Habari gani! (That's Swahili for What's happening?)

If you are celebrating Kwanzaa, the word for today is Ujamaa, which means "Cooperative Economics." It's a day for thinking about ways in which people of African descent can pool their resources to strengthen their families and communities. It's also the fourth day of the week-long celebration, and I've been asked to do a roundup of photos and reports from the festivities so far.

First, the symbol leading this post comes from the National Black Justice Coalition a group that advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered African Americans. NBJC called on its supporters to live up to the principle of Ujamaa by supporting:

"artisans, writers and neighborhood activists are essential to building viable and sustainable Black communities."

On a more personal note, Drkangeltex posted a photo of his Kwanzaa table to Flickr, noting that it was his first celebration:

I've always been interested in it since elementary when I first read about it. I found the Kinara at a ceramic store a couple of years ago and waited a bit before I glazed it because I wanted just the right thing for it. I'm glad I listened to the store owner and went with the color she suggested.

Brown Betty also has a collection of images showing women dressing themselves in African garb, along with scenes from the celebration of the first day of the holiday. She comments:

Had a wonderful time! Will dress like this more often - will also get my sistahs to get this way of dress into their own styles and photograph them!!!

Lazone has a set of images from celebrations in Topeka Kansas this past Wednesday and Thursday.

Wanda Sabir, who blogs at Interchange, has a wonderful collection of photos from San Francisco's community celebration. Be sure to click on the image of the children drumming!

Mississippi Moonchile grew up celebrating Kwanzaa, and admits that she always felt a bit strange about it, but that has changed:

"I didn't realize until recently that what Kwanzaa really represented in my upbringing was a chance to really be a kid unlike some kids in my family, generations before me, that had to be confronted with adult situations way before it was their time to really deal with that sort of stuff. Because of my own parents upbringing and self educated sense of themselves I was able to exist in a world in those early Kwanzaa days where I could concentrate on just being a kid. But now, looking back in retrospect, Kwanzaa also represented certain seeds of my consciousness that exist today in my work and in my person. An imprint of a very specific cultural consciousness that has just become a interwoven part of my many layered experience as a descendant of early American slaves and early American slave masters."

As Laina mentioned in her comprehensive Kwanzaa backgrounder, there are ongoing Kwanzaa events in Second Life. Click on the image on the left to go to Kwanzaa park and get a full schedule.

Have you been to any good Kwanzaa parties lately?