Early Kwanzaa celebration sparks passion

Although Kwanzaa doesn't officially begin until Dec. 26, more than 200 IU students and faculty, as well as members of the Bloomington community, gathered together for the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center's annual Pre-Kwanzaa Celebration Wednesday night.\n"Tonight was excellent, and we are very pleased with the turnout," said Oyibo Afoaku, director of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center. "This event was very important because IU is a big campus, but a program like Kwanzaa, which is so positive, brings everyone together."\nThe celebration began with a libation, the traditional African send-off that blesses the event and gets people excited to be there, she said.\nFollowing the libation, audience members joined in with the singing of the Black National Anthem. With musical accompaniment, three different vocal ensembles took the stage to perform soulful renditions of Christian songs throughout the night. Despite the nature of these performances, Kwanzaa is not a religious event.\n"Kwanzaa is a time for ingathering and for our people to bond together," said keynote speaker Rev. Patricia Efiom, an IU graduate and Bloomington resident. "Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday but a cultural one, an opportunity for us to gather and remember who we are and honor and celebrate one another."\nIn her speech, Efiom identified the meaning of Kwanzaa and its importance for African-Americans today. She also talked about Maulana Karenga, the creator of Kwanzaa, who spoke at last year's Pre-Kwanzaa Celebration.\n"One thing that happened with slavery is that we were ripped apart from our homeland and each other," she said. "The split and divide has never been completely corrected, but Karenga in the '60s recognized this. His attempt with Kwanzaa was to bring us together again."\nAfter Efiom's speech, seven IU students took part in the Kwanzaa candle-lighting ceremony. Each read one of the "nguzo saba," or seven principles of Kwanzaa, in both Swahili and English. For each of the principles -- unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith -- students lit a candle on the traditional kinara, or Kwanzaa candle holder. The red, black and green candles of the kinara represent blood, people and the land, respectively.\n"It was an honor to go up there and light a candle," junior Shane Whittington said. "I have come to celebrations at the Neal-Marshall center before, but I hadn't come to a Kwanzaa program. Being here tonight ignited a passion for me to learn more."\nLike Whittington, the majority of the attendees, by a show of hands, said they had never participated in a Kwanzaa celebration before.\n"This is my first Kwanzaa celebration, and I think it's wonderful," graduate student Nakia Brown said. "The speaker has really broken down the meaning of Kwanzaa, and as of this night, I think I will celebrate Kwanzaa in my home"