Umoja and Ujamaa Reverberate Through Words and Song

As the holiday season begins, many cultures turn to events that unite and remind them of their history.  With Christmas it is a time to remember the birth of their savior.  Judaism remembers when all hope was nearly lost, but then found through a candle that refused to go out.  Kwanzaa is a time of the year to remember an African community that has been displaced in the world, one that existed in a land where they were segregated.  Kwanzaa’s strength comes out through the seven symbols for: unity(Umoja), self-determination(Kujichagulia), collective work & responsibility(Ujima), cooperative economics(Ujamaa), purpose(Nia), creativity(Kuumba), and faith(Imani).

Many of the people who came together at the UMass Amherst’s Campus Center were there to remind themselves of what they have overcome and still must struggle against.  Many people had come together for Kwanzaa celebrations before, and many had never been apart of one.  Max, a new member to the Amherst community and the African community within Amherst, found that this celebration brought a lot of what the African community represents and is apart of together, “I enjoyed the drums and choir.  It is good for the community to come together and use these colors of black, red, and green to remind them of their past.”

These three colors represent the skin color, their passion and blood spilt for their freedoms, and their future.  People found that the symbols and colors come together and create a greater impact, “The music and songs are nice, but it is the symbols and lessons we have learned from our past that makes this such a great holiday, “said Simone Williams, “People need to be reminded that our struggles are not over, even with a black president coming into office.”  

The several speeches during the Kwanzaa presentation reestablished the idea that they need to become stronger, more responsible people to truly escape the conditions of the impoverished communities.  They cannot rely on president-elect Obama to come save them.  They must do things as take responsibility for their children, for their fellow brothers and sisters of the black community, and they must no longer be a “black statistic” as one young poet repeated.

People came together, many black but some white and latino, and enjoyed a celebration that may be an adolescent compared to Christmas and Hanukkah.  They came together through food, song, and dance not for some savior or old story, but for those who helped strengthen their people and those who will some day.  So as libations are poured, songs are sang, and food is shared the differences of Kwanzaa and other holidays seems to blur for they are all a celebration of our existence.