Kwanzaa 2011: Imani/Faith Day- January 1st
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?
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