Kwanzaa, ‘Special Season and Celebration,’ Includes Remembrance, Reflection

A display for Kwanzaa including the Kinara and other symbols of the cultural holiday. Photo credit: @Adjoajo, via Wikimedia Commons

The seven-day African American festival of Kwanzaa began Saturday but in many cases celebrations had to be altered or moved online because of restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.

In San Diego, the WorldBeat Cultural Center will host its 40th Kwanzaa Celebration virtually.

Watch nightly through Wednesday on Facebook or YouTube as event begins at 7 p.m. each night with a traditional opening ceremony, drumming, guest speakers, music and dance performances and poetry readings.

In other adjustments due to the pandemic, the event known as the KwanZaa Gwaride Parade in South Los Angeles was billed this year as a motorcade.

The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach held a free virtual Kwanzaa event Saturday morning – it’s available on YouTube as well – featuring Baba the Storyteller, one of the few recognized U.S.-born practitioners of the ancient West African storytelling craft known as Jaliyaa.

The Robey Theatre Company’s virtual Kwanzaa celebration featuring musical and comedy performances can be seen on the group’s YouTube page.

The Robey Theatre Company is an award-winning Los Angeles arts organization. It was founded in 1994 by actors Danny Glover and Ben Guillory and named after renowned performer and activist Paul Robeson.

This year’s Kwanzaa theme, “Kwanzaa and the Well-Being of the World: Living and Uplifting the Seven Principles,” seeks “to call rightful attentiveness to the immediate and urgent need to be actively concerned and caring about the well-being of the world,” Kwanzaa creator Dr. Maulana Karenga wrote in his annual founder’s message.

Our Kwanzaa celebrations are one of my favorite childhood memories. The whole family would gather around across multiple generations and we’d tell stories and light the candles.

Whether you’re celebrating this year with those you live with or over Zoom, happy Kwanzaa! pic.twitter.com/21bzGHZpYe

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) December 26, 2021

Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Karenga, now chair of Africana Studies at Cal State Long Beach. He called it “an audacious act of self-determination.”

Karenga described Kwanzaa in the 2021 founder’s message as “a special season and celebration of our sacred and expansive selves as African people” and “a unique pan-African time of remembrance, reflection, reaffirmation, and recommitment.”

“It is a special and unique time to remember and honor our ancestors; to reflect on what it means to be African and human in the most expansive and meaningful sense; and to reaffirm the sacred beauty and goodness of ourselves and the rightfulness of our relentless struggle to be ourselves and free ourselves and contribute to an ever-expanding realm of freedom, justice and caring in the world,” Karenga wrote.

Kwanzaa’s focus is the “Nguzo Saba,” the Seven Principles – unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.

The seven symbols of Kwanzaa are the Kinara (candle holder), Mishumaa Saba (seven candles), Mkeka (mat), Mazao (crops), Muhindi (ears of corn), Kikombe Cha Umoja (a unity cup) and Zawadi (gifts).

During the week, a candelabrum called a Kinara is lit, and ears of corn representing each child in the family are placed on a traditional straw mat.

African foods such as millet, spiced pepper balls and rice are often served. Some people fast during the holiday, and a feast is often held on its final night.

A flag with three bars – red for the struggle for freedom, black for unity and green for the future – is sometimes displayed during the holiday.