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'Kwanzaa' is known as a celebration of the life of human-beings loosely based in African culture, but collectively referred with Maoism. I used the term 'loosely' because corn isn't an African crop and the actual harvest time is two months before this festival.

The name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase 'matunda ya kwanza', meaning "first fruits"; even though Swahili is not a mother tongue of Africa. The additional "a" was added to "kwanza" so that the word would have seven letters, one for each of the seven principles. Kwanzaa is a week long festival, celebrated between December 26 and January 1.

Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Dr. Mulana Karenga also known as Ron Karenga, born Ron Everett. Ron was a convicted felon – sentenced five years after inventing Kwanzaa for torturing two black women by whipping them with electrical cords and beating them with a karate baton after stripping them naked.

One of these two women named "Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African queen. Ron had placed in her mouth a hot soldering iron, also scarring her face with the device. He put one of her big toes in a vise, and detergent and running water in both of his victim's mouths.

Karenga was convicted of two counts of felonious assault and one count of false imprisonment. He was sentenced on Sept. 17, 1971, to serve one to ten years in prison.

He is now a professor and chairperson of the Department of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach. Karenga is an author and activist who stressed the indispensable need to preserve, continually revitalize and promote American culture through African rituals. Dr. Karenga is chairperson of the organization 'US'.

Kwanzaa was established in aftermath of the Watts Riots. This series of riots was due to police brutality as viewed by citizens of the Black Liberation & Black Freedom Movement in the 1960s, and reflects that movement's concerns for African-American cultural groundedness in thought and practice commonly referred to as 'black pride'.

Kwanzaa is not known as a religious holiday, but a cultural one, a syncretic festival, based on various elements of the first harvest celebrations that are widely celebrated in Africa, as in the rest of the world around the 10th month of the starting year.

Each of the days symbolizes one of the "Seven Principles (Nguzu Saba) of Blackness":

• Umoja (Unity),
• Kujichagulia (Self-determination),
• Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility),
• Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics),
• Nia (Purpose),
• Kuumba (Creativity), and
• Imani (Faith).

In the United States, Kwanzaa is often linked with the ancient religious holidays Christmas and Chanukah, both of which also fall in December; however, some Christian and Jewish leaders have complained about having the two festivals equated with a celebration that dates back less than four decades. They argue that this has been caused by misguided attempts at political correctness.

External link

• The official Kwanzaa website
• Article by Paul Mulshine
• Article by Kathy Shaidle, with notes from Eli Schuster

Reference

Maulana Karenga, Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture, Commemorative Edition, Los Angeles, University of Sankore Press, 1998