KWANZAA
Day #2: December 27
Nguzo Saba
Kwanzaa Principle #2
Kujichagulia (koo-jee-cha-goo-LEE-ah)
Self Determination
"To define
ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for
ourselves."
The second Principle of the Nguzo Saba is self-determination. This
too expresses itself as both commitment and practice. It demands
that we as an African people define, defend and develop ourselves
instead of allowing or encouraging others to do this. It requires
that we recover lost memory and once again shape our world in our
own image and interest. And it is a call to recover and speak our
own special truth to the world and raise images above the earth
that reflect our capacity for human greatness and progress.
The first act of a free people is to shape its world in its own
image and interest. And it is a statement about their conception
of self and their commitment to self-determination. [Frantz] Fanon
has said each person must ask him or herself three basic
questions:
1. Who am I?
2. Am I really who I say I am?
3. Am I all that I ought to be?
These are questions of history and culture, not simply queries or
questions of personal identity. More profoundly, they are
questions of personal identity. More profoundly, they are
questions of collective identity, based and borne out in
historical and cultural practice. And the essential quality of
that practice must be the quality of self-determination.
"To answer the question of "Who am I?" correctly, then, is to know
and live one's history and to practice one's culture."
"To answer the question of "Am I really who I am?" is to have and
employ a cultural criteria of authenticity, i.e., criteria of what
is real and unreal, what is appearance and essence, what is
culturally-rooted and foreign."
"And to answer the question of "Am I all I ought to be?" is to
self-consciously possess and use ethical and cultural standards
which measure men, women and children in terms of the quality of
their thought and practice in the context of who they are and must
become - in both an African and human sense."
Practice
Kujichagulia
every day!
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