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 Baby won’t be around to see it.) That way we’ll be ready to celebrate it the way we should when Baby is bigger.
So, for 2020 I decided to celebrate Kwanzaa through literature. 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 7 is Imani. It means Faith. The process is much of the same, light the previous candles, and then light the last remaining green one until they’re all lit. The person who lights it then makes a statement about Faith. I read that it means to believe in our people and the righteousness and victory of our struggle. For me that means to have complete trust and confidence in something. My statement would be about the faith that I have in humanity. I can’t lie, I was worried at first, but after November and finally getting the results of the Election, my faith in humanity is beginning to be restored. I’m hoping and praying that we can win this run-off. Then my faith will be even more restored. (Definitely not completely because I’ve already seen what some people are like, but you get the idea.)
The book I thought about first when thinking of having complete trust and confidence in your family and community was:
I thought of this because there are actual African gods in this book and though Tristan doesn’t trust them at first, he realizes that in order to do what he needs to do, he has to. These are people who have lived through these things, and all they want to do is help. (Mostly anyway.) He ends up listening to them and having faith that he himself could do it too and they saved each other and the person they were looking to save. (I don’t want to give any spoilers lol)
What about you? What books do you think of when you think of Imani or Faith? Do you think of this one as well? Let me know in the comments!