Kwanzaa is a Swahili word referring to the "first fruits" of the harvest. It is a non-religious holiday created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga to celebrate African-American life, history and culture.

The 1950s and 1960s were water shed periods for African-Americans. This was the time when many African-Americans sought the changes that would bring them true civil, social, economic, intellectual, and personal equality and freedom. Interested in fostering these changes and in helping other African-Americans to experience this "revolution," Dr. Maulana Karenga, a professor of Black Studies at California State University, devised the celebration called Kwanzaa. He reasoned for the need for such a holiday based on a principle or theory called Kawaida. Kawaida proposes that true social revolution and change can be achieved for African-Americans through a thorough knowledge of their culture and heritage.

While Kwanzaa would be a way for African-Americans to create their own customs, Dr. Karenga looked to African culture and Afro-American history for the tools and materials to create a basis for this celebration. He chose Swahili, an East African language not tied to any specific tribe or ethnic group, as the means of expressing the ideals, rites and symbols for this new holiday.

He chose the African custom of celebrating the "first fruits of the harvest" or "kwanzaa" on which to base the new festival. He selected the bendera (www.melanet.com/kwanzaa/feelgood.html#redblackgreen), the flag designed by Marcus Garvey to represent the history of the African American people, as a special symbol of "the season." Using Kawaida (social revolution and change through a thorough knowledge of African American culture and heritage), he developed seven principles whose practice could achieve this end.

He identified seven symbols that could be used during Kwanzaa as aids to understanding the seven principles and to represent the deeper meanings and history underlying Kwanzaa.

The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa (www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/7principles.html) Nguzo saba are the basis or reason for Kwanzaa. While these ideals are meant to be practiced daily throughout the year; they are given special consideration during Kwanzaa.

Each day of the festival has one principle to be studied, practiced and honored.

Umoja promotes unity. This ideal calls for African-Americans to pull together as families, communities and as a race.

Kujichagulia demands self-determination. African-Americans alone must decide who they are and what they will be named as a group and individually. They must create for themselves and speak for themselves.

Ujima calls for collective work and responsibility. African-Americans must work together to build and maintain communities. They should recognize the problems of all African-Americans as their own and work together to solve these problems.

Ujamaa encourages cooperative economics. African-Americans must support each other in building and maintaining businesses in and for the community. They need to patronize these businesses and recognize the rights of the workers and community to benefit from the profits of these efforts.

Nia stands for purpose. It must be the aim of African-Americans to strive to build and develop themselves and their communities. Full potential must be realized; and, past greatness restored.

Kuumba means creativity. African-Americans must endeavor to use their unique gifts to create improved, more successful communities. What has been inherited must be maintained and, where possible, enhanced for those who follow.

Imani demands faith. African-Americans must have faith in themselves and believe in their worth as individuals and as a race. They must have faith in the righteousness of their struggle and the inevitability of victory.

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