Waukegan celebration highlights the meaning of Kwanzaa; ‘Everyone ... came away with something they learned and made’

Seven actors portraying men and women from the pages of Black history — ranging from Harriet Tubman to Malcolm X — with each representing one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa added meaning Saturday to the seven-day holiday celebrating African American culture.

As part of a Kwanzaa celebration sponsored by the Waukegan African American Museum at England Manor, the actors told how the individuals personified unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.

Sylvia England, the museum’s founder who organized the event, said she wanted the more than 40 people who attended the event to learn about African American culture by listening and doing.

“Everyone who was here came away with something they learned and made,” England, a retired Waukegan educator, said. “They were all able to take something away, the adults and children.”

Those in attendance watched the skit, engaged in crafts, ate a meal and more at the museum’s Kwanzaa celebration at the Mosaic Hub in North Chicago, partaking in a variety of the seven-day holiday’s customs.

Starting Dec. 26 and ending Monday, England said Kwanzaa, which means first fruits in Swahili, was created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga. Along with its seven principles, the holiday celebrates the ancestors of all African Americans.

“Kwanzaa intertwines African traditions and American customs, retelling stories of contemporaries and ancestors,” England said. “Most of all, children are at the center of Kwanzaa so they can learn about the culture.”

As England went to the microphone as the performance’s narrator, the seven actors were seated at a long table adorned with Kwanzaa symbols and decorations. She began by introducing Dot Barclay-Brown playing Tubman.

Born a slave in Maryland in 1822, Tubman fled to freedom in Philadelphia in 1849. Barclay-Brown said Tubman continually returned to slave states to lead people to freedom.

“I made 19 trips and brought 300 people to freedom,” Barclay Brown said during her performance. “This demonstrates unity, the first principle of Kwanzaa.”

Also portrayed in the skit was Mary McLeod Bethune, an adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt who started a private school for Black students in Florida which later became Bethune-Cookman University. She symbolized the principle of collective work and responsibility.

Others featured were, A.G. Gaston, an entrepreneur who owned multiple businesses in Alabama, symbolizing cooperative economics; and Mary Ann Shadd, a publisher and lawyer who fought slavery in the 1800s, personifying purpose.

Symbolizing faith was Carter G. Woodson, who started Black History Week, which became Black History Month. Creativity was personified in Edmonia Lewis, a sculptor in the 1800s who actor Edra Stewart said was lauded as an artist in Europe.

Clyde McLemore, the founder of the Lake County chapter of Black Lives Matter, played Malcolm X, who symbolized the principle of self-determination. McLemore said X changed his given last name because the original name did not show his true ancestry.

“He changed the way we think,” McLemore said. “He brought about a shift in our culture.”

Around the room were several stations where people could learn more about the principles and customs of Kwanzaa, such as libation where participants call out the names of their own ancestors and poured water for them.

Another station gave people the opportunity to embrace the custom of Zawadi, which England said means gift in Swahili. Participants put a face or design on a rock to give as a gift.

As people were finishing their meal of garlic chicken, black eyed peas, cornbread, macaroni and cheese and more, they were listening to three people playing African drums.

Gewn Beckwith of Waukegan was sitting at the table moving with the rhythm quietly beating two finished pieces of wood together as the drummers got the crowd moving as they sat.

“You just get into keeping the rhythm with the drummers,” Beckwith said. “It has its own kind of rhythm.”