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KEEPKWANZAA!™
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Welcome, Kwanzaa Keepers™
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- And, Behold!
- Like a mighty tree rising ever upward from ever-deepening roots; like piercing Sankofan eyes soberly examining the past in order clearly to discern the future; African-American culture is reclaiming its heritage.
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10 Generations of Enslavement (1619 to 1865)
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10 generations of enslavement took away many aspects of the African cultures our Ancestors brought with them. Indeed, plantation owners imposed the severest restraints on those African cultural practices thought to constitute potential threats to the safety and smooth operation of the plantation -- practices such as, manhood initiation rites, chieftancy entitlement, or the use of incomprehensible (to them) African languages.
- Cultural practices or traits that were not perceived as threatening in some way were effectively left alone. These surviving African cultural traits form the core of African-American culture. They are the stuff that makes us African-American, as opposed to Irish-American, Italian-American, or some other hyphenated cultural group.
- Examples of African cultural retentions may be found in the fact that, far more than other Americans, African-Americans show a special respect for elders -- a common practice in African societies. "CP time" reflects yet more retentions. Technically called "polychronic time" by cultural anthropologists, and referred to as "African time" by continental Africans, CP time is known (and misinterpreted) from Harlem to Cape Town. 1
- Today, in the 15th generation, 18 million Kwanzaa Keepers™ -- those who observe or "keep" the holidays of Kwanzaa -- have undertaken to reclaim the full measure of our cultural inheritance.
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The Significance of Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa is a means of reclaiming the rich African traditions that plantationists, and enslavement society in general, sought -- in their own interests -- to stamp out forever. These traditions, and more accurately, the values underpinning them, help to build stronger families and communities. This is why we reclaim them.
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The 14th Generation (the '60s generation), like the 12th Generation before it (the Harlem Renaissance), saw an explosion of interest in Africa. Just as the "red, black and green" flag of Marcus Garvey's UNIA 2 is an enduring politico-cultural product of the mighty 12th Generation, Kwanzaa is proving to be an enduring politico-cultural product of the mighty 14th.
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Founded in 1966 by Dr. Ron Karenga and the historically controversial, cultural nationalist group, Organization US, 3 Kwanzaa facilitates this reclamation process through the medium of one reclaimed African tradition in particular : the first-fruits, or harvest festival.
- A combination of the harvest festivals of many African ethnic groups, Kwanzaa has reintroduced several African cultural practices back into African-American culture. For example, the act of pouring libation to the Ancestors and Ancestresses, while invoking their blessings and praising their exemplary lives, is central to every Kwanzaa ceremony. This ancient African spiritual practice, known alike to the Pharaohs of Kemet (Egypt), to our more recent Ancestors, and, less formally, to our 14th generation, 4 is now firmly re-established (albeit, not without some controversy) as a component of African-American culture.
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Keep Kwanzaa!™
Over time, we will present a model Kwanzaa ceremony on this page. We will also chronicle on this page, the ways in which our visitors keep the culture-reclamation enterprise we call Kwanzaa.
- So, come back soon, and Keep Kwanzaa!™
1. See, Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture (1977), p. 136, for the view that a polychronic conception of time correlates to cultural groups that place a high value on maintaining positive social relations.
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" Red is the color of the blood which men must shed for their redemption and liberty; black is the color of the noble and distinguished race to which we belong; green is the color of the luxuriant vegetation of our motherland. "
excerpt from the Universal Negro Catechism (1921), of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).
3. See, e.g., Elaine Brown, A Taste of Power (1992), pp. 142 - 144, and 161 - 167, for a perspective on the role members of Organization US played in carrying out F.B.I.-sponsored assassinations of Black Panther leaders. See also, Black Radical Congress list, October 1999, for a debate on the subject.
4. For example, the rudiments of libation clearly were known to Chicago-born Eric Monte, screenwriter of the 1975 classic "Cooley High", who famously penned for that movie the informal libation statement : "For the brothers who ain't here."
From the Hands of Master Sculptors SM
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