Seven Fundamental Principles of Kwanzaa

Umoja
(unity)

From the souls that jumped ship
The children, the woman folks
And the men with King's hands
We unite with you
From the Blacks that bore the licks
of the tip of the whips
When the whites refuse to understand
We unity with you
From the black bent backs
Of the sugar mills and indigo factories
And cotton fields
Where our sweat stained them all
We unite with you
From W. E. Du Boise
To the by all means
Of Malcolm
We unite with you
From Booker T's disenfranchisement
To Martin Lutheran King's
I have a dream
We unite with you
From the tobacco farm
Of Benjamin Baneker
To the covered miles of
Sojourner Truth
We unite with you
from the Jacobs Free School
To Cummell's American
Negro Academy
We unite with you
From then North star of Trubman
With a $40.000 bounty on her head
Yes the spy
We unite with you
To George Washington
Carver ransomed
For a $300 prized race horse
We unite with you
From the carpenter's hands
Of Ida Wells that held the pen
Of Southern Horrors
We unite with you
From the wisdom of Mary
Mcleoad Bethune
Who breath the air
That I breathed in 1953
We unite with you
From the once lost grave
of Zora Neale Hurston
And the Black Bourgeois of
E. Franklin Frazier
We unite with you
From the weary Blues
To the blood of Charles Drew
We unite within you
From the Warrior Intellectual
Of Loraine Hansberry
To the Presidential Medal of Freedom
OF Colin Powell
We unite with you
From the Fences and the Piano Lesson
To Edward Blyden's Travels in Africa
We unite with you
No longer do we jump ships
No longer bears the whip's
Licks save what lies
Are told of our unity
Told against our indigenous ways
To be as bold of mind
As we are of bold of skin that unite us.
















Kujichagalla
Self-Determination

Knowledge is the root
Of spiritual power
And power is the root
Of spiritual knowledge
Know yourself and you
Know man, know Nature
And you know yourself.
As a thing within her.
Self-determination
Is confident in knowing
That you have a place
In the universe, a place
That is yours along
The self determination
Of the self is the determination
That acts out its dreams
To be of use in our world
Crowded with individuals
Who work with or against you
A case in point the
Settian man who says
To himself first
I am me apart
Of the God head that
Is the only existence
That I can ever know
I am Settian in my bones
A black man who
Enjoy the sexual
Flesh of men and in
My love I harm no one
In my joys I rejoice
In the sexual knowledge
That I am one
Never along
In my life's journey
Full of ready breath
Of men who love as I do
The sexual self and the spiritual self are
Two heads of the same coin
As it is true that no man knows everything
And no man knows nothing
So is it true that self determination
And self-acceptance
Are two heads of the same
Be you self determined
Toward self acceptance
Above all things
You are one of a kind
None before and none after
Shall come this way
My black brothers
Know that you are
Loved by the poets
Know that you
Are the fuel of their poetic fire
That burns its heat and light
In your honor
Kujichagalla








Ujamaa
Ujamaa

Cooperative Economics

Some say that
Integration was the death
Of black owned businesses
Some say that the Civil
Right Act was the death
Of the traditionally black neighborhood
That those who could afford it
Moved out to leave the
Poor of the poorest and our elders
To fend for themselves against
Young black warriors
Who only respect
Getting hold the processions
Of others by any means necessary
Some say that
The black middle class
Has turned its back
On their sisters and brothers
Some say that Cosby
Who set on the sideline
During the Civil Right Moment
Should had told us first
Before he told the whites also
That he have nothing but disdain
For the black and poor
And that this is evident that the
Black middle class is
White washed by the greenness of their money
As in all things there is
A grain of truth like
A pebble in our collective shoe
That rubs us raw and
Some middle class blacks are
Walking on a cloud of self delusion
As not to muddy their designer shoes
In the muck and mire of the ground in which
The poor are digging out a living
Ujamaa- Cooperative
Economics
The black green back buck
Is not our savior
But only a tool to be used
To buy new and stronger booth laces
In which the poor
Can pull themselves up by
Cooperative is the telling word
That guild us as a black light
That will show us our true color
Economics is what we should
Be teaching our children
Is only a mean to a greater end
None of us should be intransigently ignorant
Of this fact
The church both black and white in its misguided
Way have been trying
To save us with a white God
Once black but we are
Hearing none of that this idea
That Jesus was black is as
Distasteful to blacks as it is to whites
A dark people without a dark God
Is lost in the wilderness of whiteness
And that wilderness is our home
The land of the brave and the colonized.
And no manner of musical or sport bread crumbs
Can save us
The black dollar is rich to spend on each other
To pour back into our own communities
Live not where you are disconnected
Move back to the soil from which you grew
Money talks in America let your speak Ebonics.
Ujamaa
-





Nia
Purpose

What is the purpose
Of your black skin
What is the purpose
Of our elders
Rich in the knowledge
That only age can give
To teach the youths
Of our black kin
What is the purpose
Of unity when you
Feel yourself alone
Go into the soup
Kitchen where some
Black children
Call their second home
Books can take you
Only so far
The elder's flesh
Holds the key
To unlock the door
Of who you are meant to be
And how to deal
With adversity
How to make your
Way pass those
Who would stomp you down
Go into the convalescent homes
Go into the schools
Volunteer to be an ear
To our elders
Volunteer to teach our youths
Leave not our elders
To die alone
Martin Luther King said
“Service is the substance
Of greatness” he served
So surely he knew
That to be true to yourself
To our elders and children
You must be true they both
Count on you
What is the purpose
Of your purpose
What is your God to you
What are you here to do
Go away from your
Computers and t v
Sit your old school
Or hip hop ways aside
Sat to hear the teaching
Of our elders what need have they to lie
See the gleam in our children eyes
The truth my sisters and brothers
The truth that calls your name
Is found in the rich
life of our elders
Make of this our children the same
let them teach you before they die
What is the purpose of your life
What is the purpose of your death
Each of us must seek the answer
Deep within our children and elder's breast
Nai





Kuumba
Kuumba


Creativity

I am Griot
I am Poet
I am the first fruit
Black is my people
Red is their struggle
Green is their future
By the light of their muza
And their elders
Loved above all things
And mubidi of
Their children
Who are a donation
To our future
We slip libation
From the unity cup
To honor our ancestors
We do as we can
When we can
From Joseph F. Beam
To you to me
To leave an inheritance
A black legacy
It is the creativity
Of our children that
Shall repair and
Heal the world
Yes, serudj ta
Is there tool to
To make the world
Beautiful if only
We as black folks
Come to heal ourselves
First if we have hope
We are an injured people
In America
A people of struggle
And self inflicted pain
It is our God given creativity
That have made us strong
To carry on against all odds
The Odu lfa tells us
That anyone who
Does good
Does it for himself
And anyone who
Does evil does it to himself
Do not use your creativity
To damage the race nor the world
Do not use your creativity
In the guise of religion
To impose on others
Do not use your creativity
To justify unjust wars
To seize and occupy
Others land
Do not use your creativity
To justify injustice
Do not use your creativity
To turn away from
The suffering and pain of the world
Nor for unneeded material gain
The measure of all things
Is not to use your
Creativity to pollute
Plunder, deplete nor
Destroy nature
But use it true
To plan the eternity
Of our youths
And black generations
That shall follow you
-
Ujima


(Collective Work and Responsibility)

When the women folks
getter together with
Big mama to do the
Christmas cooking
it is in the spirit
of Ujima
when the men folks
gather to move
Baby Sister’s house hole
it is in the spirit of Ujima
when black farmers gather
to bring in the crops
of their neighbors
it is in the spirit of Ujima
when your neighbor gather
after the snow storm
to dig out old Ms Lucy's car
it is in the spirit of Ujima
when the neighborhood gather
to clean up the neighborhood trash
it is in the spirit of Ujima\
when we gather together
to run the prostitutes and drug dealers
it is in the spirit of Ujima
when the white man condemned
mama Bea's house and black folks
gathered to fix it up
and new paint
it is in the spirit of Ujima
when the ball is passed from
\player to player to he
who can take the shot
in is in the spirit of Ujima
it is our collective works
and responsibility of our love
to raise our black young
that have made the many stronger
then the one in raising
our children that have
allowed us as a people
to push on against the slings
and arrow and guns
that would do our race harm
it is in the spirit of Ujima
that sustains a race of warriors
UJIMA
-


Imani

The righteousness
of our struggle
is showed in our faith
to overcome slavery
segregation both
physical and economic
others have both
blacks and white
have tried to devalue
our rich history
but our faith in ourselves
have taken us this far
taken us through
to birth me and you
Hebrew says
that faith is
a substance unseen
but I say that
faith sustains
many of our elders
and you can see it
in their faces and their ways
by faith your God
comes into your life
by faith the impossible
is possible
faith can be used
for good or evil
Dr. Laura have her faith in God
to lament that
she can not call
black folks nigger
Bob Johnson has
faith in the white washing of BET
black people have faith
in their people
but not always shown
because some of our
elders do not trust
some of our youth
do not have faith
in themselves
faith in you sisters
and your brothers enrich
black consciousness
faith enrich us on a
personal and community level
faith enhance
our human possibility as a race
we must have faith
to recover and reconstruct our
lost historical
memories and legacy
faith in being black
explains out African centric
communitarian values
faith in being black
is believing in ourselves
we will not find
victory in out struggles
without faith
that victory is possible
the first sister
and the first brother
had faith in their children
who peopled the world
and that as a race
we would survive
on this day of faith
and grace make
a vow to better a better lover,
friend, husband, father,or son
and it will renew your
vigor as a black man.
IMANI