Misconceptions About Kwanzaa: Is Kwanzaa Just a Way to Pay Lip Service to Afrikan Culture?

Afrikan culture has always necessarily been lived phenomena. Were it not lived, it would cease to be culture. From the earliest of times celebrating the harvest of all-year-round effort and success in the context of the person self, the harmonious and complimentary male-female union, family, community and nation has been a part of lived Afrikan culture. Indeed, the establishment and flourishing of the Afrikan self throughout its various levels is rooted self-determined cultured living as a natural norm. Naturally, the Afrikan speaks of self in affirmation of living reality. The optimally functioning Afrikan person self is living reality, the harmonious and complementary Afrikan male-female union is living reality, the Afrikan family is living reality, the Afrikan community is living reality, the Afrikan nation is living reality and so on. The natural norm of cultured living is far being something that is merely spoken of void of lived meaning and rooted substance.

With the interruptions and disruptions of the Maafa in recent centuries, Afrikan people and their culture have been set upon is horrendously destructive ways. For some the derailment of cultural fabric has been so great that the only semblance of its existence  in their lives only lies in the pronouncements of empty rhetoric. However, only paying lip service to culture is not cultured living and denies the reality of and reason for Afrikan culture in the first place.  

According to a mainstream platform the phrase lip service is described as:

“an avowal of advocacy, adherence, or allegiance expressed in words but not backed by deeds”.

Afrikan cultured living is certainly something for Afrikan souls of the world to advocate for themselves. However, by its very nature, it is participatory for without engagement it is something other than living culture. Perhaps, a detached theory lodged exclusively in the realms of intellectual processing or worse. Afrikan culture is living reality.

Magnificently, the wonderful cultural observance of Kwanzaa has been beautifully established by Afrikan souls for access by Afrikan souls throughout the world. Kwanzaa is participatory and a firm part of Afrikan culture. As with Afrikan culture in general its true advocacy is in the living. It’s adherence is through the lived practice of its adherents throughout the Afrikan world. It is of, for and with Afrikan souls and practically energises the natural oneness that Afrikans hold with each other.

The displaying of the wonderful symbols of Kwanzaa, the joyous and meaningful Kwanzaa greetings and the practices such as the lighting of the Mishumaa Saba (Seven Candles) are all culturally grounded activities of high engagement. Of course, the core values of the Nguzo Saba (Seven Principles) hold a special place in Afrikan life all-year-round and are profoundly celebrated during the observance period itself. 

By no means least, Kwanzaa is a celebration of the Afrikan self throughout its various levels - family, community, nation and so on.   There is no way that Kwanzaa can be somehow separate to Afrikan culture (of which it is a firm part). For this to be true it would have to be void of its own living substance. For an Afrikan to succumb to the thrust of misrepresenting their own culture as being a merely empty speak, simply points to the need for work to restore cultured living and its true and profound meaning to Afrikan life.  A suggestion that Kwanzaa is just a way to pay lip service to Afrikan culture is a gross misconception of dire destructive disorder.

Kwanzaa is one of the essential cultural observances of life within the Universal Royal Afrikan Nation. The Universal Royal Afrikan Nation (URAN) is an Afrikan-centred spiritual and cultural mission for ascendancy that embodies living spiritually and culturally rooted life. To find out more about URAN and its spiritual-cultural mission for liberty and nationhood click here. The exquisite URAN pendant can be obtained online by clicking here.

In his capacity as an Afrikan-centred spiritual cultural practitioner this author is available for further learning in this regard and also for the carrying out of ceremonies such as naming and name reclamation. For details please click here.

Afrikan World Studies programmes are an important forms of study in understanding the Afrikan experience. There are a range of subjects covered on these programmes including History, Creative Production, Psychology and Religion. To find out more about these learning programmes please click here. For the video promo for these learning programmes click here.

Also, in the approach to the important cultural observance of Kwanzaa, the text: From Pert-En-Min to Kwanzaa - A Kuumba (Creative) Restoration of Sacred First Fruits by this author is available to purchase online here. This publication provides informative detail on the of the Kwanzaa celebration. You can also visit the institution of Yemanja to pick up a copy.

At nominal cost, also consider acquisition of an a4 laminate poster of articulations by this author when visiting the Yemanja institution to enrol, consult, learn, gather or otherwise.

Also, visit www.u-ran.org for links to Afrikan liberation Love radio programme on Universal Royal Afrikan Radio online