Again, this year as we come together in remembrance, reflection and recommitment during Kwanzaa, we greet you saying “Heri za Kwanzaa. Happy Kwanzaa”. Also, we send greetings of celebration, solidarity and continuing struggle to Africans everywhere throughout the world African community. Moreover, we wish, especially for our people and all oppressed and struggling peoples of the world, the shared and indivisible goods of freedom, justice and peace, achieved and enjoyed and passed on to future generations.

It speaks to the pervasive sense that we are moving into such times and we will need to draw on our greatest internal and collective strengths to weather the cold and dark winter promised by those coming to power in this country and the world. But the sacred teachings of our ancestors in the Husia tell us that in the midst of the thickest darkness we must remember that we are to “drive away darkness so that light can be lifted up”, and that to ground and sustain us in this righteous struggle, we are given “that which endures in the midst of that which is overthrown”. And that which endures and is eternal are our moral and spiritual values, values that are dignity affirming, life enhancing and world preserving. We speak here  of values such as truth, justice, freedom, loving kindness, committed caring, sensitivity to others, a right relationship with the natural world, care for the vulnerable, alliance in struggle with the oppressed, courage under fire, and the constant striving and struggle to bring good in the world and not let any good be lost, as the Odu Ifa, another ancestral sacred text, teaches us.

Central to celebrating Kwanzaa and to keeping and actualizing this commitment to bringing good into the world is practicing the Nguzo Saba, The Seven Principles: Umoja (Unity); Kujichagulia (Self-Determination); Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility); Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics); Nia (Purpose); Kuumba (Creativity); and Imani (Faith). For as we have repeatedly maintained, these core values are the hub and hinge on which the holiday turns, and with other essential ethical, social, and spiritual principles, aid us in bringing forth the best of what it means to be African and human, and guide us in our righteous and relentless struggle for African and human good and the well-being of the world and all in it. 

In our practice of Kwanzaa we have a candle lighting ceremony called lifting up the light that lasts. Thus, when we light the candles in recommitment to embody and practice these enduring principles, we are engaging in the ancient practice of lifting up the light that lasts. And wherever the lasting light is lifted up, it will remind us of and lead us to reflect on the creating, harvesting and sharing good in the world, which is at the heart of Kwanzaa, a harvest celebration of ourselves and other good in the world and our commitment to practice, pursue, preserve and protect it. 

And again, in observance of Kwanzaa, we reaffirm and reinforce the sacredness, soulfulness and beauty of ourselves, our resilience and resourcefulness in resistance to evil, injustice and oppression and our radical refusal to be defeated, dispirited or undone, regardless. Indeed, it is the sacred teachings of our ancestors that we are as Nana Howard Thurman tells us, those who “ride the storm and remain intact.” We are, Nana Gwen Brooks tells us, those who “conduct (their) blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind”. And Nana Nannie Burroughs tells us, we are, those who “specialize in the wholly impossible”. This, African peoples, is the record of our past, the reality of our present and the requirements for our future. And thus, this is our duty; to know our past and honor it; to engage the present and improve it; and to imagine a whole new future and forge it in the most ethical, effective and expansive ways. Heri za Kwanzaa!!!