Principles of Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder called the seven principles of Kwanzaa, or Nguzo Saba (originally Nguzu Saba—the seven principles of blackness), which Karenga said "is a communitarian African philosophy," consisting of what Karenga called "the best of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world." These seven principles comprise Kawaida, a Swahili term for tradition and reason. Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the following principles, as follows:
* Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
* Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
* Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together.
* Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
* Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
* Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
* Imani (Faith): To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
now in looking over these, i am thinking that all people need to take the week between christmas and new years to also look over these aspects of their lives. this should be a time of reflection and hope for us anyway, so why not use the princeples of kwanzaa to help us organize our thoughts and help us make goals for the new year? so today's is Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness. ok i dont need to restore my people to their traditional greatness, although maybe we as a whole need to remember where it is we came from and how we got to where we are today. but building and developing our community is a good thing to focus on. what - as an individual - can i do to make my community better? do i have the time to volunteer for anything? do i see a need that i could perhaps fill? I have decided that when i go to look for my apartment in port townsend i am going to try for a larger apartment so that i can get licensed for foster care. i may not be able to do a lot in the way of work and volunteering right now but i can take in a child who needs a home and give them all the love they can soak up while they are with me. I am also going to spend the day revamping my websites and getting them ready for a relaunch on new years day. so take some time today and focus on what you - as an individual - can do to improve your community.
that is all for today,
peace and luv
laura
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