TOP FIVE THINGS YOU OUGHT TO KNOW ABOUT KWANZAA
1. KWANZAA was founded in 1966 by Maulana Karenga as a result of the Black Power Movement & a year after the racial motivated riots in L.A. Karenga said, Kwanzaa was started as,
“a necessary minimum set of principles by which black people must live in order to begin to rescue and reconstruct our history and lives.”2. KWANZAA is not a religious holiday. It means "first fruits" from the Swahili phrase "matunda ya kwanza."
3. KWANZAA is celebrated with seven principles, each holding it's own significant meaning:
- * UMOJA - UNITY: to strive for & maintain unity in the family, community, nation & race.
- * KUJICHAGULIA - SELF DETERMINATION: to define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves & speak for ourselves.
- * UJIMA - COLLECTIVE WORK & RESPONSIBILITY: to build & maintain our community together & make our brother's & sister's problems our problems & to solve them together.
- * UJAMMA - COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS: to build & maintain our own stories, shops & other businesses & to profit from them together.
- * NIA - PURPOSE: to make our collective vocation the building & 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 & beneficial than we inherited.
- * IMANI - FAITH: to believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our leaders & the righteousness & victory of our struggle.
4. KWANZAA'S official colors are RED (the stuggle of the African people), BLACK (earth) & GREEN (hope & future).
5. KWANZAA had it's first full length film, "The Black Candle," featured in 2008. It was narrated by Maya Angelou and directed by M.K. Asante, Jr., which features interviews with rappers Chuck D., founder, and NFL star Jim Brown.
