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The Kwanzaa season is here and this will be one like no other as this year Kwanzaa, the celebration of Afrikan family, community and culture is 50!
In December 1966, the US organisation, under the leadership of Maulana Karenga revealed the fruits of their studies of celebratory traditions in Afrika at the first ever Kwanzaa celebration on the west coast of the USA. Since then it has become a global phenomenon garnering tens of millions of celebrants across the globe.
Us, being regarded as a “cultural nationalist” organisation emphasised the efficacy of Afrikan culture in addressing the needs of Afrikan people. Indeed:
“US maintained that the key crisis in black life was the culture crisis – the crisis in views and values in social, political, and economic organization, and creative production.” (1)
Thus in spite of the cultural/nationalist position being dismissed as “black racism” by the likes of Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale, (2) Kwanzaa has demonstrably grown astronomically beyond its ideological base to be embraced across the political, social and religious lines that it is today.
Nevertheless, the observance has always had its critics from within and without the community. Possibly the most the nonsensical criticism is that Kwanzaa is “made up,” even though the same applies to pretty much every single observance in the history of humanity. Others dismissed it as counter-revolutionary (“pork-chop nationalism”) (3) and there are those who eschew based on their attitude to founder Dr Maulana Karenga.
Yet, Kwanzaa is one of the enduring resources from the revolutionary 60s and its resilience is evidenced by the 12 organisations that have come together as the Kwanzaa Network UK to host what is touted as “the greatest Kwanzaa the UK has ever seen” taking place on Umoja (Monday) on 26th December at the Round Chapel, 1D Glenarm Road, London E5 0NP from 3-9pm (http://www.kwanzaanetwork.com/). In addition, the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement, who have held the biggest Kwanzaa in Europe continue the reinvigoration of Alkebu-Lan Kwanzaa with an celebration on Nia (Fri) 30th December 2016, from 2pm-9pm at the Waterlily Banqueting Suite, 69-89 Mile End Rd, London E1 4TT (https://www.alkebulan.org/kwanzaa/).
With Kwanzaa being fifty, it may also be useful to assess the extent it has helped us deal with the “culture crisis.”
A case in point could be some of the Pan-Afrikan responses to the death of Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Based on initiatives like:
· Cuban military expeditions in various Afrikan theatres of war that helped defeat colonial forces (e.g. Cuito Cuanavale);
· Offering/giving of direct practical military, economic and medical aid of Afrikan and Caribbean nations
· Free medical training to African-Americans
The revolutionary leader was regarded as “a true friend of Afrika.” (4)
Elsewhere he was lauded for his support for the reparations movement for giving refuge to Pan African revolutionaries such as Robert Williams and Assata Shakur. Several commentators have even gone as far as refer to Castro as an “Ancestor.” (5)
This latter point violates fundamental Afrikan spiritual principles (6) by peversely supplanting his actual European heritage with a mythical Afrikan one.
More generally, with Cuba being a white country, warrior scholar and activist Mama Marimba Ani, offers some critical guidance on how to evaluate such phenomena:
“On the question of identity, without clarity on this issue, there is no nationalist movement, there is no Pan-Afrikan movement. There’s no reason for us to be here as a community. Without racial/cultural identity which works for us as, a people and gives us power then there is no reason for us to be here – that’s the basis for our struggle. But what confusion about identity does is it works for integrationists, it works for assimilationists, it works for Marxists.” (7)
Moreover, the political maxim ascribed to Disraeli that there are “no permanent friends, just permanent interests,” get ostensibly discarded in a concerted effort to become Cuba’s implacable chum. Yet, Cuba’s adventures in Afrika can easily be contextualised within the cold war jostling then then world super powers, the USA and the USSR. Activist and Cuban exile Carlos Moore explains:
“Cuba reversed its dependency on USSR by forcing the them to become dependent on Cuba in Afrika to carry out their own interests. This has nothing to do with altruism, nothing to satelliteism, it’s pure strategic self-interest.” (8)
Over the years Moore, much to the chagrin of the black left, has been visceral in his condemnation of race relations in Cuba:
“Blacks see themselves as losers in this revolution. The unemployed – Black. People living in the worst housing conditions – Black. More than 86% of the people in the prisons are reported to be Black. Black young people in the streets, they’re profiled so aggressively.”
“The most hard line, hard core, racist and ultra racist tendencies are aligned behind Fidel Castro. Those are his men. People like Ricardo Alarcón. The man that Fidel Castro put in power to clean out Blacks from the entire tourist industry… he’s known to be one of the most white supremacist revolutionaries in Cuba. People like the vice-president of Cuba today Machado Ventura. We know he’s a hard core racist. This is known. The Black population in Cuba knows this. These are the hard core racists. Ramiro Valdés, also vice-president of Cuba, who was the former chief of the secret police. Ramiro Valdés, hard core racist. So you have these people, these are Fidel Castro’s men.” (9)
The gushing praise of Fidel Castro sidesteps these issues as if the racial discrimination against Afrikans in Cuba is a worthy price to pay for the government’s friendship. It also begs the question that if Cuba can afford help and assistance to Afrikans abroad, why cannot do the same for those at home. Indeed, even the aforementioned Robert Williams was forced to flee when his revolutionary broadcasts (from Cuba) to Afrikan in the USA began to stir the Afrikans in Cuba. (10) Consequently, as recently as 2013 Cuban ex-pat Roberto Zurbano could write in an opinion piece in the New York Times entitled, For Blacks in Cuba, the Revolution Hasn’t Begun:
“Black Cubans have less property and money, and also have to contend with pervasive racism… Racism in Cuba has been concealed and reinforced in part because it isn’t talked about. The government hasn’t allowed racial prejudice to be debated or confronted politically or culturally, often pretending instead as though it didn’t exist… The black population in Cuba is far larger than the spurious numbers of the most recent censuses. The number of blacks on the street undermines, in the most obvious way, the numerical fraud that puts us at less than one-fifth of the population. Many people forget that in Cuba, a drop of white blood can — if only on paper — make a mestizo, or white person, out of someone who in social reality falls into neither of those categories. Here, the nuances governing skin color are a tragicomedy that hides longstanding racial conflicts.” (11)
(1) Kwanzaa Guide (12/12/10) The Kwanzaa Story: How Kwanzaa Got Its Name.http://kwanzaaguide.com/2010/12/the-kwanzaa-story-how-kwanzaa-got-its-name/
(2) Seale, Bobby (1970) Seize The Time: The Story of The Black Panther Party and Huey P Newton. Black Classic Press, p 271
(3) Fred Ho and Diane C. Fujino (2009) Wicked Theory, Naked Practice: A Fred Ho Reader.University of Minnesota Press. p. 169.
(4) Paul Ifayomi Grant (27/11/16) Fidel Castro – A true friend of Afrika.http://www.houseofknowledge.org.uk/site/index.php?option=com_joomailermailchimpintegration&view=archive&Itemid=112.
(5) The Pan African Congress – North America (01/12/16) Pan African solidarity with the Cuban people. http://www.pambazuka.org/pan-africanism/pan-african-solidarity-cuban-people. Marjua Estevez (03/04/16) Cuba Supports Caribbean’s Demand For Reparations From European Powers.http://www.vibe.com/2016/04/cuba-supports-caribbeans-demand-for-reparations-from-european-powers/
(6) Dalian Adofo (2016) Ancestral Voices: Spirit Is Eternal. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. p. 18
(7) Marimba Ani (28/06/09) The Barack Obama Debates Collectionhttps://imixwhatilike.org/2013/09/29/barackobamaconsidered/.
(8) Carlos Moore Cuban Revolution and Race Relations (audio)
(9) Carlos Moore in Apartheid In Cuba’ a film in progress by Eduardo Montes-Bradley.
(10) Ronald J. Stephens (2010) “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition”: Robert F. Williams’s Crusade for Justice on Behalf of Twenty-two Million African-Americans as a Cuban Exile.https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2DiKRUDWFVUJ:https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/bdr/article/download/1158/1221+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
(11) Roberto Zurbano (23/03/13) For Blacks in Cuba, the Revolution Hasn’t Begun.http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/opinion/sunday/for-blacks-in-cuba-the-revolution-hasnt-begun.html
So tonight we ask the question:
Kwanzaa – are we still navigating the “culture crisis”?
1. Which Kwanzaa events will you be attending this year?
2. How has Kwanzaa endured for half a century?
3. Do Afrikans have clarity on issues of culture and identity?
4. Can Fidel Castro be legitimately called an “Ancestor” for Afrikan people?
5. Is Cuba a white or Black regime?
6. Has Afrikan suffering in Cuba been overlooked in pursuit of friendship with the regime?
Our very special guests:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and UNIA-ACL Ambassador for the UK and national co-Chair of the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 30 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Guide To Excellence.
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