After watching the film the The Black Candle, a documentary about the holiday Kwanzaa, I felt compelled to take a second look at the celebration that I had long ignored. Like many other African Americans, I grew up only celebrating Christmas without much exposure to Kwanzaa or its deeper meaning. However, the movie opened my eyes to the fact that it’s far more than just a festive time of year. It sets forth positive principles that you can use throughout life no matter the color of your skin.

Maulana Karenga, the creator of Kwanzaa, said that each day of the 7 day celebration (held December 26th to January 1st) stands for a principle in the Nguzo Saba (The Seven Principles) philosophy. He stated the following definitions of it:

  • Umoja (Unity): To strive for and 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 brother’s and sister’s 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.

This year I plan to take the extra time out of my hectic schedule to teach not only myself but my son about Kwanzaa’s philosophy, traditions, foods and symbols. By celebrating this holiday, he will learn more about his heritage, remember his ancestors that have passed on and develop an understanding of community. Beyond all else, the importance of community, cooperation and volunteerism is stressed instead of commercialism and materialism. In the end, I hope that our family not only has fun but grows for the better this holiday season.

Official Kwanzaa Site