[Junior_G]

Here's a brief summary of Kwanzaa:

Maulana Karenga, now chairman of the black studies department at California State University in Long Beach, created Kwanzaa in 1966. This cultural, non-religious celebration revolves around the Nguzo Saba ("seven principles" in Swahili), designed to promote strength and unity in black families and communities. African Americans celebrate the holiday over seven days between Christmas and New Year's Day, with each day dedicated to one of these principles: Umoja (unity) Kujichagulia (self-determination) Ujima (collective work and responsibility) Ujamaa (cooperative economics) Nia (purpose) Kuumba (creativity) Imani (faith)

[Political Junkie Too]

This cultural, non-religious celebration revolves around the Nguzo Saba ("seven principles" in Swahili)...

What's interesting about this is that Swahili is an East African language, while the African slaves taken to America were from the west coast of Africa. If choosing Swahili was supposed to be a link for African-Americans to Africa the homeland, he chose the wrong coastal language as the basis for his celebration.

-PJ

[FormerACLUmember]

Forget the notion that Kwanzaa is a holiday for all people. Karenga states that he created it at the height of the black liberation movement as part of a "re-Africanization" process – "a going back to black."

Karenga, still just "Ron Everett" at the time, was heavily involved in the black power movement. He started an organization called US. The letters have nothing to do with "United States" but mean simply "US," as opposed to "THEM."

He dropped the Everett name, adopted the Swahili one, which means "master teacher," shaved his head, and began wearing traditional African clothing. US members, similarly attired, often clashed with other black militant groups such as the Black Panthers. The fighting was about which group would control the new Afro-American Studies Center at UCLA.

There were incidents involving beatings and shootings, including one in 1969 in which two US members shot and killed two Black Panthers. Karenga had other run-ins with the law, including charges that he abused women.

In 1971, he was convicted of assaulting female members of US, and he served time in prison. An LA Times snippet describes the torture of the women as involving a hot soldering iron placed in the mouth of one, while the other's toe was mashed in a vice.

Karenga says that he is the victim; he was quoted in the News: "All the negative charges are in fact disinformation and frame-ups by the FBI and local and national police."

[ccmay]

They speak a different kind of Swahili on American college campuses. Here is a short glossary for any puzzled African visitors to this site:

Umoja (unity) = tribalism and naked racist preferentialism

Kujichagulia (self-determination) = voluntary segregation

Ujima (collective work and responsibility) = slavery and drudgery under the rule of commissars

Ujamaa (cooperative economics) = shared squalor and starvation

Nia (purpose) = dream castles in the sky with total disregard for practical outcomes

Kuumba (creativity) = deconstructionist/dadaist/post-modernist rejection of all artistic endeavor

Imani (faith) = Sharia law

Now you know.

-ccm

[Pinetop]

I know people who have Kwanzaa parties, not many. It seems to be a pretty low-key thing with good intentions. It just has never really caught on, because it is not a commercial, consumer-driven kind of thing.

Let's remember Mother's Day, Father's Day, Thanksgiving, etc., are all rather recent creations celebrating family values, so Kwanza's not that different--it just is trying to focus on black family unity--not a bad thing. But, Christmas is off the chain for blacks and whites.

[TN4Liberty]

Umoja (unity) Kujichagulia (self-determination) Ujima (collective work and responsibility) Ujamaa (cooperative economics) Nia (purpose) Kuumba (creativity) Imani (faith)

East Germany used to celebrate the same principals.

[exile]

Since it was developed about 15 years before Kwanza, does that make Wicca slightly more legitimate?

[MEGoody]

"designed to promote strength and unity in black families and communities."

Based on recent statistics regarding out of wedlock births, black on black crime, etc. this doesn't seem to be working.