Nia (nee-AH)
Purpose
"To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness. To be responsible to those who came before (our Ancestors) and those who will follow (our descendants)"
Nia, our fifth principle and cause to celebrate Kwanzaa reminds me that unless and until we, Black Americans, respect, value, celebrate and appreciate ourselves, our history and our amazing journey, there is no real incentive for others to do so, no matter our insistence. We will lead by our example..
Unless and until we start shouting our story for ALL to hear, for ALL to know, most importantly our descendants to hear and know, we will remain vulnerable to the narratives, truthful or not, that others fabricate and choose to tell about us. Our truth, essence and beauty of US and OUR story will be lost, forever untold, shaped and/or defined by others...
Unless and until, we step into our greatness and recognize the magnificence of us, as do so many others as is evidenced by the endless acts of imitations of us when not by words about us, nor shall, nor should any other...
We, Black Americans, come from and have created in our own right a very rich and enviable culture and traditions that all too often we too take for granted, all too often we share too freely, all too often we do not protect and all too often we fail to fervently, consistently and proudly celebrate loudly and often enough...
Understandably someone recently asked about my interest in tracing my African roots. My response is always the same. While knowing the origin of my roots in Africa might make for interesting conversation, historical and/or contextual reference, to discover that I am a descendant of the likes of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, Richard Smalls, Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner, Ida B. Wells or more recently Fannie Lou Hamer, Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and so many other of our Black American heroes and soldiers would send me over the moon with boundless, un-containable, uncontrollable and exuberant pride and joy!
Since the presidency of Barack Obama we, ourselves, have come to terms with and made it abundantly clear to all that "We Built This", this America so many call home, this America so many others are vested in claiming as their own and vowing to make it great again... Now is time we start living in and believing it as our truth, now is the time that we start being inspired by the countless examples of the power of us; from our mere presence and influence, to the power of our votes, to the value of our countless contributions.
Black Americans have given so much to this country and are so very much a core component of the story of success about which America so proudly loves to boast. We allow however, that our role in that story of American success is downplayed, distorted, not told, not celebrated. Seemingly we wait for permission, acceptance of and/or validation from or by others for us to tell our story. We don't need permission to celebrate us and certainly it is not required that any, other than US, validates US... We are a resilient, resourceful and proud people. We are a people who MUST tell and celebrate OUR own story. It is OUR story to tell...
Unless and until WE start protecting and telling the stories of OUR Ancestors, telling it loudly, telling it proudly and telling it often, there will be no story for our future generations to know, to tell, to celebrate.
In 2018, I demand that often and loudly, with purpose and conviction, that WE Lift Our Collective Voice to tell OUR stories and that often and regularly WE find cause to boldly, audaciously and unapologetically come together in Honor, Celebration and Restoration of the greatness of OUR Ancestors, OUR legacy, and to pass on OUR traditions through recitation of OUR stories in OUR fashion, in OUR tongue, with OUR flare as told by US about US!
Building & Restoring Our Community through Celebration of Ourselves & Our History 365!
Happy Kwanzaa Folks!
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