio of dissertations on Kwanzaa and asked what would be some dissertation-worthy research questions about the celebration. Today, I feature one such potential line of research as posed by Amitai Etzioni in a Chronicle Review piece from several years ago.

(Dr. Etzioni has also been a blogger, though apparently not actively since October. But especially see his "Ways We Celebrate" archive.)

Dr. Etzioni places Kwanzaa in the broader research vein that looks at celebrations and rituals and what these reveal about cultures and cultural change:

My colleagues in the social sciences may wish to bring along their laptops, or at least their notebooks, as they join family and friends during the winter holiday season. The ways in which holidays and rituals like weddings and funerals, confirmations and birthdays, are celebrated reveal volumes about cultures and how they change.

The merit of using holidays and rituals as a research tool was driven home to me recently when I traveled to Iran as a guest of a group of reformers. I had long been deeply impressed by the religious fervor of hundreds of thousands of Iranians whom newsreels in the 1980s showed marching in the streets, flagellating themselves with heavy-duty, Hydra-headed whips, drawing blood to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hossein in 683 CE. When I found myself in Shiraz on the memorial day Arbaeen, which marks the 40th day after the martyr's death, I heard that self-flagellations were about to take place down the road, and I rushed there with my camera and notebook. What I found was a well-stylized dance. Young men were eagerly stepping in a circle to the tune of pleasant, if repetitive, music, gently waving slight whips, with which they symbolically touched their well-covered backsides. They did not even work up a sweat, much less draw blood.

I had a little chuckle when I read that, considering some of the consternation recently about Kwanzaa. "There is no holiday celebrated in Africa called Kwanzaa," some complain. "I'd celebrate it, but it seems so complicated," others lament. Or the oddest critique: "It's made up." (Show me some holiday or ritual that is not "made up"--by someone at some time.)

But if Kwanzaa tells us little about Africa, or diasporic Africans' African past, what does it tell us?

Holidays and rituals are the occasions on which our commitment to the values is shored up....Looking at holidays that way leads one to ask which values a given society, in a given historical period, seeks to reinforce.

Such links between individuals, societies, and values are ones that are--and should be--of interest to scholars in a variety of fields. But as Dr. Etzioni points out below, the absence of these links, or their transformation or their disjunctures, are also important foci of research:

Tell an experienced researcher what is being celebrated and how, and that observer will be able to derive some insight into the values a society seeks to uphold. You might object that while people sometimes say a given holiday exists to honor this or that value, their behavior belies what they tell you. Well, that, too, of course, is helpful information. If one concludes that they are merely paying lip service to values they no longer cherish, then it's natural to seek to find out when that happened, why, whether some new ritual has come to take the place of the waning one, whether it is deteriorating for overtly political reasons or more-mundane ones, and so on.

Of course, I was happy that Dr. Etzioni brought up Kwanzaa specifically in this Chronicle piece:

Kwanzaa, for instance, was originally a protest holiday of sorts, invented in 1966, in the wake of the Watts riots, by the black nationalist Maulana Karenga, a professor of sociology at California State University at Long Beach. He devised it to be an alternative to Christmas for African-Americans. He wanted to shield celebrants from what he saw as Christmas's dominant white values -- its European roots and traditions, its contemporary focus on shopping and gift giving -- and to help them reconnect with their African ancestry. An attempt to "reaffirm African culture" (in Karenga's words), Kwanzaa melds the traditions of several African harvest festivals with new rituals meant to embody unity, self-determination, struggle, and other values.

However, over time, Kwanzaa has become more mainstream, commercialized by greeting-card companies and gift giving, and celebrated in addition to (rather than instead of) Christmas. If a team of researchers looked deeper, who knows what ambivalence and variants they'd find?

Indeed. I'm trying to highlight a little of those variants and ambivalences with my Kwanzaa posts this year. And if you've explored the web this Kwanzaa season, you've likely seen more of it. There is nothing inherently bad about variation or about ambivalence. The fact that they exist says something interesting about us as people, families, and cultures. The fact that we sometimes (often?) fear diversity and ambivalence also says something interesting about us. Regardless, there is plenty within Kwanzaa and other celebrations for almost any researcher to sink her teeth into: "Holidays and rituals are so revealing," says Dr. Etzioni, "that it is hard to imagine an aspect of society that they don't illuminate."

And this area has served as fertile ground for past scholars:

Generations ago, holidays and rituals intrigued some of the social-science giants, like Émile Durkheim. More recently, a number of anthropologists have studied rituals and holidays in far-off societies. And a few scholars have turned their skills to American rituals. Elihu Katz, of the University of Pennsylvania, has looked at such practices as reflected in media culture; John Bodnar, of Indiana University at Bloomington, at commemoration and patriotism; Leigh Eric Schmidt, of Princeton University, at holidays and consumer culture; and Penne Restad, of the University of Texas at Austin, at Americans' celebration of Christmas.

I would add that there have been family scientists and others publishing in family journals who have done scholarly work on holidays and rituals. For example, Barbara Fiese has written extensively in this area (see, for example, Family Rituals in the Early Stages of Parenthood, Journal of Marriage and Family, 55, 633-642). Then there has been Ramona Faith Oswald's work on sexual orientation and family wedding attendance. See Who am I in relation to them? Gay, lesbian, and queer people leave the city to attend rural family weddings, Journal of Family Issues, 23, 323-348.) Additionally, holidays, celebrations, and other family rituals have figured into the work of other family scholars--including several right here in McNeal Hall.

But still, explicit study of holidays is not common in my subfield. And of course, explicit study of Kwanzaa is nowhere to be found, at least not through searching journal data bases of family-related journals. This despite the fact that many scholars in my area frequently call for "strength-based" approaches to researching Black families--something that might be achieved through the study of observances of Kwanzaa. And also, this despite recent calls to conduct more research more closely relevant to the everyday lives of families (see Kerry Daly's Family Theory Versus the Theories Families Live By, Journal of Marriage and Family, 65, 771-784.

At the risk of sounding as if, now that my own dissertation research is pretty fairly etched in stone, I now have a case of "buyers' remorse"--looking longingly at all the topics that could have been, I will throw my two cents into the potential topic pot for up-and-coming grad students. Consider Kwanzaa. Not just the history of the celebration within the context of Black power movements. Not just Kwanzaa as a possible tool in righting the ways of errant and potentially errant Black youth. But consider Kwanzaa as a topic for uncovering who Black people and families are at the start of the current century; where we see ourselves as coming from and what our hopes are for the future; how we are constructing or not constructing senses of "community" in contexts that seem to present us with many contraindications for such formation.

I'll return to Dr. Etzioni for the last words:

Young social scientists choosing their areas of specialization should think seriously about joining in this rich vein of inquiry. Rituals, like streetlights, lull us with their repetition and regularity. But the sometimes subtle shifts in light change both our world and how we see it.

Kwanzaa Perspectives: A Call for Action Plans

by Lisa Patton: Yvette's former college roommate and friend of 20+ years; lives in San Francisco, originally from Chicago; self-employed for 10 years; loves black music from Prince to Wynton, Shirley Horn to Mary J. Blige. I'm also treasurer of Julia Morgan School for Girls (www.juliamorganschool.org) in Oakland--and Yvette's daughters' favorite Cali auntie!

Kwanzaa for me is a time to assess what I’ve accomplished this year and where I want to go next. When I think about it in the collective (black) sense is where I have issues. How do we measure "collective work and responsibility"? How do we measure any of the principles?

When I observed Kwanzaa, I loved the concepts but felt that nothing of consequence was accomplished other than a small contribution to black merchants and reconnecting to the people I cared about. I never felt the cultural pride that the holiday is supposed to reflect.

I think that Kwanzaa is a nice idea but we need an action plan in order to see some tangible progress. I feel we have never really had the conversation about where we want to go as black folk and how do we get there. Everyone has their own ideas about progress – is there a unified way to get there? Should there be?

What I do know is that I have accomplished some things on my 2005 and life agenda, but some things need to be added, others need to be worked on further and others need to be eliminated. Kwanzaa is a good starting point for discussing where we are and want to go as a people but also needs to be able to adjusted and refined as circumstances change.

Dissertation Scholarship on Kwanzaa

Being that I am currently dissertating and currently celebrating Kwanzaa, I began to wonder: Has anyone ever written a dissertation on Kwanzaa? Well, various searches on Digital Dissertations uncovered fewer than a dozen dissertations with "kwanzaa" as a key, title, or abstract word. Below are abstracts from three dissertations with Kwanzaa as a focus.

Now my question is, if you were proposing a dissertation on Kwanzaa, what would be your research questions?

Rituals of race, ceremonies of culture: Kwanzaa and the making of a Black Power holiday in the United States,1966--2000, Keith Alexander Mayes, PhD, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, 2002

This dissertation examines the creation and early development of Kwanzaa as a response to racial and cultural oppression in the 1960s and 1970s. Though Kwanzaa was created by Maulana Karenga and the US Organization, the response in creating and celebrating a new black holiday quickly transcended Karenga, involving a broader section of black cultural nationalists, local grassroots activists, and many more attempting to raise the level of black consciousness. The dissertation also discusses the appropriation of Kwanzaa by American corporate and cultural institutions in the 1980s and 1990s. By the late 1980s and 1990s, Kwanzaa ceased being the sole property of the black nationalist community; it had been embraced by a broader segment of African-Americans, corporate and religious bodies, cultural and media institutions, and well as the Federal government. In crossing a number of historical terrains, the dissertation explores the following: Kwanzaa's place within the two-century-old black holiday tradition and the development of a black cultural calendar; the origin of Kwanzaa in Los Angeles; the growth of black cultural nationalism and Kwanzaa's diffusion within the black neighborhood public sphere in American cities; the corporate and cultural institutional commodification of Kwanzaa not only for profit, but for public relations and goodwill. In examining these areas with the use of oral histories, mainstream and community newspapers, magazines, academic periodical literature and personal collections, I have uncovered two Kwanzaas: one, the black nationalist Kwanzaa steeped in ideas about traditional Africa, the essence of race, and the absence of culturally viable representations. This Kwanzaa was designed to liberate African-Americans from white oppression by rejecting American culture. The second is the multicultural Kwanzaa-a holiday less concerned with liberation and Black Power, but more attuned to bringing people together and celebrating diversity. The multicultural Kwanzaa was a product of corporations, museums, schools, the media, and the state.

The US Organization: African-American cultural nationalism in the era of Black Power, 1965 to the 1970s, Scot D. Brown, PhD, CORNELL UNIVERSITY, 1999

This dissertation examines a distinct period in the history of the US Organization, a cultural nationalist formation based in Southern California. The time frame of this study, roughly from 1965 until the early ‘70s, highlights US’ role within the prism of a popular resurgence in African-American nationalism—the Black Power movement. US was founded in 1965 by Maulana Karenga and remains currently active. Although relatively small in membership, US established a network of alliances with a diverse body of activists, artists and organizations throughout the United States, making it possible for its cultural nationalist philosophy, Kawaida, to have a far reaching impact. US is most widely known for its chairman's, Maulana Karenga, 1966 founding of the currently popular week-long African-American cultural holiday Kwanzaa. This dissertation attempts to present a broad analytic historical narrative exploring this group's philosophy, internal dynamics, political activism, influence on Black art and decline during the era of Black Power. US cultural nationalism was influenced by international developments: anti-colonial struggles in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the Negritude movement and African nationalism. The organization's internal structure and philosophy also built on examples from older Black nationalist organizations in the United States; the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the Nation of Islam. This study further explores key contradictions that adversely affected the flourishing of US as well as the broader Black Power movement; authoritarianism, sexism and elitist vanguard politics. Scholarly commentary about US has been inordinately influenced by a war of words linked to a violent feud between US and the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther Party popularized derogatory conceptions of US, labeling the group farcical and non-political. Venturing beyond the confines of internecine rivalry, this examination of US indicates that the organization's 1960s activism in municipal politics, community organizing, Black Power Conferences, independent education, developing alliances with other people of color, and underground resistance, situates it as a central political force in the era of Black Power.

A program to raise the faith level in African-American children through Scripture, Kwanzaa principles and culture, Janette Elizabeth Chandler Kotey, DMin, ORAL ROBERTS UNIVERSITY,1999

...The purpose of this study is to make a comparison of church and non-churched African American children ranging from 9 to 12 years of age, to show that there are differences regarding their perception of themselves, of God and of others. This comparison will see the emotional, spiritual and cultural aspects of each group. In order to achieve this comparison, this study was designed to address issues in order to heighten the cognitive awareness in the chosen age groups. The research shows that if African American children are taught their culture, scripture and the Kwanzaa principles, the awareness of who they are increases. First, this project set out to expose the non-expectancy and, in some cases, low-expectancy of the African American race to have worthy relationships and fellowship with God and themselves. Second, this project verified God's desire for African American children to come unto Him and accept His plan for their lives. This project sought to help children to (a) become familiar with their cultural history, (b) examine their thoughts of self-worth and acceptance, (c) become more consciously aware of the importance of confessing and utilizing God's Word on a daily basis, and (d) focus on principles that were essential for their upward mobility. The project involved children ages 9–12 years at St. Paul United Methodist Church and the Roseland Homes Apartment Complex of Dallas, Texas. The participants were able to view themselves in an elevated light, exposing their value to God and humankind, and equipped to change their perceptions of themselves and their environment. The researcher led eight sessions over a 5-week period during an inner city camp program (Camp SucSeed) hosted by St. Paul United Methodist Church. Each session was one and one-half hours in length and consisted of lectures, activities, question and answer period, and spiritual devotions. Fifteen children were chosen each from St. Paul United Methodist Church and the Roseland Apartment Complex. A Questionnaire, “Me and the Inside,” was administered as a pre- and post-test to the participants and consisted of twenty-eight questions with a format of true, false and uncertain. Scores increased by a range of .05 percent to 164 percent, from the pre- to post-test between the two groups, respectively....

Making African Connections for Kwanzaa

For some Black individuals and families, Kwanzaa is a way to connect to our African ancestry. This process, in my opinion, need not be "authentic"--Like many celebrations participated in by modern day folks in developed nations, Kwanzaa is more about symbolism than about "truth."

But for those interested in making more concrete connections to the Motherland, there are some alternatives and additions to the lighting of red, black and green candles.

First, we can visit what may have been our ancestors' last glimpse of home--absolutely on my "wish list" for future travel:

For centuries, Africans walked through the infamous "door of no return" at Cape Coast castle directly into slave ships, never to set foot in their homelands again. These days, the portal of this massive fort so central to one of history's greatest crimes has a new name, hung on a sign leading back in from the roaring Atlantic Ocean: "The door of return."

..."We want Africans everywhere, no matter where they live or how they got there, to see Ghana as their gateway home," J. Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, the tourism minister, said on a recent day. "We hope we can help bring the African family back together again." (More)

Additionally, we can keep pressure on our government to provide aid for African nations, such as this call by Senator Obama (More here):

Although the killing abated somewhat this year, Darfurians continue to be displaced -- more than 20,000 in the past few weeks alone. In addition, several million civilians are trapped in camps that are becoming more, not less, vulnerable. Women living in camps for internally displaced persons have to walk ever farther to obtain the firewood they need to cook the food donated by the United States. This has increased the incidence of rape, a tool in the onslaught of the militias known as the janjaweed. Mounting banditry has caused the closure of vital road corridors and the evacuation of some international aid workers. As a result, humanitarian access is more limited than it has been at any point since April 2004, causing a spike in the number of Darfurians who are not receiving lifesaving aid.

Or, for a more personal and elemental connection, we can explore our genetic ties to Africa such as through this project:

Did you ever wonder about your most ancient ancestors? The Genographic Project will introduce you to them, and explain the genetic journeys that bond your personal lineage over tens of thousands of years...

(Also see discussions of such genetic testing efforts here.)

Of course I realize that connecting to an African past is not everybody's cup of tea. Some would rather focus on the future. They resent that they are seen as Black and want to "just" be from the Human Race. They see "Black" and "African" as limiting labels, and wish to transcend such artificial boundaries. Well, for these forward thinking folks, this opportunity to get as far away as possible from Blacks and Africans--and everyone else confined on our little blue orb.

Happy Kwanzaa!

Kwanzaa Reflections: "Our Finest Time"

by guest blogger Deborah Barabino of New Orleans, LA, Black Cultural Nationalist, 25 year literacy instructor, avid reader and Kwanzaa lover

When I lived in Ft. Lauderdale, I hosted Kujichagulia every year at the branch libraries. I loved it because I was always more fond of the red candle nights than the green. The crowds were intimate enough to discuss and network with each other so much so that they looked for each other every year.

The biggest nights were always Umoja and Kuumba. There would be hundreds of nattily attired black folks out at them. They would be held at large forum places like the Main Library or the old school museum. Both of these nights would be almost circus like with entertainment and speakers. However, the most solemn was Imani where my women's group would have a luncheon for a women's rehab half-way house. It was solemn because there would be no program, no long winded speeches, just food, talk and gifts given for no reason other than to be happy to be alive and sane while living in America.

The other nights--Ujima, Ujamaa, and Nia--seemed to have their built in audience where I felt skipping them a year or two wouldn't matter much, and to be honest it certainly didn't. I mean, I always felt that one was business night and the other was social workers and activists nights. While Nia always was designated children's night, it rang more like a night at the Apollo.

I miss that so very much. It is always this time of the year that I miss my Florida sisters. Kwanzaa was our finest time!

"Kwanzaa, not a holiday but, a cultural celebration."

Deb

Other Kwanzaa posts throughout the blogosphere

Kwanzaa Kick-off

Habari Gani?!!

Something different for my Kwanzaa posts this year. If you want to read how I introduced my daughters to the seven principles last year, see the posts here in the Kwanzaa 2004 category--including the saga of Chia-Bart!

This year, no Chia-Bart or other cartoon/plant chimeras. But I have for scheduled release some reflections, news, sites of interest, and--for the first time on SITBB--posts by guest bloggers.

Stay tuned.