Understanding the Seven Kwanzaa Principles

The Kwanzaa principles are a set of seven ideas that are honored during the seven-day Kwanzaa celebration. These seven principles cover qualities that are important to African American culture.

The Purpose of Kwanzaa
According the official website, Kwanzaa, which is celebrated each year between December 26 and January 1, was established to reinforce basic principles in African culture. The principles include an emphasis on family and a respect for community and culture. Recently the scope of Kwanzaa has expanded to include people of all backgrounds who feel these principles are important.

An Explanation of Each Kwanzaa Principle
The principles are referred to by their Swahili names during Kwanzaa celebrations. The use of Swahili in the holiday is part of the attempt to connect with traditional African culture. The principles are called "Nguzo Saba" or "The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa." Originally they were termed "Nguzu Saba" or "The Seven Principles of Blackness." According the founder of Kwanzaa, they comprise a communitarian African philosophy. Together, they are referred to as Kawaida, which means tradition and reason in Swahili.

Umoja: The first principle is Umoja (unity). This is described as maintaining the unity of family, community, nation and race. In the candle-lighting ceremony, it is represented by the black candle, which is lit the first night of Kwanzaa.

Kujichagulia, Ujima and Ujamaa: The next three principles are represented by the red candles in the ceremony and are lit on three successive nights following the black candle. The second principle is Kujichagulia (self determination) which is the commitment for African Americans to define themselves, name themselves, create for themselves and speak for themselves. Ujima (collective work and responsibility) is a dedication to build and maintain a community together and to make individuals' problems into collective problems that can be solved together. Finally Ujamaa (cooperative economics) is a promise to build and maintain businesses and to profit from them as a community.

Nia, Kuumba and Imani: The next three principles are represented by the green candles in the candle-lighting ceremony. The green candles are lit on successive nights after the red candles. Nia (purpose) is "to make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community to restore our people to their traditional greatness." Kuumba is creativity. This principle is defined as "doing as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it." Imani is faith and is a promise to believe in people, parents, teachers, leaders and in the victory over struggle.