Kwanzaa Celebrates African Heritage : Holiday Emphasizes Unity, Family Ties

Yvonne Phillips recalled the day last December that profoundly changed her outlook on the winter holiday season.

“My son was getting ready for a Christmas play, and I was talking to another parent in the kitchen at the school,” said Phillips, whose New Orleans roots are evident in her lilting voice.

“She mentioned Kwanzaa, though I didn’t think about it much at the time. But it stuck. I started finding out a lot more about it, started getting into its meaning. This year, my son is participating in a program that has African dancers and storytelling for the first time.”

Phillips, dressed in a flowing gold and white outfit and matching head wrap, is one of a growing number of black people who are embracing Kwanzaa, a weeklong holiday that celebrates their African cultural legacy.

Through festivals, events and personal observances, African-Americans from Crenshaw to Pasadena are discovering that the seven Kwanzaa principles emphasizing familial bonds and racial unity are as relevant today as they were when Ron Karenga (now Maulana Karenga) created them in Los Angeles in 1966.

“Africans traditionally have been very family oriented, and we need to incorporate that into our daily lives,” said Melva Parhams, president of Kwanzaa Fest Inc., a group that organizes annual Kwanzaa events in the Crenshaw area. “It teaches us to get past slavery, to care about ourselves and have self-esteem. It brings unity back to black people.”

Spanning the week between Christmas and New Year’s, the American Kwanzaa is an urbanized take on ancient harvest celebrations that occurred throughout the African continent. The word is taken from the Swahili phrase, matunde ya kwanza , which means “first fruits.”

Since Kwanzaa is observed at the end of the year, it is also a time for reflecting on the past and preparing for the future, namely by examining seven principles: umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity) and imani (faith).

A different principle is observed each of the seven days, and the holiday usually culminates in a karamu , or feast, and the exchanging of gifts. Though steeped in African traditions and language, Kwanzaa is distinctly non-religious, its chief purpose being to bring together black people of all faiths.

“Being raised in a Christian church, my initial reaction to Kwanzaa was intellectual appreciation, but distance,” said Sunji Ali, a writer whose poetry group, Soulvisions, is staging a Kwanzaa reading and discussion today.

“But as I watched events unfold over the years, I saw it was positive. It’s spiritual, yet it doesn’t threaten my Christian beliefs. As Malcolm X said, we’ve got to come together across religious lines, especially if we want to make it through the ‘90s.”

From Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, an estimated 18 million black people worldwide--from Brazil to England to the African countries of Kenya and Zimbabwe--celebrate Kwanzaa, though the largest numbers are found in the United States. In Kwanzaa’s birthplace of Los Angeles, one of the greatest concentrations of activities is in the Crenshaw area, home to Karenga’s African-American Cultural Center at 54th Street and 4th Avenue.

“The events have grown phenomenally,” said Subira Kifano, assistant director of the center. In her office, a wooden kinara (candleholder), fruit basket and libation cup were carefully arranged in a Kwanzaa display on a straw mat.

“People in San Bernardino, Long Beach, Pasadena have started things. But for Dr. Karenga and many other people, the holding of African traditions is a lifetime commitment,” Kifano said. “There’s a saying that goes, ‘You never get out of blackness alive.’ You don’t escape your race. You may as well find out your history and celebrate it.”

The best known of those celebrations is the Crenshaw Boulevard gwaride parade and Leimert Park festival, a 16-year tradition that features a presiding oba and iyaba (king and queen) and three days of African-themed music, food and arts. Kwanzaa People of Color has been instrumental in producing the event since it began. Akile, a self-described “cultural technician” who is involved with the group, says the holiday is important because it is something black people can claim as their own.

“Historically, we were stripped of our culture and lost focus,” he said. “Christmas fills a need for people of certain ethnic and geographic backgrounds, and we have Kwanzaa to fill our need. If we don’t organize and codify our energies, they’ll go unused. The responsibility for maintaining our culture is nobody’s but ours. We have to define things our own way.”

For Earl Ofari Hutchinson, a Los Angeles author and lecturer who has chronicled key problems within the African-American community in several of his works, Kwanzaa’s appeal lies in the fact that its traditions are not strictly defined.

“I have observed it in recent years, although not through rituals or going to events,” said Hutchinson. “I have a little post-Christmas gathering, a sort of informal open house for friends and family. It’s a good time of the year to share, reach out, exchange ideas rather than gifts. It fits right into the gathering-of-the-harvest theme.”

Hutchinson said the “concept of Christmas isn’t bad. I celebrate Christmas, and I see a lot of parallels to Kwanzaa. But Christmas didn’t come out of the African tradition. Kwanzaa addresses a great need for an Afrocentric holiday.”

Sixteen-year-old Halima Gay, who was scheduled to represent the principle of ujima in Saturday’s parade, agreed.

“Kids really don’t know the traditions,” said Gay, a soft-spoken Los Angeles High School junior. “We need to find out why it’s celebrated and listen to each other. The most important thing Kwanzaa teaches young black people is communication and sticking together.”

Parhams, who has been circulating petitions to officially establish an African-American business and cultural district in Los Angeles, says that Kwanzaa is most important as an affirmation of a common, bonding heritage.

“The history is all there, although some of us still don’t know,” said Parhams. “The bottom line is, we don’t have to have money to maintain principles and dignity. Whatever your bloodline, whatever the texture of your hair, we’ve all got to come together and get our minds straight.”

Kwanzaa Happenings

Today

* Kwanzaa Gwaride Festival. Live R&B; and jazz lineup, storytelling, marketplace and food. Leimert Park, Crenshaw Boulevard and 43rd Street, 10 a.m. to dusk. Information: (213) 789-7300.

* Children’s Kwanzaa Karamu. A celebration of the meaning of Kwanzaa through music, dance narratives and games. African-American Cultural Center, 2560 W. 54th St., 3 to 4:30 p.m. (213) 299-0261.

* “Getting Black Down to Business.” Poetry readings and discussion by Soulvisions, featuring Dadesi Fukaro X. Black Gallery, 107 Santa Barbara Plaza, 4 to 7 p.m. Information: (213) 292-3465.

* Various Kwanzaa events relating to the principle of kujichagulia (self-determination). Children’s theater workshop from 2 to 3 p.m.; naming ceremonies from 3:30 to 5 p.m.; and discussion of the meaning of Kwanzaa from 5 to 6 p.m. Dance Collective, 4327 S. Degnan Blvd. The collective will have seven consecutive days of Kwanzaa events from 2 to 7 p.m. daily through Friday. Events include dance classes, mask making and a review of black inventions and history. Donation of $1 requested. Information: (213) 292-1538.

Thursday

* “Community Kwanzaa Karamu,” an evening of African music, dance, libation, candlelight, narratives, proverbs, poetry and food. African-American Cultural Center, 2560 W. 54th St., 6 to 9 p.m. Information: (213) 299-6124.

Friday

* Karamu celebration of food, music and dance. Bring dish or refreshment to share. Dance Collective, 4327 S. Degnan Blvd., 2 to 7 p.m. Information: (213) 292-1538.