Well Give This Man A Cookie!

Here we go again! A couple of weeks ago it was Pat Robertson (of whom I expect very little as far as diversity training), now here's another "brain surgeon" who wants to tell the world that he just discovered the obvious (though apparently this misconception is rather broad based and misunderstood by many whites - and probably a few ill-informed blacks too). No, Virginia, Kwanzaa is not celebrated in Africa.

"Karenga, arguably the father of Kwanzaa, repeatedly uses the word 'African' to describe the holiday and borrows from the continent's languages to describe its foundations. Although I never got through to him, I did get an interesting response about Kwanzaa from the nice lady at the Black History Museum in Alexandria, Va.

'I would say you would find no African nations and one American nation celebrating Kwanzaa,' she said.

Teaching the values Karenga lays out is certainly worthwhile, and he is right to argue that they are essential ingredients to living a healthy, happy, successful life. And if an annual festival helps reinforce them to an African-American audience, well that's fine, too. But can we please do my wife and my kids a favor and dispense with the claim that this festival has its roots anywhere but right here in the USA? "

Again, I don't celebrate Kwanzaa nor do any members of my family or circle of friends (save an occasional Kwanzaa card or maybe some decorations picked up after Christmas). But, at least as far as I know, none of us have any notion that this is some holiday transplanted from Africa. I thought that everyone knew that it is a holiday created by an African American (descendent of slaves) to unite other "Africans" (meaning other victims of the slave trade and/or colonialism) throughout the diaspora. I can't speak to or verify the research that went into the creation of this celebration. However, at no point does he state or imply that there is a specific country or culture where, by name, this holiday takes place. He meshed concepts from "continental" Africa.

Where does the word "Kwanzaa" come from?
The word "Kwanzaa" comes from the phrase, "matunda ya kwanza" which means "first-fruits." Kwanzaa's extra "a" evolved as a result of a particular history of the Organization Us. It was clone as an expression of African values in order to inspire the creativity of our children. In the early days of Us, there were seven children who each wanted to represent a letter of Kwanzaa. Since kwanza (first) has only six letters, we added an extra "a" to make it seven, thus creating "Kwanzaa."

Why is Kwanzaa a seven-day holiday?

Kwanzaa is a seven-day holiday for two reasons:

In terms of authenticity, Kwanzaa is modeled on first-fruits celebrations in ancient Africa, especially on Southern African first-fruits celebrations like Umkhost of Zululand which has seven days.
The central reason for Kwanzaa's being seven days is to stress the Nguzo Saba and through this introduce and reaffirm communitarian values and practices which strengthen and celebrate family, community, and culture.

I am not sure if this is just a matter of semantics or verbiage that confuses this man but, clearly, he is not telling any informed audience anything they don't already know. I suppose his next discovery will be that all black people can't dance and sing.

Oh well, better late than never.