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The
Spirit of Kwanzaa
By Mona Charen
Jewish World
Review,
12/30/97
The International
Black Buyers and Manufacturers Expo and Conference, an association representing
more than 1,000 black-owned businesses, has sent a blistering letter
to large American firms like Hallmark Cards and Giant Food, telling them
to keep their hands off Kwanzaa-related products. The sale of Kwanzaa
products by non-black businesses, the organization contends, is "arrogantly
exploitative of the culture of African people." According to The
Washington Post, Sala Damali, one of the founders of the IBBMEC, said, "Many
companies look at it as a normal exercise of commerce. We find it insulting
and disrespectful to the actual spirit of Kwanzaa."
Well. First, let us consider what the response would be if an association
of white business owners (that very idea is anathema) were to issue a
statement saying that blacks should not sell items related to, say, St.
Lucia's Day, a Scandinavian festival. It would be called racist within
a nanosecond.
The notion that only blacks should buy and sell Kwanzaa products is equally
offensive.
As to the "spirit of Kwanzaa," that is a more sensitive matter.
Americans have clasped Kwanzaa to their bosom. Major TV stations elevate
it to the same status as other winter holidays, like Christmas and Hanukkah,
by broadcasting "Happy Kwanzaa" greetings between Christmas
and the New Year. Products for Kwanzaa, including candelabras and greeting
cards, fill the stores. A quick Lexis-Nexis search of Kwanzaa stories
in major newspapers turns up hundreds of feel-good features about the "spirit
of sharing" (Los Angeles Times), the "feast for body and soul" (Baltimore
Sun), "food, fellowship and pride" (Seattle Times) and "community
unity" (The Orlando Sentinel).
Most Americans, eager to respect the traditions of every group,
assume that Kwanzaa is what it sounds like: a traditional African
celebration handed down over the generations.
But Kwanzaa actually began in 1966, the brainchild of Ronald Everett.
Everett -- who rejected his "slave name" and adopted the
title "Maulana," Swahili for "master teacher," and
the name (Ron) Karenga -- was a radical black nationalist who founded
a gang called US (United Slaves) and did battle, figuratively and
literally, with the Black Panthers. Karenga wanted to design an
alternative to Christmas for American blacks. So, with a pinch
here and a word there -- Kwanzaa is adapted from a Swahili phrase
meaning "first fruit" -- and heavy borrowing from non-African
symbols like the candelabrum, he stitched together his holiday.
It is reasonable to ask why American blacks, who have been Christian
longer than the Mormons or the Christian Scientists, should need an alternative
to Christmas. But Kwanzaa is catching on. The holiday lasts seven nights
and is dedicated to seven principles. These principles are little more
than the self-important gaseousness of 1960s radicalism: unity, self-determination,
collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity,
and faith. Amiri Baraka, nee LeRoi Jones -- he changed his name at Karenga's
urging -- has now become a Marxist and blesses Kwanzaa by describing
it as "really socialism -- collective work, cooperative economics."
Ron Karenga is now a respected member of the American establishment.
He is a professor at California State University at Long Beach and the
chairman of the Black Studies Department. He would like people to forget
his violent, even vicious past. When the United Slaves and Black Panthers
tangled, people were killed. Karenga hates to see it called murder. It
was, he insists, just a "shoot-out." He would also like people
to forget the time he spent in prison for ordering the torture of a young
woman.
Do the millions of black Americans who celebrate Kwanzaa think of it
as the ritualization of socialism? Doubtful. Do they object to the mainstreaming
of Kwanzaa symbols and products? Probably not. Do they know anything
about Karenga and his past? It doesn't seem so. When Karenga spoke
at the Million Man March, he went virtually unnoticed.
But the holiday's origins in a terrible time and with a terrible person
are certainly relevant to its legitimacy. Unlike the birthday of Martin
Luther King, Kwanzaa celebrates separatism and black nationalism. Perhaps
the IBBMEC is right. Perhaps the practice of so many big American corporations
to domesticate the holiday with greeting cards and special products is "disrespectful
to the actual spirit of Kwanzaa." It is not a spirit that bears
close examination. |
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