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”

Kwanzaa was created to introduce and reinforce the 7 Principles and reinforced the bonds of family and community.  The Seven Principles were viewed and still remain the “moral minimum” set of values which African Americans need to strengthen and make more effective families and family systems. The values embedded in the 7 Principles of Kwanzaa are interlocking and align together and synergistically produce an outcome greater than each of the values isolated individually.

To be sure, the 7 Principles habitually default in duties and responsibilities. Duties are “how the individual members of the family and community see their socio-ethical roles in relation to the interest and welfare of others and responsibilities are the reciprocal obligations these members have to each other.

The 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.” This is an affirmation that nation building begins at the smallest level, the family.

Put another way, Nia imposes a specific obligatory task of collective work and service, on blacks, and that the performance of these tasks and service contributes to nation building, with the starting point being the family and extending to the wider community.  To be sure, Nia gives  blacks an enlarged sense of duty, a more noble purpose in life, one  which African Americans feel they owe each other as a whole by reason of their common history and humanity, shared purpose and ends, and as such should demonstrate in practice the duty to elevate the race.

In nation building, African Americans not only contribute to the well-being of blacks, but also contribute to the cultural richness of America and humanity. Nationhood is not a state into which people are born but rather a task demanding fulfillment by conscious development. That is to say, the collective consciousness of African Americans is its culture and cultural production, i.e., its classical literature and music, its scientific discovery and knowledge, and its ethical and spiritual teachings.

Moreover, Nia asserts that it is the duty of every African American to inspire and educate black people to become appropriate citizens who understand that their aspirations must coincide with the highest morally serious purpose of the collective vocation of nation building, and that it is the duty of African Americans to help their people develop and fulfill their potentiality. For the culture nation is a higher moral community, stretching beyond individualism.

Therefore, during Kwanzaa, families and others take inventory and discuss: what they have done to contribute to the noble purpose of nation building, and what they will do in the coming year (recommitment) to practice the principle of Nia/Purpose in their daily lives.

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.”

Kwanzaa was created to introduce and reinforce the 7 Principles and reinforced the bonds of family and community.  The Seven Principles were viewed and still remain the “moral minimum” set of values which African Americans need to strengthen and make more effective families and family systems. The values embedded in the 7 Principles of Kwanzaa are interlocking and align together and synergistically produce an outcome greater than each of the values isolated individually.

To be sure, the 7 Principles habitually default in duties and responsibilities. Duties are how the individual members of the family and community see their socio-ethical roles in relation to the interest and welfare of others and responsibilities are the reciprocal obligations these members have to each other.

The Ujamaa/Cooperative Economic 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.

African Americans have a tradition of practicing mutual aid in the context of family, extended family, and church. The principle of cooperative economic encourages and instructs blacks to channel the practice of mutual aid into a strong movement of modern cooperatives, which is the practice of pooling together and leveraging financial resources and sharing in the benefits which those resources yield.

Ujamaa is not just an economic theory or approach, but a way of living, in fact a smart and ethical way of living. African proverbs affirm this: “If you do not allow your neighbor to reach nine you will never reach ten,” and “One person’s path will intersect with another before too long.” Hence, success that must be accrued to cooperative living and economic depends very much on each member of the family and community demonstrating a high degree of moral responsiveness and sensitivity in relations to the needs and well-being of other members.

Above all, as a moral and social good, the principle and practice of Ujamaa promotes, reinforces, and increases unity in the family and wider community. Sharing financial resources engenders trust and collective efficacy, i.e., social capital. Communities where trust and collective efficacy are present have a greater sense of well-being and purpose and meaning in their lives. Their youth are bound together by the pursuit of common interest and ends and by adults and the community as a whole.

Indeed, the Kwanzaa principle Ujamaa procreates and fosters generosity, its corresponding virtue. In traditional Southern African American culture, considerable importance was attached to generosity. The African proverb teaches that: “True greatness is identified by generosity.” And, to be sure, in Southern African American culture, this was a way of living, a way of living the “Good Life.”

In sum, during Kwanzaa, families and others take inventory and discuss: what they have done to done and achieve in relationship to the goal of cooperative living and enterprise, and what they will do in the coming year (recommitment) to practice the principle of Ujamaa/Cooperative Economic in their daily lives in the context of the family and neighborhood.

Ujima/Collective Work and Responsibility: “Commitment, duty, and obligation to work together with others to solve problems and engage in collective projects that will advance the well-being of the family, neighborhood, and the common good.”

Kwanzaa was created to introduce and reinforce the 7 Principles and reinforced the bonds of family and community.  The Seven Principles were viewed and still remain the “moral minimum” set of values which African Americans need to strengthen and make more effective families and family systems. The values embedded in the 7 Principles of Kwanzaa are interlocking and align together and synergistically produce an outcome greater than each of the values isolated individually.

To be sure, the 7 Principles habitually default in duties and responsibilities. Duties are “how the individual members of the family and community see their socio-ethical roles in relation to the interest and welfare of others and responsibilities are the reciprocal obligations these members have to each other.

The Ujima/Collective Work and Responsibility principle cultivates the greatest sense and practice of empathy. Being empathic is not just an emotional feeling, but a critical component of our humanity. The African maxim give voice to this notion: “A human needs help.” The “imperative here is to act because humans deserve t be helped, and is “born of an acute sense of the essential dependency of the human condition.” The African proverb underscores the concept and value of interdependency reasoning: “A human being is not a palm tree as to be self-sufficient.” Humans, therefore, at all times directly or indirectly, need the help of others.

Moreover, the principle collective work and responsibility, with its corollary virtue of empathy, is deeply rooted in the African American experience. Black Women Clubs were central and essential to the development of the black middle class and to providing a safety net for poor and working class black families. Their mottoes, Lifting as We Climb” and “Be Watchful over Each Other,” illustrates their commitment to being collectively responsible for African Americans. Social activist Mary Church Terrell believed that the core mission of black women and their clubs was “saving the race.” Terrell issue a call to black women to reclaim and lift up blacks mired in poverty and illiteracy: “The preservation of the race”, Terrell asserted, “demands that black women go among the lowly, illiterate, and even the vicious to whom they are bound by race and sex to reclaim them.”

To be sure, Ujima is the recognition of the reciprocal obligation to help others, the concerns for others, especially those who are disadvantaged or disabled. The principle underscores the responsibility of many for one and reinforces a thick sense of solidarity, ensuring a high probability of family and community well-being. Further, the principle and practice of collective work and responsibility is fundamental to achieving the family and community’s pursuit of common ends and the common good.

Therefore, during Kwanzaa, families and others take inventory and discuss: what they have done to work together to help each other and advance the well-being of the family and others, and what they will do in the coming year (recommitment) to practice the principle of Ujima/Collective Work and Responsibility in their daily lives in the context of the family and neighborhood.

Kujichagulia/Self-determination: “Commitment, duty, and responsibility to speak and act in the interest of African Americans and the human good.”

Kwanzaa was created to introduce and reinforce the 7 Principles and reinforced the bonds of family and community.  The Seven Principles were viewed and still remain the “moral minimum” set of values which African Americans need to strengthen and make more effective families and family systems. The values embedded in the 7 Principles of Kwanzaa are interlocking and align together and synergistically produce an outcome greater than each of the values isolated individually.

To be sure, the 7 Principles habitually default in duties and responsibilities. Duties are “how the individual members of the family and community see their socio-ethical roles in relation to the interest and welfare of others and responsibilities are the reciprocal obligations these members have to each other. As we discuss and present each of the principles, we will show their relational character to each other, and to family and neighborhood.

The Kujichagulia/Self-determination principle asserts African Americans, like every people, have a duty and responsibility define themselves and their relationship to the world in their own image and interest, and from the perspective of their own culture and history. This principle unashamedly puts forth the proposition that knowing oneself and one’s culture and history is the correct basis for absorbing the world.

Again, at the core of the self-determination principle is history and culture, i.e., their contribution and special place in the world, which is indelibly linked to their collective dignity and respect. The principle makes clear that African Americans have a duty and responsibility to know and their history and culture. Educator Mary McLeod Bethune in her Last Will and Testament said to blacks.

I want Negroes to maintain their human dignity at all costs. We, as Negroes, must recognize that we are the custodians as well as the heirs of a great civilization. We have given something to the world as a race and for this we are proud and fully conscious of our place in the total picture of mankind’s development.

Leopold Sedar Senghor, President of Senegal, reinforces Bethune stating: “A nation that refuses to keep its rendezvous with history that does not believe to be the bearer of a unique message- that nation is finished, ready to be placed in a museum. Let the African speak: above all, let him act. Let him bring like a leaven his message to the world in order to help build a universal civilization.”

In a word, every people has a special message and gift to give to the world. African Americans, as Bethune and Senghor have pointed out, have duty and responsibility to not parrot other people’s worldview or culture. The African proverb says, “If you borrow a man’s legs, you will go where he directs you.” Free, proud, and productive people cherish their own culture and history; indeed, they learn from other people and their culture. But, they whatever they choose to bring into their culture; they shape in their own image and interest. African Americans would do well to adhere to the great George Washington Caver teaching: “No one has a right to come in to the world without leaving behind a distinct and legitimate reason for having passed though it.”

During Kwanzaa, families and others take inventory and discuss: what they have learned about the cultural and historical contributions of African Americans and what recommitments they make around the Kwanzaa principle Kujichagulia/Self-determination.