Kwanzaa ‘gift’: Pan Africanism’s 2020 ‘victories’

Pan Africanism appears to be gaining ground in Barbados, where 96 per cent of the population descends from African people, according to Pan-Africanist organisers who launched the Pan African holiday, Kwanzaa, on Thursday.

General Secretary for the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, David Denny, used the press launch of the holiday that was created in 1966, to declare the Pan-Africanist movements have experienced the biggest attention and coverage compared to previous years.

Speaking to reporters at the Police Outpost in Haynesville, he hailed the removal of Lord Nelson’s statue, the Black Lives Matter protests and the push for republican status as highlights of the advance of Pan Africanism.

Denny said: “The Pan-Africanists and progressive forces in Barbados benefitted from this year being nice to us in the Pan-Africanist groupings because we were successful in getting the Government of Barbados to discuss and to pass Black Lives Matter resolution in parliament. This year we also benefited from the June 13 march that would have called for the removal of Lord Nelson, and that would have also called for the removal of the Queen as the Head of State and for Barbados to become a republic.

“So this year we achieved a lot from our struggles and our action, and therefore we will be recognizing these things during the period of Kwanzaa, and part of our vision into 2021 coming out of our Kwanzaa program this year would be to create conditions for discussions around the type of republic that Barbados should look at.”

Kwanzaa was created in the US by Pan Africanist academic and activist Dr Maulana Karenga as an alternative to a commercialised Christmas and give “Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society”, he said.

On December 26, a Kwanzaa themed concert will begin in Pelican Village at 5 pm. This concert will kick off a week of activities for the festival, which will include the Haynesville community programme having a walkthrough in the community with members of the Haynesville Youth Group performing. Kwanzaa celebrations will conclude on New Year’s Day with another concert in Pelican Village with members of the Cuban and Haitian community being specially invited to attend in remembrance of the Cuban Revolution and Haitian independence whose anniversaries are both on January 1.

Kwanzaa affirms seven principles of African heritage: unity (Umoja), self-determination (Kujichagulia), collective work and responsibility (Ujima), cooperative economics (Ujamaa), purpose (Nia), creativity (Kuumba), and faith (Imani). (SB)