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Kwanzaa celebration begins with unifying performance
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
Colorful and flowing visions fly to the stage at New Bethel Baptist Church with energy and grace.
The dancers move to the beat of the djembe and get the people in the pews moving.
Monday night was the start of the 50th anniversary observance of Kwanzaa. The seven-day celebration of African heritage comes with seven principles. Every day, a new principle is celebrated. On Monday, Umoja, the unity principle, was celebrated with unifying performances.
“We are gathering together and unifying,” said Lynnette Kimako Miller, co-coordinator of the Kwanzaa event.
Dr. Maulana Karenga organized the first Kwanzaa in the U.S. in 1966. The holiday has been celebrated in Youngstown since then, with Lynnette and her husband, Ron Sababu Miller, leading the city’s Kwanzaa celebrations since the 1980s.
“It’s based on traditional African celebrations,” said Ron, co-coordinator. “The purpose of Kwanzaa is to get us African-American people in touch with our heritage, with who we are ... to understand how we need to proceed.”
Ron opened the event with “Habari gani,” a standard Swahili greeting that means, “What’s happening?” In return, the crowd responded with the day’s Kwanzaa principle, Umoja.
The other principles are: Kujichagulia, or self-determination; Ujima, or collective work and responsibility; Ujamaa, or cooperative economics; Nia, or purpose; Kuumba, or creativity; and Imani, or faith.
The Kwanzaa symbols including the Mazao, or the crops that are symbolic of African harvest; and the Kinara, the candleholder that is symbolic of African roots, were explained at the event.
Together, everyone saluted the African-American flag and stood to hear three girls sing the black national anthem. The crowd remembered ancestors through libations where some announced the names of those they wanted to honor during the celebration.
The main feature of Monday’s Kwanzaa celebration was the Harambee Coalition, an African dance and youth group. On Monday, 170 performers from the coalition sang, danced and drummed to unify the crowd.
Performers and cousins Naquaisia Redd, 18, of Warren, and Isis Nored, 21, of Youngstown, passionately played next to each other for their opening performance.
“To be honest, it’s a blessing to show my talent,” Redd said.
Nored taught her cousin how to play the djembe, a goblet-shaped West African drum that is traditionally carved from African hardwood and topped with an animal skin. It is played with bare hands.
“It caught my attention,” Nored said of drumming. “I’d been wanting to try it out. I started when I was 13. It’s like my second passion.”
Nored’s first passion is art.
On Monday, Nored used her passion to create what she calls a fun, enjoyable and entertaining experience.
“It’s just good to come together and play,” she said.