I have found this article incredibly difficult to write. However, a discussion I had the other day with someone who prefers to remain anonymous precipitated a painful set of reflections.
Actually, on his side, it was more of an argument, given the heat of his words.
How do you seriously celebrate X-mass whilst the presumed promised land is totally burning in Gaza, where there is an unprecedented genocide, a replica of the holocaust? Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and the entire Palestine occupied by Israel, how dare you celebrate X-mass in Bongo!
How dare I? How dare we?
Of course, such sentiments are not new. My former student and much-missed friend, the late Prof Jwani Mwaikusa, wrote something similar more than 40 years ago in our book of poetry, Summons: Poems from Tanzania:
Not Yet Christmas
Don’t sing Christmas carols today, brethren,
We cannot glorify God today,
Indeed, we cannot sing “Gloria in excelsis Deo”
And then abuse the song with wishes of peace
To minds and bodies burning with injustice;
Burning with ferocious injustice
And with determination
To destroy in the fires of evil
The peace-loving humanity
That is there to glorify the day.
For whose peace shall we pray?
Shall we pray for Lucifer?
Shall we pray for Satan?
That he works in peace against peace?
That he devours the world
And swallows it into burning hell
Where nobody can sing any more?
No brethren,
Christmas should wait.
We should wait and pray until the devil’s away
For Christmas day brings a peaceful age.
Don’t sing Christmas carols today, therefore.
Because Christmas day has not yet come.
It is a theme that has echoed through the years, but maybe this year, it is even more ferociously relevant. For those who still see Christmas as a religious holiday, how do you celebrate the birth of Jesus in a town that is under Israeli occupation and surrounded by Israeli settlements in the West Bank?
Last year, Voice of America (VOA) quoted a visitor to Bethlehem at Christmas thus: He said he always comes to Bethlehem to mark Christmas, but this year was especially sobering, as he gazed at a Nativity scene in Manger Square with a baby Jesus wrapped in a white shroud, reminiscent of the hundreds of children killed in the fighting in Gaza. Barbed wire surrounded the scene, the gray rubble reflecting none of the joyous lights and bursts of colour that normally fill the square during the Christmas season.
Systematic destruction
This year, of course, it is even worse with the systematic destruction of Gaza and all who live there. From the Christian perspective, the birth of Jesus was supposed to be a symbol of hope, of new life, of redemption, even if, in those days two, hundreds of children died, killed by the king, Herod, to try and preempt the emergence of a new ‘king.’
How horribly ironic! Now, children are being killed in their thousands. So, I guess many Christians will indeed go to worship with a heavy heart. And I believe the same applies to the celebration of Eids.
From a secular perspective, my social media mate’s argument is also very powerful. How can we sit and enjoy our Christmas meals, solid or liquid, when the world is going through this fearful genocide?
But, as I said, the same applies to previous times: apartheid in South Africa and racism in the States, the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam imperialist wars, the Biafra War, the years of dictatorship in Latin America, the killings and famines during colonial times – in the Bengal famine under British colonial rule in 1943 alone, between 1.5 million and three million people died of starvation–, the slave trade, the list is endless.
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And, of course, the horrific suffering of the Palestinians did not start last year. It has only been multiplied a thousand times. How can we close our eyes and ears to the appalling suffering going on elsewhere in the world and celebrate because it is not happening to us?
Children and Christmas
At the same time, should we deprive our children of a holiday that they have looked forward to all year, with exceptional food, clothes, and presents, a special time of celebration for them?
Even in Tanzania, the families of those who have “disappeared,” reappeared after torture, or been killed; of those who have been removed from their homelands will undoubtedly have great difficulty in celebrating Christmas without their loved ones.
But the rest of us will probably indulge in ‘Christmas cheer’ selfishly for ourselves or our children’s sake. And in answer to my social media friend, the issue is more complicated.
Across the world, millions of people, Arabs, Jews and other races and religions have demonstrated again and again against what is happening in Gaza and now Lebanon and Syria. People have sacrificed their jobs, etc., to try and bring the ‘owners’ of the world to take action against the genocide.
I salute them. I guess many of us salute them, but what have we done? Our country still recognises the Zionist regime in Israel. We were banned from demonstrating so we have resorted to tweeting only, impotent and unable to find another way, and then returning to our own struggles.
If that is correct, it is wrong to stigmatise Christmas as it is only one event in a long series of events about which we could not do anything.
Commoditising Christmas
At the same time, I wish we could use this to reflect on the commercial paraphernalia of Christmas, which surely must be an excellent example of “globalisation.”
All those pictures of Jesus as a little baby Mzungu, cotton wool on Christmas trees to symbolise snow which is more reminiscent of Europe than Bethlehem, shop assistants forced to wear funny red and white hats in memory of Father Christmas, and, of course, all the Father Christmases themselves forced to wear totally inappropriate costumes at the height of the hot season in Dar es Salaam.
These are just a few examples, although, of course, we have Tanzanianised some aspects, such as the holiday visits to our home areas and sharing food and drink together being a prime example.
But in the States, African-Americans have tried to replace Christmas with a more culturally relevant celebration, Kwanzaa, an African-Americans celebration of life from December 26 to January 1.
Should we, maybe, think of changing our perspective away from the culturally European Christmas, maybe Kwanzaa or maybe developing our own annual celebration more suited to our own culture?
Of course, Jesus devotees will, well, continue to remember the birth of their Saviour and use it to send a litany of prayers for a peace that seems very, very distant.
But for the rest of us, what are we doing?
Richard Mabala is an educator, poet, and author. He is available at rmabala@yahoo.com or on X (Twitter) as @MabalaMakengeza. These are the writer’s own opinions, and they do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of The Chanzo. Do you want to publish in this space? Contact our editors at editor@thechanzo.com for further inquiries.
