WHAT IS KWANZAA ? The word kwanzaa is Swahili and means +quot;first fruits of the harvest.

                         WHAT IS KWANZAA ?

The word kwanzaa is Swahili and means "first fruits of the 
harvest."  The celebration named Kwanzaa is an Afrikan-American 
holiday that was created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga.  This
unique seven-day celebration, beginning December 26th and ending
January 1st, pays tribute to Americans of Afrikan descent across
the nation.  It doesn't replace Christmas.  Rather, it adds a time 
to give reminder of seven principles, one for each of the seven
days.  These all have Swahili names and are:

   Umoja, or Unity
   Kujichagulia or Self-determination
   Ujima, or Responsibility
   Ujamaa, or Cooperative economics
   Nia, or Purpose
   Kuumba, or Creativity
   Imani, or Faith

Many children in public schools now learn about Kwanzaa as one of
the important celebrations of the December holiday season.  Some
Unitarian Universalist churches celebrate Kwanzaa on the first
Sunday after Christmas, often making it a fun program with
storytelling, African musicians, African foods, a talk on the
meaning of Kwanzaa, and the like.

But some UUs and Humanists might wonder if Kwanzaa is as secular
or "non-religious" as media coverage sometimes indicates.  In
truth, Kwanzaa has some Humanism in its history.

It all began when a Black Civil Rights activist of the late 1960s
named Maulana Ron Karenga formed the opinion that Black people
needed a non-supernatural religion to unify them culturally.  So
he created a new faith-system, complete with holidays, one holiday
of which was Kwanzaa.  Though Karenga's new religion didn't quite
catch on, the holiday of Kwanzaa did.

The Humanist connection comes from Karenga's incarceration at the 
Men's Colony at San Luis Obispo, and later when he was transferred 
to Vacaville -- both being medium-security prisons in California.
Local Amrican Humanist Association chapter leaders in San Luis
Obispo, and later in San Jose, helped form a Humanist Chapter at
these institutions.  And Karenga was the inmate head of the AHA
"Humanist Chapter at Men's Colony" in the late 1960's and early
1970's.  

During that era, the Nation of Islam was a big contender for the
religious allegiance of progressive young Blacks.  But Karenga
opposed them, viewing Islam as the same sort of supernatural and
superstitious "spookism" that had gotten Black people into their
oppressed predicament.  He was also aware that Muslims had sold
Blacks to the White Christian slave traders who then brought them
to America and elsewhere.  So, it was in a Humanist context that
Karenga more fully developed and promoted his new cultural
religion.  (Bruce Miller and Orloff Miller were the AHA contacts
with Karenga in San Luis Obispo.  Art Jackson was involved with
the San Jose/Vacaville connection.)

Later, upon release, Karenga earned a doctorate degree from United
States International University and went on to become a professor
of Black studies.  A committed and forceful individual, Karenga
has been an effective promoter of his ideas -- hence the growing
popularity of this late 20th Century holiday.