HABARI GANI! Kwanzaa 2024
As an African American and Pan-African holiday celebrated by millions throughout the world, African Community Kwanzaa brings a cultural message that speaks to the best of what it means to be African and human in the fullest sense.
Kwanzaa is a celebration of family, community, and culture, as well as a celebration of active freedom as an instrument of freedom. It is an act of freedom in its recovery and reconstruction of the African culture a return to its best values and practices.
Kwanzaa was founded on many African rituals; Harvest celebrations is one. It’s when the Village (community) comes together in celebration of life; culture, elders and our ancestors. It also speaks to the first fruits of the Harvest, which are our children. We have a deep rich culture that has provided a clear blueprint for our children, families and community. The children are the centerpieces in all Community Affairs. We have to begin to teach them about their history, cultural heritage, and guide them into adulthood.
The principle that we are celebrating this year is the third principle of UJIMAA (collective work and responsibility). Ujimaa reminds us of our obligation to the past, present, and future and that we have a role to play in the community, society, and world.
The application and practice of the principles of Kwanzaa should be reflective in our actions in our day-to-day work.
At the heart and soul of the celebration of Kwanzaa is the ancient culture which serves as its source and sanction. The Nguzo Saba - the Seven Principles, are the hub and hinge on which the holiday turns - and the creative resourceful and resilient people who embrace the culture and principles as a living practice and an essential way of understanding and asserting as Africans in the world.
Kwanzaa reminds us that our culture is unique and equally valid, and a valuable way of being human in the world. It urges us to self-consciously celebrate and practice our culture, living these principles to the fullest.
This season of Kwanzaa, as we celebrate family, community and culture around the world, and recommit ourselves to bringing and sustaining good in the world, we find ourselves deeply involved in the continuing quest and struggle for justice for our people. It is an ongoing struggle to free ourselves and be ourselves as Black people, as an African people, and live the secure, good, fulfilling and meaningful existence we all want and deserve.
CEA Arts, Culture and Training Institute is committed to Nurturing, Educating and Cultivating the Genius in Black Youth and Children. We understand quite well that the first educators of the child should be the parents and the extended family.
The Building of Strong, Community Controlled, owned, and Driven institutions has historically been the social, cultural, educational, and economic building blocks of the black experience.
Within these spaces, we can create our own reality in service of the growth and development of our children, youth and Families, moving towards the social and economic advancement of our people. We have to become self-sufficient, self-sustaining in the practice of self-determination.
What is being taught to our children today will be reflected in the future.
Let us make sure they have the proper guidance, direction, love, and culture orientation.The children must be at the center of all community affairs and experiences. We must continue to practice the oral tradition in ensuring that they understand their culture, history and social roles and responsibilities.
Rebuilding of Black Families and Black Communities
CONSCIOUS BLACK PEOPLE THAT ARE WILLING TO PULL TOGETHER. LET'S MOVE THE BLACK AGENDA FORWARD!!
The application and practice of the principles of Kwanzaa should be reflective in our actions in our day-to-day work.
When the preacher reaches out spiritually to connect people to God, the people respond by saying “amen,” talking in tongue, dancing or shouting. These are individual expressions and testimonies in letting the preacher know they have received the message. However, the greater expression is the righteous good deeds you perform to receive your blessings.
In order to continue to get our blessings, we have to reach out and be the Good Samaritan (neighbor). There are so many of our neighbors on the side of the road that are in pain – suffering from psychological and emotional trauma, social injustice, spiritual bankruptcy, broken relationships and promises – that need our help. Many of these broken souls are young men that are misdirected with little sense of the damage and destruction they are causing themselves, their families and the places where they live.
The Prodigal Son is a reality for many of us. In the journey of life we soon realize there are no guarantee as parents. No matter how hard we try to reach our children, oftentimes many reject our teachings of belief in our faiths. We have to give many of these rebellious youth unconditional tough love and social boundaries that they have to adhere to. We have to embrace them, love them and have them in prayer hoping that they find redemption.
This is spiritual warfare, and we need to be prayed up to confront the enemy and the people and conditions that carry out his/her agenda. Like the preacher – we gave the community the call – now we are waiting for the response on how we are going to resolve this deep-seated disease called violence and the breakdown of relationships.
We have to call on our Ancestors and stand on our faith in God, belief systems and traditions in demanding equable standing, fair treatment and social justice here in the City of Pittsburgh and throughout the world.
The rebuilding of Black Families and Black Communities has to be at the top of our social agenda transitioning into the New Year. We must move in a United, Purposeful and Strategic way, in the maximization in leveraging our collective skill sets in hammering out a Blueprint for SOCIAL JUSTICE and Transformational change in the City of Pittsburgh and Black Communities throughout the country.
Leadership has to develop public spaces to bring Black leadership organizations together to network – with the assumption that if Black leaders could come together and get to know one another on an informal level, that trust and communication among them would be enhanced and a process of leadership activity would follow as a natural consequence. Also the development of networks could facilitate the creation of tele-conferences, planning dialogues, information sharing and building linkages to local and national funding organizations, i.e. banks, foundations, etc.
What helps us connect is our shared views on wanting the best for our communities and the families that live within them. Black leadership has to rise to the occasion in addressing the myriad of challenges that face our community. Grassroots elected and appointed public servants have to send a message to the broader community that we are one – united around the commitment for equity, diversity, inclusion, justice and transparency.
Black leadership has to redefine our political interests and cultivate and advocate to make them relevant. Community leadership cannot alleviate the problem by continuing to work in isolation. We are all dedicated to a common cause.
This message is a call for progressive-thinking African Americans, who have worked tirelessly on behalf of our community, to join in roundtable discussions with Renewed Energy and belief. This is a call to action that is rooted in our duty.
The fact remains that relentless poverty, chronic unemployment, soaring high school dropout rates, the proliferation of guns and drugs, homicides, mass incarceration, homelessness, the emotional and psychosocial impact of displacement and being up-rooted, as well as mainstream institutions divesting resources from our community have impacted the mental/physical health and well-being in traumatic ways. This has left behind the by-product - state-sponsored and interpersonal violence, and the breakdown of social, family, and institutional systems and infrastructure in the Black Community.
It is unacceptable that poverty and many of the social ills that affect Black communities are not given the appropriate conversation and strategies at the National or local level other than lip service.
We have a domestic situation that has been festering, and it is time for grassroots leadership to mobilize and make the changes required for social change and advancement.
The Black representatives of the Democratic Party have to push for the full social, economic, educational,l and institutional inclusion of Black People. Health Experts, Academia, Public and Private Sector, and Governmental Entities and Authorities are highly recommended to develop an economic, political, and social contract with Black Communities and institutions that we own and control.
Community Manifesto
Black leadership needs to bring together best practice models in consultation on the formation of the Community Manifesto in the areas of:
• Community Economic Development
• Education
• Business Development
• Workforce Development and Training
• Mental Health
• Youth Development and Recreation, and
• Public Safety/Criminal Justice
The Common Table
This common table will develop a consensus-building process that will include:
• Black Established Leadership
• Black Elected Officials
• Nontraditional Leadership
• Faith-based Leadership
• Grassroots Leadership
• Black Intelligentsia
• Community Members
Members of the Common Table will establish an internal leadership structure (a mechanism of collective judgment and action) through leadership circles, think tanks and roundtable discussions. This unified strategy and approach will lead to the maximization and leveraging of political power. This vehicle will become the mechanism for community-wide action to begin to develop an urban agenda that calls for broad-based social reform efforts in the areas of community restructuring, cultural revitalization as well as programs and policy recommendations to political establishment, corporations, foundations, economists, academic and other institutions that impact our communities throughout the country.
Call To Action : Roundtable Discussions
The Black community is calling on monthly legislative Roundtable discussions that our political elected officials, corporations, nonprofits, and private sector can meet monthly to discuss the areas.
Policy creation to address racial disparities in the city of Pittsburgh.
A Black Economic Investment Community Fund that can invest in Community Economic and Social Development in the Black Community.
A Commission policy-driven entity that can oversee and make recommendations addressing racial disparities in Pittsburgh.
The Black Community would like to meet with the authorities procurement directors to:
Determine and set the percentage rate of MWDBE Participation, small business development, and entrepreneur training for the black community based on all economic development dollars.
Sit down with African Americans that work with the administration to ensure that they are properly representing the needs of our community.
Convene a monthly legislative roundtable discussion on public policies.
Meet with Ward Chairs and Committee People within the Democratic Party to ensure that they are clear on the political, social, and economic agenda that represents their constituencies.
It is time for the Black Community to set aside our differences and move towards building a united front and common space to begin the rebuilding of the Black Community's Social, Cultural, and Economic Infrastructures. It’s time to DIG IN, to do the Heavy Lifting and push our Community Manifesto.
Please join the progressive individuals and organizations in rebuilding the Black community – one block at a time. We need Black Pittsburgh to raise our collective voices to ourselves and the powers that be. We want political and economic justice and equity in our neighborhoods. By investing your time, energy and contributions in institution building, you invest in the growth and development of our children. Reach out to an institution of your interest and get involved!!!
We must push for legislative policy reform that will bring policy relief from deep-rooted structural impediments impacting the black community, i.e., underperforming schools, high rates of unemployment, lack of affordable housing, mass incarceration, economic development projects that bring displacement, racial profiling, and gun control.
Black People are coming together to plan solution-driven strategies in their designated silos. We have to build community conversations involving a wide spectrum of local people, community groups, and organizations in examining the impact of systematic, systemic structural racial barriers and inequalities that have impacted the social, cultural, and economic advancement of black people in the city of Pittsburgh and move toward collective solutions.
We have to concentrate and focus on working towards and building a consensus vision and concrete direct action plans geared towards creating an urban agenda and environment where families are healthy and streets are peaceful.
Rebuilding the Black Community and Family Unit one block and one family at a time is rooted in self-reliance, self-sufficiency and self-determination, we will rebuild the foundation.
Pulling together neighborhood groups, organizations, and individual forces moving towards building a strong alliance that can combat social and economic disparities and the underlying diseases and root causes that perpetuate community violence.
Let's make a commitment as a Black Community to address all fractured issues and differences and forgive one another for past transgressions for the greater benefit of our people. We must reconstruct a common space to work, share, fellowship and network in.
We have to assess how white supremacy racism has impacted our abilities to work with other black people or organizations or, as a matter of fact - to love ourselves. The hatred and the disease of the heart must be eradicated to throw off the shackles of emotional, cultural, intellectual, and psychological injuries that have occurred through the process of the social Engineering of black people.
We have to deconstruct white supremacy racist thoughts and reconstruct our African-centeredness, purpose, essence, culture, and spirituality. The struggle is to recapture our humanism, compassion, and love for ourselves and for our people.
The relevancy and protection of Black People is in question throughout the country. Interpersonal and state-sponsored violence is on the rise and impacting the black community in epidemic proportions.
The Black Community in Pittsburgh needs to forge forward in coordinating, centralizing, and organizing a collective discussion on the next step for Black People in addressing racial inequalities. The reality of our conditions must be brought to the forefront for analysis in the renewal of a practical application for a social, cultural, and economic agenda. We will continue to discuss concrete social action solutions to address our concrete conditions in the country in general and Pittsburgh in particular.
This conversation will launch the beginning of ongoing unfiltered community conversations, where we will begin to develop the Community Manifesto, which will become part of political, and legislative policy reforms for every inner city. Participation in the electoral process is essential to ensure our Community Manifesto is included. Bringing our collective social networks into a well-oiled machine matters!!! The Humanity of Black People Matters!!!
The rebuilding of Black Families and Black Communities has to be at the top of our agenda transitioning into the New Year. We must move in a united, purposeful, and strategic way to maximize our collective skill sets and hammering out a blueprint for social change in the city of Pittsburgh.
This should be the collective pledge and social mandate for the New Year.
Thank you for educating yourself and celebrating this important principle, UJIMAA, which reinforces the central ethical teachings of our ancestors that humans are chosen to bring good in the world and that we should and shall never rest until the goodness and well-being of the world and all in it are secured.
Harambee! (Let's Pull Together)
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