Habari Gani?

Kwanzaa!!!

The day after Christmas is the first day of Kwanzaa.

What is Kwanzaa?!?

Kwanzaa is a non-religious holiday celebrated December 26- January 1. Kwanzaa celebrates African American roots. The name comes from a swahili phrase that means “first fruits”. The holiday calls for us to gather together, have reverence, commemorate, recommit, and celebrate. There are seven principles for the seven days and are marked by lighting a candle in a holder called a kinara. The candle colors are red, green and black. The black represents black people, the red the struggles we’ve faced and green signifies our future. The principles are:

December 26: Umoja (Unity)- to strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

December 27: Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) -To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.

December 28: 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.

December 29: Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)- To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.

December 30: Nia (Purpose)- To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

December 31: Kuumba (Creativity)- To always do as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

January 1: 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.

I didn’t learn about Kwanzaa until my first year of college. My advisor from Thee Mary Baldwin University had us participate in a celebration on campus. It was amazing, I have loved celebrating ever since. I implore you all to do your own research and celebrate this beautiful holiday that allows African Americans the opportunity to reflect, celebrate, and show reverence to our beauty and history. 

Happy Kwanzaa!