Wikipedia definition:
Kwanzaa (or Kwaanza) is a week-long Pan-African festival celebrated primarily in the United States, honoring African American heritage. It is observed from December 26 to January 1 each year.
Kwanzaa consists of seven days of celebration, featuring activities such as candle-lighting and pouring of libations, and culminating in a feast and gift giving. It was created by Ron Karenga, and first celebrated from December 26, 1966, to January 1, 1967, timed to coincide with Christmas so that it would be remembered. Karenga calls Kwanzaa the African American branch of "first fruits" celebrations of classical African cultures.
History and etymology
In 1966 Karenga created Kwanzaa while living in California. There, he was the leader of the black nationalist US Organization and he claims that his goal was to give an alternative holiday to Christmas. In Karenga's words "The Christian is our worse enemy. Quiet as it's kept, it was a Christian who enslaved us. Quiet as it's kept it's a Christian who burns us. Quiet as it's kept it's a Christian who beats us down on the street; and quiet as it's kept when the thing goes down it'll be a Christian that's shooting us down. You have to face the fact that if the Christian is doing all this there must be something wrong with Christanity." He later stated, "...it was chosen to give a Black alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society." At the time he created Kwanzaa, he changed his last name from Everett to the Gikuyu "Karenga", shaved his head, and began wearing traditional African clothing.
The name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase "matunda ya kwanza", meaning "first fruits". The choice of Swahili, an East African language, reflects its status as a symbol of Pan-Africanism, especially in the 1960s, though most African-Americans have West African ancestry. Karenga stated "People think it's African, but it's not. I came up with Kwanzaa because Black people wouldn't celebrate it if they knew it was American.
The official stance on the spelling of the holiday is that an additional "a" was added to "Kwanza" so that the word would have seven letters. At the time there were seven children in Karenga's US Organization, each wanted to represent one of the letters in Kwanzaa Also, the name was meant to have a letter for each of what Karenga called the "Seven Principles of Blackness". Another explanation is that Karenga added the extra "a" to distinguish the African-American meaning from the African one. Kwanzaa is also sometimes incorrectly spelled "kwaanza".
Kwanzaa is a celebration that has its roots in the black nationalist movement of the 1960s, and was established as a means to help African Americans reconnect with what Karenga characterized as their African cultural and historical heritage by uniting in meditation and study around principles that have their putative origins in what Karenga asserts are "African traditions" and "common humanist principles."
In 1967, a year after Karenga proposed this new holiday, he publicly espoused the view that "Jesus was psychotic" and that Christianity was a white religion that blacks should shun. However, as Kwanzaa gained mainstream adherents, Karenga altered his position so as not to alienate practicing Christians, then stating in the 1997 Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture, "Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday."
1997 Kwanzaa stampAlso in 1997, the first Kwanzaa stamp was issued by the United States Postal Service on October 22 at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, California. In 2004 a second Kwanzaa stamp, created by artist Daniel Minter was issued which has seven figures in colorful robes symbolizing the seven principles.
Principles of Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder called "The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa", or Nguzo Saba (originally Nguzu Saba - "The Seven Principles of Blackness"), which Karenga said "is a communitarian African philosophy" consisting of Karenga's distillation of what he deemed "the best of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world." These seven principles comprise Kawaida, a Swahili term for tradition and reason that Karenga used to refer to his synthesized system of belief. Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the following principles, which are explained by Karenga as follows:
Umoja (Unity) To strive for and to 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 brothers' and sisters' 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 our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
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.
These principles correspond to Karenga's notion that "the sevenfold path of blackness is think black, talk black, act black, create black, buy black, vote black, and live black."
Popularity
It is unclear how many people celebrate the holiday. According to a marketing survey conducted by the National Retail Foundation in 2004, Kwanzaa is celebrated by 1.6% of all Americans (about 13% of all African-Americans), or about 4.7 million. In a 2006 speech, Karenga asserted that 28 million people celebrate Kwanzaa. He has always maintained it is celebrated all over the world. Lee D. Baker puts the number at 12 million.
Pan-African topics
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FESPACO
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People
George Padmore
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Marcus Garvey
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W. E. B. Du Bois
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In President George W. Bush's 2004 Presidential Kwanzaa Message, he said that during Kwanzaa, "millions of African Americans and people of African descent gather to celebrate their heritage and ancestry."
The holiday greeting is "joyous Kwanzaa".
Observance
Families celebrating Kwanzaa decorate their households with objects of art, colorful African cloth, especially the wearing of the Uwole by women, and fresh fruits that represent African idealism. It is customary to include children in Kwanzaa ceremonies and to give respect and gratitude to ancestors. Libations are shared, generally with a common chalice, "Kikombe cha Umoja" passed around to all celebrants.
A woman lights kinara candles on a table decorated with the symbols of Kwanzaa.A model Kwanzaa ceremony is described as a ceremony which includes drumming and musical selections, libations, a reading of the "African Pledge" and the Principles of Blackness, reflection on the Pan-African colors, a discussion of the African principle of the day or a chapter in African history, a candle-lighting ritual, artistic performance, and, finally, a feast (Karamu). The greeting for each day of Kwanzaa is "Habari Gani", Swahili words for "What's the News?"
At first, observers of Kwanzaa eschewed the mixing of the holiday or its symbols, values and practice with other holidays. They felt that doing so would violate the principle of kujichagulia (self-determination) and thus violate the integrity of the holiday, which is partially intended as a reclamation of important African values. Today, many African-American families celebrate Kwanzaa along with Christmas and New Year's. Frequently, both Christmas trees and kinaras, the traditional candle holder symbolic of African-American roots, share space in kwanzaa celebrating households. To them, Kwanzaa is an opportunity to incorporate elements of their particular ethnic heritage into holiday observances and celebrations of Christmas.
Cultural exhibitions include "The Spirit of Kwanzaa", an annual celebration held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts featuring interpretive dance, African dance, song and poetry.
Evolution in Kwanzaa's observance
In 1977, in Kwanzaa: origin, concepts, practice, Karenga stated, that Kwanzaa "was chosen to give a Black alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society."
In 1997, Karenga changed his position, stating that while Kwanzaa is an African-American holiday, it can be celebrated by people of any race: "other people can and do celebrate it, just like other people participate in Cinco de Mayo besides Mexicans; Chinese New Year besides Chinese; Native American pow wows besides Native Americans."
Currently, according to the Official Kwanzaa Website authored by Karenga and maintained by Organization US, which Karenga chairs, "Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday. And it is not an alternative to people's religion or faith but a common ground of African culture...Kwanzaa is not a reaction or substitute for anything. In fact, it offers a clear and self-conscious option, opportunity and chance to make a proactive choice, a self-affirming and positive choice as distinct from a reactive one."
Karenga's most recent interpretation emphasizes that while every people have their various holiday traditions, all people can share in the celebration of our common humanity: "Any particular message that is good for a particular people, if it is human in its content and ethical in its grounding, speaks not just to that people, it speaks to the world."
Criticism
There has been criticism of Kwanzaa's authenticity and relevance, and of the motivations of its founder, Karenga.
Kwanzaa has been criticized because it is not a traditional holiday of African people, and because of its recent provenance, having been invented in 1966. In 1999, syndicated columnist (and later White House Press Secretary) Tony Snow wrote that "There is no part of Kwanzaa that is not fraudulent." Other conservative writers have remarked on the Marxist leanings of Karenga and some of the seven principles of Kwanzaa, questioning whether Kwanzaa should be taught in American schools. Furthermore, some Christians see Kwanzaa as an organized attempt to detract from Christmas.
Comments
Founder might not be genuine, but I doubt those who celebrate it regard it as fake.
by Andy Is Wicked Married to Penal Colony on June 15th, 2004
While your answer may be right you could have put it across in a less sneering tone.
by mister_c on September 25th, 2004
THis is 100% on the money. Why any IDIOT would celebrate something that was invented by a CONVICTED VIOLENT FELON is absurd.
by willyg on December 26th, 2004
Lack of understandance is no excuse for the disrepect of some people's beliefs. Terribly stated.
by smoochessmith on July 21st, 2005
Sounds like some badmouthing here; the personal background of this person is being used as a means to belittle him.
by RedJohn on October 7th, 2005
Sad, but its true
by Bill Hudson on October 16th, 2005
Red John, do you think that someone who commits horrendous violent crimes does not deserve to be belittled/badmouthed?
by Jabba The Hutt on November 19th, 2005
*If* what you say about Kwanzaa is true, then Kwanzaa is on the same foundation as Mormonism...
by HungryGuy on December 1st, 2005
Hmmm...this answers all those other questions if Mormons are racist against blacks.....
by Kate Walker on December 3rd, 2005
.
by coffee bean on December 7th, 2005
Frankly, I don't worry about badmouthing someone who tortures women.
by Anonymous on December 23rd, 2005
Argumentum ad hominem.
by yoho05 reminds you to DYOH on January 8th, 2006
May contain elements of truth, but more of a rant than an answer.
by Anonymous on January 9th, 2006
All holidays start somewhere; whether they endure is determined by their usefulness, not the virtues of their inventors.
by Grandma Roses - my avatar is my real dog on January 16th, 2006
Totally incorrect. I wonder why an answer such as this manages to stay online. Look in LDS to spot the hoaxes Bob speaks of.
by Alatea on January 16th, 2006
Kind of like Christianity an stealing the pegan holiday and naming it Christmas
by Mr. McClister on December 5th, 2006
Mr. McClister, you might want to take a look at the following link. It appears that the idea that Christmas was originally a pagan holiday may be wrong. http://tinyurl.com/2mkjy
by Glenn Blaylock on December 11th, 2006
realistically, every holiday is fake and made up. this one was just made up fairly recently.
by NotAnonymous on October 16th, 2008