FROM THE TRADITIONS

Though race is a bad word and may even be scientifically questionable, the fact remains that groups of humans feel a togetherness on the basis of skin color, common historical experience, regional cohesion, etc. Thus there is a bond that unites all people of African heritage. Though they speak different languages, belong to different religions, and are part of different regional cultures, they feel as one, just as all Arabs, all Chinese, all Europeans, all Hindus, etc. do. Thus, African Americans, sometimes alienated from white America, have been seeking cultural connections with their African ancestry.

So, somewhat like Voltaire who once remarked, "If there is no God, we have to invent one," Maulana Ron Karenga thought in the 1960s, "If there is no African-American festival, we have to invent one." [Karenga is a scholar who is deeply read in history and African traditions, an activist who has worked for the betterment of the poor, and a man of distinction respected in many countries.] He invented Kwanzaa, from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza (first fruits), as an African-American week-long festival, irrespective of religious affiliation. [The second a at the end is to remind one of its American connection.] During the week one is asked to reflect each day upon one of the following Seven Principles (Nguzo Saba):

Unity of family and people (umoja); Self-determination (kujichagulia);
Cooperative work with a sense of history (ujima); Mutually beneficial economic productivity (ujamaa); Goal-oriented action (nia),. Creativity (ku-umba); Honoring traditions (imani).

The goal of Kwanzaa is to "reassess, reclaim, recommit, remember, retrieve, resume, resurrect, and rejuvenate the Way of Life."

Festivals take on significance only when they are associated with some rituals and paraphernalia. So, in the Kwanzaa observance, one uses a candle-holder (kinara), a straw placement (mkeka), a cup to symbolize community-unity (kikombe cha umoja), seven candles (mishumaa saba) - a black one, three red ones, and three green ones, and some enriching gifts (zawadi). The festival climaxes on December 31 with a grand feast of remembrance during which special statements are read.

Though Kwanzaa began in the United States out of a need to affirm one's African heritage, it has spread to other regions as well: to Central America, to Brazil, and to various African countries.

The rise and spread of Kwanza during the past three and more decades is a beautiful instance of how festivals in various traditions arose and were adopted until they became the tradition of vast numbers of people. Though its has the artificiality of Esperanto, because it has the inner strength of cultural cohesion and it gives vent to a deep-felt longing of the inner spirit, it is likely to grow and be more successful.

I wish all my African brothers and sisters a happy week of Kwanza(a)!

FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE

It is true that we live in an age of computers, but every invention and discovery, every new thought and view, has an ancestry. Adding a word to what it says in the Ecclesiastics (I, 9), "there is no entirely new thing under the sun." Thus, the Analytical Machine proposed by Charles Babbage (born: 26 December, 1791) was surely an early predecessor of the modern computer. Its initial goal was to produce mathematical tables (like logarithmic and trigonometric ones) which are very useful in astronomy and navigation, and were at the time not without errors. In those days these were the results of manual computations, using ingenious formulas. Babbage published a table of logs from 1 to 180,000.

Babbage tried to persuade the government to subsidize his researches. The ups and downs of his efforts to secure support and funding for his visionary projects are not always pleasant reading, for he had harsh critics and disappointed clients as he went along. He changed projects and tried other avenues. The government, upon the recommendation of some physicists and mathematicians, did not always support his researches.

Babbage envisioned mechanical devices with punched cards that would store information, and he came up with a contraption for this which is still in a Science Museum. His recognition of the importance of the factory prompted him to formulate frameworks in which industries could function more efficiently, and he has been described as the initiator of operations research. He took great interest in the railway system which was playing an important role in the industrial revolution. He invented the cow-catcher for locomotive engines, as well as occulting lights for lighthouses. It was at his suggestion that the postal system adopted a single stamp rate for all letters within the country, instead of charging according to distance.

Babbage occupied the Lucasian chair of Mathematics at Cambridge: once graced by Isaac Newton. He took great interest in mathematics education. He played a major role in founding the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1831. Babbage was a versatile genius, but also somewhat eccentric. He is said to have been a pyrophile: once descending into the mouth of Mount Vesuvius to see liquid lava first hand. When he wrote how much he disliked music on the streets, many came and played loud music of all kinds in front of his house.

Babbage was one of those scientists who seek reconciliation between science and religion. In his book Ninth Bridgewater Treatise he argued that miracles are not impossible in a purely physical-laws-governed universe, and calculated the probability of Resurrection. He has been immortalized since a crater near the north pole of the Moon has been named after him.

V. V. Raman

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Published   2001.12.26