An Ujimaa Quest for a Kwanzaa Jubilee | Part 2

To truly understand where this quest for a Kwanzaa Jubilee is going, we must understand where Kwanzaa began. There is virtually no difference in stories told about how the holiday was created by the people involved. They agree that in late 1965 or early 1966, Terry (Baraka) Damu, the nine-year old daughter of an Us Organization (Us) member made a frustrated observation that Black people did not have our own holiday. According to their stories, young Terry insisted that since everybody else had a holiday, Black people should have a holiday, too.

Soon after, Dr. Maulana Karenga organized a monthslong research effort within Us where Kwanzaa was conceived and defined, leading to its first celebration in December 1966 at an apartment home in Los Angeles.

Dr. Karenga has acknowledged former Us members for assisting him in creating Kwanzaa in writings and published interviews dating back to the holiday’s founding. In his widely used textbook titled – "Introduction to Black Studies" – he writes that – “Us’ and Maulana Karenga’s most widely known creations are the pan-African holiday Kwanzaa and the Nguzo Saba (The Seven Principles).” But in the very next sentence, he writes that the holiday was “Created by Karenga in 1966,” leaving the impression he created the holiday by himself.

He adds to the perception Kwanzaa was a solo project in his writings, lectures, and remarks. This includes a recent far-reaching online interview (4/22 – 1:28:40) where he quickly dismisses the suggestion a committee within his organization, Us, helped to create Kwanzaa, without sharing clarifying details. Even with that statement, I find it hard to believe he would deny former Us members helped him to create Kwanzaa, because he has acknowledged this before.

Because of his prior work, Dr. Karenga met Terry Damu’s call for a Black holiday with a level of preparedness that made him a natural choice to lead the effort to create Kwanzaa and contribute its major ideas. But even as its primary contributor, he did not create the holiday alone. Whether they were helping him to create the holiday, or helping as an independent act, other people were involved.

It is more consistent with the ethics of sharing, the communal nature of African culture, and the Seven Principles themselves for Kwanzaa to have been created as an act of Umoja (Unity) and Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) as compared to an independent act.

As shown in an online interview produced by the Black Power Archives Oral History Project from the Ethel and Tom Bradley Center at California State University Northridge , former Us member, Kicheko Davis, shares her memory of how Kwanzaa was created. Her story aligns with others as she describes how young Terry (Baraka) Damu inspired a small research effort within Us.

In a January 1968 interview published in the Howard University newspaper, The Hilltop , Dr. Karenga makes a direct reference to the small group that worked with him to create the Black holiday young Terry asked for. In response to a question about the origins of Kwanzaa, he said –

“[W]e did some research and found a Zulu custom where people came together to celebrate for about a week around the first of the year. The Zulu word was too hard for most people to pronounce, so we translated it into Swahili. This is how ‘Kwanza[a]” came about.”

In those words and elsewhere, he acknowledges other Us members who assisted him in creating Kwanzaa. As it occurred, a larger group participated in formal and informal discussions while a smaller, focused group conducted research to help define the rituals and practices for this new holiday.

As time passed and most members left the organization, Dr. Karenga emerged to lead a restored Us and became recognized as the holiday’s sole creator. He rightfully has permanent claim as lead creator of Kwanzaa. Acknowledging other contributors would project the shared good of Kwanzaa at the highest level and would contribute to this effort to expand our understanding.

There would be a whole new energy and a range of inspiring, new conversations to be had about Kwanzaa based on nine-year old Terry Damu contributing to and inspiring its creation. That would be among many new conversations we could have about Kwanzaa by talking about some of the other people who contributed to its creation.

The initial primary focus of this expanded understanding will center around then nine-year-old Terry Damu – who is now a respected elder approaching her seventh decade. Our efforts to reach her, so far, have been unsuccessful. But we humbly wish she learns about our work and will choose to share her story with us.

Those who support this idea of a Kwanzaa Jubilee agree that recognizing other people for their role in helping to create Kwanzaa will lead to more people learning about and embracing Kwanzaa. We also think it would be of measurable benefit to Dr. Karenga, too, in his quest to ”stand worthy before our people” – and in the lifelong assignment he has accepted to develop and share knowledge so his name will be remembered for all eternity.

This call for a 60th Anniversary Kwanzaa Jubilee will be introduced this year by the Afrikan Restoration Project / Los Angeles and the Inland Area Kwanzaa Group from Rialto, CA in partnership with Alkebulan Village from Detroit, MI. The first scheduled event will take place at Alkebulan Village on Friday, December 9, 2023 with the Inland Area Kwanzaa Group sponsoring a second online event on Thursday, December 28, 2023. We ask all other people and organizations to join us if they see value in our work.

We will promote a new level of activity around Kwanzaa starting this year that will hopefully result in increased positive engagement with the holiday and the Nguzo Saba for years to come. Our goals include expanding the online presence of Kwanzaa and the Seven Principles with related discussions, activities, and range of new digital products and manufactured items that we produce. We will assess our progress during the 58th and 59th Kwanzaa season leading up to the 60th Anniversary Kwanzaa Jubilee where we intend to have meaningful growth to celebrate.

It is our highest aspiration to accomplish these goals, hoping Dr. Karenga and all who helped him create this wonderful holiday will ultimately be pleased with our efforts enough to support and participate in them. He has previously expressed support for these plans to expand the online presence of Kwanzaa thru efforts outside of his organization. Those plans were detailed in an essay I wrote in 2020 at his request titled “Kawaida Imperatives for Current and Emerging Technology Demands.” I will share portions of that essay in blog posts on our website.