Gye Nyame --An African Alternative To Thanksgiving
It was the month before the end of an era, Kwanzaa was due, and Europeans across the globe were talking in thinly veiled code of Y2K, a year to a new millennium--Diaspora African spirits were stirred.
As`Year 2000' memorabilia peppered every store and newspapers, radio and TV looked back at a century with words and images that barely reflected a global African presence and essential contribution, residents of Africa America became mighty restless.
For years as a new superhighway era dawn approached folks became increasingly aware that something was not right in this state of delusional paradise. Praise was due. Lip service was merely being given to heritage, culture and history. A reawakening was passed necessary.
And so, in Cleveland, Ohio, Gye Nyame (G-NA-MAY) was born--an alternative to the historically questionable Thanksgiving Day. It was to be an African-inspired day of appreciation, of family, of worship and reflection..
Incorporating spirituality, ritual, ceremony and symbology from Africa, Gye Nyame is celebrated every year on the third Thursday of November.
Founded in 1997 by the late Dr. Minister Khallid Abdul Muhammad, former Supreme Captain of the Fruit of Islam and former National Spokesman for the Nation of Islam under Min. Louis Farrakhan, Gye Nyame is a celebration designed for Africans all over the Diaspora to give thanks for life, love and promise. Although a yearlong celebration, which can be brought into every day life by way of acknowledging the God you pray to, Gye Nyame was created as an alternative to the American Thanksgiving Day.
On Thursday, 27th November 1997, in Cleveland, Ohio, a small African-centered study group joined Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad and nearly 500 Pan African-Nationalists to celebrate the first Gye Nyame. Gye Nyame, in West African Akhan Adinkra symbolism means; "the omnipotent, the omnipresent, the omniscient god; no power; no force; no combination of powers nor forces should be worshipped--except God."
Understanding that the resistance to change is a significant part of the human condition, the celebration of Gye Nyame urges Africans in American simply ask themselves, "Whose Thanksgiving have you been celebrating?"
`Thanksgiving' for European colonizers of the Americas is in effect the noted celebration of the massacre and subjugation of a people and the usurping of their land. In 1614 a British expedition landed on the North American coast (at Plymouth Rock) took 24 Native people as slaves and left smallpox, syphilis and gonorrhea behind. That plague swept through the so-called "tribes of New England," destroying some villages completely. In the deep mid-winter 1620 the English ship Mayflower delivered 102 Puritan exiles.
The systematic genocide of the Indigenous People began thereafter; raping, pillaging, bloodletting, theft of land and people and after years of "scalping for bounty" of chiefs and braves, the Puritans established a `thanksgiving feast' to celebrate the massacre of the Native People.
Just a few decades after the first arrival of whites on the East coast, Massachusetts and the surrounding colonies were in a full-scale war with the great chief of the Wampanoags, Metacomet. As he battled against the marauding invaders, Metacomet witnessed as the expedient use of the so-called `Praying Indians' (natives converted to Christianity) and other tools of destruction, ultimately defeated the great `Native' nation, just half a century after the arrival of the first European.
After Metacomet was assassinated, his hands were cut off and sent to Boston and his head went to Plymouth where it was set upon a poke on Thanksgiving Day.
Years earlier however, Governor Dudley declared a `General Thanksgiving' not to celebrate the brotherhood of man, but for: "[God's] infinite Goodness to extend His Favors... In defeating and disappointing.... the expeditions of the Enemy [Indians] against us, And the good Success given us against them, by delivering so many of them into our hands..."
No turkey, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie was served, no prayers to the Indigenous People were offered and they did not hear, "Come back real soon y'all."
Gye Nyame has been celebrated enthusiastically since in many cities across America. Gye Nyame calls on the rich spirituality of African people to proactively take time out every day to acknowledge their families, friends and communities, their lives, their experiences, their gifts, their lessons - and of course the Creator - in which ever form he or she takes, by which ever name he or she is called--in which ever language.
There are the nine cardinal categories of cultural and spiritual symbols that represent Gye Nyame, including: FITILA (Candle holder/Candle): used to symbolize fire, light and spiritual illumination; IFE IREPO ASHE (Communal Unity Cup) passed for each member of the family; ITILE ASHE SANKOFA / and GARETA (Golden Sankofa Staff and Ancestral Mask), the staff is spiritual and the Sankofa bird atop the golden staff enlightens and instructs us to reach back into our past, in order that we can go forward into the future; and BUREDI and IPESE represents the Daily Bread and Basket of Abundance/Offering of Plenty.
Greetings during Gye Nyame are in the Yoruba language (Nigeria), like; `Se Alafia Ni (pronounced Shay Alafia Nee) How are you?' and `O Dabo ! (GOD be with you till we are together again)."
While symbolism and prayer, giving thanks and communing with family and friends make up a huge part of Gye Nyame - victuals are traditionally a significant part of African celebration. So, roasted meats, plentiful vegetables, grains and pulses, fish and sweet potato pie - family favorites from across the globe can fill up the dinner table.
"Like Kwanzaa (celebrated December 26th -January 1st), Gye Nyame is not to be seen as `just a reactionary reflex' to the holidays of others. Gye Nyame is `a self-conscious cultural choice.' It offers an opportunity for a serious, clear and compelling choice. We have no other `real' choice. For the only way to fight and successfully defeat an imposed, oppressive alien culture is to live our own with self-affirming focus, commitment, purpose and pride. We have to celebrate holidays that reflect our history, our culture and our natural African selves." said Dr. Muhammad.
"This is an African Thanksgiving, where we give thanks to our God, where we show love and appreciation to our family, friends and community. We have to return to our spirituality and reclaim our African heritage."
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Saturday, November 2nd 2013 at 7:01PM
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