What Is Kwanzaa? Don't Get It Twisted!

"Reverend Pat Robertson called Kwanzaa 'an absolute fraud' during the news segment of Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club December 6. After lamenting that 'left wing educators, left-wing judges are stripping every vestige of our Christian heritage,' Robertson, host and Christian Coalition of America founder, said: 'Kwanzaa is an absolute fraud. You know, there was no festival in Africa called 'Kwanzaa.' I mean, it's made up by a bunch of hippie-types on the West Coast. I mean, it's not something that goes back to Africa. No way.'"

Alrighty then! I cannot say that I am a big Kwanzaa fanatic. I've participated in a few celebrations over the years that were sponsored by different organizations and I buy Kwanzaa stamps every now and then during the holiday season. However, who the heck is Pat Robertson to call it a fraud when he doesn't have a clue what he is talking about?

First, Kwanzaa isn't about religion.

Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday. And it is not an alternative to people's religion or faith but a common ground of African culture.

One of the most important and meaningful ways to see and approach Kwanzaa is as a self-conscious cultural choice. Some celebrants see Kwanzaa as an alternative to the sentiments and practices of other holidays which stress the commercial or faddish or lack an African character or aspect. But they realize this is not Kwanzaa's true function or meaning. For Kwanzaa is not a reaction or substitute for anything. In fact, it offers a clear and self-conscious option, opportunity and chance to make a proactive choice, a self-affirming and positive choice as distinct from a reactive one.

Likewise, Kwanzaa is a cultural choice as distinct from a religious one. This point is important because when the question arises as to the relation between choosing Kwanzaa or/and Christmas, this distinction is not always made. This failure to make this distinction causes confusion, for it appears to suggest one must give up one's religion to practice one's culture. Whereas this might be true in other cases, it is not so in this case. For here, one can and should make a distinction between one's specific religion and one's general culture in which that religion is practiced. On one hand, Christmas is a religious holiday for Christians, but it is also a cultural holiday for Europeans. Thus, one can accept and revere the religious message and meaning but reject its European cultural accretions of Santa Claus, reindeer, mistletoe, frantic shopping, alienated gift-giving, etc.

Second, it was not "made up by a bunch of hippies-types on the west coast."

Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor and chair of the Department of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach, author and scholar-activist who stresses the indispensable need to preserve, continually revitalize and promote African American culture.

Third, he is correct. Slaves didn't bring the holiday from Africa and celebrate it "out back" on the plantation. But, it is based on continental African roots.

Kwanzaa is an African American and Pan-African holiday which celebrates family, community and culture. Celebrated from 26 December thru 1 January, its origins are in the first harvest celebrations of Africa from which it takes its name. The name Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase "matunda ya kwanza" which means "first fruits" in Swahili, a Pan-African language which is the most widely spoken African language.

The first-fruits celebrations are recorded in African history as far back as ancient Egypt and Nubia and appear in ancient and modern times in other classical African civilizations such as Ashantiland and Yorubaland. These celebrations are also found in ancient and modern times among societies as large as empires (the Zulu or kingdoms (Swaziland) or smaller societies and groups like the Matabele, Thonga and Lovedu, all of southeastern Africa.

Kwanzaa builds on the five fundamental activities of Continental African "first fruit" celebrations: ingathering; reverence; commemoration; recommitment; and celebration.

Good Lord! I don't know if it's the intolerance or the ignorance that irritates me more. I don't really make time or have the inkling to celebrate Kwanzaa but, by golly, at least I know what the heck it is! Why can't people learn something, if only a little something, before they go shooting off their mouths to millions - effectively spreading the ignorance?