In August of 2006, Dalia Ziada, a young Egyptian writer, discovered her favorite comic-book action hero. He trumpeted justice. He preached of nonviolent pressure. And he had dreams of a promised land that protest might bring. Ziada had just heard the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “It was amazing and really moved me,” says Ziada, now 29 and a Cairo-based activist. “Since then, I decided to use MLK nonviolent strategies in everything in my life, starting from my personal life to major political participation and civil problems – and it worked perfectly.”

Ziada was motivated politically, as she decided to translate a half-century-old American comic book about King into Arabic. “The main motive for me to have this book available for the young activists in the region,” says Ziada, noting that King was a young man “when he launched his movement.”

Since first publishing the book in 2008, Ziada and her group, the American Islamic Congress, say they have distributed thousands of Arabic-language issues of “Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story” in the Middle East, including in Tahrir Square at the height of January’s revolution.

The book is testament not only to the power of King’s message, Ziada says, but also to the popularity of cartooning in the Arab world, especially among the younger generation. And she is just one of many Arab comic publishers and cartoonists who believe passionately that their work can help inform, inflame and open the hearts and minds of their Mideast readers.

“I want to say,” Political cartoonist Amr Okasha, Egypt before the January 25 revolution is not the Egypt now – and the future will be better than today.”  Ziada has faith that the message of nonviolent protest can continue to resonate with young comics readers in Egypt. The comic she translated into Arabic, “The Montgomery Story” (about the Montgomery bus boycott), was published in 1958 by the Fellowship of Reconciliation. “The book is an inspiration to all young people, and it helped so many understand the core strategy of the American civil rights movement and compare it to other nonviolent movements in India and South Africa,” says Zaida.

“The story of MLK is universal because it focuses on the human side inside
all of us,” Ziada adds. “It is about bringing justice to all. . . . The
people in the Middle East are hungry for this knowledge, and they
surely inspired by MLK.”

President Obama commenting on the peaceful protests by the Egyptians which led to revolution and the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak quoted Martin Luther King to capture the meaning of the historical moment: “There’s something in the soul that cries for freedom.” That MLK is still revered and a reference for social change is a tribute to his contribution of enhancing the human condition and transforming people and society in the process.

For more information on the life and times of MLK, go to:   http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/life-of-mlk. This is a fine course and site. We celebrate and honor the work and achievement of Martin Luther King, Jr, our hero in history.

Today we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King (MLK), Jr at a critical moment in American and African American History. The Kwanzaa Guide is pleased to return to devoting blog space to African American History and the heroic figures in our Black History. The narratives of American and African American history are often at odds with each other. Put bluntly, Black History serves as a corrective to much of the historical narrative of American History.

Thus, beginning with MLK, the Kwanzaa Guide will advance a more complete and honest narrative of American history through the lens of Black History. As such, the narrative of MLK, for example,  is too often sanitized in order to fit the image of MLK as a non threatening figure in American history. Here we will debunk this image and present narrative of King as an evolving social justice activist who fused religion, spirituality and philosophy with activism.

We will revisit King’s historical “I Have A Dream” speech. This speech not only re-energized the civil rights movement, but made American re-imagine the nation and the concept of citizenship. We will also critique President Barack Obama through the work and views of MLK. And, finally we will assess the state of America and black people, using the ethical and social standards advanced by MLK.

HAPPY KWANZAA

A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture

The Principle Imani: “Commitment, duty, and obligation to trust and believe in our people and our parents and our meet all challenges and to make progress.”

Faith Theme: Believing in ourselves and our people

Today is the seventh and final day of Kwanzaa. Families, friends, and communities come together on this day assess, reassess, celebrate and recommit themselves to practicing the Imani principle.  Faith is the bedrock principle. Faith, as Mary McLeod Bethune said, “is the first factor in a life devoted to service. Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible. Faith in God is the greatest power, but great, too, is faith in oneself.”  Faith has been ever present in the black experience in America. At our most unpromising moments, faith has carried us forward, making us more hopeful. The infamous The Dred Scott decision, declaring that all blacks- those enslaved as well as those who were free -were not and could never become citizens of the United States, was a cause for despair. In response to this decision, Frederick Douglass would do his customary thing: He would begin with hope in his speeches, uttering “I walk by faith and not by sight.” And, of course, the second stanza of the Black National Anthem is an ode to faith:

Stony the road we trod,
bitter the chastening rod,
felt in the day that hope unborn had died;
yet with a steady beat,
have not our weary feet,
come to the place on which our fathers sighed?
we have come over a way that with tears has been watered;
we have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
where the white gleam of our star is cast.

On Faith

“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.”

- Howard Thurman

Ingathering Activity: During the morning, afternoon, or evening, family (and friends) gathers around the “Kwanzaa Set” to light the green candle and talk about ways they have demonstrated trust and belief in each other. Moreover, today is time for reflection and centering yourself. It may include letter writing, singing, poetry, folktales or proverbs or narratives in African American History which illuminate and reinforce the faith principle. This is the day also where families reflect back on the previous days of Kwanzaa and again celebrate the joy of living and the love which abounds in the family.

As with the other days of Kwanzaa the families discuss and evaluate commitments and practices around the faith principle, recommitting themselves to practicing this principle in greater measure in 2013.

Remembrance Activity (Optional): One of the activities in conjunction or separate from the ingathering activity is the remembrance of family members, friends, and significance others who have passed on and transition from this life. During Kwanzaa, we raise the names of our love ones who are no longer with us, but whose love and spirit we carry forth in our own lives.

In Remembrance

Those who are dead are never gone,

they are there in the thickening shadow.

The dead are not under the earth

they are in the tree that rustles.”

Libation Statement (Optional)

Candle Lighting Activity: On the seventh day of Kwanzaa the family lights the green candle. This candle is symbolic of hope and future. The placement and order of the Kwanzaa candles teach and reinforce valuable lessons for the family. The lesson here is that we light the green candle to reinforce the value and priority we place our future.

Karamu (Feast) and Celebration: Enjoy yourself and the delicious food; this is time for celebrate the joy of living, love among family and friends and the achievement of which have been attained throughout the year.

HAPPY KWANZAA

A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture

The Principle Kuumba: “Commitment, duty, and obligation to the practice of continuous improvement.”

Creativity Theme: Leaving our families, community, and world a better place to live, work, and love

Today is the six day of Kwanzaa. Families, friends, and communities come together on this day assess, reassess, celebrate and recommit themselves to bettering the lives of their families, communities, and indeed the world.  The story of Lewis Latimer is marvelous example of the creativity principle. Latimer was a collaborative partner with Alexander Bell, Hiram Maxim and Thomas Edison. Bell invention of the telephone was incomplete and made possible with the drafting and drawing of the patent by Latimer. Thomas Edison invention of the light blub was inefficient, cost prohibitive, and ineffectual. Thus, it was left up to Latimer to improve upon the technology that was before him and invent the first carbon filament light bulb by combing previous manufacturing techniques with several new materials. Latimer’s light bulb was cost effective and long lasting, allowing families and businesses to live by lights. Thus, Latimer embodies the creativity principle and is a model to emulate.

Ingathering Activity: During the morning, afternoon, or evening, family (and friends) gathers around the “Kwanzaa Set” to light the red candle, share memories and stories of how they have contributed to bettering their family, school, faith-based institution, community; poetry, song, or historical accomplishments may be cited to reinforce and make reference to the defining elements of the creativity principle; and families  discuss and evaluate commitments and practices around the creativity principle, and make commitments  around the creativity  principle for 2013.

Remembrance Activity (Optional): One of the activities in conjunction or separate from the ingathering activity is the remembrance of family members, friends, and significance others who have passed on and transition from this life. During the first day of Kwanzaa, we raise the names of our love ones who are no longer with us, but whose love and spirit we carry forth in our own lives.

Libation Statement (Optional)

Candle Lighting Activity: On the six day of Kwanzaa the family lights the red candle. This candle is symbolic of struggle- continuous effort and work. The placement and order of the Kwanzaa candles teach and reinforce valuable lessons for the family. The lesson here is that we light the red candle to reinforce the value and priority we place struggle as the method for creating progress.

Karamu (Feast) and Celebration: Enjoy yourself and the delicious food; this is time for celebrate the joy of living, love among family and friends and the achievement of which have been attained throughout the year.

HAPPY KWANZAA

“A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture”

Nia/Purpose: “Commitment, duty, and obligation to contribute to the morally serious purpose and noble goal, of nation building, i.e. , the quest to recover and restore the African American family, community, and people as a whole”

Nia Theme: “Nation Building”

Today is the fourth day of Kwanzaa. Family (and friends) come together to celebrate the Nia principle. Nia/Purpose principle is a call to nation building, a call to rehabilitate and restore African Americans to their traditional greatness, beginning at the level of the family. The African proverb is strikingly insightful in illuminating the centrality of the family in the nation building project, declaring: “The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its people.” And, conversely, the development and elevation of the nation begins in the home. This is an affirmation that nation building begins at the smallest level, the family.

The Nation Building Project: “Up You Mighty People”

Marcus Garvey led the first mass black movement of the twentieth century.  The Garvey movement called upon Africans everywhere to work reclaim Africa, struggle to reclaim their better selves, and strive to restore their history and humanity. Marcus Garvey believed in the primacy of race as the starting point for the liberation of all African people. Central to Garvey’s “race first” philosophy was the doctrine self-reliance and self determination, and nationhood.

The central focus of the Garvey Movement was the idea of nation building-the building of strong independent black nations, which would take its rightful place among the communities of nations. The reclaiming and restoring Africa was the linchpin Garvey’s nation building strategy.  The starting point for the nation building efforts was the creation of an African centric culture which would reinforce a positive black self-image and a can-do ethos of nation building.  A great many of the activities of the UNIA were designed to serve this purpose. “Nation building is our program, not building apartment houses or churches, that too small a job for us”, thundered Marcus Garvey’s wife, Amy Jacques Garvey.

Ingathering Activity: Today we come together as family to talk about the principle Nia and how we have observed this principle in practice throughout the year. To be sure, nation building begins in the home. Therefore, the family engages in conversation around the duty and obligation to contributing to the noble mission of elevating African Americans by first developing yourself and your family, and then deciding in what ways you can involve yourself- through an organized effort, can you serve your people.

Remembrance Activity: Family members may in various ways raise the names of love ones who have passed on.  In speaking their names and talking about their deeds, service, and accomplishment, we evoke their spiritual presence and ensure that they will live on forever.

Libation: Optional

Candle Lighting Activity: On the fifth day of Kwanzaa the family lights the green candle. This candle is symbolic of hope and future. The placement and order of the Kwanzaa candles teach and reinforce valuable lessons for the family. The lesson here is that we light the green candle to reinforce the value and priority we place our future.

Assessment and Commitment: Family members take inventory and discuss what efforts they have made toward keeping their Nia commitment and recommit themselves to the practice of this principle in 2013.

Kwanzaa Journal (Optional): Record you Nia commitment in your journal

Karamu (Feast) and Celebration: Enjoy yourself and the delicious food; this is time for celebrate the joy of living, love among family and friends and the achievement of which have been attained throughout the year.

Note: Gifts may be given on any of the seven days of Kwanzaa.

HAPPY KWANZAA

“A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture”

Ujamaa/Cooperative Economic: “Commitment, duty, and obligation to promote and help build and maintain cooperative enterprises and initiatives the services of the family, neighborhood, and the human good.”

Ujamaa Theme: “Sharing and Caring”

Today is the fourth day of Kwanzaa. Family (and friends) come together to celebrate the Ujamaa principle. This principle is grounded in the unselfish concern for and devotion to the material well-being of others. To be sure, this principle sets in motion a “thick set of concentric circles of obligations and responsibilities evolving round levels of relationships radiating from the biological and extended family to the wider circumference of the neighborhood and others. In our own history, we have a compelling model of cooperative economic- Negro” Baseball Leagues. We would do well to study and emulate this model.

A Model of Cooperative Economics: “Negro” Baseball Leagues

During the period of American history known as “Jim Crow,” one of the most thriving institutions in black life was the Black Baseball Leagues. The leagues were among the largest black businesses in the United States. The roots of black baseball’s organizational structure coincided with the rise of mutual aid societies in the 1840s. Mutual aid societies were essential in conjunction with the church, in forming the nucleus for the modern black community.

What is fascinating and instructive about the formation of the “Negro Leagues” was that they had to operate their “established segregated enterprise within the fabric of a national economy. As Michael E. Lomax notes: Black baseball magnates utilized a business concept know as cooperative enterprises…From the outset, early black entrepreneurs recognized that any success in developing black businesses to some sense of stability could occur through economic cooperation. Thus, the consolidation of resources became a means to establish black enterprises.” To be sure, the Black Baseball Leagues serve as a compelling and instructive model of cooperative economics.

Ingathering Activity: Today we come together as family to talk about the principle Ujamaa and how we have observed this principle in practice throughout the year. Like the Ujima, Ujamaa is a multiplier principle in that it impacts and reinforces the other principles. The model for cooperative economic must begin in the family. That is to say, the value and commitment for sharing is created and cultivate in the home. Therefore, today we discuss ways of revenue sharing in the family. From the family we want to discuss the possibility of expanding to the larger community. We already have some forms of revenue sharing such as investment clubs. Employing the principle Ujamaa in the family unit and extended family is a small step toward addressing the economic well-being of African Americans.

Remembrance Activity: Family members may in various ways raise the names of love ones who have passed on.  In speaking their names and talking about their deeds, service, and accomplishment, we evoke their spiritual presence and ensure that they will live on forever.

Libation: Optional

Candle Lighting Activity: On the fourth day of Kwanzaa the family lights the red candle. This candle is symbolic of struggle- continuous effort and work. The placement and order of the Kwanzaa candles teach and reinforce valuable lessons for the family. The lesson here is that we light the red candle to reinforce the value and priority we place struggle as the method for creating progress.

Assessment and Commitment: Family members take inventory and discuss what efforts they have made toward keeping their Ujamaa commitment and recommit themselves to the practice of this principle in 2013.

Kwanzaa Journal (Optional): Record you Ujamaa commitment in your journal

Karamu (Feast) and Celebration: Enjoy yourself and the delicious food; this is time for celebrate the joy of living, love among family and friends and the achievement of which have been attained throughout the year.

Note: Gifts may be given on any of the seven days of Kwanzaa.