Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa is a 7-day African American and pan-African holiday that celebrates family, community, and culture. The holiday begins on December 26 and continues through January 1, and its name comes from the Swahili words matunda ya kwanza, which mean “first fruits” and indicates the holiday's roots in the first harvest celebrations recorded in African history. These harvest festivals bear various names, which reflect the language of the society in which each is celebrated. Some of these are: Pert-en-Min in ancient Egypt, Umkhosi in Zululand, Incwala in Swaziland, Odwira in Asanteland, and Odu Ijesu in Yorubaland. As a harvest festival, then, Kwanzaa's central message expresses the ancient African model and practice of producing, harvesting, and sharing good in the world. Key to this commitment to bringing and sustaining good in the world is practicing the Nguzo Saba (Seven Principles).

Indeed, at the heart of the meaning and activities of this 7-day holiday are the Nguzo Saba, which are aimed at reaffirming and strengthening family, community, and culture. Thus, each day of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the principles and is organized around activities and discussion to emphasize each principle. These principles are Umoja (Unity)—to strive for and 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 and to make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and 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.

Although it is rooted in an ancient African history and culture, Kwanzaa was developed in 1966 in the modern context of African American life and struggle [Page 304]as a reconstructed and expanded African tradition by Maulana Karenga, an activist scholar, who is currently professor of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach. Having emerged during the black freedom movement of the 1960s, Kwanzaa reflects the movement's stress on self-determination, “return to the source,” and the recovery and reaffirmation of African identity and culture. Moreover, Kwanzaa is founded and framed in Kawaida philosophy, which stresses cultural grounding, a values orientation, and an ongoing dialogue with continental and diasporic African culture in pursuit of paradigms of human excellence and human possibility. First celebrated by members and friends of the organization Us (meaning us African people), which Karenga chairs and in which the holiday developed, Kwanzaa is currently celebrated by an estimated 26 million persons throughout the world African community and on every continent in the world.

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