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

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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.