Tag Archives: Afrocentric

Understanding Kwanzaa

Posted on by
3

    “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1).

Scholars have written about this verse. Singers have sung about it, and the general consensus is that when something great in your life dies, you can see God for who He really is. Allowing the great that we love to die so we can focus on the greatness of God is always the challenge for the Christian. And this is where I find myself on this third day of Kwanzaa, that highlights Ujima, collective work and responsibility.

For those of you who don’t know, in short, Kwanzaa is a holiday celebrating African American culture, running for seven days beginning December 26. It is rooted in the Nguzo Saba, Swahili for seven principles, one of which is focused on daily. The principles are the values that founder Maulana Karenga wants to guide the lives of African peoples.

Even before I became a Christian, I never initiated celebrating Kwanzaa though I attended friends’ gatherings. I shunned Kwanzaa because I always felt weird participating in the pouring of libation where we called on the spirit of deceased loved ones. It was always a little spooky for me. And now that I’m a Christian, my wariness goes beyond being spooked and onto the privileging of African culture above my Christian faith. Celebrate African culture, yes, but not in conflict with Christian teachings.

While Kwanzaa has strong cultural values that I appreciate, like Ujima, there are some parts, like Kujichagulia (self-determination) that are in opposition to Christian teachings. While I would love to celebrate Kwanzaa without the conflicts, you can’t separate its parts from the whole. Its parts make it whole and separating parts or mixing in Christianity would “violate the integrity of the holiday,” says Dr. Karenga. In essence, what I found is that Kwanzaa exalts blackness on the level of divinity, where you determine your destiny and, through invocation, your ancestors help you get there. This is the danger of Kwanzaa.

While I recognize the greatness of Kwanzaa—how it has given so many African Americans a sense of cultural heritage, in my life it has to die, even its marginal existence. I don’t want to miss God’s greatness because Kwanzaa or anything else is magnified in my life and obscures the glory of God, the one who gives me the identity that I need, a child of God through salvation in Jesus Christ.

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith

Spiritual Good for Nothing

Posted on by
2

I don’t have a problem with all of feminists’ work, because women need to be treated humanely. I don’t have a problem with the Afrocentrists’ fight, because race should be recognized not idealized. And I don’t have a problem with making money and reaching social status, because money and connections can help to establish God’s kingdom on earth. The problem I have is not with various causes that women who identify as strong black women engage in; I just have a problem when these causes seem to be more about humanity than divinity, more about what we can do and not what He can do, about the need to please man and not please God, to bring ourselves glory and not glory to Jesus Christ. This is what drives this blog and has been the basis for a book of the same subject matter that I have been tweaking for almost 10 years.

It’s taken about 10 years because when I started I was a young strong black woman who got a taste of recovery and wanted to wag her finger at everyone who hadn’t yet sought to be healed. Older now—and understanding that I have not arrived (thus still being in recovery), I am wiser now and know the road is slow and steady and takes a chisel to reshape the self-defined strong black woman. I heard a preacher yesterday challenge Christians to not “be a spiritual good for nothing.” He derived this phrase from what “bad” means in 2 Corinthians 5:10: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things [done] in [his] body, according to that he hath done, whether [it be] good or bad.” This bad is not evil deeds for the Christian because our sin was judged when Jesus died on the cross for our sins. This bad for us is worthless acts, doing things humans deem good, but they have no spiritual value. In other words, you’re involved in causes that don’t bring God glory but bring man glory. You are being a spiritual good for nothing.

Before getting involved with anything, we must always ask ourselves, “What are my motives behind this mission?” Answering this question should help us steer away from our desires to please man and only seek to please God. For the first six months of this blog, I have cited several areas where I have gone wrong seeking to be the world’s standard of a strong black woman. These insights gave little if any solutions. For the next six months or so, I will attempt to reexamine these issues and give way to solutions. In the next two blogs or so I intend to give you direction for this new framework that I’m calling “The Strong Black Woman: Re-imagined and Reengineered.”

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith

Cut the Locks

Posted on by
2

In 1992, I made the huge step to wear my hair in its God-given state. For years I had said I would lock my hair when I turned 60. I chose 60 because I figured I would be established in my career and would have great influence with those around me so no one would have the power to force me to change my hair. Well, I didn’t wait until 60. In 1992, I decided no more relaxers for me and cut my straightened hair until my natural coils formed a nicely cropped fade. It was cool, but I longed for the locks I saw the confident women in my African dance class and a black women’s academic conference at MIT wear. The way they moved and expressed ideas had to have something to do with the hair, I reasoned. It was as if the assurance of their bodies and minds had positioned itself on the top of their heads, and I wanted that type of assurance.

In May 1994, I got my hair twisted to begin the process of dreadlocks and my confidence followed, not confidence accepting the hair that God gave me, but confidence in my locks being “the best” or “the neatest I’ve ever seen,” as people constantly told me. I would smile and give a proper thank you, but inside I would be gloating, talking to myself, saying, “I know. I hear that all the time” or “My hair is beautiful, isn’t it?” To my knowledge, no one knew this ugliness was in my heart. No one even suspected it was there, except for God, of course. And in July 2001, He told me I had to cut away the ugliness, symbolized by cutting off my locks.

My initial objection to His request made me realize how deep my ugliness ran and let me know that I had to be obedient. “No, I’m going to be on HGTV so I can’t cut my hair,” I said aloud, and I heard the vanity of wanting to have fabulous hair when featured on my favorite network at that time. In an instant moment of spiritual sanity, I got the scissors, went to the mirror and cut my locks along with a stream of tears. My momentary sadness had turned to joy, knowing that I was pleasing God and on my way to healing from hair pride. I knew my journey was about complete when I felt led to lock my hair again in 2003, after two years of obedience to no professional haircuts. Since I was four, there was never a time when I didn’t have regular salon appointments. In those two years I learned that the salon contributed to my hair pride, and I needed to get healthy in heart before allowing a professional to style my hair. There’s so much more to this hair journey. Even now the story is still being written. I’m finished for now but still would love to hear your stories.

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith

Power to the People

Posted on by
2

I spit on Jesus before, just like those who hated and crucified Him more than 2,000 years ago. I didn’t understand who He was and the fact that He came to earth to die for the sins of humanity. Today I, like millions of others around the world, celebrate Jesus Christ’s journey to the cross on Calvary. I celebrate Him today, not just because He was willing to die but that He showed His power over death by being resurrected after three days in the grave. This is the savior, my savior, that I celebrate after rejecting for so many years. Listen to the following poem that tells of my journey.
Power to the People

God's Priorities

Posted on by
6

As I have discussed in previous entries, with any worldview there are extremists. There is the extreme feminist, even among Christians. The radical feminist theologian challenges the authority of the Bible by judging it from her point of view. She also considers the Bible just as inspired as other texts and uses them equally to inform her views.

The extreme Afrocentrist is a black supremacist. She believes that people of African descent are superior to those of other races in all ways, including intellect and culture. It is dangerous to align yourself with either theory because of the extremes. I took a leap and called myself, for the most part, an Afrocentrist, because of Dr. Asante’s emphasis to bring Afrocentrism to the table along with other views; this has been his original intent.

Some may say I should be brave and call myself a feminist. After all, “You do believe in women’s rights.” And even though it seems a newspaper first called women advocating women’s rights feminists (http://tinyurl.com/dc88a7) , and not the women themselves, I am still hesitant because I don’t agree with some major issues being advocated, such as all the tentacles placed under reproductive rights (like abortion rights and contraception as birth control). Must I use a term determined for me just because it seems accurate or do I determine the label based on my prescribed priorities?

I keep asking myself, “Why, Christian, do you look to the world to name and define you when God has already given you parameters in His holy word?” While I cannot deny the racial and gender experiences that I have had in this world, I must use as a starting point the book that has declared me a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). God has prescribed priorities for me, and these are where I need to get my labels. So as I continue to develop a new theory for the Christian who is female and black, I will base what my focus should be and how I should be treated based upon what God says about Christian women and blacks. The next few entries should be really interesting. In the meantime, check out some of the Scriptures that have helped to inform my view: Psalm 9:9, 10:18, 103:6; Isaiah 58:6; Acts 2:17-18, 10:38; Ezekiel 22:29-31; Titus 2:3-5; Jeremiah 9:17-21; Leviticus 19:15; Ephesians 4:11; Galatians 3:28).

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith