Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa, which takes its name from the Swahili word matunda ya kwanza meaning “first-fruits”, was started in 1966 by Ron Karenga to "...give Blacks an alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society." (Source: Wikipedia)

The holiday is divided into seven days in which each day represents one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa. The principle of Ujamaa, or “Cooperative Economics”, is celebrated on the fourth day of Kwanzaa and occurs on December 29th. According to the official Kwanzaa web site this principle means, “To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.” (Source: Official Kwanzaa Web Site.)

One of the early African-American advocates of cooperative economics was W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois was born in 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. In 1888 he graduated from Frisk University and later received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1895. As a professor at Atlanta University between 1897 and 1914 he published 16 research monographs; most notably the landmark sociological study “The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study”, which was the first of its kind. Du Bois’ extensive work helped to establish him as one of the pioneers in the study of African-American society.

Early on W.E.B. Du Bois found himself in conflict with Booker T Washington when he concluded that the only way African-Americans could achieve equality was through demanding it and through protest. Du Bois laid out in his opposition to Washington’s views in his landmark book “The Souls of Black Folk.” It was his book that established Washington and his supporters as “conservatives” while Du Bois and his supporters were labeled as “radicals.” History, of course, ultimately proved Du Bois right and Washington wrong.

In 1905 Du Bois was one of the prominent founders of the Niagara Movement, which helped lead to the establishment of the NAACP. In addition to the founding of the NAACP he edited the magazine The Crisis. Du Bois is also widely known for being a pioneer for the Pan-African movement. Plus, he’s known for his support of black literature and the recognition of “Beauty in Black” through his editing of The Crisis.

For Du Bois, cooperatives were the wave of the future for African-Americans. He was able to show that since the early days after the end of the Civil War cooperatives had played a major role in the economic survival of African-American communities. He used as an example the Dry Dock Cooperative and the African-American cooperatively-owned railroad in Wilmington, North Carolina. Du Bois recommended that African-Americans use these cooperative enterprises as models to develop an alternative economy to capitalism in which African-Americans would cooperatively own and operate their own enterprises.

While I disagree with some of his views that he held (later in life he advocated the Soviet model and gave up his US citizenship) Du Bois was without a doubt a great man and a great advocate of cooperative economics.