How do people resist the commercialization of Kwanzaa?
The challenge, for the African American community as well as African communities everywhere is to resist the corporate commercialization of Kwanzaa; to reaffirm and to the essential meaning of Kwanzaa and refuse to cooperate with the corporate drive to dominate and redefine it and make it simply another holiday to maximize sales. By upholding the philosophy and principles of Kwanzaa, Black people can and do pose a strong wall against the waves of commercialization which affect all holidays in this market culture which is essentially a culture of sales and consumption. For Kwanzaa is above all a cultural practice not a commercial one and external or internal attempts to redefine Kwanzaa in commercial terms are not defining Kwanzaa, but rather their commercial interest in it. The wall of resistance to commercialization, then, is the people themselves and their conscientious and consistent focus on the vision of Kwanzaa and the practice of its values. Certainly, the central values of Kwan
