LIBERATION LECTIONARY - CHRISTMASTIDE

Ujima - Collective Work & Responsibility

“We are each other’s business, we are each other’s harvest. We are each other’s magnitude and bond.” Gwendolyn Brooks

Habari Gani? Ujima!

Ujima is today’s principle, for the third day of Kwanzaa. Ujima means Collective Work and Responsibility: To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems and solve them together.

There are many aspects of community life that are encompassed by this phrase. Collective work is about laboring together for honoring our heritage and building our future. Collective responsibility might be summed up with the famous words of June Jordan, “we are the ones we have been waiting for.” Collective work is vocational, a sense of common responsibility is relational.  We need each other to survive. According to The Brooklyn Reader “Ujima honors a commitment to active and informed togetherness on matters of common interest”

Today’s Scripture: Nehemiah 4.14

And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to all of the people: do not be afraid of the threats: remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your loved ones, for your children, your sons, and your daughters, your families, and your homes.

Music & Meditation: If I Ruled the World, Nas and Lauryn Hill

Artwork: Stacey Brown- Vote for Love

Source: BKReader, Website article, 2019