Kwanzaa: Millions Celebrate Holiday -Learn The Seven Symbols (Dates back to Egyptian times....)

What may surprise many African-Americans and the general population is that, while the holiday was created in the 1960s, the traditions date back centuries to the African continent.

It is not a religious holiday, but a cultural one that is available to and practiced by Africans of all religious faiths who come together based on the rich, ancient and varied common ground of their Africanness.

Kwanzaa is an African-American and Pan-African holiday that begins Dec. 26 and ends Jan. 1. Its origins are rooted in the first-harvest celebrations of Africa from which it takes its name.

The name Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase "matunda ya kwanza," which means "first fruits" in Swahili, a Pan-African language which is the most widely spoken African language.

The first fruit celebrations are recorded in African history as far back as ancient Egypt and Nubia and appear in ancient and modern times in other classical African civilizations such as Ashantiland and Yorubaland. These celebrations are also found in ancient and modern times among societies as large as empires (the Zulu or kingdoms) or smaller societies and groups such as the Matabele, Thonga and Lovedu.

The holiday builds on the five fundamental activities of continental African "first fruit" celebrations: ingathering, reverence, commemoration, recommitment and celebration.

A time of special reverence for the creator and creation in thanks and respect for the blessings, bounty and beauty of creation.

A time of commemoration of the past in pursuit of its lessons and in honor of its models of human excellence. A time of recommitment to our highest cultural ideals in our ongoing effort to always bring forth the best of African cultural thought and practice.

A time for celebration of the Good; the good of life and of existence itself, the good of family, community and culture, the good of the awesome and the ordinary, in a word the good of the divine, natural and social.

Kwanzaa draws from the cultures of various African peoples and is celebrated by millions of Africans throughout the world. African people celebrate Kwanzaa because it speaks nRot only to African Americans in a special way but also to Africans as a whole, in its stress on history, values, family, community and culture.

Kwanzaa was established in 1966 in the midst of the Black Freedom Movement and reflects its concern for cultural grounding in thought and practice.

Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor and chair of the Department of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach. She is an author and scholar-activist who stresses the need to preserve, continually revitalize and promote African-American culture.

Kwanzaa was created to reaffirm and restore the ties of Africans with their native culture. It is an expression of recovery and reconstruction of African culture, which was being conducted in the general context of the Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s and in the specific context of The Organization Us, the founding organization of Kwanzaa.

Kwanzaa was created to serve as a regular communal celebration to reaffirm and reinforce the bonds between people. It was designed to be an ingathering to strengthen community and reaffirm common identity, purpose and direction as a people and a world community. Kwanzaa was created to introduce and reinforce the Nguzo Saba (the Seven Principles).

The seven African values are: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity), and Imani (Faith). The stress on the Nguzo Saba is an emphasis on the importance of African communitarian values, which stress family, community and culture.

The last day of Kwanzaa is the first day of the New Year, Jan. 1. For African people, this has been a time of sober assessment of things done and things to do, of self-reflection and reflection on the life and future of the people and of recommitment to their highest cultural values in a special way.

In this tradition, it is a time for the African people to ask and answer the three Kawaida questions: Who I am?, Am I really who I say I am? And am I all I ought to be?

The Akan have one day during the first-fruits harvest in which they engage in quiet reflection. It is a time for reassessment and recommitment on a personal and family level.

The Day of Remembrance or the Adae celebration pays special homage to the ancestors of the national community and those of the family. The Day of Remembrance may be a part of the Day of Mediation or the Day of Assessment.

Gifts are given mainly to children, but must always include a book and a heritage symbol. The book is to emphasize the African value and tradition of learning stressed since ancient Egypt, and the heritage symbol to reaffirm and reinforce the African commitment to tradition and history.

The colors of Kwanzaa are black, red and green and can be utilized in decorations for Kwanzaa. Also, decorations should include traditional African items such as African baskets, cloth patterns, art objects and harvest symbols.

The greetings during Kwanzaa are spoken in Swahili. The greetings are to reinforce awareness of and commitment to the Seven Principles. A person will be greeted with "Habari gani?" They respond with: On the first day, Umoja; on the second day, Kujichagulia; on the third day, Ujima; on the fourth day, Ujamaa; on the fifth day, Nia; on the sixth day, Kuumba; and on the seventh day, Imani.

Information provided by "Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture" by Maulana Karenga.

Mazao (The Crops): These are symbolic of African harvest celebrations and of the rewards of productive and collective labor.

Mkeka (The Mat): This is symbolic of the African tradition and therefore, the foundation on which they build their community.

Kinara (The Candle Holder): The candle holder is a symbol of Africans' roots.

Muhindi (The Corn): Is a symbol of children and the future that they embody.

Mishumaa Saba (The Seven Candles): These are symbolic of the Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles, the matrix and minimum set of values which African people are urged to live by in order to rescue and reconstruct their lives in their own image and according to their own needs.

Kikombe cha Umoja (The Unity Cup): This is symbolic of the foundational principle and practice of unity which makes all else possible.

Zawadi (The Gifts): These are symbolic of the labor and love of parents and the commitments made and kept by the children.

Bendera (The Flag): The colors of the Kwanzaa flag are the colors of the Organization Us, black, red and green; black for the people, red for their struggle and green for the future and hope that comes from their struggle. It is based on the colors given by the Hon. Marcus Garvey as national colors for African people throughout the world.

Kwanzaa: A Holiday From The FBI
http://www.anncoulter.org/

A good rundown on the origins of this holiday,
which has been celebrated with a special US Postal
issue for each of the last several years.

December 24, 2002

This is an updated version of a column by Ann Coulter that first ran two years ago in December.

** ** **

TRENT LOTT, call your office: Apparently some parts of American history can be sanitized and forgotten. Earlier this week, President George Bush issued a formal White House proclamation celebrating Kwanzaa.

Sounding like a "Saturday Night Live" send-up, Bush praised the "seven principles" of Kwanzaa, "known as Nguzo Saba," and discussed the "early harvest gatherings called 'matunda ya kwanza,' or first fruits." He included the usual claptrap about how Kwanzaa celebrates "traditional African values" and "uniting people of diverse backgrounds and beliefs."

It is a fact that Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by a black radical FBI stooge, Ron Karenga, aka Dr. Maulana Karenga. Karenga was a founder of United Slaves, a violent nationalist rival to the Black Panthers and a dupe of the FBI.

In what was probably ultimately a foolish gamble, during the madness of the '60s the FBI encouraged the most extreme black nationalist organizations in order to discredit and split the left. The more preposterous the organization, the better. Karenga's United Slaves was perfect. In the annals of the American '60s, Karenga was the Father Gapon, stooge of the czarist police.

Despite modern perceptions that blend all the black activists of the '60s, the Black Panthers did not hate whites. They did not seek armed revolution. Those were the precepts of Karenga's United Slaves. United Slaves were proto-fascists, walking around in dashikis, blowing away Black Panthers and adopting invented "African" names. (That was a big help to the black community: How many boys named "Jamal" currently sit on death row?)

Whether Karenga was a willing dupe, or just a dupe, remains unclear. Curiously, in a 1995 interview with Ethnic NewsWatch, Karenga matter-of-factly explained that the forces out to get O.J. Simpson for the "framed" murder of two whites included: "the FBI, the CIA, the State Department, Interpol, the Chicago Police Department" and so on. (He further noted that "the evidence was not
strong enough to prohibit or eliminate unreasonable doubt" -- an interesting standard of proof.) Karenga should know about FBI infiltration.

In the category of the-gentleman-doth-protest-too-much, back in the '70s, Karenga was quick to criticize rumors that black radicals were government-supported. When Nigerian newspapers claimed that some American black radicals were CIA operatives, Karenga leapt in to denounce the idea publicly, saying, "Africans must stop generalizing about the loyalties and motives of Afro-Americans, including the widespread suspicion of black Americans being CIA agents."

By now, there is no question that the FBI fueled the bloody rivalry between the Panthers and United Slaves. In one barbarous outburst, Karenga's United Slaves shot Black Panther Al "Bunchy" Carter on the UCLA campus. Karenga himself served time, a useful stepping-stone for his current position as a black studies professor at California State University at Long Beach.

Kwanzaa itself is a lunatic blend of schmaltzy '60s rhetoric, black racism and Marxism. Indeed, the seven "principles" of Kwanzaa praise collectivism in every possible arena of life -- economics, work, personality, even litter removal. ("Kuumba: Everyone should strive to improve the community and make it more beautiful.") It takes a village to raise a police snitch.

When Karenga was asked to distinguish Kawaida, the philosophy underlying Kwanzaa, from "classical Marxism," he essentially explained that under Kawaida, we also hate whites. While taking the "best of" -- I'm not making this up -- "early Chinese and Cuban socialism," Kawaida practitioners believe one's racial identity "determines life conditions, life chances and self-understanding."
There's an inclusive philosophy for you.

Coincidentally, the seven principles of Kwanzaa are the very same seven principles of the Symbionese Liberation Army, another charming invention of the Least-Great Generation. In 1974, Patricia Hearst, kidnap victim-cum-SLA revolutionary, posed next to the banner of her alleged captors, a seven-headed cobra. Each snake head stood for one of the SLA's revolutionary principles: Umojo, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba and Imani -- precisely the seven "principles" of Kwanzaa.

With his Kwanzaa greetings, President Bush is saluting the intellectual sibling of the Symbionese Liberation Army, killer of housewives and police. He is saluting the founder of United Slaves, who were such lunatics that they shot Panthers for not being sufficiently insane -- all with the FBI as their covert ally. It's as if David Duke invented a holiday called "Anglica," and the president of the United States issued a presidential proclamation honoring the synthetic holiday. People might well stand up and take notice if that happened.

Kwanzaa was the result of a '60s psychosis grafted onto black community. Liberals have become so mesmerized by multicultural nonsense that they have forgotten the real history of Kwanzaa and United Slaves -- the violence, the Marxism, the insanity. Most absurdly, for leftists anyway, is that they have forgotten the FBI's tacit encouragement of this murderous black nationalist cult founded by the father of Kwanzaa.

Now the "holiday" concocted by an FBI dupe is honored in a presidential proclamation calling it a "holiday that promotes mutual understanding." A movement that started approximately 2,000 years before Kwanzaa leaps well beyond merely "promot(ing) mutual understanding" to say we are all equal before God. It is so inclusive, people get mad at it. That movement is also celebrated this week. But the Christian leaders at the forefront of the abolitionist and civil rights movements have been washed down the memory hole.

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