Happy Kwanzaa

Faith/Imani: Trusting and believing with our heart and mind in ourselves, our parents, our teachers, and our leaders and our capacity as a people to make a better world

Imani Message

The Imani principle is the bedrock principle. Mary McLeod Bethune teaches us that “Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.” Howard Thurman tells us that: “Faith is the substance and spirit which makes “tired hearts refreshed and dead hopes stir with the nearness of life; faith is the “promise of tomorrow at the close of everyday, the triumph of life in the defiance of death, and the assurance that love is sturdier than hate, right is more confident than wrong, that good is more permanent than evil.” And, the African American National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing, reminds us that faith and hope are tethered together: “Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us/Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.” Our history, the anthem teaches us to keep believing even in the most hopeless moments: Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod/Felt in the days when hope unborn had died/Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet/ Come to the place for which our fathers sighed. Moreover, Peter J Gomes says that faith and hope gives us:

The greatest sense of the whole to the believer, who in this world can see only in part, as in a distorted mirror of the sort found in carnival fun houses, in which what you see is real but not really real, for all the proportions are wrong. The way to see things whole, the way to live wholly and not in part, the way for past and present and future to make some semblance of sense for those who have to keep these dimensions together, is through the more excellent way and the higher gifts of faith and hope.”

And finally, a poignant message of Life Every Voice and Sing is that the road to victory is fraught with difficulty, doubt, and disappointment, but in the end, the faithful will prevail: God of our weary years, God of our silent tears/ Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way/ Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light/ Keep us forever in the path, we pray/ Facing the rising sun of our new day begun/ Let us march on till victory is won.

Imani Day Checklist

ü     Ingathering activity, around a meal or designated time

ü     Read African/American proverbs, folktales, poems, or recite family story related to Imani (optional)

ü     Highlight the Kwanzaa Symbol Candles/ Mishuuma Saba

ü     Reflect on the  Imani commitment for the current and coming year

ü     Family Feast

ü     Pour Libation (optional)

ü     Candle lighting

ü     Make Imani commitment

ü     Take picture/record your commitments or Kwanzaa activities (optional)

ü     Using the Swahili greeting to greet each other. Harbari Gani (What’s the News) Response: Imani

ü     Plan and/or do an Imani activity.

Candle Lighting Activity

Candle Lighting: On the seventh day of Kwanzaa the family lights the Green candle. This candle is symbolic of the effort. The placement and order of the Kwanzaa candles teach and reinforce valuable lessons for the family. The Green candle is symbolic of effort, discipline and work.

Kwanzaa Journal Entry

What was my 2011 Kwanzaa Commitment: Completed, Partially Completed, Still in Progress

What are my 2012 Kwanzaa commitments?

By what means or method will I employ to achieve my commitments?

Review Kwanzaa commitments and make changes if necessary

Post on Facebook (optional)

Happy Kwanzaa

Faith/Imani: Trusting and believing with our heart and mind in ourselves, our parents, our teachers, and our leaders and our capacity as a people to make a better world

Imani Message

The Imani principle is the bedrock principle. Mary McLeod Bethune teaches us that “Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.” Howard Thurman tells us that: “Faith is the substance and spirit which makes “tired hearts refreshed and dead hopes stir with the nearness of life; faith is the “promise of tomorrow at the close of everyday, the triumph of life in the defiance of death, and the assurance that love is sturdier than hate, right is more confident than wrong, that good is more permanent than evil.” And, the African American National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing, reminds us that faith and hope are tethered together: “Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us/Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.” Our history, the anthem teaches us to keep believing even in the most hopeless moments: Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod/Felt in the days when hope unborn had died/Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet/ Come to the place for which our fathers sighed. Moreover, Peter J Gomes says that faith and hope gives us:

The greatest sense of the whole to the believer, who in this world can see only in part, as in a distorted mirror of the sort found in carnival fun houses, in which what you see is real but not really real, for all the proportions are wrong. The way to see things whole, the way to live wholly and not in part, the way for past and present and future to make some semblance of sense for those who have to keep these dimensions together, is through the more excellent way and the higher gifts of faith and hope.”

And finally, a poignant message of Life Every Voice and Sing is that the road to victory is fraught with difficulty, doubt, and disappointment, but in the end, the faithful will prevail: God of our weary years, God of our silent tears/ Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way/ Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light/ Keep us forever in the path, we pray/ Facing the rising sun of our new day begun/ Let us march on till victory is won.  Let us keep the faith in our families, our parents, and our people.

Imani Day Checklist

ü     Ingathering activity, around a meal or designated time

ü     Read African/American proverbs, folktales, poems, or recite family story related to Imani (optional)

ü     Highlight the Kwanzaa Symbol Candles/ Mishuuma Saba

ü     Reflect on the  Imani commitment for the current and coming year

ü     Family Feast

ü     Pour Libation (optional)

ü     Candle lighting

ü     Make Imani commitment

ü     Take picture/record your commitments or Kwanzaa activities (optional)

ü     Using the Swahili greeting to greet each other. Harbari Gani (What’s the News) Response: Imani

ü     Plan and/or do an Imani activity.

Candle Lighting Activity

Candle Lighting: On the seventh day of Kwanzaa the family lights the Green candle. This candle is symbolic of the effort. The placement and order of the Kwanzaa candles teach and reinforce valuable lessons for the family. The Green candle is symbolic of effort, discipline and work.

Kwanzaa Journal Entry

What was my 2011 Kwanzaa Commitment: Completed, Partially Completed, Still in Progress

What are my 2012 Kwanzaa commitments?

By what means or method will I employ to achieve my commitments?

Post on Facebook (optional)

Happy Kwanzaa

Creativity/Kuumba: Working diligently to continuously enhance our families, neighborhoods and people

Kuumba Message

The Kuumba principle is teaches that both children and adults should strive for continuous improvement. This principle is central and essential to the restoration of academic excellence for African American youth.  Rediscovering an achievement ethic in education and professional endeavors must be a priority for 2012. Too many of our youth are complacent with just getting by, believing that the difficult subjects and challenging matters are for other people. Similarly, adults suffer the same diminished self-concept, and all the while expect youth to perform at an exceptional level. Exceptional performing youth require exceptional performing adults and parents. Thus, we should all strive to leave our relationships- formal and informal unions- families, neighborhoods, and people in an improved state.

Kuumba Day Checklist

ü     Ingathering activity, around a meal or designated time

ü     Read African/American proverbs, folktales, poems, or recite family story related to Kuumba (optional)

ü     Highlight the Kwanzaa Symbol Zawadi/Gifts

ü     Reflect on the  Kuumba commitment for the current and coming year

ü     Family Feast

ü     Pour Libation (optional)

ü     Candle lighting

ü     Make Kuumba commitment

ü     Take picture/record your commitments or Kwanzaa activities (optional)

ü     Using the Swahili greeting to greet each other. Harbari Gani (What’s the News) Response: Kuumba

ü     Plan and/or do a collective work and responsibility activity.

Candle Lighting Activity

Candle Lighting: On the second day of Kwanzaa the family lights the red candle. This candle is symbolic of the effort. The placement and order of the Kwanzaa candles teach and reinforce valuable lessons for the family. The red candle is symbolic of effort, discipline and work.

Kwanzaa Journal Entry

What was my 2011 Kwanzaa Commitment: Completed, Partially Completed, Still in Progress

What are my 2012 Kwanzaa commitments?

By what means or method will I employ to achieve my commitments?

Post on Facebook (optional)

Happy Kwanzaa

Purpose/Nia: Fulfilling our duty and obligation to contribute to  the high and morally serious purpose of nation-building, i.e. , the quest to recover and restore our people to their traditional greatness

Nia Message

Charles Hamilton, the intellectual giant who built from scratch the intellectual and framework and the legal strategy and infrastructure and which led to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court, and Dunbar High School in Washington D.C. are two compelling narratives of Nia:

Charles Hamilton

Howard University was the nation’s premier school for black attorneys. Yet, when Mordecai Johnson, first black president of Howard University, appointed Charles Hamilton Dean of Howard’s Law School, it lacked accreditation and was called by the wealthiest black residents of Washington D.C “a dummy’s retreat.” Howard’s accreditation only marked beginning of the work ahead. Armed with the schools hard-earned credentials, he directed the law school to redouble its efforts to graduate lawyers fit to effects social gains. Houston did not demand from his students and faculty all that they could give; he exacted

Dunbar High School

Dunbar High School, located in Washington D.C. represents one of the most inspiring and compelling models of African American educational excellence- Dunbar was once the pride of the race, out performing in city-wide examination students attending the high school for whites. Within the walls of Dunbar from 1870 to 1954 (eighty-four years) there was teaching of only black children by only black teachers. There was a respect for learning and an expectation of superiority based on knowledge and pride emanating from teachers and instilled into students that made Dunbar a special educational environment.

Nia Day Checklist

ü     Ingathering activity, around a meal or designated time

ü     Read African/American proverbs, folktales, poems, or recite family story related to nation building (optional)

ü     Highlight the Kwanzaa Symbol Corn/Muhindi

ü     Reflect on the  Cooperative Economics commitment for the current and coming year

ü     Family Feast

ü     Pour Libation (optional)

ü     Candle lighting

ü     Make Nia commitment

ü     Take picture/record your commitments or Kwanzaa activities (optional)

ü     Using the Swahili greeting to greet each other. Harbari Gani (What’s the News) Response: Nia

ü     Plan and/or do a collective work and responsibility activity.

Candle Lighting Activity

Candle Lighting: On the second day of Kwanzaa the family lights the green candle. This candle is symbolic of the effort. The placement and order of the Kwanzaa candles teach and reinforce valuable lessons for the family. The green candle is symbolic of effort, discipline and work. The lesson here is straightforward: competence, excellence, and greatness are achieved through children and youth who put forth the right effort (work and study) will achieve success in their grades and school performance. The same applies to adults.

Kwanzaa Journal Entry

What was my 2011 Kwanzaa Commitment: Completed, Partially Completed, Still in Progress

What are my 2012 Kwanzaa commitments?

By what means or method will I employ to achieve my commitments?

Post on Facebook (optional)

Happy Kwanzaa

Cooperative Economics/Ujamaa: Sharing and pooling our financial resources and goods and services for the common benefit of family and community participants with the goal of building and sustaining cooperative economic enterprises

Ujamaa/Cooperative Economics Message 

The practice of mutual aid, Cooperative Economics, by traditional Africans gave recognition and worth to members of the community. This practice grew out of their shared understanding and philosophical insight of the essential dependency of humans as exemplified in their cooperative mode of agricultural production.

Moreover, in traditional African societies the mode of agriculture production was based on smallholdings worked by individual farmers and their households. In such a mode of production, recurrent stages were easily foreseeable at which the resources of any one farmer would be insufficient to accomplish with dispatch the necessary task for agricultural production. In such moments, all that was necessary was for the household in the community to send word to the neighbors and the people would assembly with their own implements of work and together to help (Cooperative Economics) get the job done in full and warranted conviction that when their turn came the same gesture would be returned in exactly the same spirit. This practice, especially in light of the today’s financial uncertainty is a viable financial strategy to leverage family and community resources.

Cooperative Economics Day Checklist

ü     Ingathering activity, around a meal or designated time

ü     Read African/American proverbs, folktales, poems, or recite family story (optional)

ü     Highlight the Kwanzaa Symbol Mazao/Crops

ü     Reflect on the  Cooperative Economics commitment for the current and coming year

ü     Family Feast

ü     Pour Libation (optional)

ü     Candle lighting

ü     Make Cooperative Economics commitment

ü     Take picture/record your commitments or Kwanzaa activities (optional)

ü     Using the Swahili greeting to greet each other. Harbari Gani (What’s the News) Response: Ujamaa

ü     Plan and/or do a collective work and responsibility activity.

Candle Lighting Activity

Candle Lighting: On the second day of Kwanzaa the family lights the red candle. This candle is symbolic of the effort. The placement and order of the Kwanzaa candles teach and reinforce valuable lessons for the family. The red candle is symbolic of effort, discipline and work. The lesson here is straightforward: competence, excellence, and greatness are achieved through children and youth who put forth the right effort (work and study) will achieve success in their grades and school performance. The same applies to adults.

Kwanzaa Journal Entry

What was my 2011 Kwanzaa Commitment: Completed /  Partially Completed /  Still in Progress

What are my 2012 Kwanzaa commitments?

By what means or method will I employ to achieve my commitments?

Post on Facebook (optional)

Happy Kwanzaa

Collective Work and Responsibility/Ujima: Investing  collectively in our family’s and community’s well-being, and working in   mutual beneficial way to create the best conditions and possibilities of life for everyone

Ujima/Collective Work & Responsibility Message

Collective work and responsibility is a powerful force in the construction of family and community, and in healthy development of children. This principle instructs that we are all responsible for the welfare and success of each other. All adults, for example, are responsible for the welfare of the community and for the nurturing and development of children. Similarly, all adults are responsible and accountable for the success and failure of neighborhood schools and the safety of the community. Neighborhood safety is most definitively grounded in a network of caring adults who monitor the behavior and skills acquisition, i.e., education of children in the neighborhood. Hence, as indicated above, collective work and responsibility is a powerful and transformative value, which if observed by critical mass of neighborhood residents, would have the effect of raising our neighborhoods to a level capable of producing persons of moral, academic, and professional excellence.

Collective Work and Responsibility Day Checklist

Collective Work and Responsibility Day Checklist

ü     Ingathering activity, around a meal or designated time

ü     Read African/American proverbs, folktales, poems, or recite family story (optional)

ü     Highlight the Kwanzaa Symbol Kinara/Candleholder

ü     Reflect on the  Collective Work and Responsibility commitment for the current and coming year

ü     Family Feast

ü     Pour Libation (optional) for deceased parents love ones, significant others, heroes and heroines, all of those whose sacrifice make it possible for us to enjoy the freedom and fruits of our labor

ü     Candle lighting

ü     Make Collective Work and Responsibility commitment

ü     Take picture/record your commitments or Kwanzaa activities (optional)

ü     Using the Swahili greeting to greet each other. Harbari Gani (What’s the News) Response: Ujima

ü     Plan and/or do a collective work and responsibility activity.

ü     Make Collective Work and Responsibility commitment

ü     Take picture/record your commitments or Kwanzaa activities (optional)

ü     Using the Swahili greeting to greet each other. Harbari Gani (What’s the News) Response: Ujima

ü     Plan and/or do a collective work and responsibility activity.

Candle Lighting Activity 

Candle Lighting: On the second day of Kwanzaa the family lights the green candle. This candle is symbolic of the effort. The placement and order of the Kwanzaa candles teach and reinforce valuable lessons for the family. The green candle is symbolic of the prosperity of achieved success of the family, school or community. The lesson here is straightforward: children and youth who put forth the right effort (work and study) will achieve success in their grades and school performance. The same applies to adults.

Kwanzaa Journal Entry

What was my 2011 Kwanzaa Commitment: 1) Completed,2) Partially Completed, 3) Still in Progress

What are my 2012 Kwanzaa commitments?

By what means or method will I employ to achieve my commitments?

Post on Facebook (optional)