The Kwanzaa season is well and truly upon us. The pre-Kwanzaa events have started the acculturation process in earnest (https://www.alkebulan.org/2018/12/07/alkebu-lan-academy-of-excellence-pre-kwanzaa-childrens-party-15-12-18/) and the itinerary for the nationwide community celebrations is in wide circulation (http://www.ahnluton.org/kwanzaa2018?fbclid=IwAR24FBGU_cGmnG2YDRt2m0dsqgit6DDR5jNX_rTjJrV7WPDVoZp1Kcngj3E).
For the uninitiated, Kwanzaa is a seven-day celebration of family, community and culture, forged in the heat of the revolutionary 60s based on ancient Afrikan roots created by Dr Maulana Karenga, leader of the US organisation. (1) Indeed, Kwanzaa is one of the (relatively few) enduring legacies of an era that promised so much that has grown to have millions of celebrants around the Afrikan world. (2)

Of course Kwanzaa is not without its critics and the twelfth month of the year tends to bring them out in droves ranging from the self-serving attacks from (mainly right-wing) Europeans (3) to the ‘anti-Hotep’ type broadsides from within. (4) There are other critiques, however, that go to the heart of the Black Power movement in the USA, the chaos fomented by the antagonisitc government agencies (against its ongoing legacy). (5)
What critics in the main fail to do is quantify how application of the Nguzo Saba (seven principles – the foundation of Kwanzaa) is “counter-revolutionary,” or even a government creation as some claim). (6) To remind ourselves, Nguzo Saba are:
Umoja (Unity) – To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) – To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves instead of being defined, named, created and spoken for by others.
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) – To build and maintain our community together and make our brother’s and sister’s problems our problems and to solve them together.
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) – To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (Purpose) – To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (Creativity) – To do always as much as we can, in the best way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (Faith) – To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle. (7)

A principle is the focus of each of the consecutive days of the observance (i.e. Umoja on the first day through to Imani on the last). Collectively, they amount to a comprehensive framework for a value system for the community. Given that Kwanzaa was developed by Dr Karenga in response to “the key crisis in Black life,” namely “the cultural crisis.,” it’s worth exploring what contributions the Nguzo Saba has made, or can make to contemporary “Black life.” (8)

If we look at one area, parenting, it could be argued that the level conflict among our young people, both real and mythologised, represents a crisis. (9) A value works within the context of a community and possesses inherent parameters (boundaries) as well as proscribed duties, roles and responsibilities.
But the family is the discrete unit of the community and if coherent cultural values are lacking here they will only be multiplied. The advent of social media and technology have placed unprecedented access literally at the fingertips of young people. Some parents may feel obliged to go with the flow in an effort to maintain some kind of conciliatory rein on their children.
Anecdotally, the sphere of social care looms over Afrikan families ushering in changes in parenting styles accordingly. These are said to be reflected in disciplinary techniques, the reduction (eradication?) of chores and domestic responsibilities and an increase in free choice for young people in various aspects of their lives.
The beauty of the Nguzo Saba is that most of the principles can be applied wholly of substantially to young people directly. This is why Kwanzaa ritualises the transmission of cultural knowledge from the Ancestors , through the adults and down to the children. This means that unless the adults are equipped with a historical, cultural knowledge, the children are unlikely to be inculcated into the culture, meaning that the ‘harvesting of new generations’ that Kwanzaa is supposed to represent will not take place. This is why historians like Robin ‘The Black History Man’ Walker, emphasise adult education versus youth education. (10)
In this regard then, whether we embrace Kwanzaa or not, our survival depends on the active consumption and transmission of our culture. It just so happens that the celebration provides a vehicle in a way that is accessible and exciting to children. This kind of grounding historically would have given young people a proscribed path through adolescence and adulthood into Eldership. Currently, it may be factor that steers our young people away from the perils of the street.
(1) Dr Maulana Karenga (21/12/17) Annual founder ’s Kwanzaa Message —2017 “Practicing The Principles Of Kwanzaa :
Repairing , Renewing And Remaking Our World .” http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/documents/AnnualFoundersKwanzaaMessage–Dr.MaulanaKarenga2017.pdf
(2) Mary Ann French (30/12/95) The Kwanzaa Conundrum. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/12/30/the-kwanzaa-conundrum/3492b385-8abd-496f-9296-c33ee15fe25c/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5e552c48565c
(3) Ann Coulter (27/12/17) Happy Kwanzaa! The holiday brought to you by the FBI .http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2017-12-27.html
(4) NewsOne Staff (26/12/11) Kwanzaa Is Wack: There, I Said It. https://newsone.com/1729195/kwanzaa-is-wack-there-i-said-it/
(5) Mukasa Afrika Ma’at (02/01/12) Maulana Karenga’s Haunting Ghost. http://afrikan-resistance.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/maulana-karengas-haunting-ghost-by.html
(6) Coulter. Op. cit
(7) Dr. Maulana Karenga (2008) The Nguzo Saba (The Seven Principles). http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/7principles.shtml.
(8) Dr. Ron Daniels (26/12/11) The Nguzo Saba and Kwanzaa in a Time of Crisis. https://ibw21.org/commentary/vantage-point-articles/the-nguzo-saba-and-kwanzaa-in-a-time-of-crisis/
(9) Amnesty International UK (09/05/18) Met Police using ‘racially discriminatory’ Gangs Matrix database. https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/met-police-using-racially-discriminatory-gangs-matrix-database
(10) Uchenna Edeh (09/05/14) The Black History Man: An Interview with Robin Walker. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Sqko1b-HSHUJ:kentakepage.com/interview-with-robin-walker/+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

we ask the question:

How can Kwanzaa help to save our children?
1) Will you be attending Kwanzaa events this year?
2) If not why not?
3) Have our recent parenting techniques failed our children?
4) Do we still have a “cultural crisis in Black life”?
5) If not Kwanzaa, by what other means do we effect intergenerational cultural transmission?

Our 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.

Members of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and their children