THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 27, 1995 TAG: 9512270070
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 116 lines
``Habari gani!''
``Umoja!''
``Habari gani!``
``Umoja!''
It was an exchange repeated more than a dozen times Tuesday, as about 75 people gathered at Jerusalem Baptist Church to start the seven-day African-American celebration of Kwanzaa.
``Habari gani,'' Swahili for ``What's happening?'' prompted the audience to respond with the Swahili word for unity, ``Umoja,'' which was the theme of Jerusalem's third annual program to kick off Kwanzaa.
For two hours, participants listened solemnly to an oral history of African Americans, swayed and sang to the tribal beat of Kwanzaa songs and ate five foods symbolizing their history.
Kwanzaa, celebrated from Dec. 26 through Jan. 1, is not a religious holiday, nor a substitute for Christmas. Instead, it is loosely based on rituals celebrated by Africans - the ancient Egyptians, the Zulu, the Swazi, the Matabele and the Ashanti - in recognition of the first harvests of the crops.
A relatively new commemoration, Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by African-American scholar Maulana Karenga and has become mainstream only in the past 10 years. The word ``Kwanzaa,'' from the East African language Kiswahili, means ``the first fruits of the harvest.''
It centers around seven principles to promote unity, awareness and pride within the black community.
Tuesday, Jerusalem's organizers created a sense of unity in the large their heads.
Some are still stooping, he said. ``We've got to get rid of that and build unity.''
An important part of Tuesday's ceremony revolved around the Umoja feast ritual. Small foam-plastic plates loaded with black-eyed peas, white rice, cornbread, collard greens and sweet potatoes were passed - each food representing a period of African-American history.
The black-eyed peas represent the black days of enslavement, said Diana Chappell-Lewis of Norfolk, a folklorist who presided over the ceremonies.
The rice was reminiscent of Reconstruction and the Harlem Renaissance, she said. To depict that rich time in black culture, Norfolk resident Vivien Parker acted out a poem by African-American poet James Weldon Johnson, leaving the audience stunned with emotion.
Thomas M. Venable, who recently retired after 41 years as Jerusalem's pastor, spoke of the next major period in black history - the Jim Crow and civil rights years.
He grew up knowing the history of the slave years, he said, when his mother would make ``ash cake,'' a food left from slavery times, by throwing cornbread into the ashes of the fire.
Today's children need to hear about the days of segregated stores and schools, he said. Of lynchings and name-calling.
``Parents must do as my parents did, sit around and tell how things were in the past.''
To commemorate this period of history, participants ate the small pieces of cornbread on their plates.
The greens represented the bitterness of the present, Chappell-Lewis explained. For while African Americans have come far, they still have much further to go.
Dr. McDonald Rimple, former director of the Norfolk Health Department, hammered home the issues facing the black community today: high infant-mortality rates, high rates of HIV infection and AIDS, poverty, hunger and the threat that federal and state welfare reform will make conditions worse.
The only weapon blacks have, he said, is the vote - and unity.
``This Kwanzaa is something that's needed. We have a heritage, we have a culture. And the most powerful way to bring that to our children is through traditions such as Kwanzaa.''
The final food - sweet potatoes - represent the ``sweet days ahead,'' Chappell-Lewis said. ``Because each of us here must pledge to internalize the principals of Kwanzaa and permeate them in our own lives, families and community.''
The ceremony ended with seven shouts of ``Harambee,'' which means, ``Let's pull together.''
Together, came the message from Chappell-Lewis and the other speakers Tuesday, African Americans can and will succeed. ILLUSTRATION: HUY NGUYEN color photos/The Virginian-Pilot
At Jerusalem Baptist Church in Norfolk, about 75 people gathered
Tuesday to celebrate the first day of Kwanzaa, a cultural festival
celebrated by African Americans. Top right, Caleb Blaize adjusts his
cap as he sits on the lap of his mother, Cathy Rearden-Blaize.
Above, Dartanyan Ingram walks away after a ceremonial lighting of a
candle. Other festivities included a meal of symbolic foods.
Graphic
THE PRINCIPLES OF KWANZAA
Dec. 26, UMOJA (oo-MO-jah, unity): To strive for and maintain
unity in the family and community, nation and race.
Dec. 27, KUJICHAGULA (koo-gee-CHA-goo-LEE-yah,
self-determination): To determine destiny as individuals, families
and communities.
Dec. 28, UJIMA (oo-GEE-mah, collective work and responsibility):
To determine one's own, the family's and the community's
responsibility to the common good.
Dec. 29, UJAMAA (oo-jah-MAH, cooperative economics): To develop
skills and resources to build and maintain black-owned stores and
businesses.
Dec. 30, NIA (NEE-yah, purpose): To develop a common goal that
will benefit the family and community.
Dec. 31, KUUMBA (Koo-OOM-bah, creativity): To develop and use
one's talents and creativity to improve the family and community.
The Kwanzaa feast is usually held this day.
Jan.1, IMANI (ee-MAH-nee, faith): To believe in self, family and
community in order to overcome adversity.
by CNB