Kwanzaa Libations

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Masequa Myers and, in this clip, we will talk about one of the major activities of Kwanzaa, which is the ritual of libation, tambiko, libation. And what we will use for our libation, which is merely a wonderful way of showing respect to all those who have gone before us, upon whose shoulders we stand. You would take your kikombe cha umoja, your unity cup, and you would fill it with water and you will use your plant. And you would use the pouring of water back into the dirt, the life-giving dirt that we get all of our food and nourishment from and show respect to our ancestors. And as we are doing our libation, our tambiko, we call on the spirits of our ancestors by saying their name. And so you would have your personal ancestors, those people in your family who have made the last rites of passage, which means who have passed on to the ancestral world. And you will say their name, I will use Bertha Baskin, my most recent ancestor. I will say her name and I can use the word "ashai," or I can say the word "libation" behind each person's name that I say and all of those who have gathered around to celebrate Kwanzaa would also say the names of their ancestors. And we don't want to forget those leaders of ours that also gave their lives, leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey and Harriet Tubman and each time we say their name, we pour libation, we pour libation and we say, "ashai." The power to make it happen. The power to show respect. The power of Willie C. Myers, my ancestor. The power of Harold Ray, Sr., we pour libation. And we give respect for all of those who went before us and on whose shoulders we stand. Libation. Tambiko. And in our next clip, we will talk about activities surrounding Kwanzaa."