Cover Stories Celebrating Kwanzaa: Practicing Principles and Creating Good in the World
December 25, 2014
By Dr. Maulana Karenga
Kwanzaa Founder
Kwanzaa, as an African American and pan-African holiday, is a celebration of family, community and culture and takes place from December 26 through January 1. This seven-day holiday takes its name from the Swahili prase matunda ya kwanza which means “first fruits”, revealing the holiday’s roots in the first harvest celebrations of ancient Africa, such as pert-en-Min in ancient Egypt, Umkhosi in Zululand, Odwira in Ashantiland and Odu Ilesu in Yorubaland. The Kwanzaa celebration, thus, brings a central message of producing, harvesting and sharing good in the world, and as an agricultural celebration, it is earth-conscious and world-encompassing.
In his seminal book, Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture, Maulana Karenga states that Kwanzaa is organized around five fundamental activities derived and developed from ancient African harvest celebrations. These activities are: (1) the ingathering of the people to reinforce the bonds between them, especially those of family, community and culture in both the local and global conceptions; (2) special reverence for the Creator and creation in gratitude for the bountifulness and goodness of the earth and with commitment to preserve and protect it; (3) commemoration of the past to remember and honor the ancestors, and to teach their lessons and models of human excellence and achievement history; (4) recommitment to the highest African cultural values, i.e., those ethical and spiritual values which bring forth the best of what it means to be African and human in the fullest sense, with special focus on the Nguzo Saba; and (5) celebration of the good, the good of life and the world and all in it, the good of family, community and culture; and the good of cultivating, harvest and sharing good in the world.
The hub and hinge on which the holiday turns are the Nguzo Saba, The Seven Principles, which are directed toward grounding, reaffirming and strengthening family, community and culture. In the celebration of Kwanzaa, each day is dedicated to one of these principles, and activities and discussions are organized around expressing, explaining and exhibiting these principles. Moreover, narratives of persons—ordinary and great—who have embodied and have practiced these principles are shared and discussed. Also, commitments are made to live by and practice these principles in one’s daily live.
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 make our brother’s and sister’s 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 community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it”; and Imani (Faith)—“to believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteous and victory of our struggle”.
In addition to its roots in ancient African harvest celebrations and culture, Kwanzaa also has modern origins in the Black Freedom Movement in the 1960s. Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by an activist scholar, Maulana Karenga, who is currently professor and chair of the Department of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach, and who was a major figure in the Black Power phase of the Black Freedom Movement and remains active. During the Movement, he developed a philosophy of cultural and social change called Kawaida, out of which he created Kwanzaa and developed the Nguzo Saba. Thus, Kwanzaa reflects the emphasis of Kawaida philosophy and the Movement on commitment to African consciousness and cultural grounding, a “return to the source”, i.e., Africa recovery of cultural models of excellence; racial and social justice; cooperative practices; and liberating struggle.
Kwanzaa, then, is also a celebration of the recovery of African culture and using it to ground, enrich and expand African life and advance the liberation struggle. Thus, “it is both an act of freedom and a celebration of freedom”. For it was an act of self-conscious returning to our own history and culture, resisting cultural imposition from the dominant society, reaffirming the dignity and integrity of African ways of being human in the world and contributing to creating the conditions of freedom necessary for the good life of African people and the flourishing of their culture. And it is in this liberating spirit that the holiday is conceived and celebrated. Having first been celebrated by members and friends of the organization Us (meaning Us African people) which is chaired by Maulana Karenga and in which it takes root and develops, Kwanzaa is currently celebrated by millions throughout the global African community and on every continent in the world.
Kwanzaa’s symbols represent its origins and its cultural views and values. These are: the mazao (crops) which symbolize African harvest celebrations and the practice and rewards of shared work; mkeka (mat) which symbolizes tradition and history and therefore the foundation on which to build; kinara (candleholder) which symbolizes ancestral roots, the parent people, Continental Africans; mishumaa (the candles) which symbolize the Nguzo Saba, The Seven Principles, which form a central value system for African people; muhindi (corn) which symbolizes children and the future of African people which children embody; Kikombe cha Umoja (unity cup) which symbolizes the foundational principle and practice of unity; and zawadi (gifts) which symbolize the labor and love of parents and the commitments made and kept by children. There are also two supplemental symbols: a representation of the Nguzo Saba and the bendera (flag), containing the three colors black, red and green. These colors symbolize African people, the struggle for liberation and a good world and the promise and future forged in struggle respectively.
Each day of Kwanzaa, there are gatherings at home or in the community to celebrate. During these gatherings, celebrants pay homage to the ancestors by pouring libation and sharing narratives of their lives and lessons from their teachings, and recommit themselves to the practice and promotion of the Nguzo Saba. The recommitment to the Nguzo Saba (and other fundamental African values) is made on each of the seven nights of Kwanzaa at home or in community. At the evening meal or a communal event, one of the seven candles are lit each night to focus on the principles in a ritual called “Lifting up the Light that Lasts”. This ritual is to enact the upholding of the Nguzo Saba and other life-affirming and enduring principles which reaffirm and strengthen African family, community and culture; and promote and sustain good in the world.
A central and culminating event in the celebration of Kwanzaa is the gathering of the community on December 31 for an African karamu (feast). In addition to the sharing of African foods from both the continent and the diaspora, there is a full range of activities. These include drumming, libation for the ancestors, wisdom from the elders, narratives, poetry, music, dance and other performances to celebrate African family, community and culture and the good and promise of life.
The last day of Kwanzaa is a time for pausing and turning inward as persons and a people and thinking deeply about the wonder and obligation of being African in the world. This day, January 1, is called Siku ya Taamuli (The Day of Meditation) and is the last day of Kwanzaa and the first day of the New Year. On this day, persons are obligated to sit down in sober assessment, measure themselves in the mirror of the best of African culture and history, and ask themselves where each of them stands in relationship to the highest of African and human values. To do this, each of them asks and answers three basic questions: who am I? am I really who I am; and am I all I ought to be? Having done this assessment, one then recommits oneself to the Nguzo Saba and other African values and practices which strengthen and make flourish African family, community and culture and contribute to the well-being of the world. In the spirit of Kwanzaa and in the tradition of our ancestors of ancient Egypt, a standard good wish made for persons and the people is, “We wish for you all the good that heaven grants, the earth produces and the waters bring forth from their depths”. Heri za Kwanzaa. Happy Kwanzaa.
Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies, California State University-Long Beach; Executive Director, African American Cultural Center (Us); Creator of Kwanzaa; and author of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture and Introduction to Black Studies, 4th Edition, www.OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org; www.MaulanaKarenga.org.