One holiday tradition my mom always wanted to do with us but never did is celebrate Kwanzaa. She did educate me on what it is and what everything means, but we never got around to ever doing it. But now that I’m starting my own family, I wanted to do celebrate this year (even if Pre-K Kid won’t remember it lol) That way we’ll be ready to celebrate it the way we should when the Pre-K Kid is bigger.
So, for 2025 I decided to celebrate Kwanzaa through literature again. I’ll be listing the principles for each day along with a book that matches the principles. If you can think of other titles that match the principles, tell me, I’d love to discuss.
Day 3 is Ujima. It means Collective Work and Responsibility. The candle order is the Black one and then the two farthest left red ones. The process is much of the same, light the other two candles in order and then light the two far left red ones. The person who lights it then makes a statement about Collective Work and Responsibility.
This year when I think of this, I think of my bookish community. I haven’t been around as much and where I usually talk about YA books, this year I actually couldn’t because of the Morris award appointment. However, the people who follow me never strayed and no one ever made me feel bad for not having this release or that one, and I never heard a bad word from publishers about how I fell off or didn’t have that same audience anymore. In fact, my follower counts continued to grow and I had someone from BookTok come and meet me at ALA. I am truly appreciative and I can’t tell y’all how much this all means to me. This community we’ve built and the support we give to each other is truly unmatched.
The book I thought about first that reminded me of
uplifting their community was:
I thought of this one because of the way the two of them showed up for their community when it mattered most. Andy tried to do everything on her own and damn near put the shop and the city on her back. And Dominique damn near forgot the city he was from existed, but they came together for the community when they needed to. I was most proud of Dominique because of the way he stood up for what’s right against some really powerful people even knowing what it might do to him. Him getting to the point where he didn’t care about the consequences, he just wanted what was best for the community and the world around him, it was evident that this principle was literally made for these two.
What about you? What books do you think of when you think of Ujima or Collective Work and Responsibility? Do you think of this one as well? Let me know in the comments!