Immediately following Christmas this year will mark Kwanzaa's forty-third anniversary. From Dec. 26 through Jan. 1, millions of African Americans, like myself, will start their week-long celebration by greeting families and friends with the Swahili term "Harbari gani!" which means "What's happening!" Much of what will be happening will be talk about whether the commercialization and takeover by larger retailers of this holiday celebration violates the seven principles (the Nguzo Saba) of Kwanzaa.
Kwanzaa, which means "the first fruits of the harvest," was founded in 1967 by Dr. Maulana "Ron" Karenga, then chairman of the African American Studies department at California State University at Long Beach. Thought to be a black version of Christmas, Kwanzaa is neither a religious holiday nor a substitute for Christmas. It is a spiritual and cultural holiday whose seven principles of unity (umoja), self-determination (kujichagulia), collective work and responsibility (ujima), cooperative economics (ujamma) , purpose (nia), creativity (kuumba) and faith (imani) represent and reaffirm traditional African American values that extends to all Americans.
The practice of black economic power and self-reliance have kept the holiday of Kwanzaa financially afloat. Unlike Christmas, which is characterized by rampant commercialism and the accumulation of material objects, Kwanzaa's emphasis is on human relationships and on the spiritual ties and responsibilities that African Americans first have to one another, and then to the larger society.
However, gifts, called zawadi, do play an important role during Kwanzaa. Gifts exchanged are either handmade or purchased from African American vendors in keeping with the fourth principle of Kwanzaa known as cooperative economics.
As a small but thriving business, Kwanzaa keeps black dollars afloat longer in African American enclaves across the country than any other national holiday. Because its products, like the kinara (the candle holder for seven candles, one black, three red and three green), the Kikombe Cha Umoja (communal unity cup), the Mkeka (place mat) and the bendea (the African American national flag) can only be found in neighborhood Afrocentric curio shops, African American consumers shop there instead of outside their communities. On the whole, these small African and African American owned businesses profit modestly from Kwanzaa items because they are sold only in abundance during a specific time of the year.
Because African American businesses in this country are plagued with financial instability due to racial and economic disparities, the commercial spread of Kwanzaa in stores like Target and Walmart would keep the Kwanzaa dollars afloat, many argue, but these small African American businesses would not financially profit from this sort of commercial popularity; albeit it would be another acknowledgment of African Americans' unique contribution to the larger U.S. economy.
With the majority of black dollars already floating out of the community and into store chains like Target and Walmart, we would see the rapid displacement of small African and African American owned businesses. And these store chains vie aggressively for our dollars by tracking our spending habits.
In the Sept. 2005 issue of USA Today, an article on African American spending habits reported that according to Target Market, a company that tracks black consumer spending, African Americans not only spend their dollars outside of their communities as fast as they make them but African Americans also spend a significant amount of their income on depreciable products that come at the expense of a financially solvent future for us individually and collectively as a people.
In watching how the dollar trail leaves small community owned businesses and pours into huge conglomerate store chains, how do any of the small businesses across the country survive against these corporate Goliaths?
And if Kwanzaa, in particular, goes corporate, can it still maintain its unique character and not lose its soul?
Overwhelmingly, most African Americans say no, because corporate accountability has too often been overridden by profit. And an example of the corporate exploitation of Kwanzaa was exhibited during the dedication ceremonies which unveiled the Kwanzaa stamp in 1997. As widespread acceptance of the Kwanzaa stamp took hold in the marketplace, so too did the corporate takeover of Kwanzaa with companies buying licensing rights from the United Stated Postal Service to use the stamp. Prepaid phone cards, lapel pins, book markers and greeting cards with the Kwanzaa stamp logo on them were all made in China.
The shifting of labor, profit, and control of the Kwanzaa image out of black hands and into corporate coffers is just merely one phase of a corporate takeover where merger trumps morals.
This Kwanzaa holiday, I'll head out to the neighborhood store to purchase my red, black and green candles for the kinara, because I know that the strength of the U.S. economy is found in its multicultural small community owned businesses that reflect our nation's diversity. And in so doing, I would also be honoring the fourth principle of Kwanzaa which is cooperative economics.
http://www.harvestfestivals.net/africanfestivals.htm
An interesting read about Kwanzaa, from NPR:
"Mr. JOHN McWHORTER (Columbia University): It's a beautiful language, Michel. I think Swahili is great, but there is a problem with it if we're going to split hairs, and that is that none of our ancestors spoke that."
"MARTIN: Now, just to clarify this. You're saying that you think that the ancestors of most of the people of African descent who are in the United States today probably didn't speak Swahili because...
Mr. McWHORTER: They didn't come from...
MARTIN: East Africa."
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/31/132492199/Linguist-Kwanzaa-Sans-Swahili
Inconvenient facts indeed!
The discussion has been interesting and a bit perplexing--in the spirit of Kwanzaa, no one is forcing its celebration on those who have no need for it. Much of the celebrations that I have been involved with are about nurturing on own families and by extension our communities. Cultural traditions are educationally affirming for the most distressed among us. Kwanzaa, IMO, addresses many issues that are not necessarily addressed proactively in other venues.
The celebration of Kwanzaa in black communities do keep the dollars circulating a little longer in the those communities at this time of year. That's a good thing.
African and Caribbean festivals have sprung up (in Chicago and elsewhere) following the quasi-institutionalizing of Kwanzaa observances for a the past two decades. This is a good thing. Ethnic / cultural exposure is a good thing for most ethnic groups and the synergy that results from cultural exchanges enrich us all.
Harambe.
Christmas has become largely meaningless to me - the economy relies on the rampant commercialism, so that becomes the most important thing about it. Christmas becomes about shopping. I've largely opted out of the gift arms race, and instead give gifts to charity in the name of people. OK, so then if you take out "spend as much as possible on gifts, and hoping I'll receive as many gifts as possible", what's left? Well, I guess being with family is nice, at least the ones that aren't annoying.
And fortunately, maybe a few moments each Xmas season, I actually feel the positive spirit of Christ's birth, and people being generous in other ways than simply buying and receiving a lot of stuff.
It is true - as someone said, any holiday becomes commercialized, but Kwanzaa hopefully won't be just a revenue opportunity, as Christmas has so blatantly become.
His last album was awesome.