What is Kwanzaa and why is it so important for African People in America to celebrate?

In the wake of the rising African Centered Movement in America, it is important that every segment of the African Community in America begin preparing for the Kwanzaa Season. It is estimated that more than 30 million Africans in America participate in some sort of Kwanzaa activity or event. In order for this occurrence to continue, parents, teachers, principles, ministers, business people, and community activists must begin preparation immediately.

The first question that obviously should be asked in preparation for the 2007 Kwanzaa Season is: “What is Kwanzaa and why is it so important for African people in America to celebrate?”

In 1966, the Black Power explosion shook up America. The call for Black Power was a major shift away from that era's Civil Rights Movement, a movement that had successfully dismantled the system of racial segregation (by law) in the southern region of the United States. However, among the masses of Black people in America, there was a deeper meaning to the idea of freedom, justice and equality that had not been advocated by the Civil Rights Movement. The call for Black Power, by Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Kwame Ture (a.k.a. Stokely Carmichael) and others, gave a new impetus for the Black Liberation Movement in America.

When the smoke cleared from the Watts Rebellion in 1965, an organization emerged in the Los Angeles, California area, called US. Its leader was Dr. Maulana Karenga. After intense study of African cultural traditions, Dr. Karenga and the US Organization established the only nationally celebrated, indigenous, non-heroic Black Holiday in the United States and they called it Kwanzaa.

... Kwanzaa gets its name from the Swahili phrase Matunda ya kwanza.

The concept of Kwanzaa was established for Africans in America and was derived from the African custom of celebrating the harvest season.

In Dr. Karenga’s own words, “The origin of Kwanzaa on the African continent are in the agricultural celebrations called the ‘first fruits’ celebrations and to a lesser degree the full or general harvest celebration. It is from these first fruit celebrations that Kwanzaa gets its name, which comes from the Swahili phrase Matunda Ya Kwanza.” Further, “...Matunda means fruits and ya Kwanza means first. (The extra "a" at the end of Kwanzaa has become convention as a result of a particular history).”

Kwanzaa is officially celebrated December 26th through January 1st and each day, a value of the Nguzo Saba (seven principles of blackness) is celebrated.

The Nguzo Saba (Seven Principles) are:
Umoja ~ Unity - To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
Kujichagulia ~ Self Determination - To define ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves, instead of being defined, named, created for, and spoken for by others.
Ujima ~ Collective Work and Responsibility - To build and maintain together our community, to make our sisters' and brothers' 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 as 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 when we inherited it.
Imani ~ Faith - To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Under the leadership of Zerrie Campbell, President of Malcolm X College and Baba Hannibal Afrik, the Kwanzaa Celebration Committee, over the past several years, has sponsored Kwanzaa Celebrations and activities during the seven day observance. These celebrations have drawn thousands of people and added to the growing Kwanzaa movement in the Chicago area.

Kwanzaa is a step in helping African people in America fulfill the desire to be a united people, with a common set of experiences that lead us toward a common set of goals and objectives for freedom, independence and liberation.

• BlackCommentator.com columnist Conrad W. Worrill, PhD, is the National Chairman of the National Black United Front (NBUF). Click here to contact Dr. Worrill.