Celebrating the Beauty and Purpose of Kwanzaa : MAULANA KARENGA

Kwanzaa is based on the first-fruit holidays, which are the oldest in the world. So it’s older than Christmas or Hanukkah. But it’s a cultural holiday, not a religious holiday. That is why Christians, Muslims, black Hebrews, followers of historic African faiths . . . all celebrate it. The holiday starts at the end of the year because that’s when it started in Africa.

What the Africans did was come together at the end of the year and at the beginning of the year to give thanks for coming through another year. It’s a time for meditation on the meaning of creation itself and how important it is to protect it.

The holiday itself has several purposes. The first is to reaffirm the bonds between us as a people, regardless of religious faith, class, whatever superficial divisions. And the beauty of Kwanzaa is that it brings together people of all faiths.

Another thing was, of course, to reaffirm our culture. If values are social glue, then culture is even more so. Kwanzaa becomes a celebration of family, community, culture.

Another function of Kwanzaa is to introduce and reaffirm seven core values.

Those seven core principles are, first in Swahili and then in English:

* Umoja , unity. Unity in the family, in the community, in the local community, in the national community and the world community of African people.

* Kujichagulia , which is self-determination. To define ourselves instead of being defined, spoken for and built for by others.

* Ujima, collective work and responsibility. That is to see the problems and possibilities of African life as a collective. To understand that African freedom is indivisible; that as long as any African is wounded all of us are somehow affected.

* Ujamaa , cooperative economics. That’s shared social wealth and work. Making sure that we control the economy of our community but also that we share both the work and the wealth to do that.

* Nia , purpose. The collective vocation of nation-building, wanting to return the African people to their historic greatness, and being willing to sacrifice and work to make it come into being.

* Kuumba , creativity. That is to understand our ancient commitment to leave the world and our community better than and more beautiful than we inherited it.

* Imani, faith. Faith in ourselves, faith in our creator, faith in our mothers, our fathers, our grandmothers, our grandfathers, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, loved ones, future. Faith in all that makes us beautiful and strong. Faith that through hard work, long struggle, and a whole lot of love and understanding we can again step back on the stage of human history as a free, proud and productive people.

Kwanzaa also contains five fundamental aspects. The first one is the in-gathering of the people to reaffirm the bonds between us. It’s a time to go back home and reaffirm the bonds between you and your family. Time to seek out old friends and reaffirm the bonds between them.

Second, it’s a time for showing reverence for the creator and the creation.

The third aspect of the holiday is commemoration. This is a time to study our history and learn its lessons and absorb its spirit of human possibility to emulate its models, to raise and praise its models but also to emulate them.

A fourth aspect of the holiday is recommitment to our highest cultural values.

And, finally, Kwanzaa is a celebration of our past, a celebration of our struggle and a recommitment to continue that struggle for liberation and a high level of human life.