Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

Maulana Ron Karenga created the cultural celebration of Kwanzaa to rekindle the spirit of awareness of our African roots and to provide a value system to guide us in our interactions with one another. While some criticize Kwanzaa because it is not an authentic African holiday, we must remember there was a time when anything African was anathema to people of African descent due to the effective brainwashing our enemies used to induce wholesale self-hatred and self-negation in us. Today African people all over the world recognize and it some way or another celebrate Kwanzaa. Maulana Karenga in his book, Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture says on page six, "... Kwanzaa is a time of celebration of the good, the good of life, community, culture, friendship, the bountifulness of the earth, the wonder of the universe, the elders, the young, the human person in general, our history, our struggle for liberation and ever higher levels of human life. The celebration of Kwanzaa then is a ceremony of bonding, thanks-giving, commemoration, recommitment, a respectful marking, an honoring, a praising and a rejoicing." We have the power to celebrate the good in our lives. There is so much negativity in this culture with it