What is Kwanzaa?

Kwanzaa was founded by Dr. Maulana Kareng in 1966. Kwanzaa is a week-long unique African-American celebration which features activities such as lighting a candle holder with seven candles and culminates in a feast and gift-giving (you make the gifts yourself). Kwanzaa is a celebration that has its roots in the black nationalist movement of the 1960s, and was established as a means to help African Americans reconnect with their African cultural and historical heritage by uniting in meditation and study of African traditions. These values are called the Nguzo Saba which in Swahili means the Seven Principles. which Karenga said “is a communitarian African philosophy,” consisting 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 stand up.
• Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and 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 vocation the building and developing of our community 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, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial 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 on which other symbols are placed, corn and other crops, a candle holder with seven candles, called a kinara, a communal cup for pouring libations, gifts, a poster of the seven principles, and a black, red, and green flag. The symbols were designed to convey the seven principles.

I’ve put this together to get people an a better idea of what Kwanzaa is and all about. Now i remember my grandmother asking me to help her put the Kwanzaa table together and each of the 7 days she would read what the principle was of the day then light candle. She was also read other African books to teach us about our history. We would all so go out to Kwanzaa shows we’re they would dance and sing all these African songs and they also sell books and African Kwanzaa jewelry. So this truly is the only “holiday” with a real meaning behind it.