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Cristally (f)
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Kwanzaa
« on: May 31, 2007, 04:29 PM » |
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Please I have a question to the nigerian people. In another Forum, we have a discussion about the ceremony of Kwanzaa (please google for it, because I can“t explain it so well) and the ideas behind it. http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/index.shtml - for example And please - I only want the "real" african people to give their opinion - means the ones, who are living in Nigeria or Africa. It would be very helpfull. Thank you in advance
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ghettochyk (f)
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sorry, i didn't read that link. but i'll you i thing about kwanzaa. i middle school (at a new school), during Christmas time, my teacher didn't want to "offend" me by giving me Christmas candies and stuff cus after i told her i'm african, she thot i celebrate kwanzaa. before that, i never even heard of Kwanzaa and i after that, i asked many africans that i knew about it, they're were also clueless but some said it's this one african-american holiday about connecting to their roots or something. but i don't think many africans (I'll say Nigerians) that's never left africa (Nigeria) know much about Kwanzaa. i bet if i went back to Naija and asked a random person, s/he prolly say "Kwa-what?"  well, i hope my post helped in whatever you were trying to find out since you didn't really specify.
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lazy (m)
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I am wondering what kind of response you were looking for from individuals living in Africa? It isn't an African Holiday in that sense. Kwanzaa is a Pan-African Holiday that was created in the US. It was basically created for the Africans in the Diaspora (mainly in the US) to allow them to reconnected with their ancestors (that were left in Africa and those sprinkled across the western hemisphere) and to remember the struggle (Slavery, 40 acres and a mule, Black Codes, Jim Crow, etc, ).
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BlackMamba (m)
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The Idea is laudable for African Americans but not practical for most Africans. There is no unified African culture that every African can rally around. Each African tribe has distinct language and culture which they will not substitute for another. Some of the terms seem African but obviously not Igbo which I can relate to.
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lazy (m)
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I defiantly understand what you are talking about when you stated:
"Some of the terms seem African but obviously not Igbo which I can relate to."
A large portion of African Americans don't relate to it either. I think when the holiday was created it was with the ideal of Pan Africanism in mind. They were trying to keep alive the ideals of Henry Sylvester-Williams (Trinadad), WEB Dubios (USA), Kwame Nukramah (Ghana), Patrice Lumumba (Congo), Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya) etc. The whole concept of seeking to unify the global African community for the goal of uplifting all Africans worldwide. There isn't any one group's culture I can say that makes up all of Kwanzaa so that is why Africans (even African Americans) don't relate to it. I think the principles of Kwanzaa are good (Unity, Self Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, etc, ) but i can understand why most don't relate to the holiday.
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Horus (m)
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Kwanzaa is an African American and Pan-African holiday which celebrates family, community and culture. Celebrated from 26 December through 1 January, its origins are in the first harvest celebrations of Africa from which it takes its name. The name Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase "matunda ya kwanza" which means "first fruits" in Swahili, a Pan-African language which is the most widely spoken African language. The first-fruits celebrations are recorded in African history as far back as ancient Egypt and Nubia and appear in ancient and modern times in other classical African civilizations such as Ashantiland and Yorubaland. These celebrations are also found in ancient and modern times among societies as large as empires (the Zulu or kingdoms (Swaziland) or smaller societies and groups like the Matabele, Thonga and Lovedu, all of southeastern Africa. Kwanzaa builds on the five fundamental activities of Continental African "first fruit" celebrations: ingathering; reverence; commemoration; recommitment; and celebration. Kwanzaa, then, is: a time of ingathering of the people to reaffirm the bonds between them; a time of special reverence for the creator and creation in thanks and respect for the blessings, bountifulness and beauty of creation; a time for commemoration of the past in pursuit of its lessons and in honor of its models of human excellence, our ancestors; a time of recommitment to our highest cultural ideals in our ongoing effort to always bring forth the best of African cultural thought and practice; and a time for celebration of the Good, the good of life and of existence itself, the good of family, community and culture, the good of the awesome and the ordinary, in a word the good of the divine, natural and social.
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wendymanda
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Kwanzaa is similar to Black Histroy month in that it was started in the 60s I think by someone that thought blacks should not celebrate white people's holiday. However it's only recognized in the US, I lived in Jamaica and I'd never heard of it till I came here.
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