Kwanzaa is a secular, sevular, seven-day African American and pan-African celebration of community, culture, and family. Kwanzaa is celebrated every year from Dec. 26 through Jan. 1.
This year, Kwanzaa will be celebrated in Wayne on Sunday, Dec. 17, at the newly formed Freedom Park Shelter House (former swimming pool) from noon to 2 p.m.
Kuumba - creativity - will be the theme and Benin, a West African country, will be highlighted this year.
Dr. Darius Agoumba, a chemistry professor at Wayne State College, will give a short presentation about his home country of Benin. There will be African food, music, and artwork at this year's celebration. It is free and open to the public.
All are encouraged to "Come ready to learn, dance, sing, eat and enjoy great fellowship."
The Kwanzaa holiday was created in response to the 1965 Watts Riots in Los Angeles by Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor and chairman of Aficana Studies at California State University. He created this holiday, first celebrated in 1966, as a way to bring African Americans together as a community.
The name Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase Matunda ya kwanza which means first fruits, or harvest, in Swahili. An extra "a" was added to the name to represent the following seven principles of Kwanzaa:
1. Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
2. Kujichagulia (Self-determination): To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves.
3. Ujima (Collective work and responsibility): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
5. Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
6. Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
7. Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
Kwanzaa celebrations generally incled artistic expressions such as singing, dancing, storytelling, poetry reading, African drumming, and, of course, a lot of good food.
That Ain't Right (TAR) is a social organization, formed in Wayne NE in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. TAR is a group of like-minded individuals dedicated to bringing awareness of issues that African Americans face in the Untied States and the World. TAR has been celebrating Kwanzaa, along with Juneteenth, since 2020 when the group was first formed. The celebration has taken place at multiple places around Wayne, including ZOOM during COVID.
