1. DCI74 wrote:

This is a very interesting article and raises points I’ve thought of over the years. The celebration of Kwanzaa has never been a annual tradition in my family, in fact the only celebrations I’ve been to were either work-related or due to a woman I was dating (you know a brotha has to be supportive) but much like the author I get the principles but it was never a principal holiday for me. I can even recall years ago being a part of a “holiday events planning committee” with one of my current employers and shocking the room when I told them I didn’t celebrate Kwanzaa as if it was expected that as a black man I would. It always struck me as odd that certain black folks would basically put on a costume to represent their connection to Africa for one week out of 52 yet during no other time of the year would they even mention the Kwanzaa principles, seemed very fraudulent and superficial.

2. Mrs. Rivers wrote:

Im on the fence with this one. I didnt celebrate Kwanzaa until my 2nd Cousin’s Wife (who is white) made us do it. Lets just say, it was very uncomfortable looking at a white woman shaking the hell out of a calabash and singing songs in Swahili. . . .

But I get the point. The further and further removed we are from the Motherland, the more and more our culture tries to grasp at anything African. We all have to have something that keeps us grounded and draws us back to our roots. I guess Kwanzaa is a flimsy attempt but it works (for some).

Personally, I have the same beef with Kwanzaa as I do with Black History Month. Its trendy, and everybody wants to collaborate or do something — just in that time frame. I cant tell you how many calls I get from organizations who want to do something with my organization JUST for Black History Month. I told one guy – “You do realize that we are black everyday of the year — not just in February!”

3. ~JJG~ wrote:

Mrs. Rivers,

“Lets just say, it was very uncomfortable looking at a white woman shaking the hell out of a calabash and singing songs in Swahili. . . .:

I am hollering out loud…too funny!

4. DCI74 wrote:

Exactly Sammy in fact I have made a point to speak on the whole Black History thing in February because I feel that I make black history every single day so I don’t revere February as being a special month, well other than the fact it’s my birthday month lol but that’s it. One thing I have always wondered, is there any evidence that the principles associated to Kwanzaa were ever really celebrated in an annual traditional sense? I mean I know Karenga made the holiday up but outside of the Swahili-worded principles is there a record of any other African ethnic groups celebrating something like this?

On another note I remember dating one woman and her mother gave me a kente cloth tie which I never wore because the print was so wild I couldn’t find a suit or tie that would work well with it lol.

5. ShadowSurfer wrote:

Interesting article. One issue, do you celebrate Christmas? The birth of the white Jesus?

I celebrate none of them. The principles of Kwanzaa is affirmed in my soul. There for I am a human being versus a human doing.

Peace and love..

6. Frichy wrote:

I guess it would be hard to celebrate the principals and ritual of Kwanza since most of us, along with the dominat culture have for generations, practiced the rituals of Christmas. When you add the material aspect to Christmas–the promise and fulfillment of gifts, rewards and patterns and practices of holiday decorations etc., the ritual of Kwanza doesn’t shine in quite the same light so to speak. For some, it could be the thought of unlearning and re-learning a new way of celebrating a time of year that they’ve already mastered and grown accustomed to. For this reason, the art of celebrating Kwanza may seem a daunting task. For many, it may seem as though they are being challenged to give up one tradtion for another. And that is not an easy proposition when you consider that a tradition is a way of life. So for the majority of us to begin celbrating Kwanza, it will likely only happen by way of an evolutionary process.

7. R.oB. wrote:

The problem with Kwanzaa is much like that of the civil rights movement. It simply doesn’t represent the values we hold as a community.

8. R.oB. wrote:

P.S. And that’s a crying shame, really.

9. Nubian King wrote:

Why doesn’t “the civil righes movement represent the value we hold as a community”?

10. Z wrote:

I have a friend that doesn’t celebrate Kwanzaaa for a very different reason. He says that Ron was paid by the FBI to help disrupt the panthers and he was sent to prison for torturing black women. So after prison he created Kwanzaa.
Basically he believes that it was Ron’s ego that lead him to create Kwanzaa as an attempt to leave a legacy of something other than his dirt and being an agent of the FBI.

Now I don’t know how true this is so I’m going to have to do some research, but if this is true. It’s quite disturbing.

11. Z wrote:

I have a friend that doesn’t celebrate Kwanzaaa for a very different reason. He says that Ron was paid by the FBI to help disrupt the panthers and he was sent to prison for torturing black women. So after prison he created Kwanzaa.
Basically he believes that it was Ron’s ego that lead him to create Kwanzaa as an attempt to leave a legacy of something other than his dirt and being an agent of the FBI.

Now I don’t know how true this is so I’m going to have to do some research, but if this is true. It’s quite disturbing.