Page 23 - Florida Sentinel 12-24-21

Kwanzaa
The Meaning Of Kwanzaa And How It Benefits A Community
Kwanzaa is an African Amer- ican and Pan-African holiday that is celebrated by millions of people throughout the world. It represents a cultural message which speaks to the best of what it means to be African.
Dr. Maulana Karenga,
Professor and Chairman of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach, in- troduced the Kwanzaa celebra- tion in 1965. He created the holiday after the riots in Los An- geles as a means of bringing African Americans together. The celebration is one of family, com- munity and culture.
The 2021, Kwanzaa celebra- tion begins on Sunday, Decem- ber 26th, and ends on Saturday, January 1, 2022. This year’s theme is “Kwanzaa And The Well-Being Of The World: Living And Uplifting The Seven Princi- ples.”
Nguzo Saba
The celebration focuses on 7 principles known as Nguzo Saba. The principles and their meaning are:
Umoja means Unity: To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
Kujichagulia means self- determination: To define our- selves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for our- selves.
Ujima means Collective Work and Responsibility: To build and maintain our commu- nity together and make our
brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together.
Ujamaa means Cooperative Economics: To build and main- tain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia means purpose: To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba means Creativity: To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beau- tiful and beneficial than we in- herited it.
Imani means Faith: To be- lieve with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteous- ness and victory of our struggle.
Symbols Of Kwanzaa
Mazao, the crops (fruits, nuts, and vegetables) symbolizes work and the basis of the holiday.
Mkeka: Place Mat --- the Mkeka, made from straw or cloth, comes directly from Africa and expresses history, culture, and tradition. It symbolizes the historical and traditional founda- tion for us to stand on and build our lives because today stands on our yesterdays, just as the other symbols stand on the Mkeka.
Vibunzi: Ear of Corn --- The stalk of corn represents fer- tility and symbolizes that through the reproduction of chil- dren, the future hopes of the
family are brought to life. One ear is called Vibunzi, and two or more ears are called Mihindi.
Mishumaa Saba: The Seven Candles -- Candles are ceremonial objects with two pri- mary purposes: to re-create sym- bolically the sun’s power and to provide light. The celebration of fire through candle burning is not limited to one particular group or country; it occurs every- where.
Kinara: The Candle- holder --- The Kinara is the center of the Kwanzaa setting and represents the original stalk from which we came: our ances- try. The Kinara can be shape –
straight lines, semicircles, or spi- rals – as long as the seven can- dles are separate and distinct, similar to the design of the can- delabra.
Kikombe Cha Umoja:
The Unity Cup --- the Kikombe Cha Umoja is a spe- cial cup that is used to perform the libation (tambiko) ritual dur- ing the Karamu feast on the sixth day of Kwanzaa.
Zawadi: Gifts --- When we celebrate Imani on the seventh day of Kwanzaa, we give mean- ingful Zawadi (gifts) to encour- age growth, self-determination, achievement, and success.
Gifts are exchanged, espe- cially with the children, to pro- mote or reward accomplishments and commit- ments kept, as well as with guests.
Colors Of The Flag
The colors also represent African gods. Red is the color of Shango, the Yoruba god of fire,
thunder, and lightning, who lives in the clouds and sends down his thunderbolt whenever he is angry or offended. It also repre- sents the struggle for self-deter- mination and freedom by people of color.
Black represents the people, the earth, the source of life, rep- resenting hope, creativity, and faith and denoting messages and the opening and closing of doors.
Green represents the earth that sustains our lives and pro- vides hope, divination, employ- ment, and the fruits of the harvest.
The Day of Meditation
The last day of Kwanzaa is the first day of the new year, 1 January. Historically, this has been for African people a time of sober assessment of things done and things to do, of self-reflec- tion and reflection on the life and future of the people, and of recommitment to their highest cultural values in a special way.
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