Haynesville Youth marking Kwanzaa

Residents of Holder’s Hill and Haynesville in St James and everyone living in close proximity can again look forward to Kwanzaa performances from the Haynesville Youth Club.

President Peter Skeete, speaking yesterday during a media briefing at the Haynesville Community Centre, St James, said about 50 members would again participate in the annual tradition, now in its seventh year.

“We’re going to start the Kwanzaa opening ceremony on the 26th. The parade starts from the Desmond Haynes Sports Complex in Holders Hill, St James, which, of course, carries the name of the most outstanding cricketer from the area.

“We’re going to start there and parade and walk through the community with about 50 Haynesville Youth Club members. We will stop at strategic points and do cultural performances, traditional African dance, drumming, tap dancing, Landship and so on, as a means of showcasing the talent of the young people in the community,” he said.

Guests

Skeete, who is also a youth commissioner, said the parade will end at the Haynesville Community Centre, where there will be speeches.

Members of the local cricket and netball teams will also form part of the procession.

Skeete said the invited guests included Special Envoy to the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Reparations and Economic Enfranchisement Trevor Prescod as well as both the Cuban and Venezuelan ambassadors, Yanet Stable Cardenas and Martha Gabriela Ortega Peraza, respectively.

The president said one new element this year will be a prizegiving ceremony, adding that while giving away prizes itself was not new, it would be the first time it was included in the festivities.

“We are going to use this opportunity to reward our members as we celebrate not only the spirit of Kwanzaa, but the spirit of the Christmas festival as a whole and the Kwanzaa festival more significantly.”

Black festival

Prescod spoke on the importance of Kwanzaa to Barbados. He said many of the traditions and ideologies mirrored in Kwanzaa were a reflection of the thoughts of many progressives and “black thinkers” across the world.

“The rationale is that we have a festival, not as a reaction or a rejection of Christmas itself, but one which is exclusively for the people of Africa and the people of African descent.

“So, wherever we are in modern times, in the diaspora, I would love to see the time come when we know that on the 26th, this is the black festival, which speaks about all the virtues – love, unity, collective responsibility – some of the negations which we have been struggling with now for a considerable time as a people,” he said.

Prescod added that while Kwanzaa might not be perceived as a religion, it was at least a form of spirituality.

Kwanzaa is an annual celebration of African-American culture from December 26 to January 1. (CA)

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