Particularly During This Tense Ethnic And Religious Presidential Campaign In 2023.
In all of Africa, religion and ethnicity have generally caused and diminished a sense of communal tolerance and coexistence, which continue to reawaken divisions, hatred, and even violence.
This dilemma is more prevalent in the most populous nation in Africa, Nigeria, which is dominated by entrenched, intense religious and ethnic tensions.
No wonder the successful planting of democratic structures that express unity, institutional healthiness, instability, national security, and an expressed positive future remain distant.
Before we get into the tradition of “Kwanzaa,” an annual festival celebrating unity and social values observed primarily by Blacks in the United States from December 26 to January 1, it is worth knowing that Nigeria is recognized for its numerous native and adopted festivals. So far, none has reasonably served to unite Nigerians across ethnic and religious persuasions.
Let’s look at Kwanzaa.
Kwanzaa derives its name from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, which translates as “first fruits” or “harvest.” Kwanzaa underlines African heritage in African American culture in the United States of America.
The celebration is observed and runs for seven days, from December 26 to January 1, and focuses on one principle each day: unity, self-determination, collective work, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.
Celebrations often include the lighting of candles, singing and dancing, storytelling, poetry reading, and African drumming. Kwanzaa is a week-long celebration. Where it is celebrated, the room is often decorated in the black, red, and green colors of Kwanzaa. The table setting includes a candle holder for seven candles (one black, three red, and three green), a placemat made of straw, a crop item (vegetable), ears of corn to match the number of children in the family, a communal cup, and gifts.
Dr. Maulana Karenga, born Ronald McKinley Everett in Parsonsburg, Maryland, and a professor of Africana Studies at California State University, California, founded the African American and African-oriented observance Kwanzaa in 1966 as a celebration of family, community, culture, and unity.
Dr. Karenga created seven guiding principles. During the week of Kwanzaa, we explore each principle. The seven principles represent seven values of African culture that help build and reinforce community, especially among African Americans or American Blacks.
Kwanzaa has seven core principles, or Nguzo Saba:
Umoja: “Unity” means to strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
Kujichagulia: self-determination: to define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
Ujima: Collective Work and Responsibility—To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems and solve them together.
Ujamaa: Cooperative Economics: To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia: “Purpose: To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.”
Kuumba: “Creativity”: To always do as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani: “Faith is to believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.”
Kwanzaa should be understood by both continental and resident Africans as not being an African American or Black Christmas. A lot of people, especially whites, assume that Kwanzaa was intended to replace Christmas. No, Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday. It is celebrated by people of many faiths as well as those who do not embrace any religion. Its purpose is to promote unity among black people as well as an understanding of our cultural roots.
Kwanzaa may be new in terms of time out like the historic roots of Hanukkah observed by Jews, Christmas by Christians, and Ramadan observed by Muslims, but its cultural tenets are old regarding paying homage to our ancestors, forging hope and faith, and rekindling unity and pride.
A proverb often quoted during Kwanzaa reads: “I am because we are; because we are, I am.” Harambee! (Let’s pull together!)
Unlike the above religious traditions and holidays, for people of African origin, Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday; it’s a cultural one. It is about people from all different religious backgrounds, including African spiritual traditions, celebrating the holiday. which makes it more appropriate for Nigerians of all faiths as it cuts across religious and tribal lines and serves as a time for families and communities to come together to not only reflect on past struggles and difficulties but to celebrate and practice cultural unity.
The features of Kwanzaa remind this writer of his own background among the Esan people in what is now Edo State, Nigeria regarding Esan cultural events and festivals. There is what is called the New Yam Festival, among many other festivals.
Some ethnic groups in Nigeria celebrate the new yam festival, including the Esans. Every year from September to November, Esanland celebrates the new yam festival known as Huan.
It includes serving yam dishes, which come in the form of pounded yams paired with some sort of traditional soup, porridge or yams roasted yams.
Nigeria, with all its multiple divisions and intense relationships, should adopt the basic principles of African fruitage celebrations established in Kwanzaa.
These seven basic principles found in producing the harvest are vital to building unity and maintaining strong and wholesome communities.
In this way, Kwanzaa can be used to reflect on how we have applied the basic principles, to share and enjoy the fruits of our labor and struggle to combat colonialism and racism, and to recommit ourselves to the collective unity of a better life for our people.
It does not require travel to Israel or Saudi Arabia to celebrate the unity and development of any continental African community.
This call for the adoption of Kwanzaa appears timely at a time in Nigeria where many people say the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari has ruined the nation’s unity, causing ethnic and religious groups to clash over political, educational, and cultural differences, and I perceive Kwanzaa as one of those collective cultural apparatuses that could get some of these lingering differences resolved. Let’s try it out. In fact the celebration is going on now!
Professor John Egbeazien Oshodi, who was born in Uromi, Edo State, Nigeria, to a father who served in the Nigeria police for 37 years, is an American-based police and prison scientist and forensic, clinical, and legal psychologist. A government consultant on matters of forensic-clinical adult and child psychological services in the USA; chief educator and clinician at the Transatlantic Enrichment and Refresher Institute, an online lifelong center for personal, professional, and career development; and a former interim associate dean and assistant professor at Broward College, Florida. The Founder of the Dr. John Egbeazien Oshodi Foundation, Center for Psychological Health and Behavioral Change in African Settings A former Secretary-General of the Nigeria Psychological Association. In 2011, he introduced state-of-the-art forensic psychology into Nigeria through N.U.C. and Nasarawa State University, where he served in the Department of Psychology as an Associate Professor. An adjunct professor in the doctorate clinical psychology program at Nova Southeastern University’s College of Psychology in Florida, USA. Director of Online Studies and Professor of Psychology—Online Faculty at Weldios University in the Republic of Benin. He is a virtual behavioral leadership professor at ISCOM University, Republic of Benin. Founder of the proposed Transatlantic Egbeazien Open University (TEU) of Values and Ethics, a digital project of truth, ethics, and openness. Over forty academic publications and creations, at least 300 public opinion pieces on African issues, and various books have been written by him. He specializes in psycho-prescriptive writings regarding African institutional and governance issues. His most recent textbook publication is Concise Psychology: An Integrated Forensic Approach to Psychology for Global African Settings.
