“Habari gani?” or “What’s the news?”
“Ujima is the news for today.”
On this third day of Kwanzaa, we celebrate the value of Ujima. This word is Swahili for collective work and responsibility. It means to: “build and maintain our community together to make our brother’s and sister’s problems, our problems, and to solve them together.”
Growing up, I was taught that success and failure exist in a vacuum. I was taught that I am the sole cause of whether I succeed or fail in life.
I was taught this because our culture champions the pull yourself up by the bootstraps philosophy, the myth that we can be anything and do anything as long as we (and we alone) work hard and persevere through hardships.
The truth is that, from infancy, our community and the people around us contribute or detract from our growth. As a result of the transatlantic slave trade, many people of the Black diaspora have historically been been separated from their families and communities of origin, and so it’s important that we build one another up and help one another in their weaknesses.
In the book of Genesis, Cain asked God: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The answer is: “Yes, you are.”
For this, we light a green candle on the kinara.
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