Kwanzaa
"I'm still having trouble
with Hanukkah," a Texaco executive says on that controversial tape recording.
"Now we have Kwanzaa." Although his expression of concern may have been
extreme, that executive is not the only American confused about Kwanzaa. Each
year we hear more and more about this holiday. What is it, and where did it
come from?
Kwanzaa is a holiday
honoring African-American heritage and culture. Celebrated from Dec. 26
through Jan. 1, the holiday was created after the 1965 Watts riot by Maulana
Ron Karenga , a graduate student and black nationalist, who observed that
black Americans had no holiday of their own. In the 1960s, Karenga feuded
openly with other black leaders, and some of his followers were convicted in a
plot to assassinate members of the Black Panthers. In the 1970s, Karenga
himself was imprisoned for ordering and directing the torture of a young woman.
Now 54 years old, he is chair of Black Studies at California State University
in Long Beach. Last year, apparently rehabilitated in the eyes of many
African-American leaders, Karenga served on the national executive committee
for the Million Man March.
Karenga's
early attempts to popularize the holiday were directed at a relatively small
group of activists. Beginning in the late 1970s, however, Kwanzaa began to
attract coverage in the mainstream press . The attention grew as Karenga
modified his rhetoric to appeal to a broader audience, and as interest in
multiculturalism burgeoned in the late 1980s. Kwanzaa was taken up by
many in the expanding black middle class , whose buying power has
supported such marketing ventures as the "Kwanzaa Expos," convention-center
gatherings at which Afrocentric goods and art are sold.
Karenga took the holiday's name from the Swahili
phrase matunda yakwanza , meaning "first fruit." Swahili words were
chosen because the language, a hybrid of Arabic and Bantu tongues, is tied to
no particular African tribe. Although there are no directly analogous African
holidays, Karenga drew his inspiration from various African harvest festivals.
From these he extracted seven principles --unity, self-determination,
collective work, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. Each of
the holiday's seven days is meant to symbolize one of these principles.
The
central Kwanzaa ritual is candle lighting . First, the mkeka
(straw mat) is placed on the table, along with the kinara (candleholder)
and the mishumaa saba (seven candles). The three candles on the right in
the kinara are red, symbolizing the blood of the African people; the
three on the left are green, symbolizing the hope of new life; and the black
candle in the center represents the African people. Around the candles are
placed the mazeo (fruits), the vibunzi (an ear of corn for each
child in the family), the zawadi (gifts, preferably handmade), and the
kikombe cha umoja (cup) for shared juice or water.
On each day of the celebration, a child lights
the appropriate candle, and the principle for that day is discussed. The
highlight is the karamu, or feast, on Kuumba , Dec. 31. It
celebrates creativity, and is "an opportunity for a confetti storm of cultural
expression: dance and music, readings, remembrances," according to Eric Copage,
author of Kwanzaa: An African-American Celebration of Culture and
Cooking . The food can be highly symbolic. Angela Shelf Medearis, author of
a Kwanzaa cookbook, recommends the following karamu menu: Jambalaya
Salad, Moroccan Honey Chicken, New-Style Collard Greens, and Fruits of Africa
Pie.
How
widely celebrated is Kwanzaa? In Karenga's own words, "It's widespread
but not mainstream." Some enthusiasts, such as writer Linn Washington Jr., claim that Kwanzaa has as many as 13 million
celebrants, and the Detroit News reports that researchers estimate the
Kwanzaa-related market at $500 million annually. Despite Karenga's original
intention, Kwanzaa takes on a more commercial flavor every year. Hallmark makes
Kwanzaa cards, and there are Kwanzaa posters, books, CDs, and mass-produced
kinaras . But Kwanzaa was not intended to replace Christmas, and many
African-American families celebrate both holidays.
And Hanukkah ? It too, if not invented in the United
States, has taken on a different shape and gained importance here. Although
Hanukkah has been on the Jewish calendar for more than two millennia, it was,
until recently, a relatively minor holiday. The pressures of Christmas,
however, have elevated Hanukkah for many Jewish families to eight days of
celebration and gift-giving. (A new book maintains that even Christmas is a
trumped-up holiday. See "Summary Judgment.")
Hanukkah
commemorates the victory in 165 B.C. of a small band of Jews, led by Judas
Maccabaeus, over the Greeks who ruled Palestine at the time. The Jews reclaimed
the Temple from the Greeks, and rededicated it as their place of worship. But
they had only one day's supply of oil to light the flame, which was supposed to
burn constantly. Miraculously, the flame burned for eight days and nights,
until the oil supply was replenished. Following the rebellion, the kingdom of
Israel was restored for 200 years.
Some Kwanzaa rituals, most notably the focus on
candles, seem to have been borrowed from Hanukkah. The center of the eight-day
Hanukkah celebration is the nightly family gathering to light candles in a
candelabra known as the "menorah." Oily foods, particularly latkes (potato
pancakes), are served during dinner to symbolize the Temple miracle. By
tradition, family members play with the dreidel , a four-sided spinning
top, and children receive Hanukkah gelt (chocolate coins covered with gold
foil) and other presents.
Unlike
Kwanzaa, Hanukkah enjoys no agreed-upon spelling in English. The most
common variant is "Chanukah," reflecting the proper pronunciation of the
opening consonant, which is like the "ch" in "Bach." The spelling employed in
this article is from The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual ,
Slate's guide in such matters.
References:
If you'd
like to know more about Kwanzaa, you can read The Complete Kwanzaa:
Celebrating our Cultural Harvest , by Dorothy Winbush Riley; A Kwanzaa
Keepsake: Celebrating the Holiday With New Traditions and Feasts , by
Jessica B. Harris; or Merry Christmas, Baby: A Christmas and Kwanzaa
Treasury , edited by Felix H. Liddell and Paula L. Woods. Karenga, Kwanzaa's
creator, has also written two books on the celebration, Kwanzaa: Origin,
Concepts, Practice and The African American Celebration of Kwanzaa: A
Celebration of Family, Community & Culture . And Anna Day Wilde
describes how the holiday gained popularity in "Mainstreaming Kwanzaa," in
Public Interest , No. 119, Spring 1995.
