Post by Onyango Oloo on Dec 19, 2005 18:35:32 GMT 3
A holiday by any name, Kenyans will celebrate
Sun Dec 18, 2005 4:38 PM GMT172
By C. Bryson Hull and Wangui Kanina
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Call a holiday for any reason, by any name, and Kenyans will celebrate it.
In the East African nation of 32 million, it takes very little to persuade wananchi -- as the public is known in Swahili -- to take the day off to dance, eat roasted meat known as nyama choma, drink and relax.
So the debate over what to call Christmas in the United States, given sensitivities over religious holidays like Hanukkah and the largely African-American celebration of Kwanzaa which come at the same time of year, baffles Kenyans who embrace festivities -- theirs and others -- with equal aplomb.
"Whether Jesus was born in a manger, whether there is Santa Claus or whatever, at the end of the day everybody has a right to celebrate what they believe," said Bruno Selebwa, a 24-year-old who works with computers.
With a population of more than 40 ethnic groups encompassing a cornucopia of religions, Kenyans say they are a model of religious tolerance.
"We have lots of Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, traditional religions, people who worship trees and God knows what else, but that has never been an issue," Selebwa said.
Political correctness about religious festivities? Not in a country where the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr is a holiday just like Christmas.
"For us, (Christmas) is a public holiday to look forward to, just like the way my Christian friends were looking forward to the Eid holiday," said receptionist Fatma Mohammed, a 26-year-old clad in traditional Muslim garb.
"We work and we do not get a break so it is a time to get a break from work."
PUZZLED BY KWANZAA
But Kwanzaa puzzles the Kenyans who know about it -- and many who were asked about it in downtown Nairobi did not.
Created in the United States during the 1960s in the midst of the civil rights struggle and the Black Power movement as a pan-African cultural celebration, its melding of African traditions based on harvest festivals has found strong acceptance there.
Not in Kenya, where it might be the only holiday Kenyans would not celebrate.
Anne Ouma, a 21-year-old student at the University of Nairobi, said she had only heard of Kwanzaa by reading about it in Ebony magazine.
"It is something they made up, created, because they did not fit into the American society. Basically I see it as a desperate attempt to connect with Africa or 'the motherland' as they say," she said.
Margaret Mugo, a 32-year-old telecommunications manager, said Kwanzaa was "black Americans aspiring for or reaching out to a greater sense of belonging to the African race."
"That is why they have come up with Kwanzaa, which is a Swahili word meaning 'first,'" Mugo said.
"They even spell it wrong," she said.
An extra "A" was purposefully added to the end of the correct Swahili spelling, according the official Kwanzaa Web site.