The Kwanzaa Effect (Imani)

The seventh and final principle of Kwanzaa is called Imani, which in Swahili means faith. It states that we who are to follow this principle are "To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle." In order to do what the principle is asking of us, we have to believe in it. No pun intended. You will only do what you believe. It is hard to say you believe in something and not practice it. However, life and relationships are complicated. However, no matter the issue or situation, your principles should help guide your thinking. In and of itself, faith is a spiritual practice. Faith goes beyond the realm of logic and reasoning sometimes. The thing about Imani is that the principle wants us to invest with our heart into our people and our struggle. It asks us to put our confidence in parents, our teachers and our leaders in general. That is a tall order which stands to reason why this is the seventh and final principle.

Jefferson Pierce aka Black Lightning of DC comics is a Black Superhero that believes in his community and the people in it. How do I know? Well, for starters he's one of my all time favorite characters. In addition, he is apart of the community itself. He was an athlete and a teacher. He took it upon himself to deal with a gang called the 100 and their chief boss Tobias Whale. Black Lightning had a personal stake in the community. He had a friends and he still cared for his ex-wife Lynn who was a school teacher herself. Black Lightning patrolled the neighbor aptly called Suicide Slum. It was interesting in that Black Lightning had issues with Superman because he didn't care for the hood. John Ridley wrote extensively about this in issue one of the book The Other History of the DC Universe. The logic behind Ridley's perception of Black Lightning is flawed from this standpoint. We cannot rely on people outside of the community to take care of the community. Superman didn't live in Suicide Slum, so why would he patrol there when he lives in Metropolis? It is up to us to believe in our cause and the people that the cause helps. Its not on "Big Blue" as Black Lightning calls him in issue 5 of Volume 1 of Black Lightning. They team up and take down the bad guys in this issue. While it can be said that "it takes all of us" to work together and keep peace. We must be mindful that our community is best served by the people in it and not those outside. That is one of the reasons relationships with law enforcement has always been questionable. We must have faith in our selves. Sometimes we as a people have a low opinion of ourselves. It is this mindset as to why so many people leave our communities and never return to them. Sure we can brag and boast how we love the hood and grew up in the hood but do we care about the hood. Do we help our people? Do we believe that our struggle is righteous and we can be victorious? I learned a long time ago that a pair of lips will say anything. If we are going to uplift the community it is going to be us who have to do it. Black Lightning isn't the most powerful superhero and he barely registers even among Black comic book readers. Most know of him because of the WB show. However, Black Lightning has been around since 1977 and was considered a Black exploitation charcter. He is not the most popular character. He does not wow you with his skills. He is not as smart as Micheal Holt. I pay that no mind because beyond the mask wig and jive talk is Black man who cared about his people and put his body on the line to save it. That is in the spirit of Imani. Somebody cue up that Four Tops song, "Are you man enough?" from the Shaft in Africa Soundtrack. Harambe!