Cheatom is the founder and executive director of WorldBeat Cultural Center in Balboa Park and lives in San Diego.
Mental health conditions and substance use disorders are on the rise worldwide. In our country, African American teenagers and their families are dealing with rising rates of depression, anxiety and suicide. The New York Times’ Matt Richtel calls it “the inner pandemic.”
Kwanzaa is an important cultural holiday because it can be part of the solution for the inner pandemic crisis. Kwanzaa honors generational unity. Elders are respected, like the ancestors they will become, for their long life of service to the community, for their achievements, for providing an ethical model, and for the richness of their experience and wisdom this has produced. It is they who hear cases of conflict and problems and offer solutions.
In school, students do not learn the true African American history, past or present. Kwanzaa, therefore, becomes an integral tradition to teach our true history.
During a recent visit to WorldBeat Cultural Center, Julius Garvey, the son of Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey, said that young people today need to know about the greatness of their ancestral legacy and about the struggles and triumphs of their ancestors so that in their times of struggle they have something to fall back on and find strength in to keep moving forward.
Kwanzaa theater performance “Tribute to Stevie Wonderland “ with Monica Harris and performers at the WorldBeat Cultural Center.
(Enrique Vega)
The honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey famously said that a people without the knowledge of their culture are like a tree planted without its roots. Kwanzaa gives us the roots of our culture, of our ancestors.
One of the ways ancestors are remembered during Kwanzaa is through the ritual of pouring tambiko (libation) for the ancestors. As tambiko is poured, a libation statement is made honoring and praising our ancestors. It is followed by a calling out of the names of ancestral heroes, heroines and departed relatives in a meaningful and spiritually uplifting ritual.
Kwanzaa is an African American cultural holiday celebrated from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. It is a celebration that was established as a means to help African Americans reconnect with their African cultural and historical heritage by uniting in meditation and study of African traditions and Nguzu Saba, the “seven principles of African heritage.”
Kwanzaa is the time for ingathering. It is based on the African first-fruits celebrations. It is the harvesting of the people. It is a time of ingathering for the family and the entire community to renew and reinforce bonds between them. The activities of Kwanzaa are informed by ancient views and values which affirm and reinforce family, community and culture.
The Nguzo Saba is the Swahili term for the seven principles that are the seven basic values of African culture. These principles stand at the heart of the origin and meaning of Kwanzaa; they are not only the building blocks for the community but serve also as its social glue.
Kwanzaa keynote guest, Queen Afua with San Diego community members at the WorldBeat Cultural Center.
(
Enrique Vega)
The seven principles (also in Swahili) are Umoja (oo-MOE-jah) or unity, Kujichagulia (koo-jee-cha-goo-LEE-ah) or self-determination, Ujima (oo-JEE-mah) or collective work and responsibility, Ujamaa (oo-JAH-mah) or cooperative economics, Nia (nee-AH) or purpose, Kuumba (koo-OOM-bah) or creativity, and Imani (ee-MAH-nee) or faith.
WorldBeat Cultural Center has been celebrating Kwanzaa as a tradition for 42 years beginning at the Prophet Vegetarian restaurant. I opened the restaurant on University Avenue in City Heights in 1971 and closed it in 1985. The year after the restaurant closed, the nonprofit Prophet World Beat Productions was created.
Tradition is our gathering, our cultural anchor, and therefore our starting point.
Every year, each night features special guest speakers and performers, ceremonial candle lighting and libation with drumming, Kwanzaa poetry readings and Karamu (the traditional African American feast and family gathering).
This year’s highlighted keynote guest will be Dr. Maulana Karenga on Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. His lecture will be on “Kwanzaa, Culture and the Practice of Freedom: A Model and Message for Our Times.”
Dr. Karenga is a professor and chair of the Department of Africana Studies at California State University Long Beach. He is the creator of the pan-African cultural holiday Kwanzaa and the Nguzo Saba (the seven principles) and author of the authoritative text titled “Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture.”
Visit worldbeatcenter.org for tickets and more information on WorldBeat Center’s Kwanzaa celebrations.
