What is Kwanzaa?
By Staff Writer

Kwanzaa is a seven-day celebration that allows others to pay honor and to respect and acknowledge one's African American culture, heritage, and roots. Many Kwanzaa articles cite the origin of Kwanzaa as being a celebration that was first established by a gentleman named Ron Karenga, a resident of California and the then leader of the United Slaves Organization.
The origin of Kwanzaa had complex beginnings - Kwanzaa arose during the time when African Americans were severely oppressed and the celebration gave the black peoples a way to celebrate, appreciate, and affirm their unique identity. Today Kwanzaa is still celebrated and many families celebrate Kwanzaa as well as Christmas. The Kwanzaa celebration allows African Americans to pay respect to their heritage, to remember their roots, to identify with an extraordinary culture and to keep African traditions alive. The Kwanzaa celebration is therefore a way to prevent the total assimilation of a people and to ensure that the African traditions, stories, heritage, and culture live on in an ever-changing world.
The holiday is observed from the 26th of December through the First of January. Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa features certain celebrations and ritual activities including the lighting of candles, the pouring of libations, a feast, and an exchange of gifts.
Kwanzaa
Although Kwanzaa itself is American, the term is derived from East African Swahili -kwanza, which means 'first fruits'. A Swahili term was chosen specifically to accentuate the Pan-African spirit of the Kwanzaa celebration. This fact is made more explicit when one recalls the vast majority of African-Americans are the descendents of West Africans. The term carries other connotations as well. The extra 'a' was added, in part, so that every letter in the name would stand for one of 'Seven Principles of Blackness'.
Kwanzaa Gift
One of the Seven Principles of Blackness, Kuumba, or creativity, is encouraged through the exchange of gifts. Kuumba is particularly important among the seven principles as a sense of self-worth and self-satisfaction, individually and throughout the community, is said to emerge from the creative and expressive (artistic) character of human labor. Gifts exchanged during Kwanzaa are supposed to be educational or creative in nature, and in many cases are homemade items of important symbolic relevance to Kwanzaa. In most cases, gift giving is done on the last day of Kwanzaa, but gifts can be exchanged at any time during the celebration.
Kwanzaa Celebration
Generally, a family celebrating Kwanzaa will display art objects and African cloth of rich color throughout the house. Women will often don an Uwole, a colorful African style dress. Fresh fruit will also be placed upon a table as a representation of African idealism. The celebration itself is supposed to include a number of ceremonial activities: Drumming and music, libations, a recitation of the "African Pledge" and a recitation of the 'Principles of Black-ness'. Discussion of African history and current events will also feature heavily along with the candle-lighting ceremony, performances, and a feast.
Black History
The Kwanzaa celebration is inextricably linked in time and origin to the civil rights movement of the 1960's. While most of the activity associated with the civil rights movement was of a political or social-economic nature, there was a cultural struggle waged as well. Kwanzaa helped many African-Americans reclaim and reconnect with the heritage and culture of their African ancestry. Though originally conceived as an alternative to Christmas, to observe Kwanzaa today need not exclude the observance of Christian ritual and belief. In many households, it is not uncommon to find both a Christmas tree and a 'kinara', the traditional candleholder used in the Kwanzaa celebration.
As can be seen, Kwanzaa is decades old; it is an evolving celebration of black identity and the solving of social problems through cooperative action. It is estimated that over 4 million Americans celebrate Kwanzaa every year. The holiday continues to play an important role in black consciousness and the ongoing struggles for civil rights.

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