Celebrating Kwanzaa

Neither me or Jeff learned much about the meaning of Kwanzaa when we were growing up. As I got older and started learning about my African origins, I became curious about this very under-represented holiday. Now that I am married and have my own home I want to start incorporating this tradition in our household. Kwanzaa represents so much good and exemplifies what we should be as a people. So many of us as African Americans don’t celebrate this and it is mostly because we were never taught. When searching for the meaning of Kwanzaa, others around me had very little knowledge of what it is or what it means. I am hoping to spread the word and inspire you to honor this tradition in your home.

What is Kwanzaa?

Kwanzaa is a celebration of African heritage in African American culture. It runs every year from December 26th- Jan1rst. The premise of Kwanzaa is based on the Nguzo Saba (Seven Core Principles) that we should live by as black people. These principles emphasize unity, community, and family. Each candle represents one of the core principles and is lit on each day of Kwanzaa.

  1. Umoja- Unity To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race. 
  2. Kujichagulia- Self Determination To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
  3. Ujima- Collective Work and Responsibility To build and maintain our community together and to make our Brother’s and sister’s problems, our problems and to solve them together.
  4. Ujamaa – Cooperative Economics To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
  5. Nia- Purpose To make as our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
  6. Kuumba – Creativity To do always as much as we can, in the way that we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful than when we inherited it.
  7. Imani- Faith To believe with all our hearts in our parents, our teachers, our leaders, our people and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

The Ngozu Saba offers us a set of principles that help define and enhance our humanity in the sense of community and in the world. If, as African Americans, we truly adopted and lived by these principles, we wouldn’t be so divided as a people. The lack of knowledge surrounding strong principles like these that would unify us as black people is not by accident. We need to educate ourselves and start seeing each other as partners in the world, not competitors. Traditions that honor, represent, and can lead us to a more ideal version of ourselves should be highlighted in black culture. It’s not too late to start celebrating Kwanzaa and to teach your family about its importance/relevance in our culture.

Celebrating

I truly did not know where to start when I thought about celebrating Kwanzaa. I delayed celebrating for years because I felt I did not know enough about it to start doing it. But you have to start somewhere and it doesn’t have to be perfect the first time you do it!

The first step is to get the candles. You will need 7 candles- 3 red, 3 green, and 1 black. The red represent struggle. The green represent hope. The black represent us as black people. These are called the Mishumaa Saba. I bought all seven candles as a set from amazon for twenty bucks. The candles will be placed on the Kinara- 7 pronged candleholder. I didn’t get too fancy with mine. I used regular clear candlebra holders. Whatever you have is fine! Placement of the candles is more important. The black candle gets placed in the middle. The red ones go to the left of it while the green ones go to the right.

The candles and candleholder gets placed on a mat. Traditionally it is placed on a straw mat called the Mkeka. I used a kente cloth which still represents African culture. Mazao- ears of corn can be placed on the mat for every child you have and if you have no children place two for the children of Africa. A kikombe cha umoja– unity cup can be placed and all can drink from it at the end of the candle lighting.

The candle lighting starts with the center black candle on December 26th. The following evening the the far left red candle is lit. You continue to light the candles from left to right all the way to Jan 1rst. Some do a variation of this and alternate green and red after the first red candle is lit to represent hope. After the candle is lit you can discuss the day’s principle as a family and what it means to each of you. At the end you say “Harambe” seven times which means ‘let’s pull together’ in Swahili. At the last day you have a feast – Karamu -and exchange gifts particularly with the children. The gifts should be more thoughtful, homemade items as opposed to store bought gifts. These should promote growth, achievement, and success.

For my first Kwanzaa, I did not have everything perfectly on the mat as described. But I am so glad that we at least started this tradition and by doing we are learning more along the way. Jeff and I are looking forward to getting better every year and bringing awareness to all those around us. We hope to be able teach our children one day and hopefully they will pass it on to theirs. If you ever thought about celebrating Kwanzaa, start now. All the other symbolic stuff is nice but the most important part is focusing on the core principles and bringing that mindset with you into the new year.

As my last post in 2019, Jeff and I wish you a Happy New Year!!! See you next year!