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rpray2007 · Dec 9, 2011, 02:23 PM

I am interested to know how Kwanzaa was introduced as a holiday and what religious origins does it have? I guess I'm also curious as to why it coincides with the other major American festivals. Was it a kind of socio-political holiday or something else?

ballengerb1 · Dec 9, 2011, 02:28 PM

Depends on how far back in history you care to look. The Official Kwanzaa Web Site - The Founder's Message 2000

Fr_Chuck · Dec 9, 2011, 02:51 PM

. Kwanzaa was an invented holiday of Ron Karnenga in 1966. Less than 40 years ago.

Dr. Maulana Karenga (real name Ron Everett) was head of the violent hate-the-white-man group called United Slaves Organization. This was a rival organization of the Black Panthers. In 1969, the Republic of New Africa, another radical group aligned with the Black Panthers, accused Karenga of taking part in the killing of two Black Panther members at UCLA.

Just a few years later, in the 1970s, Ron or Maulana, kidnapped two of his own female followers, stripped them naked and whipped them with electrical cords, and beat them with a karate baton. He then placed a hot soldering iron in one of his victim's mouths, scarring her face, then put her toes in a vise and poured detergent in both their mouths. He was convicted of this heinous crime and spent four years in prison. ( Thus welcome to the man who invented Kwanzaa)

So it was invented to basically replace the White Christmas with a Black holiday.

rpray2007 · Dec 9, 2011, 05:45 PM

@Chuck - I was looking for the meaning of Kwanzaa not Ron Everett's life story... I don't see the relevance of his violent behavior to what we today celebrate/recognize as Kwanzaa (and while he may have founded the holiday, it's current acceptance has nothing to do with this man). BTW when did Christmas become "White?"

Wondergirl · Dec 9, 2011, 05:51 PM

Does this site help?

What is Kwanzaa? Top Questions and Answers Freedom Trails Initiative Blog

rpray2007 · Dec 9, 2011, 06:37 PM

@Wondergirl & @Ballanger1 - Definitely helpful - but I was wondering (which the links do not address) how this holiday created to commemorate "African values" but yet, I wonder, based on my understanding of Africa and its rich diversity which values? And further, aren't these values potentially common to most people in the world? And finally, they are African values, why should they be African and not a global holiday. It seems not to have ahistorical significance, rather a recognition of the African-American ethnography. I'm still perplexed by why this holiday is singularly African unless we mean a race - but even then, we get into problems, as there are several "races" when you break it down a little - North Africa is very different from the South. What about religion? Again, huge diversity of cultures, gods, rituals and belief systems.

So, thanks for the links, but I'm really looking for more the current rationale for this holiday so I can better appreciate it. I agree with the 7 values (Nguzo Saba) professed within it, but not being of African heritage, believe it to be not something I can celebrate. I can't really celebrate Hanukkah or Christmas (Christian festival) either, but, in these cases, I understand why not - they have very specific religious boundaries within which I do not belong. Is the ability to celebrate Kwanzaa just determined by the color of your skin? Or am I looking at it the wrong way?

Fr_Chuck · Dec 9, 2011, 06:42 PM

It has no real roots to Africa or anything else, it was purely man made by a black power activist. All of its history is made up to try and justify it. In his mind when he went to replace Christmas it was white since it was from Europe and Christian.

http://www.examiner.com/conservative...d-fake-holiday

http://www.textbookleague.org/114kwanz.htm

http://mrminority.blogspot.com/2006/...d-kwanzaa.html

http://voices.yahoo.com/ann-coulter-...ck-152339.html

CliffARobinson · Dec 10, 2011, 10:57 PM

I want to thank RPray2007 for asking this question, it gave me a chance to learn more about the subject and have a better understanding of the meaning of Kwanzaa.

The first misconception by many, including the authors in some of the links posted here, is that Kwanza was intended as a Religious Holiday. It was in fact a Holiday created as an alternative to Religion.

Maulana Karenga(Everett), after being released from Prison and receiving his first Doctorate, re-established his US organization and created a set of principles he called Kawaida. It was his intent to give African Americans a Secular Humanist alternative to Religious Holidays which were based on what he considered 'Mysticism'.

The Nguzo Saba, are "Seven Principles of Blackness", which are celebrated during Kwanzaa:

Umoja (unity) - To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
Kujichagulia (self-determination) - To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
Ujima (collective work and responsibility) - To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.
Ujamaa (cooperative economics) - To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (purpose) - To make our collective vocation the building and development of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (creativity)â€”To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (faith) - To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Source: Maulana Karenga (Wikipedia)

While it is true that Karenga was convicted of terrible crimes and spent time in Prison, it has no bearing on what the Holiday means today. If we were to pass judgment on Kwanzaa based on the actions of its creator, then we would also have to do so around other Holidays, like Christmas and the violence perpetrated by Christians over the Centuries, Thanksgiving and the Genocide of an Indigenous People, to name a few.

In spite of his background, and the violent, tumultuous time he found himself in, I think the Principles present in Kwanzaa are worthwhile in studying and taking to heart.

... (T)he philosophy of Kwanza is an ongoing synthesis of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world. One of its central tenets is that culture is the fundamental source of a people's identity, purpose and direction.

Thus, Kwanzaa is, in fact, a continuous dialog with African cultures, asking questions and seeking answers to central and enduring concerns of the African and human community. Due to the great variety of African cultures, and the vast genetic diversity of the continent, it could be construed that Kwanzaa is actually a humanistic form of philosophy, due to evidence that all humans originally arose in Africa.

At the heart of this project is the continuing quest to define and become the best of what it means to be both African and human in the fullest sense. This involves an ongoing search for models of excellence and paradigms of possibilities in every area of human life, but especially in the seven core areas of culture: history; spirituality and ethics; social organization; political organization; economic organization; creative production (art, music, literature, dance, etc.) and ethos.

It also involves creating a language and logic of liberation, one of opposition and affirmation, and a corresponding liberational practice to create a just and good society and pose an effective paradigm of mutually beneficial human relations and human possibility.

Source: Kawaida: African Philosophy (Wikipedia)

Amen to that.