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 remember it lol) That way we’ll be ready to celebrate it the way we should when Baby is bigger.
So, for 2023 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 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 this year would have to do with me, myself, and I. It’s been a hard road, but I’m working on having this complete and total confidence in me. I have Imposter Syndrome and it makes it hard to recognize that not everyone needs to be a front man. That because I’m not out front and talking about it, I’m not doing anything at all. But I have that faith in myself to know that I’m doing what I can and what I have the spoons to do. I have to have faith that the work I’m doing, no matter how small, is still important. Whether that’s giving diverse book recs, reading and writing reviews on diverse books, buying those diverse books for my library, buying diverse books just because they’re diverse, calling my reps, and more.
The book I thought about first when thinking of having complete trust and confidence in your family and community was:
Andre has so much going on all at once. From COVID just starting to being just released from juvie and still having people think you did it as well as being on house arrest. But through it all, he had to have faith that the community would help him solve this and that they would help him get through everything to clear his name. I don’t want to give too much away, but this book shows faith in not only his self, but the entire community. And they all came together from him.
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!