Page 18 - Florida Sentinel 12-14-18

Kwanzaa
The Meaning Of Kwanzaa And How It Benefits A Community
Kwanzaa is an African American 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 Cali- fornia State University, Long Beach, intro- duced the Kwanzaa celebration in 1965. He created the holiday after the riots in Los Angeles as a means of bringing African Americans together. The celebration is one of family, community and culture.
This year, Kwanzaa will begin on Fri- day, December 26th and end on Tuesday, January 1st. The theme this year is: “Prac- ticing the Culture of Kwanzaa: Liv- ing The Seven principles.”
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, commu- nity, nation, and race.
Kujichagulia means self-determina- tion: To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for our- selves.
Ujima means Collective Work and Re- sponsibility: To build and maintain our community together and make our broth- ers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together.
Ujamaa means Cooperative Econom- ics: To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia means purpose: To make our col- lective vocation the building and develop- ing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba means Creativity: To do al- ways 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 means Faith: To believe 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 foundation 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 fertility and symbolizes that through the reproduction of children, 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 Can- dles -- Candles are ceremonial objects with two primary purposes: to re-create symbol- ically 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 everywhere.
Kinara: The Candleholder --- The Kinara is the center of the Kwanzaa set- ting and represents the original stalk from which we came: our ancestry. The Kinara can be shape – straight lines, semicircles, or spirals – as long as the seven candles are separate and distinct, similar to the design of the candelabra.
Kikombe Cha Umoja: The Unity Cup --- the Kikombe Cha Umoja is a special cup that is used to perform the liba- tion (tambiko) ritual during the Karamu feast on the sixth day of Kwanzaa.
Zawadi: Gifts --- When we celebrate Imani on the seventh day of Kwanzaa, we
give meaningful Zawadi (gifts) to encour- age growth, self-determination, achieve- ment, and success.
Gifts are exchanged, especially with the children, to promote or reward accom- plishments and commitments 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 of- fended. It also represents the struggle for self-determination and freedom by people of color.
Black represents the people, the earth, the source of life, representing hope, cre- ativity, and faith and denoting messages and the opening and closing of doors.
Green represents the earth that sus- tains our lives and provides hope, divina- tion, employment, 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-reflection and reflection on the life and future of the people, and of recommitment to their highest cultural val- ues in a special way.
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