The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa has seven basic symbols and two supplemental ones. Each is representative of values and concepts that are reflective of African culture and contributive to community building and reinforcement. The seven basic symbols are:

Mazao or Crops (Fruits, Nuts and Vegetables): Symbolizes work and the basis of the holiday. It also represents the historical foundation for Kwanzaa...the gathering of the people that is patterned after African harvest festivals in which joy, sharing, unity and thanksgiving are the rewarding fruits of collective planning and labor. Since the family is the basic social an economic center of every civilization, this festival forged stronger bonds between family members and served to reaffirm commitment and responsibility to each other. In native Africa, the family may have included several generations of two or more nuclear families, as well as distant relatives. Although Ancient Africans were unconcerned with the large numbers that might make up a family, it was accepted that there could only be one leader...the oldest male of the strongest group. Hence, an entire village might have been composed of one single family. The family was considered a limb of a tribe that shared common customs, cultural traditions and political unity...they were supposedly all descended from common ancestors. The tribe lived by traditions that provided both continuity and identify. Tribal laws frequently determined the value system, judiciary and customs encompassing birth, adolescence, marriage, parenthood, maturity and death. Through personal sacrifice and hard work, the famers sowed seeds that brought forth new plant life to feed the people and other animals of the earth. To demonstrate their mazao, celebrations of Kwanzaa place nuts, fruits and vegetables...all of which are representative of work...upon the mkeka.
Mkeka or Mat: The mkeka is fashioned from straw or cloth and originates directly from Africa. Thus, it is symbolic of African tradition, history and culture...a foundation upon which to stand and build. In much the same way that today stand upon all the yesterdays that came before, the other symbols associated with this holiday stand on the mkeka. During Kwanzaa, celebrants study, recall and reflect on their native history and the role each is to play as a legacy to the future. Ancient societies made mats from straw...the dried seams of grains that were sowed and reaped collectively. The weavers took the stalks and created household baskets and mats. Today, celebrants of Kwanzaa buy mkeka that are fashioned from Kente cloth, African mud cloth, and other textiles from various areas of the African continent. The mishumaa saba, the vibunzi, the mazao, the zawadi, the kikombe cha umoja and the kinara are placed directly on the mkeka.
Kinara or Candle Holder: The kinara is the center of the Kwanzaa setting, representative of the original stalk from which the people came...the ancestry. The kinara can be any shape...straight, semicircular or spiral...provided the seven candles it holds are separate and distinct, like a candelabra. The kinara may be made from a variety of materials and many celebrants create their own from fallen branches, wood or other natural substances. It is symbolic of the ancestors, who were once earth bound, but who understood the problems of human life and are now willing to protect their progeny from danger, evil and mistakes. In African festivals, the ancestors are remembered, honored and deeply revered. The mishumaa saba are placed in the kinara.
Muhindi or Ear of Corn: The muhindi represents fertility and symbolizes that through the reproduction of children, the future hopes of the family are brought to life. One ear is known as vibunzi while two or more ears are called minindi. Each ear is symbolic of a child in the family. Thus, one ear is placed on the mkeka for each child in the household. If there are no children in the home, then two ears are still set upon the mkeka because each person is responsible for the children of the community. During Knwanzaa, the love and nurturance that was heaped upon the individual as a child is selflessly returned to all children, but particularly the helpless, the homeless and the loveless of the community. Hence, the Nigerian proverb, "It takes a whole village to raise a child," is realized in this symbol, since raising a child in Africa was a community affair, which involved the tribal village as well as the family. Good habits of respect for self and for others, together with discipline, positive thinking, expectations, compassion, empathy, charity and self-direction, are learned in childhood from parents, peers and experiences. Children are essential to the celebrations of Kwanzaa. They are the future...the seed-bearers who will carry cultural values and practices into the next generation. It is for this reason that children were cared for both communally and indiviually within the tribal village. The biological family was ultimately responsible for raising its own children, but every person in the village was held accountable for the safety and welfare of all the children.
Mishumaa Saba or Seven Candles: Symbolic of the Nguzo Saba or Seven Principles...the matrix and minimum set of values by which African people are urged to live in order to rescue and reconstruct their lives in their own image and according to their own needs. Candles are ceremonial objects with two primary purposes: to symbolically recreate the power of the sun and to provide light. The celebration of fire through candle-burning is not limited to one particular group or country. Indeed, it occurs everywhere. Mishumaa saba are the seven candles of Kwanzaa...three red, three green and one black. (Please see the section on this page entitled "Lighting the Kinara" for more information.)
Kikombe cha Umoja or Unity Cup: The kikombe cha umoja is a special cup that is used to perform the libation or tambiko ritual during the Karamu feast on the Sixth Day of Kwanzaa. It is symbolic of the foundational principle and practice of unity which makes all else possible. In may African societies, libations are poured for the living dead, whose souls remain with the earth that they tilled. The Ibo people of Nigeria believe that to drink the last portion of a libation is to invite the wrath of the spirits and ancestors. Consequently, the final drops of the libation belong to the Ancient Ones. During the Karamu feast, the kikombe cha umoja is passed to family members and guests, who drink from it to promote unity. Then, the eldest individual present pours the libation...usually water, juice or wine...in the direction of the four winds: north, south, east and west, thereby honoring the ancestors. This person asks the gods and ancestors to share in the festivities and in return, to bless all those who are not present at the gathering. After requesting this benediction, the elder pours the libation on the ground and the group says, "Amen." Large Kwanzaa gatherings may operate in a manner very similar to communion services in most churches and it is common for celebrants to have individual cups, but drink the libation together as a sign of unity. Some families may have a cup that is specifically designated for the ancestors with everyone else having his or her own. The last few ounces of the libation are poured into the cup of the host or hostess, who sips it and hands it to the oldest individual in the group, who then asks for the blessing.
Zawadi or Gifts: When Imani is celebrated on the Seven Day of Kwanzaa, meaningful gifts are exchanged with members of the immediate family...especially the children...to promote or reward accomplishments achieved and commitments that have been kept. Gifts may also be exchanged with guests during this time. Handmade presents are encouraged in order to promote self-determination, purpose and creativity, as well as to avoid the chaos of shopping and conspicuous consumption during the December holiday season. A family may spend a entire year making kinaras in addition to creating cards, dolls and/or mkekas to give to their visitors. The acceptance of a gift implies a moral obligation to fulfill the promise of the gift. It obliges the recipient to follow the training of the host or hostess. The Kwanzaa gift cements social relationships, allowing the receiver to share in the duties and rights of a family member. The gifts, particularly those given to the children, must include a book and a heritage symbol. The book emphasizes the African value and tradition of learning stressed since Ancient Egypty, and the heritage symbol is to reaffirm and reinforce the African commitment to tradition and history.

The two supplemental symbols of Kwanzaa are:

Bendera or The Flag: The colors of the Kwanzaa flag are black, red and green...the colors of the Organization Us. Black is representative of the people, red symbolizes their struggle and green represents the future and hope that comes from the struggle of the people. The colors of this flag are based upon those given by the Honorable Marcus Garvey as the national colors for African people throughout the world.
Nguzo Saba Poster or The Poster of The Seven Principles.

What is Kwanzaa?

Kwanzaa is an African-American and Pan-African holiday that celebrates family, community and culture. It is observed from December 26 through January 1 and its origins may be found in the first harvest celebrations of Africa, from which this holiday takes its name. Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase, "matunda ya kwanza," which means "first fruits" in Swahili, a Pan-African tongue that is the most widely spoken language of Africa. The first-fruits celebrations are recorded in African history dating back to Ancient Egypt and Nubia, with references, both ancient and modern, appearing in other classical African civilizations, such as Ashantiland and Yorubaland, and among societies as large as empires...Swaziland, for example...and smaller groups like the Matabele.
Kwanzaa was conceived and developed in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga, an author and scholar-activist who stresses the need to preserve, continually revitalize and promote African American culture. Dr. Karenga is a professor with the Department of Black Studies at California State University in Long Beach. Kwanzaa was first celebrated on December 26, 1966 and having been introduced in the midst of the Black Freedom Movement of the mid-60s, reflects a concern for cultural groundedness in thought and practice. Unity and self-determination are also associated qualities. Primarily created to reaffirm and restore rootedness in African culture, this celebration is an expression of recovery and reconstruction of African culture. The founding organization of Kwanzaa is the Organization Us, which is the authoritative keeper of its tradition. The second function of this holiday is to serve as a regular communal celebration to reinforce and reaffirm the bonds between the African people. A third purpose of Kwanzaa is to introduce and reinforce the "Nguzo Saba" (also known as the "Seven Principles"), representative of communitarian African values, which are: (1) Umoja or Unity; (2) Kujichagulia or Self-Determination; (3) Ujima or Collective Work and Responsibility; (4) Ujamaa or Cooperative Economics; (5) Nia or Purpose; (6) Kuumba or Creativity; and (7) Imani or Faith. Kwanzaa also builds upon the five fundamental activities of Continental African first-fruits rituals, which are as follows:

Ingathering: A time of ingathering of the people...of family, friends and community...in order to reaffirm the bonds between them.
Reverence: A time of special reverence for the creator and creation in thanks and respect for the blessings, bountifulness and beauty of creation.
Commemoration: A time for commemoration of the past in pursuit of its lessons and in honor of its models of human excellence...the ancestors...all the people and actions that have come before.
Recommitment: A time of recommitment to the highest cultural ideals...both personal and communal...in an ongoing effort to always bring forth the best of African cultural thought and practice.
Celebration: A time for celebration of the good...the good life and of existence itself...the good of family, community and culture...the good of the awesome and the ordinary...in other words, a celebration of the good in all its manifestations on the Earth.

Was the Homestead Acts for Freed Slaves?

The Homestead Acts were several United States federal laws that gave an applicant ownership of land, typically called a "homestead", at little or no cost. In the United States, this originally consisted of grants totaling 160 acres (65 hectares, or one-quarter section) of unappropriated federal land within the boundaries of the public land states. An extension of the Homestead Principle in law, the United States Homestead Acts were initially proposed as an expression of the "Free Soil" policy of Northerners who wanted individual farmers to own and operate their own farms, as opposed to Southern slave-owners who could use groups of slaves to economic advantage.
The first of the acts, the Homestead Act of 1862, was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862. Anyone who had never taken up arms against the U.S. government (including freed slaves and women), was 21 years or older, or the head of a family, could file an application to claim a federal land grant. There was also a residency requirement.
Several additional laws were enacted in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Southern Homestead Act of 1866 sought to address land ownership inequalities in the south during Reconstruction. The Timber Culture Act of 1873 granted land to a claimant who was required to plant trees. The tract could be added to an existing homestead claim and had no residency requirement. The Kincaid Amendment of 1904 granted a full section (640 acres) to new homesteaders settling in western Nebraska. An amendment to the Homestead Act of 1862, the Enlarged Homestead Act, was passed in 1909 and doubled the allotted acreage to 320. Another amended act, the national Stock-Raising Homestead Act, was passed in 1916 and again increased the land involved, this time to 640 acres.

Beginning in 1863, the words “free land” became a siren call for landless U.S. citizens, freed slaves and hundreds of thousands of European immigrants after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. The act, which offered 160 acres of land to any qualified homesteader who paid a modest filing fee, built a home, planted at least 10 acres of crops and remained on his or her claim for at least five years, has been called the most important act ever passed for the benefit of the American people. It ultimately helped create the most productive agricultural economy the world has ever seen.

The lure of free land prompted millions of Europeans to immigrate to the United States in the years following the Civil War. Some left their homelands because of crop failures and economic depression. Others sought political and religious freedom, or to escape constant warfare. They came from Germany and Czechoslovakia, from Sweden and Norway, from England and Russia.

Between 1870 and 1900, more than two million immigrants had settled on the Great Plains. You can still find their descendants living in places like Denmark, Kansas; Bruno, Nebraska; New Holland, South Dakota; Bismarck, North Dakota; and Glasgow, Montana.

Through the Eyes of Rev. Jackson-Still not Equal

After apartheid and Jim Crow: Still not equal

BY JESSE JACKSON
December 17, 2013

As Nelson Mandela’s body is laid to rest, the leaders from across the world who came to pay tribute to him leave with shared perspectives. They see the fruits of the remarkable triumphs of Mandela and the African National Congress — the defeat of apartheid, the transition of power from the oppressive minority to the newly empowered majority, the creation of a great democracy. And they see the continued inequality that scars South Africa, the gulf between the wealthy and the impoverished, still largely reflecting a color line.

We see the same in this country. We celebrate, as we should, the remarkable triumphs of Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement: the end of apartheid in the South, the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the legal prohibition of racial discrimination in employment and education.

Yet we also see the gulf between rich and poor, a gulf still often tracing a color line in many of our cities and regions.

These parallels are not random or accidental. The reality was one people enslaved on three continents — North America, Europe and Africa. Racism is a tool that was used to justify the brutality. Racism exploits the other economically. It creates the illusion of one group’s superiority and another’s inferiority.

The attitude and the practice get rooted into institutions across the society. In South Africa, Mandela and the ANC ended apartheid laws and won the right to vote. In the US, Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement did the same.

But there is also engrained economic separation: clubs, businesses and meetings that remain closed informally, even if they were no longer legally separated. There is the discrimination of legacy: the young inheriting less, having less access to elite schools, for their parents had been locked out. There is the discrimination of property and neighborhood: people of color left out of better neighborhoods, even after they could no longer be legally excluded. There is the discrimination in education: poor urban schools can’t keep the best teachers nor offer the best equipment and supplies. There is discrimination in the access to capital: minority businesses still find it more difficult to raise capital, and rapacious mortgage bankers still prey on minority homeowners.

Over time, a few from across the color line excel and break into the closed clubs, but the majority still faces long odds. But the problem in South Africa, where blacks are the majority, or the U.S., where people of color are becoming the majority, is that the whole economy suffers from the vestiges of entrenched discrimination.

In South Africa, an impoverished majority limits the ability of the country to build a prosperous economy and stable society. In the U.S., the government does less than in other industrial nations to lift the poor, a legacy of the belief that these “takers” are “those people.” Even now the right attacks the Affordable Care Act, “Obamacare,” for allegedly raising costs on the middle class in order to provide health care for “those people.”

In reality, most poor people in the U.S. work every day that they can. They take the early bus. They serve and prepare our food in fast food restaurants. They staff the Wal-Marts where we buy our goods. And at the end of the week, they are paid so little that they are forced to use food stamps to be able to feed themselves. More poor people are white than black. They are disproportionately young and female.

So as we celebrate the remarkable triumphs of Nelson Mandela and his movement in South Africa, and of Dr. King and his movement in the U.S., we realize that much more remains to be done. They freed their peoples but could not win them equality. That remains the next chapter.

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Madiba-May God Bless the Memory of President Nelson Mandela

Remarks of President Barack Obama at Nelson Mandela's memorial service in Johannesburg, South Africa on December 10, 2013
To Graça Machel and the Mandela family; to President Zuma and members of the government; to heads of state and government, past and present; distinguished guests - it is a singular honor to be with you today, to celebrate a life unlike any other. To the people of South Africa - people of every race and walk of life - the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us. His struggle was your struggle. His triumph was your triumph. Your dignity and hope found expression in his life, and your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy.

It is hard to eulogize any man - to capture in words not just the facts and the dates that make a life, but the essential truth of a person - their private joys and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities that illuminate someone’s soul. How much harder to do so for a giant of history, who moved a nation toward justice, and in the process moved billions around the world.

Born during World War I, far from the corridors of power, a boy raised herding cattle and tutored by elders of his Thembu tribe - Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century. Like Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement - a movement that at its start held little prospect of success. Like King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed, and the moral necessity of racial justice. He would endure a brutal imprisonment that began in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev, and reached the final days of the Cold War. Emerging from prison, without force of arms, he would - like Lincoln - hold his country together when it threatened to break apart. Like America’s founding fathers, he would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations - a commitment to democracy and rule of law ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power.
Given the sweep of his life, and the adoration that he so rightly earned, it is tempting then to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon, smiling and serene, detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men. But Madiba himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait. Instead, he insisted on sharing with us his doubts and fears; his miscalculations along with his victories. “I’m not a saint,” he said, “unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”
It was precisely because he could admit to imperfection - because he could be so full of good humor, even mischief, despite the heavy burdens he carried - that we loved him so. He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood - a son and husband, a father and a friend. That is why we learned so much from him; that is why we can learn from him still. For nothing he achieved was inevitable. In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness; persistence and faith. He tells us what’s possible not just in the pages of dusty history books, but in our own lives as well.

Mandela showed us the power of action; of taking risks on behalf of our ideals. Perhaps Madiba was right that he inherited, “a proud rebelliousness, a stubborn sense of fairness” from his father. Certainly he shared with millions of black and colored South Africans the anger born of, “a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments…a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people.”

But like other early giants of the ANC - the Sisulus and Tambos - Madiba disciplined his anger; and channeled his desire to fight into organization, and platforms, and strategies for action, so men and women could stand-up for their dignity. Moreover, he accepted the consequences of his actions, knowing that standing up to powerful interests and injustice carries a price. “I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination,” he said at his 1964 trial. “I’ve cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
Mandela taught us the power of action, but also ideas; the importance of reason and arguments; the need to study not only those you agree with, but those who you don’t. He understood that ideas cannot be contained by prison walls, or extinguished by a sniper’s bullet. He turned his trial into an indictment of apartheid because of his eloquence and passion, but also his training as an advocate. He used decades in prison to sharpen his arguments, but also to spread his thirst for knowledge to others in the movement. And he learned the language and customs of his oppressor so that one day he might better convey to them how their own freedom depended upon his.

Mandela demonstrated that action and ideas are not enough; no matter how right, they must be chiseled into laws and institutions. He was practical, testing his beliefs against the hard surface of circumstance and history. On core principles he was unyielding, which is why he could rebuff offers of conditional release, reminding the Apartheid regime that, “prisoners cannot enter into contracts.” But as he showed in painstaking negotiations to transfer power and draft new laws, he was not afraid to compromise for the sake of a larger goal. And because he was not only a leader of a movement, but a skillful politician, the Constitution that emerged was worthy of this multiracial democracy; true to his vision of laws that protect minority as well as majority rights, and the precious freedoms of every South African.
Finally, Mandela understood the ties that bind the human spirit. There is a word in South Africa- Ubuntu - that describes his greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us. We can never know how much of this was innate in him, or how much of was shaped and burnished in a dark, solitary cell. But we remember the gestures, large and small - introducing his jailors as honored guests at his inauguration; taking the pitch in a Springbok uniform; turning his family’s heartbreak into a call to confront HIV/AIDS - that revealed the depth of his empathy and understanding. He not only embodied Ubuntu; he taught millions to find that truth within themselves. It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailor as well; to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you; to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion, generosity and truth. He changed laws, but also hearts.
For the people of South Africa, for those he inspired around the globe - Madiba’s passing is rightly a time of mourning, and a time to celebrate his heroic life. But I believe it should also prompt in each of us a time for self-reflection. With honesty, regardless of our station or circumstance, we must ask: how well have I applied his lessons in my own life?

It is a question I ask myself - as a man and as a President. We know that like South Africa, the United States had to overcome centuries of racial subjugation. As was true here, it took the sacrifice of countless people - known and unknown - to see the dawn of a new day. Michelle and I are the beneficiaries of that struggle. But in America and South Africa, and countries around the globe, we cannot allow our progress to cloud the fact that our work is not done. The struggles that follow the victory of formal equality and universal franchise may not be as filled with drama and moral clarity as those that came before, but they are no less important. For around the world today, we still see children suffering from hunger, and disease; run-down schools, and few prospects for the future. Around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs; and are still persecuted for what they look like, or how they worship, or who they love.
We, too, must act on behalf of justice. We, too, must act on behalf of peace. There are too many of us who happily embrace Madiba’s legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality. There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people. And there are too many of us who stand on the sidelines, comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices must be heard.
The questions we face today - how to promote equality and justice; to uphold freedom and human rights; to end conflict and sectarian war - do not have easy answers. But there were no easy answers in front of that child in Qunu. Nelson Mandela reminds us that it always seems impossible until it is done. South Africa shows us that is true. South Africa shows us we can change. We can choose to live in a world defined not by our differences, but by our common hopes. We can choose a world defined not by conflict, but by peace and justice and opportunity.

We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again. But let me say to the young people of Africa, and young people around the world - you can make his life’s work your own. Over thirty years ago, while still a student, I learned of Mandela and the struggles in this land. It stirred something in me. It woke me up to my responsibilities - to others, and to myself - and set me on an improbable journey that finds me here today. And while I will always fall short of Madiba’s example, he makes me want to be better. He speaks to what is best inside us. After this great liberator is laid to rest; when we have returned to our cities and villages, and rejoined our daily routines, let us search then for his strength - for his largeness of spirit - somewhere inside ourselves. And when the night grows dark, when injustice weighs heavy on our hearts, or our best laid plans seem beyond our reach - think of Madiba, and the words that brought him comfort within the four walls of a cell:
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
What a great soul it was. We will miss him deeply. May God bless the memory of Nelson Mandela. May God bless the people of South Africa.

"Above and Beyond the Call of Duty".

"above and beyond the call of duty". On December 7, 1941, Miller awoke at 0600. After serving breakfast mess, he was collecting laundry when the first of nine torpedoes to hit the West Virginia was launched at 0757 by Lt. Commander Shigeharu Murata of the Japanese carrier Akagi.^[4] Miller headed for his battle station, an antiaircraft battery magazine amidship, only to discover that torpedo damage had destroyed it.
He went instead to "Times Square", a central spot where the fore to aft and port to starboard passageways crossed, and reported himself available for other duty.^[4] Miller was spotted by Lieutenant Commander Doir C. Johnson, the ship's communications officer, who ordered the powerfully built sailor to accompany him to the bridge to assist with moving the ship's Captain Mervyn Bennion, who had a gaping wound in his abdomen where he had apparently been hit by shrapnel. Miller and another sailor lifted the skipper and, unable to remove him from the bridge, carried him from an exposed position on the damaged bridge to a sheltered spot behind the conning tower.^[7] The Captain refused to leave his post and questioned his officers about the condition of the ship, giving various orders. The Captain remained on the bridge until his death.
Lieutenant Frederic H. White ordered Miller to help him and Ensign Victor Delano load the unmanned #1 and #2 Browning .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns aft of the conning tower.^[8] Miller wasn't familiar with the machine gun, but White and Delano told him what to do. Miller had served both men as a room steward and knew them well. Delano expected Miller to feed ammunition to one gun, but his attention was diverted, and when he looked again Miller was firing one of the guns. White had loaded ammo into both guns and assigned Miller the starboard gun.^[4]
Miller fired the gun until he ran out of ammo, when he was ordered by Lieutenant Claude V. Ricketts along with Lt. White and Chief Signalman A.A. Siewart to help carry the Captain up to the navigation bridge out of the thick oily smoke generated by the many fires on and around the ship. Bennion was only partially conscious at this point and died soon after. Japanese aircraft eventually dropped two armor-piercing bombs through the deck of the battleship and launched five 18 in (460 mm) aircraft torpedoes into her port side. When the attack finally lessened, Lt. White ordered Miller to help move injured sailors through oil and water to the quarterdeck, thereby "unquestionably saving the lives of a number of people who might otherwise have been lost."^[9]
With the ship heavily damaged by the bombs, torpedoes and following explosions, the crew prevented her from capsizing by counter-flooding a number of compartments, and the West Virginia sank to the harbor bottom as her crew—including Miller—abandoned ship.^[2]

Who is the ANC-Thank you, President Nelson Mandela

What is the African National Congress?

• The ANC is a national liberation movement. It was formed in 1912 to unite the African people and spearhead the struggle for fundamental political, social and economic change.
• For ten decades the ANC has led the struggle against racism and oppression, organising mass resistance, mobilising the international community and taking up the armed struggle against apartheid.
• The ANC achieved a decisive democratic breakthrough in the 1994 elections, where it was given a firm mandate to negotiate a new democratic Constitution for South Africa. The new Constitution was adopted in 1996.
• The ANC was re-elected in 1999 to national and provincial government with an increased mandate.
• The policies of the ANC are determined by its membership and its leadership is accountable to the membership.
• Membership of the ANC is open to all South Africans above the age of 18 years, irrespective of race, colour and creed, who accept its principles, policies and programmes.

Aims and Objectives

• The ANC`s key objective is the creation of a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society.
• This means the liberation of Africans in particular and black people in general from political and economic bondage. It means uplifting the quality of life of all South Africans, especially the poor.
• The struggle to achieve this objective is called the National Democratic Revolution.

ANC Policy

The Freedom Charter, which was adopted by the Congress of the People in 1955, remains the basic policy document of the ANC.
The Freedom Charter declares that:

• The people shall govern
• All national groups shall have equal rights
• The people shall share in the country`s wealth
• The land shall be shared among those who work it
• All shall be equal before the law
• All shall enjoy equal human rights
• There shall be work and security
• The doors of learning and culture shall be opened
• There shall be houses, security and comfort
• There shall be peace and friendship

In 1994 the ANC adopted the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) as the basic policy framework guiding the ANC in the transformation of South Africa. The key programmes of the RDP are:

• meeting basic needs
• developing our human resources
• building the economy
• democratising the state and society

Symbols of the ANC

• The flag of the ANC is made of equal horizontal bands of black, green and gold. The black symbolises the people of South Africa who, for generations, have fought for freedom. The green represents the land, which sustained our people for centuries and from which they were removed by colonial and apartheid governments. The gold represents the mineral and other natural wealth of South Africa, which belongs to all its people, but which has been used to benefit only a small racial minority.

• The logo contains a spear and shield to represent the early wars of resistance to colonial rule, the armed struggle of the ANC`s former armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, and the ANC`s ongoing struggle against racial privilege and oppression. The wheel dates back to the campaign for the Congress of the People, which adopted the Freedom Charter, and marks the joining in a common struggle for freedom people from all South Africa`s communities. It is a symbol of the strong non-racial traditions of the ANC. The fist holding the spear represents the power of a people united in struggle for freedom and equality.

• The ANC`s rallying call Amandla ngawethu or Matla ke arona means `power to the people`, reflecting the central demand of the Freedom Charter that the people shall govern. It a statement of the ANC`s commitment to build and deepen popular democracy and the active involvement of the people in the struggle to improve their lives

Responsibilities of an ANC member

The values and principles of an ANC member include:

• humility and a selfless dedication to the struggle for a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society,
• concern for the will and interests of the people, captured in the principles of Batho Pele - people first,
• a commitment to implement the policies of the movement and the decisions of the collective.

Members of the ANC are expected to:

• belong to an ANC branch, pay subscription fees and assist in building the ANC,
• participate actively in the discussion, formulation and implementation of ANC policy and programmes,
• accept and defend the decisions of the relevant structures of the movement,
• build the unity of the ANC and democratic movement and combat corruption, nepotism and factionalism,
• fight against racism, tribal chauvinism, sexism, religious and political intolerance or any form of discrimination,
• constantly remain informed of political and other developments, building their own capabilities as part of a process of life-long learning,
• remain in touch with the people and play an active role in the affairs of the community,
• behave in an exemplary way in day-to-day life, and not use positions of responsibility for self-enrichment or personal gain.

Structures of the ANC

• The Branch is the basic unit of the ANC, where members participate in ANC activities and political discussions. The branch is the `vanguard` of the community, representing its interests, expressing its aspirations and mobilising it to work together for local development. Each branch elects a Branch Executive Committee at an Annual General Meeting.

• The Regional Executive Committee (REC) is elected at a Regional Conference every two years by the representatives of the branches in the region.

• The Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) is elected at a Provincial Conference every three years by the representatives of the branches in the province.

• The National Executive Committee (NEC) is the highest organ of the ANC between Conferences and has the responsibility to lead the organisation. It is elected every five years at the National Conference. The NEC elects a National Working Committee (NWC) from within its ranks to coordinate the work of the organisation on a day-to-day basis.

• The National Conference, which takes place every five years, is the highest decision-making body of the ANC. Branch representatives comprise at least 90 percent of voting delegates at the National Conference. A National General Council (NGC) is held between National Conferences to evaluate the programme of the movement.

• The ANC Women`s League functions as an autonomous body within the overall structure of the ANC. Its objective is to defend and advance the rights of women against all forms of oppression and to ensure that women play a full role in the life of the organisation. The Women`s League is open to all women who are members of the ANC.

• The ANC Youth League also functions as an autonomous body, with the objective of uniting and leading young people in confronting and dealing with the problems that face the youth, and in ensuring that the youth make a full and rich contribution to the work of the ANC. Membership of the Youth League is open to all people between the ages of 14 and 35.

The Tripartite Alliance

The ANC is in an alliance with the South African Communist Party(SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Each Alliance partner is an independent organisation with its own constitution, membership and programmes. The Alliance is founded on a common commitment to the objectives of the National Democratic Revolution, and the need to unite the largest possible cross-section of South Africans behind these objectives.

Where to find the ANC

Branches of the ANC are to be found in every city, town and village in South Africa. The ANC has a national headquarters, nine provincial offices and several regional offices.

Freedom Now Everyone! President Nelson Mandela!

Let us all be free free free free Let us all be free free free free Let us all be free free free free Free our bodies free our minds Free our hearts Freedom for everyone And freedom now They throwed him in jail And they kept him there Hoping soon he'd die That his body and spirit would waste away And soon after that his mind But every day is born a fool One who thinks that he can rule One who says tomorrow's mine One who wakes one day to find The prison doors open the shackles broken And chaos in the street Everybody sing we're free free free free Everybody sing we're free free free free Everybody sing we're free free free free They throwed him in jail And they kept him there Hoping his memory'd die That the people forget how he once led And fought for justice in their lives But every day is born a man Who hates what he can't understand Who thinks the answer is to kill Who thinks his actions are god's will And he thinks he's free free free free Yes he thinks he's free free free free He thinks he's free free free free Soon must come the day When the righteous have their way Unjustly tried are free And people live in peace I say Give the man release Go on and set your conscience free Right the wrongs you made Even a fool can have his day Let us all be free free free free Let us all be free free free free Let us all be free free free free Free our bodies free our minds Free our hearts Freedom for everyone And freedom now Freedom now Freedom now Freedom now Let us all be free free free free Let us all be free free free free Let us all be free free free free








Free Breakfast for School Children and Fred Hampton- (an overview)

In January, 1969, the Free Breakfast for School Children Program was initiated at St. Augustine's Church in Oakland by the Black Panther Party. The Panthers would cook and serve food to the poor inner city youth of the area. Initially run out of a St. Augustine's Church in Oakland, the Program became so popular that by the end of the year, the Panthers set up kitchens in cities across the nation, feeding over 10,000 children every day before they went to school.In the mid 1960s, Black Panther Party chapters developed a series of social programs to provide needed services to black and poor people. Their intent was to promote "a model for an alternative, more humane social scheme." These programs, of which there came to be more than 60,[2] were eventually referred to as Survival Programs, and were operated by Party members under the slogan "survival pending revolution." One such program was the Free Breakfast for Children Program, which began in January 1969 [3] at one small Catholic church in the Fillmore district of San Francisco, and spread to many cities in America where there were Party chapters. Thousands of poor and hungry children were fed free breakfasts every day by the Party under this program. The Panthers believed that "Children cannot reach their full academic potential if they have empty stomachs." The magnitude and powerful impact of this program was such that the federal government adopted a similar program for public schools across the country. The FBI assailed the free breakfast program as nothing more than a propaganda tool used by the Party to carry out its communist agenda. More insidiously, the FBI denounced the Party itself as a group of communist outlaws bent on overthrowing the U.S. government. In Chicago, the leader of the Panthers local, Fred Hampton, led five different breakfast programs on the West Side, helped create a free medical center, and initiated a door to door program of health services which test for sickle cell anemia, and encourage blood drives for the Cook County Hospital. The Chicago party also reached out to local gangs to clean up their acts, get them away from crime and bring them into the class war. The Party's efforts met wide success, and Hampton's audiences and organized contingent grew by the day.On the evening of December 3, Hampton taught a political education course at a local church, which was attended by most members. Afterwards, as was typical, several Panthers retired to the Monroe Street apartment to spend the night, including Hampton and Deborah Johnson, Blair Anderson, Doc Satchell, Harold Bell, Verlina Brewer, Louis Truelock, Brenda Harris, and Mark Clark. Upon arrival, they were met by O'Neal, who had prepared a late dinner which was eaten by the group around midnight. O'Neal had slipped the powerful barbiturate sleep agent, secobarbitol into a drink that was consumed by Hampton during the dinner in order to sedate Hampton so that he would not awaken during the subsequent raid. O'Neal left at this point, and, at about 1:30 a.m., Hampton fell asleep in mid-sentence talking to his mother on the telephone. Although Hampton was not known to take drugs, Cook County chemist Eleanor Berman would report that she ran two separate tests which each showed a powerful barbiturate had been introduced into Hampton's blood. An FBI chemist would later fail to find similar traces, but Berman stood by her findings. At 4:00 a.m., the heavily armed police team arrived at the site, dividing into two teams, eight for the front of the building and six for the rear. At 4:45, they stormed in the apartment.Hampton's body was dragged into the doorway of the bedroom and left in a pool of blood. The officers then directed their gunfire towards the remaining Panthers, who were hiding in another bedroom. They were wounded, then beaten and dragged into the street, where they were arrested on charges of aggravated assault and the attempted murder of the officers. They were each held on US$100,000 bail.A public pool has been named in his honor in his home town of Maywood, Illinois. On Saturday September 7, 2007, a bust of Hampton was erected outside the Fred Hampton Family Aquatic Center.A public pool has been named in his honor in his home town of Maywood, Illinois On Saturday September 7, 2007, a bust of Hampton was erected outside the Fred Hampton Family Aquatic Center. In March 2006, supporters of Hampton's charity work proposed the naming of a Chicago street in honor of the former Black Panther leader. Chicago's chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police opposed this effort.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know-Who is Sharon Gibney

Shannon Gibney was born in 1975, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She was adopted by Jim and Sue Gibney about five months later, and grew up with her two (biological) brothers, Jon and Ben. Shannon has loved to read and to write as far back as she can remember. When she was in second grade, she started making “books” about her family’s camping trips, and later graduated to a series on three sibling detectives in fourth grade.When she was 15, her father gave her James Baldwin’s Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone, a book that changed her life and made her see the possibilities of the written word. The novel took a long, difficult look at relations between Blacks and Whites, the poor and the rich, gay and straight people, and fused searing honesty with metaphorical beauty. After this experience, Shannon knew that she needed to read everything Baldwin had ever written, and also that she wanted to emulate his strategy of telling the most dangerous, and therefore liberating kind of truth, through writing.High school was a time for tremendous growth for Shannon, as she had the opportunity to attend Community High, a place that nurtured independence and creativity. At Carnegie Mellon University, Shannon majored in Creative Writing and Spanish, graduating with highest honors in 1997. She was awarded their Alumni Study/Travel Award, and used it to travel to Ghana to collect information for a short story collection on relationships between African Americans and continental Africans.At Indiana University’s Graduate Creative Writing Program, Shannon honed her understanding of the basic elements of story-writing. She was in Bloomington from 1999 to 2002, and earned an M.A. in 20th Century African American Literature, as well as her M.F.A. while she was there. As Indiana Review editor, she conceived of the literary journal’s first “Writers of Color” special issue, and brought it to fruition, also in 2002.
Shannon has called Minneapolis home since 2002. She moved there right after completing her graduate work at Indiana, and took a job at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, the state’s oldest Black newspaper. A three-year stint as managing editor of this 75-year-old publication introduced Shannon to the vibrant, growing, and diverse Black community in the Twin Cities, and also gave her vital insight into the inner-workings of a weekly newspaper. When she left in 2005, Shannon had written well over 100 news and features stories for the paper.
The Bush Artist Fellows Program took Shannon’s daily life in a new direction. In 2005, she was awarded a grant, which allowed her to quit her job at theSpokesman, and devote most of her time to her creative work.
The project that currently holds Shannon’s attention is her second novel, set in Liberia and centering on African Americans who returned there in the 19th century. Read an excerpt here or here. HANK AARON’S DAUGHTER, her first novel and for the YA audience, is currently under consideration at various publishing houses.
After completing her Bush fellowship in the summer of 2007, Shannon joined the faculty in English at Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC) in the fall. Married in Accra, Ghana, in May 2009, she lives with her husband, Ballah D. Corvah, and their son Boisey, in the Powderhorn Neighborhood of South Minneapolis. Recent publications include an essay on Octavia Butler in THE BLACK IMAGINATION, SCIENCE FICTION, AND THE SPECULATIVE, and another on artistic and political collaboration in CRITICAL TRANSNATIONAL FEMINIST PRAXIS. Over the next 10 months, Shannon will also be producing bi-monthly written and video blogs for The Road Weeps Bulletin, a project of the LARK and Pillsbury House Theatre.


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A Message of Hope for the Poor in Mind, Body, and Spirit

We’d be wise to heed Pope Francis’ mission

BY JESSE JACKSON
December 2, 2013

Pope Francis is displaying an extraordinary style and passion that demands our attention. He addresses the needs of the poor, embraces outcasts, and loves those on the margins of society. In this recent “apostolic exhortation,” The Joy of the Gospel, the pope raises a moral challenge to both his church and the world.

Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Pope Francis calls upon people of faith to “go forth” to preach and practice their faith. “I prefer a church,” he writes, “which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy for being confined and from clinging to its own security.”

Pope Francis raises a profound moral voice against “trickle-down theories,” which put a “crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power.” We have created “new idols,” he warns, in the worship of money and markets. The result is that “human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded.” We have witnessed “a globalization of indifference,” in which the poor are dehumanized and ignored, he writes.

Pope Francis’ exhortation, over 50,000 words long, deals broadly with the church, the papacy and matters of the faith. He is not a revolutionary. He states that the priesthood will remain open only to men, that the Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion will continue. But he directs new focus and passion to the growing inequality between and within countries, the stark contrast between the wealth of our technology and invention and the poverty of our ethics.

In this he addresses directly the plight of today’s America. We suffer mass unemployment while the stock market hits new highs. Profits set records, but working people don’t share in the rewards. The top 5 percent pockets literally all of the rewards of growth, while the remainder struggle to stay afloat.

This extreme inequality, Pope Francis writes, is the direct product of “ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. ... A new tyranny is born” and with it widespread corruption and tax evasion among the most powerful. Money, the pope argues, “must serve, not rule.”

This is not a secondary concern, but the heart of the mission of today’s church. Pope Francis notes that just as the commandment says, “thou shalt not kill,” we must say, “thou shalt not” to an economy of “exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.”

He warns of the corruption and the ethical poverty of ignoring the poor. In our politics, poverty has become literally unspeakable. Politicians talk about defending the middle class, or “middle out economics.” The poor are scorned as lazy or incompetent. Politicians vote to cut food stamp allotments, to cut unemployment insurance, even to cut back nutrition programs for impoverished mothers and infants, while they refuse to close the tax havens that allow multinational corporations and the wealthy to avoid paying taxes.

Too many politicians devote their energy to raising funds from the affluent and protecting their interests. They seek careers and fortunes, not public service. Pope Francis sees this as moral corruption, and calls for “more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people and the lives of the poor.”

At the same time, Pope Francis issues a stern warning to the complacent. Without justice, there can be no peace. Building up police and armaments offers no answer. Peace will come only when there is hope, and a committed effort to provide opportunity and justice to those who are locked out or pressed down.

Economic populism is not foreign to the Catholic Church and has been articulated by previous popes. But Francis’ clear words and bold style make his message compelling. This is an authentic, world-changing gospel of good news. This is a return to the original gospel that Jesus taught. It seeks not pity for the poor but their emancipation. Churches cannot be silent in the face of growing inequality and desperation. People of faith must “go forth” and be willing to be “bruised, hurting and dirty” in the cause of justice. This is a charge all of us, whatever our faith, should take to heart.



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December 1, 1955- Thank you for your courage Mrs. Rosa Parks



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Rosa Parks’s official arrest report: She refused to give bus seat to white man 58 years ago today

Here’s a piece of history: the arrest report from Montgomery, Ala., police for Rosa Parks on Dec. 1, 1955, the day she rode a  Montgomery city bus and refused to get up and move to the back of the bus so a white man could take her seat, as she was expected to in that era of segregation. She was arrested, and in the process, helped launch a new era in the American civil rights movement.
Parks was a seamstress in Alabama and a civil rights activist, but she said after the incident that she had not pre-planned it. She was convicted of violating a law mandating segregation on city buses and fined. She appealed as civil rights activists organized a boycott of Montgomery buses — coordinated by the Montgomery Improvement Association of which a 26-year-old minister named Martin Luther King Jr. was president — that lasted 13 months. It ended when the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to require segregation on public buses.