Kwanzaa is a week long celebration held in the United States to honor universal African heritage and culture. People light a kinara (candle holder with seven black, red and green candles) and give each other gifts. It takes place from December 26 to January 1 every year.
It was created by Maulana Karenga and was first celebrated in 1966 – 1967. Non-African Americans also celebrate Kwanzaa. The holiday greeting is “Joyous Kwanzaa”.
History
Kwanzaa is a celebration that started in the black nationalist movement of the 1960s. It was created as a way to help African Americans reconnect with their African cultural and historical heritage.
The name Kwanzaa comes from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning first fruits of the harvest.
Many Christian African Americans who celebrate Kwanzaa do so in addition to observing Christmas.
Principles, symbols
Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder called the seven principles of Kwanzaa, or Nguzo Saba (originally Nguzu Saba—the seven principles of blackness). Karenga said that this “is a communitarian African philosophy,” . It consists of what Karenga called “the best of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world.” These seven principles comprise Kawaida, a Swahili term for tradition and reason. Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the following principles, as follows:
♥ Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
♥ Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
♥ Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together. To make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems, and to solve them together.
♥ Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
♥ Nia (Purpose): To make our collective goal the building and developing of our community. This in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
♥ Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can. This so that we can leave our community more beautiful and better than we inherited it.
♥ Imani (Faith): To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
Kwanzaa symbols include a decorative mat – a mkeka – on which other symbols are placed, corn and other crops, a candle holder with seven candles, called a kinara, a communal cup called kikombe cha umoja for pouring drinks, gifts, a poster of the seven principles, and a black, red, and green flag. The symbols were designed to convey the seven principles.
During Kwanzaa, families also decorate their households with objects of art. They use colorful African cloth such as kente, especially the wearing of kaftans by women. Fresh fruits that represent African idealism are also used. It is normal to include children in Kwanzaa ceremonies and to give respect and gratitude to ancestors
A Kwanzaa ceremony may include drumming and musical selections, a reading of the African Pledge and the Principles of Blackness, reflection on the Pan-African colors, a discussion of the African principle of the day or a chapter in African history, a candle-lighting ritual, artistic performance, and, finally, a feast (Karamu).
The greeting for each day of Kwanzaa is Habari Gani? which is Swahili for “What’s the News?”
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