Kwanzaa Culinarians

Recipes and Food Stories from the African Diaspora

The Principles of Kwanzaa

Show your support of KwanzaaCulinarians.com by updating your social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and so forth) with the name of your favorite ingredient from the glossary of African Heritage ingredients (courtesy of Oldwayspt.org). Next to your favorite ingredient, post one of the seven principles, listed below, you aspire to reflect about this month and into the New Year.

December 26: Umoja (oo-MOH-ja)
Unity, Building a community that holds together

December 27: Kujichagulia (koo-jee-cha-goo-LEE-yah)
Self-Determination, Speaking for yourself and making choices that benefit the community

December 28: Ujima (oo-JEE-mah)
Collective Work and Responsibility, Helping others within the community

December 29: Ujamaa (oo-JAH-ma)
Cooperative Economics, Supporting businesses that care about the community

December 30: Nia (nee-AH)
A Sense of Purpose, Setting goals that benefit the community

December 31: Kuumba (koo-OOM-bah)
Creativity, Making the community better and more beautiful

January 1: Imani (ee-MAH-nee)
Faith, Believing that a better world can be created for communities now and in the future

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Learn more about Kwanzaa

The word "Kwanzaa" comes from the phrase, "matunda ya kwanza" which means "first-fruits." Kwanzaa's extra "a" evolved as a result of a particular history of the Organization Us. It was clone as an expression of African values in order to inspire the creativity of our children. In the early days of Us, there were seven children who each wanted to represent a letter of Kwanzaa. Since kwanza (first) has only six letters, we added an extra "a" to make it seven, thus creating "Kwanzaa." To learn more about Kwanzaa, visit the Official Kwanzaa Website.