The disclosure of my ethnic identity is fully necessary for the execution of this piece. 

My mom is black African American and my dad is black Igbo Nigerian, so I write like that. 

In an attempt to be inclusive, retailers, employers, schools, and other well-meaning people of privilege include Kwanzaa in their implied list of holidays this season. This is the prime season to show your cultural stripes, and people of color are not to be forgotten. Christmas is all encompassing. Chanukkah for the Jews, and Kwanzaa for the blacks!

Not this black. 

Farbeit from me to tell anyone what to do in order to celebrate and connect with loved ones this holiday, but I am writing to motivate people of African descent to search for your heritage no matter what time of the year.  I do declare I do not and will not ever celebrate Kwanzaa. I personally find the tradition a bit empty. From where I stand, a person who can directly pinpoint 50% of her roots to a small village in Igboland-  I get that I speak with a bit of privilege. However, my African American side rejects the notion that we are bastards of African nations and therefore have to accept whatever narrative comes to us.  If we are on a journey for our roots, which were cut by the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade, what we find should be something authentic and specific. Which Kwanzaa is not. Instead if is ambiguous and sensationalized. 

Walk with me. 

Kwanzaa was created by well-intended black folks who wanted our ethnic identity represented in the litany of end of the year celebrations. Enter Dr. Maulana Karenga the director of Africana Studies at Cal State (Long Beach) who used his research on African and African-American history and culture to create the holiday Kwanzaa. The name is Swahili. The seven principles are all in Swahili. But not all African Americans come from the Bantu region of Africa where Kiswahili is spoken. In fact, most of us came from West Africa thanks to slavery. It appears from the outside that Karenga pieced together parts of African culture to create a holiday. So dare I say it: Kwanzaa is the Kim Kardashian of the holiday season and Dr. Karenga, you are Kris. 

Let’s take a break here. 

There are over 1,000 languages and dialects spoken in Africa’s 54 countries, and the fact is there is not one language to represent them all. This is such a fact, most Africans are even taught to speak more than one language. So that brings me to my biggest issue with Kwanzaa. If this holiday was designed to reconnect African Americans to their heritage why would Dr. Karenga paint Africans with such a wide brush? We're not Latinos, there is not one language to unite us all. This is irresponsible, and one of the biggest issues that I have with old black nationalists. They ignore the fact Africa is a diverse space in its blackness. Even Africans do not have the same ‘black’ experience, just as black Americans do not. 

So, I digress. 

On the surface, Kwanzaa appears well researched. But there is so much information in 2016 versus 1966. You don’t have to fake African anymore. Like Big Brother Almighty said, in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing “Why don’t you take your black ass to Africa then?” No really, why not? If you light a Kwanzaa Kinara but have apprehensions about going to Africa I need you to really self-examine. African culture is having a moment in American fashion, movies, and music, again. So if you ever do have the opportunity to go to Africa you will see that true African cultures are deep and rich, and most of all inclusive, that is something that Kwanzaa got right.  But like all tradition, it is institutionalized. If it is a connection you seek, I will be the first African to let you know that there is no need to create something that we already have a ton of.