KWANZAA
Day #5: December 30
Nguzo Saba
Kwanzaa Principle #5
Nia (nee-AH)
Purpose
"To make
our collective vocation the building and developing of our
community in order to restore our people to their traditional
greatness."
The fifth principle of the Nguzo Saba is Nia which is essentially
a commitment to the collective vocation of building, developing
and defending our national community, its culture and history in
order to regain our historical initiative and greatness as a
people. The assumption here is that our role in human history has
been and remains a key one, that we as an African people share in
the grand human legacy Africa has given the world. That legacy is
one of having not only been the fathers and mothers of humanity,
but also the fathers and mothers of human civilization, i.e.,
having introduced in the Nile Valley civilizations the basic
disciplines of human knowledge. It is this identity which gives us
an overriding cultural purpose and suggests a direction. This is
what we mean when we say we who are the father's and mothers of
human civilization have no business playing the cultural children
of the world. The principle of Nia then makes us conscious of our
purpose in light of our historical and cultural identity.
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Inherent in this discussion of deriving purpose from cultural and
historical identity is a necessary reference to and focus on
generational responsibility. [Frantz] Fanon has posed this
responsibility in competing terms. He says, "each generation must,
out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, [and then]
fulfill it or betray it" (48). The mission he suggests is always
framed within the larger context of the needs, hopes and
aspirations of the people. And each of us is morally and
culturally obligated to participate in creating a context of
maximum freedom and development of the people.
Finally, Nia suggests that personal and social purpose are not
only non-antagonistic but complementary in the true communitarian
sense of the word. In fact, it suggests that the highest form of
personal purpose is in the final analysis, social purpose, i.e.,
personal purpose that translates itself into a vocation and
commitment which involves and benefits the community. As we have
noted elsewhere, such a level and quality of purpose not only
benefits the collective whole, but also gives fullness and meaning
to a persons life in a way individualistic and isolated pursuits
cannot.
For true greatness and growth never occur in isolation and at
other's expense. On the contrary, as African philosophy teaches,
we are first and foremost social beings whose reality and
relevance are rooted in the quality and the kinds of relations we
have with each other. And a cooperative communal vocation is an
excellent context and encouragement for quality social relations.
Thus, [W.E.B.] Du Bois' stress on education for social
contribution and rejection of vulgar careerism rooted in the lone
and passionate pursuit of money is especially relevant. For again
our purpose is not to simply create money markers, but to
cultivate men and women capable of social and human exchange on a
larger more meaningful scale, men and women of culture and social
conscience, of vision and values which expand the human project of
freedom and development rather than diminish and deform it.
Practice
Nia
every day!
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