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.
With Ujamaa, I talked about education. Education, in the black community, has been a long road. From the ban of educating us during slavery to the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which stated that "separate but equal" was unconstitutional. Sixty years later, can we truly say that schools are equal? Considering property taxes can vary one block to the next, how can one community assure that they get more than adequate funding for better buildings, books relevant to the times as well as more diverse texts/being culturally aware, and more program options and teacher retention? Creatively speaking, we have to do more in our schools. Local artists can teach classes once a month or more, depending on their availability. We can have or create safe places in the community where kids can come together to tutor, to create their own styles of art, or just to have a positive place to play. Taking buildings and allowing people in the community to work on its upkeep can also be a good thing. Churches can help the community spearhead things like entrepreneurship and financial education by offering brown bag lunches and inviting business owners and financial consultants to speak in forums. What I enjoyed about my Head Start was that our teachers got us involved with everything, regardless of what was immediately available supplies-wise. Sometimes you have to think outside of the box to get the results and change you want.
One thing also missing in many black communities are actual stores, particularly those with decent-priced fresh produce and nutritious options, otherwise known as food deserts. I know there are community activists from New York to New Orleans that are actively starting community gardens and fresh food stores/farmers markets in poorer areas. I'm most certain that this has gradually changed the mindset of some in the area, knowing that they have something of their own to work on, nourish, and watch flourish for their benefit.
Being that the sixth day of Kwanzaa is about creativity, let us be ever mindful of the vibes we bring to the table in the name of creating better spaces for our lives and our neighbors' lives. The strength of a community and the bettering of itself via solutions to do and be better are a beautiful thing. Sometimes you have to think outside of the box to get the results and change you want.
(December 30: Nia (Purpose): "to make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness." Finding what we are good at and using it to better ourselves and others, empowering and emboldening us to be better.)
Today is the fifth day of Kwanzaa, Nia (purpose). A time to reflect on making ourselves greater, one community at a time. Built upon unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, and cooperative economics, purpose calls us to remember from where we have come: royalty, strength, survivors, fighters.
One way we can "restore our people to their traditional greatness" is education. Education is a source of empowerment, knowledge, and uplifting. Whether that education is earned in brick and mortar, at home, or on the streets, instruction under the right people can propel people to greatness. The hope of education is that individuals will become independent, critical and analytical thinkers, promoters of empowerment for each other and the underserved, and that people will realize the true meaning of the investment education can be on one's life.
May we forever find our purpose, and encourage others to find theirs. To greatness!
Habari gani?
(December 29: Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): "to build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together." - shop amongst ourselves, grow ourselves.)
(December 28: Ujima (collective work and responsibility): to build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together) - "I am my brother's/sister's keeper." "Each one, teach one."
(December 27: Kujichagulia (self-determination): to define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves) - Let's come together and define who we are, what we answer to, and speak out against things that are against growing us as a people.
(December 26: Umoja (unity): to strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race) - We are a nation, a people strong and regal! Let us come together in love and purpose!
One love.
Power to (our) people.
Habari gani?
*NOTE* Principles definitions taken from The Official Kwanzaa Website,
http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/index.shtml
Sent from my BlackBerry®
No comments:
Post a Comment