My son came home today from his second day back to school from the holidays. One of his crafts he pulled out of his bag was a picture of a chalice decorated with colored rice and glitter on a green piece of construction paper.
My second thought, after thinking “great more dehyrdated food art”, was it was interesting to me that they did a Kwanzaa special craft for the holidays. I doubted there would be any chances of Ethan coming home with a picture of the Baby Jesus lying in a crib of macaroni, or a menorah decorated with dried beans or other vegetables.
I began asking myself, why is it that can set aside time in kindergarten to teach my son about something like Kwanzaa but not devote at least an equal amount of time to other holiday traditions. Does Kwanzaa have religious backgrounds or is it purely just a cultural aspect of life celebrated primarly by African-Americans.
I decided to pop on over to Wikipedia to see what I could learn quickly about the Kwanzaa celebration. Here are some highlights:
Kwanzaa (Kwaanza) is a week-long secular holiday honoring African-American heritage, observed from December 26 to January 1 each year, almost exclusively by African-Americans in the United States of America, though Africans of the diaspora in many countries have begun to practice its observances as well.
Kwanzaa consists of seven days of celebration, featuring activities such as candle-lighting and pouring of libations, and culminating in a feast and gift-giving. It was founded by black nationalist Dr. Ron “Maulana” Karenga, and first celebrated from December 26, 1966, to January 1, 1967. Karenga calls Kwanzaa the African American branch of “first fruits” celebrations of classical African cultures.
The initial interesting thought that came from this description was “pouring of libations”. Wikipedia hyperlinks that word to this definition:
Libations are liquid offerings given to the gods, or the rituals in which these are offered.
In Ancient Greece, it was considered an insult to the god if they were not included in libations. In Euripides’ The Bacchae and many Greek tragedies people come to terrible ends because of their failure to acknowledge certain gods and by excluding them from libations. To pour a libation, wine was thrown to the floor before parties to thank the gods.
Libations are shared, generally with a common chalice, “Kikombe cha Umoja” passed around to all celebrants.
[Note: my son was able to quote this from memory when I asked him what he knew about Kwanzaa]
So, we can’t celebrate the God my family worships that has been around for 2000 years or mention him in any way in schools, yet we can teach him about a holiday celebration started in 1966 by someone as a special celebration for black nationalists and encourages drinking alcohol as libations to the gods?
I’m a fairly liberal person in my political beliefs. I honestly would prefer equal treatment among beliefs. I don’t think anyone has ever been truly impacted by a religion or belief system being forced on them. I don’t believe in censoring what you want to say, just as much as I want you to extend to me the right to say what I believe openly. I believe intelligent design should be taught as another theory right along with evolution. Neither of them can be proven inherently, so they are both equally justifiable theories.
Here are some other interesting statements about Kwanzaa:
It is unclear how many people celebrate the holiday. In a 2003 interview with NPR Talk Host Tavis Smiley, Karenga said that some “28 million people throughout the world African community” practice Kwanzaa festivities. According to a survey by the National Retail Foundation, Kwanzaa is celebrated by 1.6% of all Americans[5], or about 4.7 million.
Preferential treatment of a celebration celebrated by only 1.6% of all Americans? Encarta states that in the 1990’s there were approximately 5.9 million Jewish Americans. This site states that there are approximately 224,437,959 Americans professing Christianity as their faith in 2004, or 76.5% in 2000.
If Kwanzaa is being taught in my son’s school as a special insight into various cultural traditions of the holidays. How much time is spent on the other cultural traditions behind what happens. Are they taught the story of the real St. Nicholas? Given that Christianity is so largely accepted, I’d think it would be considered of cultural significance right along with Judaism.
Karenga’s most recent interpretation emphasizes that while every people have their various holiday traditions, all people can share in the celebration of our common humanity: “Any particular message that is good for a particular people, if it is human in its content and ethical in its grounding, speaks not just to that people, it speaks to the world.”[9]
I’d say that last part in quotes could also be stated of Christian beliefs for the most part, shouldn’t they then be taught as an option since it speaks to the world?
Some claim that Kwanzaa is controversial because it is not a traditional holiday of African people, and because of its recent provenance, having been invented in 1966. In the book Kwanzaa (2005), author Sara McGill states, “there are many people of African descent who do not know the purpose of Kwanzaa or how to celebrate it. Others refuse to celebrate Kwanzaa because it is not a true African tradition.” (Jackson, p. 2). Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson wrote, “the whole holiday is made up! You won?t find its roots in Africa or anywhere else.”[11].
William Norman Grigg noted the seven-branch candle holder, the “Kinara,” was not used in African traditions, and suggested a symbol of Judaism was adapted to match the seven principles of Kwanzaa.[15]
Yet, we teach it as cultural fact to our kindergartners? The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson went on to say this in an article titled Kwanzaa — Racist Holiday from Hell
Enter a God-hating black racist named Ron Karenga. Born Ron Everett on a poultry farm in Maryland, Everett invented Kwanzaa in 1966, based on an African harvest festival (though it takes place during the Winter Solstice!), and celebrating the first Kwanzaa with his family and friends.
Calling himself ?Maulana? (Swahili for ?Master Teacher?), Karenga became a black nationalist at UCLA, and formed his group, the United Slaves (US) for the purpose of igniting a ?cultural revolution? among American blacks. US members followed Karenga?s ?Path of Blackness,? which is detailed in his Quotable Karenga: ?The sevenfold path of blackness is think black, talk black, act black, create black, buy black, vote black, and live black.?
The United Slaves had violent confrontations with the Black Panthers on campus, and were actually considered more radical than the Panthers.
When once asked why he designed Kwanzaa to take place around Christmas, Karenga explained, ?People think it?s African, but it?s not. I came up with Kwanzaa because black people wouldn?t celebrate it if they knew it was American. Also, I put it around Christmas because I knew that?s when a lot of bloods would be partying.?
I don’t state this information to incite anger or wrath, I’m just questionning why it’s okay to promote the ideals of one system of beliefs whether it be religious, secular, humanist or otherwise, while banning any mentioning of another system of beliefs. Do we also spend time teaching our kindergartners about Christmas for Canadians, Mexicans, Chinese, Russians, etc.? Who’s being more intolerant here?
