Misconceptions About Kwanzaa: Is Kwanzaa Just for People who Cannot Afford to Participate in Other Holidays?

Afrikan people are naturally a people of superlative abundance. The land of Afrika is magnificently rich in a vast array of natural resources and throughout the ages with the norm of self-governed lives Afrikan souls harnessed their resources built and provided for themselves accordingly. The world’s greatest most long-lasting civilisations were resourced by the abundance of this naturally wealthy people.  In recent centuries of interruption and disruption by way of the Maafa, there has been much effort by others that mean the Afrikan ill to sever natural resources from their natural custodians. Yet still, Afrikan souls rightfully and powerfully continue their self-determined effort to restore and build their own fully flourishing economies.

The wonderful observance of Kwanzaa with its powerful core system of foundational values places great worth on Afrikan effort to build and maintain functional economy. So much so that a value principle is dedicated to this focus. The principle of Ujamaa is means Cooperative Economics.

According to a popular mainstream platform the word afford has a number of different meanings. Firstly, it can simply mean to:

“have enough money to pay for”.

In relation to Kwanzaa, the statement could be qualified as follows:

“To have enough money to pay for investment in self throughout its various levels”.

Here, the self includes both the singular and collective whether at the level of person-self or family-self or nation-self and so on. With Kwanzaa the implication of affordability is linked to the self-determined effort to service the necessary levels of life for its fullest possible flourishing rather than a measure of the amount of resource that ishaemorrhagedfor aesthetic consumption or gift-giving without substance.    

According to the mainstream platform the word afford can also mean to have:

“have (a resource such as money or time) available or to spare”

Time is exceedingly valuable and Kwanzaa energises Afrikan souls to purposefully direct at least some time to their own self benefit whatever else may be presently compelling. This is not only during the seven-day celebratory period itself but throughout the annual cycle. Kwanzaa is enriched as a celebration rooted in harvesting tradition by the all-year-round invest of time and other possible and relevant resources to produce a successful yield of self-benefit throughout the levels of the self.  

Another, definition offered by the mainstream platform for the word afford is to:

“be able to do something without risk of adverse consequences”.

The stronger Afrikan people become economically and otherwise the more secure Afrikan people become. With security comes protection against others that mean the Afrikan ill in a variety of necessary ways. Certainly, Kwanzaa energises the Afrikan to build strength in familyhood, in community, nationhood and beyond.

Finally, the mainstream source states that the word afford means to:

“provide or supply (an opportunity or facility)”

Well, the wonderful observance of Kwanzaa with its core values is a powerful foundational basis that provides both the facility and opportunity for Afrikan souls throughout the world to restore their own culture and necessarily ascend in their own way of life.

In short, whatever station, level of wealth or status Afrikan people hold Afrikan cultural restoration and elevation is imperative basis to optimal living. Kwanzaa is of, for and by Afrikan people and is not comparable to the holidays of others. It can be argued that the Afrikan can ill-afford to participate in activity that does not serve their best interest or worse is destructive. Engagement is Kwanzaa is a reflection of imperative affordability Afrikan souls place on the essential investment in themselves and their own cultural ascension. Indeed, can Afrikans of the world afford not to live their own culture? In a state of Afrikan self-determined normality such a question is nonesensical. It is a state of interruption  and disruption that breeds gross multi-level misconceptions such as Kwanzaa is just for people that cannot afford other holidays.   

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.