U.S. Postal Service Continues Its Tradition of Celebrating Kwanzaa

The USPS will issue its 11th stamp celebrating Kwanzaa, the pan-African holiday observed by millions of Americans each year from Dec 26 to Jan 1.

The pan-african holiday Kwanzaa, observed annually from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, brings together family, community and culture. Created in the United States in 1966 and drawing on a variety of African traditions, it was intended to help unify African Americans from a wide array of religious and cultural backgrounds. The name "Kwanzaa" is derived from the Swahili phrase meaning "first fruits."

The 2026 Kwanzaa stamp — the 11th since 1997 in an ongoing series — brings a fresh approach. While many of the stamps have portrayed family, this is the first one to feature a father and daughter. In addition, the color scheme — lime green, pink and yellow — is an updated take on the customary black, red and green.

n the traditional side, the stamp artwork incorporates two of the seven Kwanzaa symbols: the gift (zawadi), held by the daughter, and the unity cup (kikombe cha umoja), held by the father.

Antonio Alcalá, an art director for USPS, designed the stamp with original artwork by Cannaday Chapman.

The Kwanzaa stamp will be issued as a Forever stamp and will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce price.

Annual Founder’s Kwanzaa Message: Practicing the Seven Principles in Dimly-Lit Times

Practicing the Seven Principles in Dimly-Lit Times:

Lifting up the Light, Hurrying the Dawn

By Dr. Maulana Karenga

 

This year, as always, we wish for Africans everywhere throughout the world African community, “Heri za Kwanzaa. Happy Kwanzaa”. And we bring and send greetings of celebration, solidarity and continued struggle for an inclusive and shared good in the world. Moreover, we wish, especially for our people and all other oppressed and struggling peoples of the world, the shared and indivisible goods of freedom, justice and peace, achieved and enjoyed and passed on to future generations. Also, in the Kawaida Ma’atian harvest celebration tradition of our honored ancestors, we wish for African peoples and all the peoples of the world, all the good that heaven grants, the earth produces and the waters bring forth from their depths. Hotep. Ase. Heri.

This year’s Annual Kwanzaa Theme is: “Practicing the Seven Principles in Dimly-Lit Times: Lifting Up the Light, Hurrying the Dawn”. To speak of dimly-lit times is to talk of the thick fog of falsehood, fear, chaos, confusion and uncertainty that has emerged in this historical moment and settled heavily over the land. Indeed, it is to speak of the rise of authoritarian and antidemocratic governments and practices, and increased levels of mean spiritedness, human alienation from others and official and unofficial violence of varied kinds, including live-streamed genocide.

And it is to speak too of the dimming of the light and life of the heart and mind. That is to say, the cultivation of the narrow and uncritical mind and the constricted heart which embrace illusions as real life and have a diminished capacity to fight through the fog, to rightfully reason and consciously demonstrate moral sensitivity for others, especially those different and vulnerable. And to speak of hurrying the dawn is to stress Nana Dr. Martin King’s assertion that “We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now”. And this calls, not for delay or indecision, but rather for immediate and sustained “vigorous and positive action.”

Yes, we are living and celebrating Kwanzaa this year again in difficult, dangerous, demanding and dimly-lit times. But as the sun sets, it also rises, drives away the shadows, dimness and darkness and lights up the world. And the best of our culture tells and teaches us that we must be the light that drives away the shadows, dimness and darkness and opens the way to the good world we all want and deserve. Indeed, the lessons of our history and our sense of our own humanity tell us we must defy the darkness and darkness makers that seek to dispirit and diminish us and demonstrate a radical refusal to be defeated or dispirited in any way. Following in the footsteps of our honored ancestors, we must, in the midst of the deepest darkness hanging over us, lift up the light and dare to hurry the dawn, only achieved in righteous and relentless struggle for an inclusive and shared good in the world.

Indeed, the sacred teachings of our ancestors tell us in the Husia that “it is wrong to walk upside down in darkness and we must come forth today and bring forth the Ma’at, (the light of truth, justice, righteousness and good) within us. For surely it is within us”. And this teaching of the light and good within us finds its voice and practice in every place and period of our history. Thus, Nana W.E.B. DuBois relates in the sacred narrative of our people, that even during the Holocaust of enslavement, in the darkest of days, nights and centuries, they “sang to sunshine”. They embraced and evidenced a radical refusal to be dispirited or defeated. Indeed, they became the sunshine they sang to each day, regardless of the weather and the evil and inhuman ways of their oppressors. They sensed and saw a great light lifted up within them and they lifted it up and called it freedom. They taught their children to remember, reimagine and cherish  freedom, and together they moved and marched irresistibly and irreversibly towards it.

And if we are to honor our tradition as a living, uplifting and liberating tradition, then we too must “sing to sunshine” irregardless. Indeed, we too must embody and be the sunshine that calls forth the day and hurries the dawn, a new dawn and day of inclusive freedom, justice and other shared human goods through our continuing and expanded work, our service and sacrifice and our righteous and relentless struggle.

Also clearly, during the Black Freedom Movement, our people dared to drive away the darkness and darkness makers and lift up the light. This is overwhelmingly evident in the life and struggle history of Nana Fannie Lou Hamer and her co-combatants in our liberation struggle. One of her favorite songs was “This Little Light of Mine”. And she sang to sunshine and for freedom, singing, “This little light of mine. I’m gonna let it shine. I’ve got the light of freedom. I’m gonna to let it shine. Everywhere I go”. This was a resilient and audacious defiance of the darkness and the darkness makers, singing and being sunshine in the midst of the darkness around them, and audaciously bearing witness to their steadfast faith, undiminishing hope and relentless resistance to evil, injustice and oppression.

And let us remember the teachings of Nana Haji Malcolm X who emphasized the importance of the light of self-knowledge, knowledge of ourselves and each other as we also study and learn the ways and wisdom of the world. He tells and teaches us, “We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity”, a unity we need to repair, renew and remake the world.

In the practice of Kwanzaa, in the candle lighting ceremony, then, we follow in the footsteps of our ancestors and we lift up the lasting light of the Nguzo Saba. Born in and out of the Black Freedom Movement, Kwanzaa stresses our ongoing struggle to be ourselves and free ourselves and achieve a shared African and human good and the well-being of the world and all in it. Therefore, in lighting each candle, we are committing to lifting up the light and hurrying the dawn by practicing the Nguzo Saba, as our freedom songs say, everywhere we are and everywhere we go and in liberating and uplifting ways. In this way, we honor the ancient African imperative to “bear witness to truth and set the scales of justice in their proper place, especially among the voiceless and vulnerable, the downtrodden, devalued and oppressed.

Our awesome task in the world changing assignment that Nana Dr. Mary Mcleod Bethune has given us “to remake the world” is to be a source of sunlight that gives the shared goodness of light, life and warmth in the world. And it calls for Umoja (Unity), the sacred togetherness of our people in the small and large circles of our lives, the solidarity of humanity and a profound sense of oneness with the world and all in it; Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), the right of every people to be free, control their destiny and daily lives and make their own unique contribution to history and humanity, whether in Haiti, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Palestine, and anywhere else in the world; and Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), our self-conscious shared efforts and obligation to conceive, build and sustain  the good world we all want and deserve to live in.

And the task calls for and requires Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), shared work and shared wealth based on kinship with and concern for the well-being of each other and the world, especially the most vulnerable and on our right to share equitably and responsibly in the natural and created good of the world; Nia (Purpose), the liberation and upliftment of our people and our shared fundamental meaning and mission of human life to create and increase good in the world and for the world and not let any good be lost; Kuumba (Creativity), our shared obligation to do all we can to constantly repair, renew and remake the world, making it more beautiful and beneficial than when we inherited it; and Imani (Faith), a shared belief and confidence in ourselves rooted in the sacred teachings of our honored ancestors Nanas Howard Thurman, Gwen Books and Nannie Burroughs that we are a people who “ride the storms and remain intact”, “conduct our blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind” and “specialize in the wholly impossible”.

Given this, what dark or dimly-lit times can truly dispirit us, what makers and demons of the dark can defeat us or divert us from our commitment if we continue the struggle, keep the faith and hold the line regardless and irreversibly?

Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies, California State University Long Beach; Executive Director, African American Cultural Center (Us); Creator of Kwanzaa; and author of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture, The Message and Meaning of Kwanzaa: Bringing Good Into the World and Essays on Struggle: Position and Analysis, www.OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org; www.MaulanaKarenga.org. www.AfricanAmericanCulturalCenter-LA.org

2024 ANNUAL FOUNDER’S KWANZAA MESSAGE

2024 ANNUAL FOUNDER’S KWANZAA MESSAGE    

"CELEBRATING KWANZAA IN DIFFICULT AND DEMANDING TIMES:  LIFTING UP THE LIGHT THAT LASTS" 

As always, this year we wish for Africans everywhere throughout the world African community “Heri za Kwanzaa. Happy Kwanzaa.” And we bring and send greetings of celebration, solidarity and continued struggle for an inclusive and shared good in the world.  

Moreover, we constantly and especially wish for our people and for all other oppressed and struggling peoples of the world, the shared and indivisible goods of freedom, justice and peace, deservedly achieved, enjoyed, and passed on to future generations.  

We are living and celebrating Kwanzaa this year in difficult, dangerous and demanding times. And there is a pervasive sense of anxiety, apprehension and uncertainty about the future, about how we continue to go forward, meet the coming storm, and overcome and disperse the darkness that threatens to envelop us. But our very history and humanity tell us we must defy the darkness that seeks to dispirit and diminish us with our radical refusal to be defeated in any way.  

Following in the footsteps of our ancestors, we must, in the midst of the deepest darkness hanging over us, lift up the light that lasts. As Nana W.E.B. DuBois relates in the sacred narrative of our people during the Holocaust of enslavement, we must “sing to sunshine,” sing sunshine, call for the day and hurry the dawn of freedom, justice and other human good through our continued and expanded work, sacrifice, service, and righteous and relentless struggle. 

During Kwanzaa, we practice the ritual of candle lighting called “lifting up the light that lasts,” based not only in the history of our people in practice, but also from the sacred teachings of our ancestors. In the sacred teachings of the Husia, we are told that it’s morally imperative that we “drive away darkness so that light can be lifted up.” Indeed, we are told that we have a light within us and that we must come forth each day, lift up this light that lasts and share it with our people and the world.  

The ancestors speak of this light as our having been gifted with “that which endures in the midst of that which is overthrown.” And that which endures and is eternal are our moral and spiritual values, values that are dignity affirming, life enhancing and world preserving. We speak of values such as truth, justice, committed caring, sensitivity to others, a right relationship with the natural world, measuring our morality by how we treat the most vulnerable among us, and constantly daring to strive and struggle to bring good in the world and not let any good be lost, as the Odu Ifa, another ancestral sacred text teaches us. 

In the practice of Kwanzaa, the candle lighting ceremony is a lighting of the lasting light of the Nguzo Saba, The Seven Principles. For they are moral principles vital to life, love and struggle and to bringing, increasing and sustaining good in the world. To lift up the light that lasts is not only to wish for the good they bring when practiced, but also to commit and recommit ourselves to practice them in the small and larger circles of our lives, our work and struggle.  

So, as we come and stand before the kinara, let us come accepting the obligation to bear the burden and glory of our history and to honor the legacy of our ancestors by committing ourselves to making it a lived and living legacy by the way we live our lives, do our work and wage our struggles for good in the world. 

Let us first light the candle and lift up the lasting light of Umoja (Unity), the principle and practice which cultivates in us the will and way to think relationally and “to strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race” and ultimately the world. We speak here of building a satisfying and sustained sense and sanctuary of togetherness in love, life and struggle in our communities, of relating rightfully and with others, the natural world and all in it. 

Let us light the candle and lift up the lasting light of Kujichagulia (Self-determination) which teaches us “to define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves” and to respect the right and responsibility of other peoples to do the same. We speak here of freedom to be our beautiful African selves, our sacred and soulful Black selves in all our diversity, divineness, and transcendent, equal and inalienable dignity.  

And again, we uphold this principle and practice for everyone, especially the vulnerable, the devalued, downtrodden, oppressed, the victims of unfreedom, injustice and genocide in the world. 

Let’s light the candle and lift up the lasting light of Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility). It speaks to our building community together, sharing burdens and benefits and constantly striving and struggling to achieve the good world we all want and deserve to live in and leave as a legacy worthy of the name and history African.   

Let us light the candle and lift up the lasting light of the principle and practice of Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics). It speaks of shared work and shared wealth in the world, requiring a real sense of kinship with each other, other humans, the environment and our need to share common goods of the world and provide a life of dignity and decency and adequacy for everyone.   

Let us light the candle and lift up the lasting light of Nia (Purpose). It is a call to greatness by the doing of good in and for each other and the world. For it is written that “the wise are known for their wisdom, but the great are known by their good deeds.” So, we are to do good in the world and all in it. Indeed, our ancestors say, “the good we do for others we are also doing for ourselves.” For we are building the good world we all want and deserve to live in and pass on to future generations. 

Let us light the candle and lift up the lasting light of Kuumba (Creativity). This principle and practice are dedicated to the proposition that we are called “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.”  

And this speaks of our local and national community, and our world community as Africans, human beings and world beings. And we are to honor the ancient African ethical imperative of serudj ta, to constantly repair and remake the world, creating a new history and horizon of possibilities for us and all of humankind. 

Finally, let us light the candle and lift up the light that lasts of Imani (Faith) which calls us “to believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteous and victory of our struggle.” It teaches us especially to believe in our people’s capacity to be themselves and free themselves and wage the liberation struggles to achieve these interrelated, indivisible and inseparable goals. Nana Robert Sobukwe teaches us, that “we must embody our people’s aspirations.” And that “all we are required to do is to show the light and the masses will find the way.”  

Nana Ella Baker would later offer a similar teaching saying, “Give light and people will find the way.” And Nana Haji Malcolm tells and teaches us, we need the light, i.e., knowledge of the truth about the world and each other. But he especially stresses light about ourselves, which “creates understanding, love, patience and unity,” which are vital to family, community, life, and struggle.  

Grounded in these principles and practices, we can build a new future; weather the worst of winters; disperse and drive away darkness; and lift up the light that lasts of shared and inclusive good in the world. Indeed, if we read and believe the sacred narratives, the written, oral and living practice texts of our ancestors, Nanas Howard Thurman, Gwen Brooks and Nannie Burroughs, as well as of our people as a whole, we are assured that there is no winter we cannot weather; no storm we cannot ride out and remain intact; no whirlwind we cannot conduct our blooming in; and no impossible situation that will enfeeble or falsify our claim that we as a people specialize in the wholly impossible.  

 Heri za Kwanzaa. Happy Kwanzaa. 

 Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies, California State University-Long Beach; Executive Director, African American Cultural Center (Us); Creator of Kwanzaa; and author of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture and Essays on Struggle: Position and Analysis, www.OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org, www.MaulanaKarenga.org; www.AfricanAmericanCulturalCenter-LA.org; www.Us-Organization.org.  

Postal Service Issues Vibrant New Stamp to Honor Kwanzaa

The U.S. Postal Service continues its longstanding tradition of celebrating Kwanzaa, the annual Pan-African holiday that has united countless African American families and communities since its inception in 1966.

The first-day-of-issue event for the Kwanzaa stamp is free and open to the public. News of the stamp is being shared with the hashtag #KwanzaaStamp.

Who: Roderick Sallay, USPS director of legislative policy and strategic development

When: Wednesday, Sept. 25, at 12:30 p.m. EDT

Where:Sen. John Heinz History Center

1212 Smallman Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

RSVP: Attendees are encouraged to register at: usps.com/kwanzaastamp.

Background:

Kwanzaa, observed from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, celebrates family, community and culture. Rooted in ancient and modern first-harvest festivals, Kwanzaa incorporates traditions from across the African continent to foster unity and pride.

Centered around the holiday’s seven founding principles — unity (umoja), self-determination (kujichagulia), collective work and responsibility (ujima), cooperative economics (ujamaa), purpose (nia), creativity (kuumba), and faith (imani), the holiday emphasizes the rich heritage and aspirations of the African American community.

It is a festive time for rejoicing in the prospect of health, prosperity and good luck in the coming year. It is also a time for contemplation and recollection of past hardships, faced by both individuals and communities, and the ways in which history can inform and affect future happiness.

Ethel Kessler, an art director for USPS, designed the stamp with original artwork by Ehua Holmes.

The Kwanzaa stamp is being issued as a Forever stamp in panes of 20. This stamp will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce price.

2023 Kwanzaa message from its founder Dr. Maulana Karenga

Here is this years annual Kwanzaa message from its founder Dr. Maulana Karenga. This year his message is focused on Freedom, Justice and Peace: Principles and Practices For A New World.

Again, this year we wish for Africans everywhere throughout the world African community “Heri za Kwanzaa. Happy Kwanzaa.” And we bring and send greetings of celebration, solidarity and continued struggle for an inclusive and shared good in the world.

Also, in the still-held-high tradition of our ancestors, we wish for African peoples and all the peoples of the world all the good that heaven grants, the earth produces, and the waters bring forth from their depths. Hotep. Ase. Heri.

Moreover, among all the goods that are granted, given, and gained through ceaseless striving and righteous and relentless struggle, we wish, especially for our people and all other oppressed and struggling peoples of the world, the shared and indivisible goods of freedom, justice, and peace, deservedly achieved and enjoyed and passed on to future generations.

Indeed, we live in turbulent times of continuing unfreedom and oppression, the enduring evil of injustice and destructive conflicts, and unjust and genocidal war. And freedom, justice, and peace in the world and for the good of the world and all in it are urgent, essential, and indispensable.

Thus, we are morally called, commanded, and compelled to bear witness to truth and set the scales of justice in their proper place, especially among the voiceless and devalued, the downtrodden and defenseless, the oppressed, and the different and vulnerable. And we must do this not only through speech, but also in the way we live our lives, do our work, and wage our struggles for shared good in the world.

Kwanzaa was conceived and born in the womb, work, and transformative struggles of the Black Freedom Movement. And thus, its essential message and meaning was shaped and shared not only in sankofa initiatives of cultural retrieval, of the best of our views, values, and practices as African peoples.

It was also shaped by that defining decade of fierce strivings and struggles for freedom, justice and associated goods waged by Africans and other peoples of color all over the world in the 1960s. Kwanzaa thus came into being, grounded itself and grew as an act of freedom, an instrument of freedom, a celebration of freedom and a practice of freedom.

It was an act of self-determination and self-authorization; a means of cultivating and expanding consciousness and commitment; a righteous reveling in our recaptured sense of the sacredness, soulfulness, and beauty of our Black selves; and the practice of principles that engenders and sustains liberated and liberating ways to understand and assert ourselves in the world.

And at the heart of this liberated and liberating practice are the Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa and of Kawaida philosophy out of which I created both Kwanzaa and the Nguzo Saba. Kawaida defines itself as and strives mightily to bring forth the “the best of African sensibilities, thought and practice in constant exchange with the world” and thus is developed and directed in the interest of African and human good and the well-being of the world.

If we are to achieve these vital goods and the new world that their securing will require and reflect, then, we must have principles and practices that ground and direct us toward this noble and needed goal. And the Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles, offer us these principles and practices. Umoja (Unity) calls on us to work and struggle for principled, purposeful and practiced togetherness in freedom, justice and peace in our families, communities and the world. It stresses the ties that link us and cultivate in us sensitivity to each other, other humans and the world and all in it.

Indeed, it is expressed in the teaching of Nana Dr. Anna Julia Cooper who affirmed this ancient and African value. She says, “we take our stand on the solidarity of humanity, the oneness of life and the unnaturalness and injustice of all favoritism whether of sex, race, condition or country.”

Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) reaffirms the fundamental principle and practice of the right of every people to determine their own destiny and daily lives, to live free in their own place, space and time. And it reaffirms the right to resist all forms of unfreedom, injustice and oppression. It reaffirms Nana Haji Malcolm X’s teaching that “freedom is essential to life itself. Freedom is essential to the development of the human being. (And) If we don’t have freedom, we can never expect justice and equality.” Indeed, “only after freedom do justice and equality become a reality” in the fullest sense of the principle and practice.

Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) reminds us and reaffirms the enduring and essential truth that we must build the good world we all want and deserve. It teaches the centrality of togetherness in our constant quest for an inclusive freedom, justice, and peace. And it reaffirms the reality that only in collective work and responsibility can we achieve freedom, ensure justice, and build the peace and security of persons and peoples we all long and struggle for all over the world.

And as Nana Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune taught us, “Our task is to remake the world. It is nothing less than this.” And we must do this together, for freedom, justice, peace, and other goods are indivisible and they are vulnerable and unattainable in isolation.

And we know from the hard lessons of history and the irreducible requirements of our humanity that there can be no peace without justice, no justice without freedom and no freedom without the power, will and struggle of the peoples of the world to achieve and sustain these shared and vital goods.

Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) teaches us the principle and practice of shared work and shared wealth. Modeled on the shared harvest, it calls for cooperative work, respect of the rights of the workers and the needs of everyone for a life of dignity and economic security and the conditions and capacities to live a free, good, and meaningful life. It is rooted in the concept of kinship with and caring kindness toward others and the earth and cultivates a sensitivity for avoiding and resisting injuries to fellow humans and the natural world.

The principle and practice of Nia (Purpose) calls us to do good in and for the world, to pursue and practice freedom, justice, peace, caring, sharing and all that contributes to African and human good and the well-being of the world and all in it. Indeed, the ancestors teach us in the Odu Ifa that we should do things with joy for humans are divinely chosen and righteously challenged to do good in the world. And they remind us in the Husia that the good we do for others we are also doing for ourselves, for we are building the good and promising world we all want and deserve to live in and to leave as a storehouse of good for those who come after.

The principle and practice of Kuumba (Creativity) commits us to work and struggle for a new world and a new us that is rooted in the ancient African ethical imperative of serudj ta which is a moral obligation to constantly repair, renew and remake the world, making it more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it in the process and practice or repairing, renewing and remaking ourselves.

It teaches and urges us, in our relations with each other, others and the earth, to raise up what is in ruins, to repair what is damaged, to rejoin what is separated, to replenish what is depleted, to set right what is wrong, to strengthen what is weakened, and to make flourish that which is fragile, insecure and undeveloped.

And the principle and practice of Imani (Faith) teaches us to believe in the good and strive constantly to achieve it everywhere and in its most essential, inclusive and expansive forms. It reminds us that we must have faith in the future and the new world we seek to bring into being in order to imagine and build them.

And it is a faith that teaches us to believe that through hard work, long struggle and a whole lot of love and understanding, we can with other oppressed, struggling and progressive peoples reimagine and redraw the map of the world and put in place and develop conditions and capacities for everyone to live in dignity-affirming, life-enhancing and world-preserving ways and come into the fullness of themselves.

Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies, California State University-Long Beach; Executive Director, African American Cultural Center (Us); Creator of Kwanzaa; and author of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture and Essays on Struggle.

VP Kamala Harris statement on Kwanzaa 2023

VP Kamala Harris released the following statement via Twitter on Kwanzaa:

Growing up, Kwanzaa was always a special time where we would come together to celebrate culture, community, and family.

Sending my warmest wishes to all who are celebrating in the United States and around the world. May your days be filled with love and light.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) December 26, 2023