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Kwanzaa
Seven candles in a kinara symbolize the seven principles of Kwanzaa
Observed by	African Americans, parts of African diaspora
Type	Cultural and ethnic
Significance	Celebrates African heritage, unity, and culture.
Celebrations	Unity Creativity Faith Giving gifts
Date	December 26 to January 1
Related to	Pan-Africanism

Kwanzaa (/ˈkwɑːn.zə/) is a celebration held in the United States and in other nations of the African diaspora in the Americas and lasts a week. The celebration honors African heritage in African-American culture and is observed from December 26 to January 1, culminating in a feast and gift-giving.^[1] Kwanzaa has seven core principles (Nguzo Saba). It was created by Maulana Karenga and was first celebrated in 1966–67.

History and etymology

American Black Power activist and secular humanist Maulana Karenga, also known as Ronald McKinley Everett, created Kwanzaa in 1966, as a specifically African-American holiday^[2], in a spirit comparable to Juneteenth. According to Karenga, the name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning "first fruits of the harvest".^[3] A more conventional translation would simply be "first fruits". The choice of Swahili, an East African language, reflects its status as a symbol of Pan-Africanism, especially in the 1960s, although most of the Atlantic slave trade that brought African people to America originated in West Africa.^[4][5]

First fruits festivals exist in Southern Africa, celebrated in December/January with the southern solstice, and Karenga was partly inspired by an account he read of the Zulu festival Umkhosi Wokweshwama.^[6] It was decided to spell the holiday's name with an additional "a" so that it would have a symbolic seven letters.^[7]

Kwanzaa is a celebration with its roots in the black nationalist movement of the 1960s. Karenga established it to help African Americans reconnect with their African cultural and historical heritage by uniting in meditation and study of African traditions and Nguzo Saba, the "seven principles of African Heritage," which Karenga said "is a communitarian African philosophy." For Karenga, a major figure in the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the creation of such holidays also underscored an essential premise "you must have a cultural revolution before the violent revolution.The cultural revolution gives identity, purpose and direction."^[8]

During the early years of Kwanzaa, Karenga said it was meant to be an alternative to Christmas. He believed Jesus was psychotic and Christianity was a "White" religion that Black people should shun.^[9] As Kwanzaa gained mainstream adherents, Karenga altered his position so practicing Christians would not be alienated, then stating in the 1997, Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture, "Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday."^[10] Many African Americans who celebrate Kwanzaa do so in addition to observing Christmas.^[11]

Principles and symbols

A 2003 Kwanzaa celebration with Kwanzaa founder Maulana Karenga at center, and others.

Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder called the seven principles of Kwanzaa, or Nguzo Saba (originally Nguzu Saba—the seven principles of African Heritage), 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." They were developed in 1965, a year before Kwanzaa itself. These seven principles comprise Kawaida, a Swahili word meaning "common". Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the following principles, as follows:^[12]

• 
  Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.


• 
  Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves.


• 
  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 hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Kwanzaa celebratory symbols include a mat (Mkeka) on which other symbols are placed: a Kinara (candle holder), Mishumaa Saba (seven candles), mazao (crops), Muhindi (corn), a Kikombe cha Umoja (unity cup) for commemorating and giving shukrani (thanks) to African Ancestors, and Zawadi (gifts). Supplemental representations include a Nguzo Saba poster,^[13] the black, red, and green bendera (flag), and African books and artworks – all to represent values and concepts reflective of African culture and contribution to community building and reinforcement.^[14]Corn is the primary symbol for both decoration and celebratory dining.

Observances

A woman lighting kinara candles for Kwanzaa.

Families celebrating Kwanzaa decorate their households with objects of art, colorful African cloth such as kente, especially the wearing of kaftans by women, and fresh fruits that represent African idealism. It is customary to include children in Kwanzaa ceremonies and to give respect and gratitude to ancestors. Libations are shared, generally with a common chalice, Kikombe cha Umoja, passed around to all celebrants. Non-African Americans also celebrate Kwanzaa.^[15] The holiday greeting is "Joyous Kwanzaa".^[16][17][18]

A Kwanzaa ceremony may include drumming and musical selections, libations, 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?^[19] which is Swahili for "How are you?"^[20]

At first, observers of Kwanzaa avoided the mixing of the holiday or its symbols, values, and practice with other holidays, as doing so would violate the principle of kujichagulia (self-determination) and thus violate the integrity of the holiday, which is partially intended as a reclamation of important African values. Today, many African American families celebrate Kwanzaa along with Christmas and New Year's.^[21] Frequently, both Christmas trees and kinaras, the traditional candle holder symbolic of African American roots, share space in Kwanzaa-celebrating households. For people who celebrate both holidays, Kwanzaa is an opportunity to incorporate elements of their particular ethnic heritage into holiday observances and celebrations of Christmas.

Cultural exhibitions include the Spirit of Kwanzaa, an annual celebration held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts featuring interpretive dance, African dance, song and poetry.^[22][23][24]

Adherence

The National Retail Federation has sponsored a marketing survey on winter holidays since 2004, and in 2015 found that 1.9% of those polled planned to celebrate Kwanzaa – about six million people.^[25] In a 2006 speech, Maulana Karenga asserted that 28 million people celebrate Kwanzaa. He has always claimed it is celebrated all over the world.^[1] Lee D. Baker puts the number at 12 million.^[26] The African American Cultural Center claimed 30 million in 2009.^[27][28]

According to University of Minnesota Professor Keith Mayes, the author of Kwanzaa: Black Power and the Making of the African-American Holiday Tradition, the popularity within the U.S. has "leveled off" as the black power movement there has declined, and as of 2009 between 500 thousand and two million Americans celebrated Kwanzaa, or between one and five percent of African Americans. Mayes added that white institutions now celebrate it.^[15]

Starting in the 1990s, the holiday became increasingly commercialized, with the first Hallmark Card being sold in 1992,^[29] and there has been concern about this damaging the holiday's values.^[30] The holiday also saw a greater public recognition as the first Kwanzaa stamp, designed by Synthia Saint James, was issued by the United States Post Office in 1997, and in the same year Bill Clinton gave the first presidential declaration marking the holiday.^[31][32]

The holiday has also spread to Canada and is celebrated by Black Canadians in a similar fashion as in the United States.^[33] According to the Language Portal of Canada, "this fairly new tradition has [also] gained in popularity in France, Great Britain, Jamaica and Brazil".^[34]

In Brazil, in recent years the term Kwanzaa has been applied by a few institutions as a synonym for the festivities of the Black Awareness Day, commemorated on November 20 in honor of Zumbi dos Palmares,^[35][36] having little to do with the celebration as it was originally conceived.

Stjepan Meštrović, a sociology professor at the Texas A&M University, sees Kwanzaa as an example of postmodernism. According to Meštrović, post-modernists in modern society may view "real" traditions as racist, sexist or otherwise oppressive, but since living in a world where nothing is true is too terrifying to most people, "nice" and "synthetic" traditions like Kwanzaa have been created to cope with the nihilistic, individualistic modern society.^[37]

Maya Angelou narrated a documentary film about Kwanzaa, The Black Candle, written and directed by M.K. Asante, Jr. and featuring Chuck D.^[38][39]

See also

• 
  Dashiki – a shirt or suit worn during Kwanzaa celebrations

References

External links

• Official website


• 
  The Black Candle: a Kwanzaa film narrated by Maya Angelou


• Why Kwanzaa was created by Karenga


• The History Channel: Kwanzaa


• 
  Interview: Karenga discusses the evolution of the holiday and its meaning. Tavis Smiley (NPR)