“What came on the other side of the unimaginable 21st-century lynching of George Floyd was an enhanced curiosity around the nuances of Black life and Black culture.” (Donnie Rose, 2020) I am on a personal Blackness journey and am excited to lean into Kwanzaa in 2020. We are under a cultural shift, while also being in the magnifying fishbowl of the public eye. I’m feeling a peculiar dynamic of solitary groundedness, but apprehension in public dialogue with my brethren and sistren of color since Corona has us living differently. So, let’s observe 2020 Kwanzaa! Kwanzaa has been a point of curiosity for me for years because my family never celebrated it. I don’t think either side of the family is against it, but it just seems like the consumerism and Christian ritualism of the holiday is already a lot to manage.
"The core of the holiday is to remember our movement toward liberation in the context of Pan African values."
The seven principles of Kwanzaa and its relevance in 2020
Kwanzaa celebrations have been a staple in Black communities across the nation for well over 50 years, however many Black Americans are still in the dark. In this cultural shift, I hope millions more people will grab their flyest kufi or wax print outfit to virtually fellowship with loved ones. The annual celebration honors Black American ancestors, their heritage, and the world they’ve begun to build for us. The core of the holiday is to remember our movement toward liberation in the context of Pan African values. It was most popular in the 1980s and 1990s, but it had seemingly fallen off. We need the principles now more than ever as America acknowledges “… the unified effort it takes for us to spin gold from the ruins of oppressed humanity.” (Donnie Rose, 2020)
Check out Donnie Rose’s Kwanzaa series on The North Star. Most of the following origin story came from that article.
Kwanzaa Origins
Kwanzaa, which derives from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza,” meaning “first fruits,” is a seven-day observation beginning December 26 and concluding January 1 that incorporates seven principles emblematic of African culture. Dr. Maulana Karenga, a professor and chairman of Black Studies at California State University Long Beach, created and popularized Kwanzaa in 1966. Dr. Karenga was looking for a way to unify the Black community after the tumultuous Watts riots of 1965, a six-day rebellion resulting in 34 deaths, thousands of injuries and the destruction of 1,000 buildings, totaling $40 million in damages. We are in more dire straits, today. Kwanzaa is observed by millions and is not meant to function as an alternative to Christmas, rather a cultural holiday with “inherent spiritual quality.”
Principles
Kwanzaa can be celebrated in different ways, but celebrations often include storytelling, songs, dance and a large meal. A child lights a candle in the Kinara, a special candle holder, during each of the seven nights of Kwanzaa. Each candle represents one of the Nguzo Saba, which is Swahili for "seven principles." Each principle represents a value in African culture.
Umoja – Unity: To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
Dagi knot - a Pan African symbol of unity found in several African cultures, i.e., Yoruba, Hausa, Bushongo, etc.
Kujichagulia – Self Determination: To defend ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
Ahenwa - The Akan throne, symbol of national identity, cultural groundedness and rightful governance
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.
Akoma ntoaso - the Adinkra symbol of shared effort and obligation
Ujamaa – Cooperative Economics: To build and maintain our own store, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Two interlocking half circles - the Nsibidi symbol of togetherness and family
Nia – Purpose: To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
The heiroglyph Nefer - Ancient Egyptian symbol of beauty and good
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.
The seven vibrations of divine creation - the Dogon symbol of creativity
Imani – Faith: To believe with all of our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
The ancient Egyptian double symbol of the ankh (life) and djed pillar (stability, endurance) serves here as a symbol of steadifastness in commitment to the Good, the Right, and the Beautiful in life
Need to Know
Mazao – The Crops:These are symbolic of African harvest celebrations and of the rewards of productive and collective labor.
Mkeka – The Mat: This is symbolic of our tradition and history and therefore, the foundation on which we build.
Kinara – The Candle Holder: The Kwanzaa candles and harvest This is symbolic of our roots, our parent people — continental Africans.
Muhindi/ Vibunzi – The Corn: This is symbolic of our children and our future which they embody.
Mishumaa Saba – The Seven Candles: These are symbolic of the Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles, the matrix and minimum set of values which African people are urged to live by in order to rescue and reconstruct their lives in their own image and according to their own needs.
Kikombe cha Umoja – The Unity Cup: This is symbolic of the foundational principle and practice of unity which makes all else possible.
Zawadi – The Gifts: These are symbolic of the labor and love of parents and the commitments made and kept by the children.
Bendera -The Flag: The colors of the Kwanzaa flag are black, red and green; black for the people, red for their struggle, and green for the future and hope that comes from their struggle. It is based on the colors given by the Hon. Marcus Garvey as national colors for African people throughout the world.
Karamu- an African feast held on Dec. 31.
Kwanzaa Critiques
Dr. Karenga was into some strange stuff and seriously harmed multiple women, he was charged with assault and served time before earning a PhD. It is inexcusable, but I was thinking and talking through this with friends. Many of our favorite culture bearers have some terrible trauma, mental illness or vice that ruins their lives to some degree. We are human, don’t we all have some evil inside? I hope those who dismiss the holiday because of Dr. Karenga are doing a thorough job of canceling the positive works of all humans who have done wrong (or working on a more pure alternative to Kwanzaa, at least). He let the Lord and the ancestors use him, and the legacy of the holiday will live long after him- and his harm- expire from this Earth.
Kwanzaa gear is not easy to find. It kind of forces you to think about it all year. African principles like Ujamaa are fundamentally against this western capitalism we cling to in Q4. To be authentic with it has taken a couple of years. I’ve been beefing up my wardrobe to be more Afrochic, only buying from people in the diaspora. Now my kufi and I are ready! I don’t have nary a candle or Kinara, but I’ll just have to work my hands and make one. Amazon has no Kinaras and a set of 7 colored candles is $20. A quick search for ‘Kwanzaa’ had results, but the first page also had protein powder and fish oil products.
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