December Thoughts and Themes

Virtue of the Month: KUJICHAGULIA (Self-Determination)
Source: Official Kwanzaa Website

Among the many commemorations which take place each December, Kwanzaa is the one created specifically for Black people. Kwanzaa is not a religious but rather a cultural holiday.  It is a demonstrated practice of Kujichagulia (self-determination).  Dr. Maulana Karenga is the visionary leader who intentionally created a holiday that encompasses African traditions into a 7 day celebration for us here in the United States (and elsewhere). It takes place December 26 to January 1. It focuses on seven principles referred to as the Nguzo Saba. These principles are: Umoja (Unity); Kujichagulia (Self-Determination); Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility); Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics); Nia (Purpose); Kuumba (Creativity) and Imani (Faith).

Imagine how differently our existence on this earth would be if we lived by these principles year-round.  My belief is that during Kwanzaa we are  to come together in December to assess how well we’ve lived the principles, celebrate our accomplishments and plan for the next 12 months of action. 

The second principle of the Nguzo Saba is Kujichagulia (Self-Determination). This too expresses itself as both commitment and practice. It demands that we as an African people define, defend and develop ourselves instead of allowing or encouraging others to do this. It requires that we recover lost memory and once again shape our world in our own image and interest. And it is a call to recover and speak our own special cultural truth to the world and make our own unique contribution to the forward flow of human history.

Dr. Karenga’s 2024 Founder’s Message says it all. It is entitled, “Celebrating Kwanzaa in Difficult and Demanding Times: Lifting Up the Light that Lasts.” Read it on the Official Kwanzaa Website and look for the 2025 message. Regarding Kujichagulia he states, “[w]e speak here of freedom to be our beautiful African selves, our sacred and soulful Black selves in all our diversity, divineness, and transcendent, equal and inalienable dignity.  And again, we uphold this principle and practice for everyone, especially the vulnerable, the devalued, downtrodden, oppressed, the victims of unfreedom, injustice and genocide in the world.”

Personal Reflections: Barbara A. Simmons, JD/Esq

Think on these things:

Control your own destiny or someone else will. -- Jack Welch (former CEO, General Electric) 

They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them. -- Mahatma Gandhi

The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it. -- Abrahm Lincoln

In practicing Kujichagulia, it is my choice not to refer to myself as a “minority.” Recently I was in a meeting with the head of a black organization who proudly used the term “minority” in referencing us.  “After all, we actually are the minority in numbers” this person stated. Personally, I stopped referring to us as “minorities” in the 1970’s. 

At that time, I was a member of the National Association of Black Social Workers.  Tony Brown (Tony Brown’s Journal) told us to stop referring to ourselves as “minorities.”  Labels do matter. We do not need to program ourselves to think we’re less than anyone else.  Furthermore, I have never heard a certain “ethnic” group in this country which is less than 3% (we’re reported to be at least 13%) refer to itself as a minority. Most people don’t know that group is so few in numbers.

It is a fact that people of color are the majority on the earth.  While some of us are “unaware,” non-melanated persons know that THEY are the minority on the earth and quickly becoming even moreso.  While some would like to pretend that this country is the center of the earth, the powers that be know that a global view is required in order to be prepared for the future. Even this country where urban schools exist, the oxymoron term “majority minority” is often used where black students outnumber others.  According to the United Nations by 2050, 1 in every 4 persons on the earth will be African!