Kwanzaa is a tradition that was begun in 1967 to honor black heritage and culture and give black people an alternative to celebrating christmas, while also providing a holiday with real purpose and meaning beyond just trimming trees and giving out gifts.
The name Kwanzaa means "first fruits of the harvest" and during this time those who practice observe the seven principles of blackness. Those principles are:
* 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.
In households during the celebration, which lasts from Dec 26th to January 1st, there are decorations of black or african art, kente cloth, bowls of fruit and the lighting of candles to represent the 7 principles.
Although the tradition and practice of Kwanzaa began very strongly since it was conceived when the Black Power movement was still alive and in full swing, in recent years the amount of Black people who do celebrate in the US and UK has dwindled. Perhaps there is time for a revival and some serious promotion of this beautiful, meaningful, empowering tradition that was created by us for us.
