The celebration of Kwanzaa is in full swing. Monday is day three, know as Ujima or collective work and responsibility.
Sunday was Kujichagulia or self-determination. The featured speaker was controversial retired college professor Leonard Jeffries.
"On Thanksgiving, we're celebrating at a time when the Native Americans were destroyed. It comes between Christmas where Santa Claus has replaced Jesus," Jeffries pointed out.
Jeffries spent more than five hours telling a crowded house in the CAO Rafi Greene Center how the African origins of culture and science had been deliberately obscured over time and people of African origin have to reclaim their own sense of self and their history.
Kwanzaa Committee Member Vonetta Rhodes-Osi says the week-long event is more woven into families and society.
"You see teachers including it into their practices and schools even including it into their holiday celebrations in December. You see displays. You see it happening in stores where you can get certain types of supplies," she said.
Rhodes-Osi says immigration locally has exposed new immigrants to the event and has exposed local African-Americans to the bonds and African identity the new residents brought with them.
