Europeans have Christmas. Arabs have Ramadan. Indians have Diwali. Chinese have the Lunar New Year. These are tied to their own history, their own gods, and their own calendars. And Africa?<div><br></div><div>Africa is the only continent that has to borrow its biggest celebrations from the people who colonized it.</div><div><br></div><div>But when you look at Africa, the biggest holidays are Easter, Ramadan, and Christmas. We celebrate the birth of a Middle Eastern man and a resurrection we weren't there to witness. Meanwhile, the traditional African festivals, the ceremonies for the ancestors, the harvest celebrations, the rituals for the earth and the rains, were labeled demonic, pagan, and backward by the colonizers. </div><div><br></div><div>They took our calendars and replaced them with theirs. They told us our drums were evil, our dances were sinful, and our spiritual systems were the work of the devil. So we abandoned our own days of celebration and adopted the holidays of our colonizers. We celebrate their history, their miracles, and their God, while our own traditions are either forgotten, hidden, or only practiced in secret.</div><div><br></div><div> They didn't just take the land and the resources; they took the celebrations. They took the joy. And we are still celebrating their holidays while our own heritage is treated like something to be ashamed of.</div>