Central Los Angeles : Ceremony Marks 1st Day of Kwanzaa

The first day of Kwanzaa, a weeklong African American holiday, was celebrated Tuesday at a candle-lighting ceremony at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza.

Dozens of African Americans, including local Christian and Nation of Islam leaders, crowded a conference room at the mall for the celebration sponsored by Kwanzaa Fest Inc. Organization.

The ceremony featured seven young women who were nominated by the organization as the 1995 Kwanzaa Queens.

Each of the queens, dressed in lavish gowns of gold, green and black, represented one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa: Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity) and Imani (faith).

Organization leaders presented the young women with small glass pyramids at the ceremony.

“This is so that you will always know where you came from,” said Melva Joyce Parhams, the president of Kwanzaa Fest, “because the pyramids belong to the African people.”

Kwanzaa was begun in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, now chairman of the Department of Black Studies at Cal State Long Beach, to provide African Americans a holiday of their own.

The seven-day celebration incorporates traditions and values found in Africa and the African diaspora, said Mpidunzi Khutaza, director of the US Foundation, a group founded by Karenga, as he explained the history of Kwanzaa to the crowd.

The holiday is also nonreligious, Khutaza said, so that all African Americans can participate.