Kwanzaa Culinarians

Recipes and Food Stories from the African Diaspora

Out of Our Past

“We begin with history” – Dr. Nikky Finney, Nation al Book Awards opening line from her 2011 Acceptance Speech In preparing for this year’s Kwanzaa Culinarians, I reread some of … Continue reading →

December 29, 2014
West African Mafé

West African Mafé by Nadine Nelson

By Nadine Nelson of Global Local Gourmet As we all know, African Americans and all Black people throughout the world originated from the continent of Africa and most specifically from the … Continue reading →

December 22, 2014
Chicken Yassa PictureBy Steven “Konata” Allwood

Putting Africa on the Culinary Map

By Steven “Konata” Allwood There was a moment in episode 12 of Top Chef Season 8 (Top Chef: All Stars) that I’m sure went unnoticed by the vast majority of … Continue reading →

December 28, 2012 · 5 Comments
Braised Oxtails and Collards - Kwanzaa Culinarians

Emme Ribeiro of Food Samba Celebrates Umoja

Emme Ribeiro is a chef and blogger based in Seattle, Washington. She began her website, FoodSamba.com, with a mission to inspire people to take their ordinary recipes and turn them … Continue reading →

December 26, 2011 · 1 Comment

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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.