Purpose – Nia

Purpose (Nia)

Pronounced nee-yah

First of the Kwanzaa Seven Principles (Nguzo Saba)

Celebrated December 30^th or Day 5 of the Kwanzaa Week

Nefer Symbol of Purpose

“To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.”

In “Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture” Maulana Karenga (the creator of Kwanzaa) describes purpose (nia) as “a commitment to the collective vocation of building, developing and defending our community, its culture and history in order to regain our historical initiative and greatness as a people and add to the good and beauty in the world.’

In further describing “purpose” (nia), the author discusses it in terms of four main concepts: “collective vocation”; the “heirs and custodians of a great legacy”; “generational responsibility”; and the “joining personal and social purpose”.

Regarding our “collective vocation”, Karenga defines it as our shared responsibility to build, develop and defend our community, its culture and history for the purpose of regaining our historical initiative and greatness as a people.

He goes on to describe modern day African Americans as “heirs and custodians of a great legacy” and then reminds us of this inheritance and our collective responsibility to preserve it and pass it on to future generations.

In speaking of our “generational responsibility”, he references author Frantz Fanon (The Wretched of the Earth, 1968) who said “each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, (and then) fulfill it or betray it.”  This quote serves as a reminder that our words and actions represent a choice to fulfill or betray our cultural responsibility to future generations of African Americans.

And in describing the need to “join personal and social purpose”, the author explains that “true greatness and growth never occur in isolation and at others’ expense.”  Personal purpose and social purpose are of mutual or reciprocal benefit to the other.

Karenga ends his discussion of purpose (nia) with a reference to the Odu of Ifa (a sacred African text of ethical teachings) which says that “Surely humans were chosen to bring good into the world.”  And that (bringing good into the world) is the essence of our purpose as human beings.

More information and supplies that can be used to practice and celebrate Kwanzaa can be found at the My Daily Kwanzaa Store.

Harambee!  Let’s all work together!

Editor, My Daily Kwanzaa

Reference:  “Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture”, by Maulana Karenga,   University of Sankore Press, Los Angeles, California.  1998.   ISBN 0-943412-21-8.