 This is St. Tech, Hawaii. Community matters here. Habari Ghani. I'm your host, Sharon Thomas Yarbrough. Welcome and thank you for joining Sister Para. Power. Habari Ghani, which is a standard Swahili greeting meaning, how are you? Our topic for this episode is Kwanzaa. What is it? And how to celebrate Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa, which means first fruits of the harvest in the African language, his Wali, has gained tremendous acceptance. Kwanzaa has come to be observed by more than 18 million people worldwide as reported by the New York Times. Kwanzaa is a unique African-American celebration with focus on the traditional African values of family, community responsibility, commerce, and self-improvement. This afternoon, our Sister Power VIP guest, author, attorney, Daphne E. Barbie, and Dr. Marcia Howard. Habari Ghani. Habari Ghani. Happy Kwanzaa to you and to everyone. Yeah. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Absolutely. This is very exciting. This is the first time the Think Tech has had a Kwanzaa celebration here. So we're going to show them how it's done. Yes, we will. So first, let's talk about what is Kwanzaa? So Kwanzaa is an African-American holiday, which comes right after Christmas on the 26th, and it was created in 1966 by Dr. Maulani Karunga, who was a Pan-African in Los Angeles. And it was just a way for African-Americans to come together and celebrate all of the good things that we have gone through, all of the triumphs and the tribulations, and to let the generations behind us know the struggles that we've gone through and how we have overcome and just celebrate the goodness of who we are as a people. I love that. Daphne, explain to us how many days, tell us about the principles of Kwanzaa. First of all, I have a happy Kwanzaa card for all of you. All right. So Kwanzaa was given a Kwanzaa gift yesterday, it's African-American angel, whoop, whoop. So there she is, and here the card is, and it's a way of African-Americans celebrating self-identity, being proud of who you are, remembering our history, paying respect and homage to our ancestors, and to look forward to see how we're going to improve everyone and ourselves in the future. So the seven principles, by the way, today is the third day of Kwanzaa. Yes, it is. The first day is Ujima, which is collective work, working together, which we're doing now. No. This is it. He is. And so the first day is Umoja, which is unity. The second is Kujikajalika, which is self-determination. Self-determination. Mm-hmm. Third, we already talked about Ujima. Fourth is Ujamaa, cooperative economics, working together economically. Nia is the fifth day, which is purpose. Kumbha, creativity, is the sixth day. And the seventh day is Imani, which means faith. And so we're here around the third day of Kwanzaa. But we have a couple more days to go, and all of you may want to join in. Absolutely. So Kwanzaa is celebrated the day after Christmas, December 26th to January 1st. And so we're going to explain to our viewers about the Kanari here. Is that the correct Kanari? Kanara. All right. So this is the Kanari, and it has seven candles. And the colors each represent something beautiful. So the black candle obviously represents the African culture, the Africans that came here. The red candles represent the struggle of the people. And the green candles represents youth and vitality in life and the next generation to come. Mm-hmm. So today we would light a candle, starting with the black candle, and representing one for each of the seven principles. That's true. And then we also have baskets of vegetables, corn, and fruits, which again, this is Kwanzaa first fruit, because it's based upon the harvest in Africa. Yes. When you gather the fruits, getting ready to share with everybody, and the bounty of land, especially Mother Africa, which gives us so much in terms of health and healthy foods and products. And so we have the African baskets with the fruits for the first fruits. And we also have history books, both history books and family books. So a lot of the people who sit around the table and read stories or talk with stories, and when I do Kwanzaa parties, I have little tests. And people who win the test questions about black history, they win a prize, a little prize. And we all gather together and learn. It's not just eating and having a good time. We learn. And we share stories about famous African Americans or Africans, for that matter. Yes. And to further expound on the harvest, the corn represents the generation. So the kernels represent the bountiful generations that will come after us and carry on the stories from whence our grandfathers or grandmothers taught us. And actually, I am African American, well, we all are, but me and my parents are from Liberia, West Africa. Really? Yes. And so I grew up African, and I also grew up in Brooklyn, New York as an American. But strangely enough, it wasn't the typical African American experience. So we grew up eating African food, like fufu and soup and cassava leaf and palm butter. But we also grew up eating the food that the slaves carried back to Liberia. So we grew up eating macaroni and cheese and sweet potato pie. And so it was a mixture of African and American culture. So this is actually pretty new to me, experiencing this, but it goes along with the African culture because I recently went to Liberia and just saw the beauty and what we call Ohana here in Hawaii, the family and the respect for the elders and just the storytelling and just being able to keep the culture going. So this is a beautiful way of having our African American ancestors just represented, you know, here in America. And speaking of Liberia, weren't there elections yesterday? The elections were yesterday. And who won? The soccer player. Ah! He won! Yes! The soccer player. And it was a peaceful demonstration, so we thank God for that. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. A peaceful changeover. Also speaking of Liberia, during the Civil War, there were a lot of proponents to send African Americans back to Africa, and they picked Liberia and created it, meaning the Americans did, but it was really an African country before Americans came. The Americans got there. Yeah. And so a lot of people who were enslaved or enslaved did go back to Liberia. Some of them didn't like it and came back to America and others are there. And I understand in Liberia, it's sort of a division between African Americans and the Native Africans. Right. So actually, just to tell this quick story, my mother is from the line of the Ameri-Cole Librarians, so we're able to trace our lineage back to Tennessee from the slaves that got on the ship, the ex-slaves, that got on the ship and went to Liberia. My father's side is from the Native side, from the Vi tribe. The Vi tribe are known to be very, very intelligent people. Of course. But also sometimes very lazy people, so the smart people usually make the other people work for them, but it's just so beautiful to know the heritage that I have and that what I do is to bring that into the schools with me. So as a teacher at Kailua, I often bring African American culture during Black History Month by bringing my African dance class and the drummers and the dancers to come and celebrate African culture. And I purposefully don't do it in February because some people believe that we're just Black in February since it's Black History Month, but I want to demonstrate that African American history is American history as well. So this needs to be shared as well as all the other good things that are happening. Yeah, well we have such a rich history. We do. And I'm really enjoying listening to you ladies, converse back and forth. Let's talk about the Unity Cup. Yes. So the Unity Cup is used before we light a candle. We give homage to our ancestors, and we pour out a libation. So usually we'll pour something inside. It could be water, it could be wine, it could be whatever you want. And we pour it on the ground if it's done outside. If it's done inside, you can pour it in a bowl. Just to honor. So this is our Unity Cup right here. Yes. It's just to honor our ancestors to give them respect for what they have gone through. I was fortunate to go to travel to Ghana about four or five years ago. And every time we went into the slave dungeons, you know they had the slave dungeons. They call it castles, but we call it dungeons. Dungeons. And we went into the same slave dungeon that President Obama went into. And before we go into the dungeons, you have the chiefs of the village. We all get into a circle, and they have the same libation cup. They put rum, and then they put it in their mouth and spit it out. And then they say ancestor's name. You know what I mean? To pay homage for all of those who have been enslaved, and to all of those who have continued to stay there, and who are now kings and princes and chiefs of the village. It was quite moving, and so every time we went into one of those horrific places, we always did libation and did respect. And once we were inside of the dungeon, we again formed another circle. The oldest person spoke something positive, and the youngest person spoke something positive. Beautiful. We fought our ancestors, and then we went to tour the dungeons. Yes, beautiful. And we should carry that on today into the schools. And I understand, Marcia, that you single-handedly teach black history programs to your students. Yes. Wonderful. When I came here, I started doing African dance. It's so ironic that here in Hawaii is where I got in touch with African dancing and drumming, which is an awesome privilege. And so what I decided to do is to take that into the schools. So in 2004, it was on the front page of the Honolulu Advertiser. That was the newspaper then. And in Kalihi Elementary, the principal, Mr. Mann, allowed me to turn the whole school into an African village. Wonderful. So we had pictures, we had drawings. Some of the teachers, they just really got into it. We had a king. We had a queen. We had servants. We had everything. Oh, my goodness. And it was an amazing time, and the children really responded well to it. And it was raining tremendously, and the place was packed, and the students came to love it so much. So, and I do it to every school. I've done it in Nanakuli. Oh. I've done it at Alawai. I've done it at Kailua Elementary. So much so that we were doing our practice, because we have dance class every Saturday at UH. So this one student heard the drums, and ran into the class, and said, I knew it was you. I heard the drums, and I knew it was you. So it warmed my heart that just the little things that we do to share ourselves and our culture, the students really appreciate it. Absolutely. We were speaking earlier. Daphne, I are on the Honolulu African American Film Festival Committee. And your organization did the dancing for our film festival. Yes. They were showing, I am not your Negro. That's right. Yes. Which is awesome. If you get a chance to see that documentary, James Baldwin is awesome. And yes. So Sehwafade is the only African West African dance and drum troupe here in Hawaii. We'll be walking in the Martin Luther King Day Parade. We'll be drumming and dancing. So come out and support us. We tried to go out, not just around February, but any chance we get to share the African culture and the American culture. We have two, what we call master drummers, Seku Kamara and Musa Bangora. They are from Guinea West Africa. So we have the privilege of having, I want to say, authentic African drummers here that are sharing their culture with us. And like I said earlier, the classes are at UH and it's an open level. So you don't have to be a master dancer. I can't wait till you come here. Oh, okay. Stephanie, I'll be there. All right. When is it? And where is it? What time? It's Saturdays. Every Saturday at UH in the Lunalilo Freeway Portables, right before you get to the stancher. He asks. Yes. It's at 10.30 to 12. We start off with a warm-up, live drumming, and yes. And then it's just a great way to work out the whole mind, body, and spirit. It's wonderful. Yeah. It's wonderful. In Hawaii there are a lot of things, a lot of events people can celebrate which pertain to African and African-Americans. I know at the Honolulu Art, they used to have African safari day and people could come there, they'd get their hair braided, they'd try on different African clothes and pictures would be taken of them. That's beautiful. This is a lot. We've been doing it for a long time, but I think it may have ended last year of you before, but we still always go down there and do that. We had dance too, but it was a lot of fun. And we have various speakers coming to the Art Museum and African Art, or African-American Art, and sharing their history and history about that. I wish we would start that up again. I've never had a chance to do it. Oh, please. Yeah, let's do it again. You're making your name. It's starting. I know how to read too. Absolutely. I will do it. I will do it. Keep the tradition going. Kwanzaa is just so much fun. And I'm looking at, let's talk about our outfits. Oh, yeah. African fashion. This is really nice. Oh, yeah. I'm loving it. It feels so good. And it's giving. You know, this is what I love. Colorful. I love the African fashion. Yes. I love the beautiful jewelry and the clothes. And this is from Ghana. Okay. And I wanted to talk about the cloth here is from Nigeria. This is beautiful. This is a gift from my sister, Nedra, from Nigeria. Absolutely. Yeah. And so what do you have on? This is a dress that was made in Liberia. My parents, like I said earlier, from Liberia. And it is very giving. I know some people like to wear clothes to show off their curves. And believe me, in Africa, the women have lots of curves. But we wear loose-fitting clothing because it's hot. And just because it's very fashionable and it's very giving. And they often use their lapa. In Liberia, it's called lapa. And just to make the connection between Africa and here in Polynesia, the cloth that they wear is called tapah. And in Liberia, it's called lapa. So there's so many connections between African culture and Polynesian culture. I'll get into that later. Okay. But this is a very giving and lovely outfit that I'm really grateful that my mom has very good taste. Oh, yes she does. And yours, Daphne, is lovely. Yeah. I went to Ghana and one of the things is in the hotel that we were at, women would be there and they would say, do you want a dress? And they'd have all their cloths. And they would measure you and you say, oh yeah, I'd like a skirt or like a blouse. And this was a woman who said, I told her I'd skirt blouse. She measured me. And the next day she shows up and I pay her. And then she had a whole bunch of other clothes because she measured me. That would fit me. Of course. Of course. This is one of them. Very intelligent and innovative people. Wow. And the colors are so vibrant. You feel alive wearing these. You do. And all these people down the street, hey, how are you doing there? You never speak before, but they're like, oh, how are you? Well when we come back, we're going to continue. This is Kwanzaa and how to continue to celebrate Kwanzaa. Thank you. I just walked by and I said, what's happening, guys? It's RB Kelly. I'm your host of Abbot the Comfort Zone, where I find cool people with cool solutions to problems that all of us face. Now the thing is, we're really cool. And I only invite really cool people, but the thing is, I think you're kind of cool too. So I think you should come and watch. That Thursdays at 11 a.m. here on OC 16 television with Think Tech Hawaii. I'm RB Kelly, host of Abbot the Comfort Zone, and I will see you next Thursday. Welcome back. Kabari Gane. We're talking, our topic for this episode is Kwanzaa. What is it and how to celebrate Kwanzaa? And before we went on break, we were talking about our beautiful outfits from Africa. And we were talking about, we talked about the seven principles of Kwanzaa. We talked about the unity cup and the crops and the fruits. And Kwanzaa starts from December 26, and it ends with gift giving on January the 1st. So tell me something that really inspires you to continue the celebration of Kwanzaa. So I enjoy Kwanzaa. I just recently started attending some Kwanzaa celebrations. I have a friend in Waianae, Nicole Wu, and she really enjoys putting on this big, elaborate celebration, bringing all of the people. And it's not just for African-Americans. There are non-African-Americans that are welcome to participate because it is about unity and it is about family and it is about self-determination and giving and purpose and faith. And that is trans-cultural. So we open it up to all who are interested in coming. But what inspires me is that it's just a way to give back, to remember, and also to give forward to the next generation that's coming. I don't think a lot of our students, particularly here in Hawaii, we're African-American. The percentage is less than 3 percent African-Americans. And so what inspires me to continue teaching about Kwanzaa or Black history is that I think our students, the local students as well as the students who are coming from outer islands and from other countries, because my school hosts a lot of military students. And so some of these students have never heard of Black history or have never encountered Africans or African-Americans, some of them. And so I strive to just educate. I've been a special educator for the past 23 years, the first five and a half in Brooklyn, New York, before being recruited out here to Hawaii to teach. And I just make sure that I let the students know who I am, not just intellectually, but as a person. Sure. I think as a teacher we are allowed to bring all of us, all of who we are into the classroom, our trips, our experiences are growing up, and it imparts knowledge and experience to the students. And it can connect us to the students, even if they're not African-Americans. It develops respect for African-American culture in Africa. I mean, if they don't know anything and they just watch TV, they'd have all kinds of prejudices. Exactly. Because they get most of their information about African-Americans from music, from TV, from what they see in the news. And not all of it is pretty or accurate. So what I like to do is I like to do a Venn diagram and show how Polynesian and African culture are the same. So we were both navigators. The Polynesians and the Africans used the stars to travel. We're both agriculturalists, you know. We got indigenous people, usually, they get their food, their sustenance from Mother Earth. We both, and particularly in Liberia, we're the second most popular country that eats spam. I know. No, no, that's a Kwanzaa situation. No, it's not a Kwanzaa situation. But when I'm sharing African culture and Polynesian culture, just to show how we are so much alive. We're really connected, yes. We're more in common than not to use it. Yes. And the dances that tell stories through hula and African dances. We have dances for harvest, have dances for celebrations, for weddings, for funerals. So the cultures are more alike than they are different. And the only thing that they see first is the skin color. But when you get down to it, we have so much in common, respect for the elders, love of food, love of celebration, love of self. So yeah, that's what inspires me to just share what we know with the next generation coming up. That's beautiful. Yeah. I also do some Kwanzaa celebrations. I have been doing it for ever since I was very young. We had Kwanzaa celebrations in the mainland. And then when I came here, I tried to continue the tradition. And so we have dinners with certain friends of ours. And there's also a Kwanzaa display at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. It started about five years ago. And they had the canora and the first fruits. And they have a little picture book as to what Kwanzaa is. Wonderful. It's good information to know. And we cannot forget that we have Kwanzaa stamps. Yes. Kwanzaa stamps, absolutely. Yes. And then I just heard about the statue that you ate. Yeah. You know, in keeping with the Kwanzaa tradition of knowing our history, let's stick to O'ahu. And well, actually the whole state of Hawaii. And I always grumbled because there were no statues of African-Americans in Hawaii. Well, there is a statue of Donis Thompson, who was the famous African-American Hawaiian that lived here. And she was one of the people that got the women's athletic department started at UH. She's the one behind Title IX and Patsy Mink and getting Title IX passed. She was an athlete in her own right. So they dedicated a statue to her in the Stan Sheriff Arena. So you can go there and take a look at it. I will. It tells you a little bit about her history. Fabulous. And that's on O'ahu. And then go to Maui. And Maui has Martin Luther King statue outside of City Hall, which was put up about four or five years ago. And so when I go there, I bring a lay to dedicate to Martin Luther King. And they have a March 2, Martin Luther King Day in Maui. And they march up to the statue and sing and give praise and history. And so, yeah, there's places here in the state that you can go and celebrate. I know that Dolores Gutman has an organization that celebrates Kwanzaa at Kakao Kro Park. However, I don't know if they open the park or not. But if it's open, they might have it there, but they keep closing it, you know. So there's a lot of things over here that are going on. And people should know that even the U.S. presidents, they come in and celebrate Kwanzaa and let people know that Kwanzaa is happening now, maybe, you know, not this one, but the one prior. President Obama would get on to us. And Clinton, President Clinton. So people like Oprah and Maya Angelou, many stars celebrate Kwanzaa. We should let people know, just like non-Mexicans celebrate Cinco de Mayo, Kwanzaa is for everyone. It's for everyone. And in their closing, is there just in 20 seconds or less, would you like to say something special to the audience out there about Kwanzaa that we have not covered before? No, I just enjoy Kwanzaa, celebrate it with us, pay respect to African history, African American history. We're studying the true African American history and African history written by us as opposed to others. And I think you will develop a great love for our culture. And we've gone through a lot, but we're still here. We're still here. Yeah. I would like to say that Kwanzaa can be celebrated as creatively as you want it to be. And along with what Daphne said, there's an African proverb that says, until the lion tells the tale, the story will always glorify the hunter. True. Amen. I love that. We need to tell our own story written by us about us. About us. Yes. I love that. Yes. This has been just so wonderful. Thank you. I appreciate you, Marcia, Howard, and Daphne, Barbie, for coming in and celebrating Kwanzaa with us for the first time here at Think Tech. This is very special and people, oceans of aloha, peace, and love.