Kwanzaa 2023: Everything you need to know about the week-long holiday

Kwanzaa, which honors African American and Pan-African culture and traditions, is celebrated from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, The seven-night celebration stretches across millions of homes and communities around the world.

Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor and chair of the department of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach, created Kwanzaa in 1966 during the Black Freedom Movement.

The Swahili phrase "matunda ya kwanza," means "first fruits." African culture and major religions have a deep history of celebrations around "first fruits."

During the holiday, families and communities organize around what are known as the seven principles, or Nguzo Saba.

The seven symbols of Kwanzaa are the Kinara, a candle holder; Mishumaa Saba, seven candles; Mkeka, the mat; Mazao, crops; Muhindi, ears of corn; Kikombe Cha Umoja, a unity cup; and Zawadi, gifts.

The Mishumaa Saba consists of seven candles. One black candle represents the people, or unity, and gets placed in the center of the Kinara.

The three red candles represent the people's struggles and three more green candles symbolize the future and hope that can come from struggle.

Kwanzaa is a cultural holiday, not a religious holiday, that can be celebrated alongside other major religious and secular holidays.

American black separatist[4] Maulana Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966 during the aftermath of the Watts riots[5] as a non-Christian,[6] specifically African-American, holiday.[7] Karenga said his goal was to “give black people an alternative to the existing holiday of Christmas and give black people an opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society.”[8] For Karenga, a figure in the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the creation of such holidays also underscored the essential premise that “you must have a cultural revolution before the violent revolution. The cultural revolution gives identity, purpose, and direction.”[9]
In 1971, Karenga was sentenced to one to ten years in prison on counts of felony assault and false imprisonment.[22] One of the victims gave testimony of how Karenga and other men tortured her and another woman. The woman described having been stripped naked and beaten with an electrical cord. Karenga’s estranged wife, Brenda Lorraine Karenga, testified that she sat on the other woman’s stomach while another man forced water into her mouth through a hose.

A May 14, 1971, article in the Los Angeles Times described the testimony of one of the women:

Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African queen, said she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Miss Davis’ mouth and placed against Miss Davis’ face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga, head of US, also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said. They also were hit on the heads with toasters.[23]

Jones and Brenda Karenga testified that Karenga believed the women were conspiring to poison him, which Davis has attributed to a combination of ongoing police pressure and his own drug abuse.[10][24]

Karenga denied any involvement in the torture, and argued that the prosecution was political in nature.[10][25] He was imprisoned at the California Men’s Colony, where he studied and wrote on feminism, Pan-Africanism, and other subjects. The US Organization fell into disarray during his absence and was disbanded in 1974. After he petitioned several black state officials to support his parole on fair sentencing grounds, it was granted in 1975.[26]

Karenga has declined to discuss the convictions with reporters and does not mention them in biographical materials.[24] During a 2007 appearance at Wabash College, he again denied the charges and described himself as a former political prisoner.[27]

‘Twas the night before Kwanzaa
And all through the ‘hood,
Maulana Karenga was up to no good.

He’d tortured a woman and spent time in jail.
He needed a new scam that just wouldn’t fail.
(”So what if I stuck some chick’s toe in a vice?
Nobody said revolution was nice!”)

The Sixties were over. Now what would he do?
Why, he went back to school — so that’s “Dr.” to you!
He once ordered shootouts at UCLA
Now he teaches Black Studies just miles away.

Then to top it all off, the good Doctor’s new plan
Was to get rid of Christmas and piss off The Man.

Karenga invented a fake holiday.
He called the thing Kwanza. “Hey, what’s that you say?

“You don’t get what’s ‘black’ about Maoist baloney?
You say that my festival’s totally phony?

“Who cares if corn isn’t an African crop?
Who cares if our harvest’s a month or two off?
Who cares if Swahili’s not our mother tongue?
A lie for The Cause never hurt anyone!

“Umoja! Ujima! Kujichagulia, too!
Collectivist crap never sounded so cool!
Those guilty white liberals — easy to fool.
Your kids will now celebrate Kwanzaa in school!”

And we heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight:
“Happy Kwanzaa to all, except if you’re white!”

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