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

VP Kamala Harris statement on Kwanzaa 2022

Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff released the following statement on Kwanzaa 2022:

When I was growing up, Kwanzaa was a special time in our home. Today, my family and I are reflecting on the seven principles. Happy Kwanzaa! pic.twitter.com/w1pFOIUU9G

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) December 26, 2022

Annual Founder’s Kwanzaa Message From Maulana Karenga

The following is the 2021 Annual Founder’s Kwanzaa Message From Maulana Karenga:

“Practicing Kwanzaa and the Seven Principles: Ensuring the Well-Being of the World”

Heri za Kwanzaa.

Happy Kwanzaa to African people everywhere throughout the world African community. We bring and send you Kwanzaa greetings of celebration, solidarity and continued struggle for a shared good in the world. And in the words and way of our ancestors, we wish for you all things good, pure and beautiful, all the good that heaven grants, the earth produces and the waters bring forth from their depths. Hotep. Ashe. Heri.

This season and celebration of Kwanzaa on its 55^th anniversary comes at a time when humanity and the world are in crisis: the pandemic of Covid-19 with all its destructive and deadly variants; erosion of the concept and practice of democracy; failed economies; continuing conflict and war and resultant massive displacement of peoples, famine and increased suffering. And there is continuing environmental degradation, climate change, extreme weather events, rising sea levels, destruction of species and species habitats, increased pollution, disappearance of the arctic ice, and the threatened loss of  island nations.

As a pan-African holiday with ancient agricultural origins, Kwanzaa celebrates the good of the earth and carries within it a commitment to protect, preserve and share this good. And Kwanzaa’s modern origins in the Black Freedom Movement commits it to the achievement of liberation and social justice. Thus, in Kawaida philosophy, out of which Kwanzaa and the Nguzo Saba were created, environmental justice and social justice are inseparably linked in the moral imperative to achieve and ensure African and human good and the well-being of the world.

Dr. Wangari Maathai gave her life to the practice of joining the struggle for social justice with the struggle for environmental justice. She also understood that we need not sacrifice the good of human beings for the well-being of the world nor sacrifice the well-being of the world for the good of human beings. What is called for is a complementary justice; where justice for one is conceived and practiced with and through justice for both. She speaks of how in the uncritical acceptance of colonialism’s views and values about the earth “hallowed landscapes lost their sacredness and were exploited as the people became insensitive to the destruction, accepting it as progress.” Thus, she calls for an expansion of “democratic space” in which the people make decisions in their own interests, rediscover their voices and values, and rebuild their social and natural world in rightful, effective and mutually beneficial ways.

Long before the concept and call of environmentalism emerged, the brilliant scientist and chemurgist, Nana Dr. George Washington Carver, was an environmentalist concerned about both social justice and the well-being of the world. He taught that we should respect ourselves and others and he asked us to “neither look up to the rich nor down on the poor.” Rather we are to aid “the little and lowly people” in their struggles to overcome poverty and oppression and live lives of dignity and decency. Moreover, he taught us to love nature, listen to its speech, and learn its language and lessons for the good of humans and the world. And he asks us not to hoard, monopolize or be greedy in relation to the good of the world, but to be those “who take (their) share of the world and let other people have theirs.”

The concept and practice of saving and sustaining the world is unavoidably linked to humans equitably sharing the world and doing what ensures the well-being of the world. And the Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles, offers us a clear foundation and way forward for this. And thus, we are urged to relate rightfully, act justly and walk gently and humbly on the earth. The principle and practice of Umoja (Unity), teaches an ever-expanding sense of self through our sense of oneness with others and the world. With others we are fellow human beings (watu) with obligations of mutual respect, reciprocal solidarity and cooperation for common good. And in our relationship with the world, we are world beings (walimwengu), deeply embedded in the natural as well as social world, interrelated, interdependent and unavoidably responsible for the health, wholeness and well-being of both. Thus, we understand that damage to the world is damage to us and ecocide is a form of genocide, the end of all.

The principle and practice of Kujichagulia (Self-determination), as Nana Haji Malcolm teaches us, is “to see for yourself and listen for yourself and think for yourself.” And this is to be done, not in isolation, but in community and in the midst of struggle for justice, freedom and good in the world. It means not being satisfied with prevailing established order thought, but doing deep thinking about the current conditions and future of the world, and as the ancestors taught: think deep about what is good for the people and for the future of the world.

The principle and practice of Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) urges acceptance of the shared responsibility to work together for good in the world, the good of freedom, justice, equity, peace, mutual caring and cooperation and building the good world we all want and deserve and leave as a legacy worthy of the name African and human. It is a work and struggle that require a genuine and sustained moral sensitivity to others, their aspirations for the good as well as an ethical commitment to the well-being of the world and to the struggle to achieve both.

Upholding the principle and practice of Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) teaches us the essential value of shared work and shared wealth and the right of everyone to a life of dignity and decency. It urges us to cultivate a kinship in and with the world, to reject artificially created conflicts between a robust economy and a rightful relationship with the environment. And it teaches respect of the earth as shared sacred space and common good, not to be plundered, polluted and depleted by corporation greed and aggression and consumerist consumption without consideration of consequences to the world.

In embracing the principle and practice of Nia (Purpose), we foreground and foster the ancient moral teaching of the Odu Ifa that we should do things with joy “for surely humans have been divinely chosen to bring good into the world.” And this is the fundamental mission and meaning of human life. And it reminds us that even as we are chosen by history and heaven to bring good into the world, we must also choose to do it. It means audaciously choosing the good for the world and acting accordingly. This means choosing in thought and practice love over hate, peace over war, freedom over unfreedom, justice over injustice, sharing over hoarding, and liberation from oppressions of all kinds, forms and fashions.

The principle and practice of Kuumba (Creativity) invites and urges us to work and struggle mightily for communities, societies and a world more beautiful and beneficial than the ones we inherited. It raises up the ancient African ethical imperative of the Husia to practice serudj ta, i.e.,  to constantly repair, renew and remake the world. We are to see this repair, renewal and remaking as both a social initiative and an environmental one. For again, the issues, impact and outcomes are interrelated and interdependent. Thus, we must, in our relations with each other, other humans, and the natural world: raise up what is ruins; repair what is damaged; rejoin what is separated; replenish what is depleted, strengthen what is weakened; set right what is wrong; and make firm and flourish that which is fragile, insecure and underdeveloped.

Finally, the principle and practice of Imani (Faith) teaches us and urges us to believe in our people, in the good we seek, strive and struggle for and in our capacity to achieve and share it. And we must believe in the righteousness and victory of our struggle to bring and sustain good in the world. It also urges us to believe in the coming good of the future and our young peoples’ will, consciousness, capacity and commitment to forge it and to share it equitably and caringly. For we and they and what we do during this crisis and long after are actually the future unfolding through the transformative power of righteous and relentless struggle, “to bring good in the world and not let any good be lost,” as our honored ancestors taught us.

Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris Kwanzaa Message

Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris delivered a message to all who celebrate Kwanzaa, on this the first day of the seven day holiday. Watch her video below:

The Principles of Kwanzaa: Day Seven IMANI

Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder, Maulana Karenga called the seven principles of Kwanzaa, or Nguzo Saba (originally Nguzu Saba – the seven principles of African Heritage), which Karenga said "is a communitarian African philosophy," consisting of what Karenga called "the best of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world." They were developed in 1965, a year before Kwanzaa itself. These seven principles comprise Kawaida, a Swahili word meaning "common". Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the seven.

On this, the seventh day of Kwanzaa the days principle is IMANI.

Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Kwanzaa is a secular festival observed by many African Americans from December 26 to January 1 as a celebration of their cultural heritage and traditional values.

The principles of Kwanzaa: Day Six KUUMBA

Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder, Maulana Karenga called the seven principles of Kwanzaa, or Nguzo Saba (originally Nguzu Saba – the seven principles of African Heritage), which Karenga said "is a communitarian African philosophy," consisting of what Karenga called "the best of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world." They were developed in 1965, a year before Kwanzaa itself. These seven principles comprise Kawaida, a Swahili word meaning "common". Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the seven.

On this, the sixth day of Kwanzaa the days principle is Kuumba.

Kuumba (Creativity): 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.

Kwanzaa is a secular festival observed by many African Americans from December 26 to January 1 as a celebration of their cultural heritage and traditional values.