Symbol Seven: Seven Candles/ Mishuuma Saba- “Seven Principles”

The Seven Candles represent the life-affirming values of the 7 Principles. Kwanzaa was created to introduce and reinforce these seven values. Each day of Kwanzaa one of the Seven Principles is highlighted and celebrated. Each candle represents one of the seven days and seven principles of Kwanzaa. There is one black candle and three red and green candles. The lighting of the candle is significant and meaningful. The candles are lit in a designated order. (See Kwanzaa DVD for a more detailed explanation).

Explanation: The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa seek to fashion the moral and social fabric of African Americans thereby creating the conditions and institutions, beginning with the family and for family restoration, personal excellence, and community well-being.

These seven interlocking values furnish African Americans with a much-needed values structure which to order their lives. Too, these principles give black people a shared identity, shared purpose, and shared ends and goals.

Kwanzaa Supplemental Symbols

Kwanzaa has two supplemental symbols- the Bendera and Nguzo Saba Poster. These Kwanzaa symbols are optional.

Optional Symbol: Flag/Bendera- African American National Flag

This Kwanzaa symbol represents the African American national flag, the black red and green.

Explanation: The color of the flag has significance and meaning: black is symbolic of black people, red is represents struggle or continuous effort and green is represents the future. The color scheme is instructive for African Americans: the future of black people is dependent on the effort or struggle they advance. Without struggle or effort, there will be no progress for African Americans

Optional Symbol: 7 Principle Poster/Nguzo Saba Poster- Life Affirming Values

This Kwanzaa symbol reinforces the 7 Principle of Kwanzaa.

Explanation: The 7 Principles are an instrument of cohesion and a factor ordering the commitment and priorities for black people. To be sure, these principles give priority to duties and obligations concerned with the common and good and the well-being of the family and community, and considers duty as the moral tone, as the supreme principle of morality.

Kwanzaa symbols make up the “Kwanzaa Set” and are essential to the Kwanzaa celebration. Kwanzaa symbols reinforce the values, concepts and themes of the Kwanzaa holiday. The symbols also are instructive, furnishing lessons and narratives which can serve as powerful illustrations in support of an enriched social, moral and intellectual development.

Symbol Five: Unity Cup/Kikombe Cha Umoja- Harmony and Togetherness

This symbol reinforces the first Kwanzaa principle, Unity/Umoja. During Kwanza, family members often drink from the unity cup as a means of displaying their commitment to fostering togetherness and harmony in the family.

Explanation: Unity is one of the foundational principles of the family and community life, with harmony and the harmonization of everyone’s voice and interest being a key factor in the practice of unity. Moreover, this symbol encourages the reinforcement of the bonds of affection which tie and tether family members to the family and a whole.

For family in general, but African Americans in particular, family togetherness is a core ingredient to restoring the family and making it an effective unity of socialization. The African proverb, “the ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its people,” can not be repeated enough. For without the restoration of the black family, the future for African Americans is bleak and futile. Key to their future is keeping the family together. That is why at Kwanzaa families drink from the unity cup to reinforce the bonds which tie them together.

Kwanzaa symbols make up the “Kwanzaa Set” and are essential to the Kwanzaa celebration. Kwanzaa symbols reinforce the values, concepts and themes of the Kwanzaa holiday. The symbols also are instructive, furnishing lessons and narratives which can serve as powerful illustrations in support of an enriched social, moral and intellectual development.

Symbol Four: Corn/Muhindi- Children

This is Kwanzaa symbol represents children. All families regardless of whether they have children place ears of corn on the Kwanzaa “Mat” in recognition that we all are collectively responsible for the care, welfare, and development of children.

Explanation: Kwanzaa emphasizes the value and preciousness of children. As mentioned above, all families place an ear of corn on the Kwanzaa “Mat” as a commitment, duty, and obligation to care for and nurture children, non biological as well as biological. This concept and practice of all adults in the community being collectively responsible for children is rooted in the African model of parenting. Both the Southern African American traditional parenting model the model in Africa, see children as belonging  to the community; hence, the adults in the community have an obligation to parent. The African proverb, therefore advises that “It take a village to raise a child.” One of the benefits and strength of this model is the number of adults in the environment of children who are able to nurture and care for their needs.

Adama and Naomi Doumbia explain in Africa, children “have more than one set of parents and know many women as mother and many men as father.” In this parenting approach, the child grows up experiencing and knowing that all adults are responsibility for his/her well-being, and that support does not rest solely with his/her parents. So that “what fathers can not offer, uncles will. What mothers can not give sisters and cousins and others will. Consequently, children in this model begin life with an enlarged sense of belonging and significance.”

Put another way, African American adults are responsible for the success and failure of black children. Here, the Kwanzaa principle Ujima is clear and instructive: The well-being and performance of African American children is derived from and made possible by the adults in the families and communities of the children; that the lives of every child and that of the adults  are bound together;  that the success of any one their lives is an aspect of and dependent on the goodness and responsibility of the adults in the community; and that finally, there can be no private accounting of the success or failure of their individual lives one by one independent of the adults in the community.

Thus, again, this model of parenting and child care provides the context for the wholesome development of children. In that all adults share in the instruction, support and nurturing of children, no child grow without love and guidance, affirming and fastening the bonds of affection and parenting.

Kwanzaa symbols make up the “Kwanzaa Set” and are essential to the Kwanzaa celebration. Kwanzaa symbols reinforce the values, concepts and themes of the Kwanzaa holiday. The symbols also are instructive, furnishing lessons and narratives which can serve as powerful illustrations in support of an enriched social, moral and intellectual development.

Symbol Three Candleholder/Kinara: Honoring Our Parent People

Explanation: The Kwanzaa symbol Candleholder/Kinara African Americans represents our parent people. By definition, African Americans are African people, hence; our historical origins are in Africa. Continental African people are our parent people. That is to say, our point of historical origins as a people, despite our current location in America, is Africa. During Kwanzaa, we acknowledge and honor our parent people, all Continental African peoples, and are reminded of the African proverb which says: “A man/woman who pays respect to the great (our parent people) paves the way for his/her own greatness.”

So, Africans on the continent are our parent people and are an extension of our first ancestors. Our ancestor made it possible for us to live today. They, have contribute, as is true of our more immediate ancestors on the American continent, to human civilization and human progress. At the dawn of human civilization, there were the ancient Africans who called themselves Kemites (the “black face”) or Egyptians. The introduce to  humanity mathematics, science, ethics, and religion medicine, engineering and writing. The Moors they laid the foundation of a new civilization for Europe through Spain: introducing and building 800 public schools, 900 public baths, several colleges and universities, and over 4000 public markets, and the Moorish architecture, commonly referred to as Spanish architecture in Southwest America.

Given the role that those who have come before us have played in human civilization, the great African ancient Egyptian teacher and leader Kheti reminds us to: “Follow in the footsteps of your ancestors, for the mind is trained through knowledge.” Thus, we honor at Kwanzaa we honor our ancestors and appreciate them for the life they gave us and the ways they continue to instruct and nurture us. Too, we pour libation and make a statement in their honor:

We call upon our ancestors far and near, Fathers of our fathers, mothers of our mothers, to bear witness to what we have done, and by their example, to continue to inspire us to make progress, and achieve morally and socially at our highest potential. We pour this libation to bring into our midst their venerable spirit, radiating their great wisdom, courage, dedication, and unyielding commitment to live ethical and productive lives. It is in honor of them that we pour this libation.

HAPPY KWANZAA

Kwanzaa symbols make up the “Kwanzaa Set” and are essential to the Kwanzaa celebration. Kwanzaa symbols reinforce the values, concepts and themes of the Kwanzaa holiday. The symbols also are instructive, furnishing lessons and narratives which can serve as powerful illustrations in support of an enriched social, moral and intellectual development. The first day of Kwanzaa, the symbols are identified and discussed. This provides a learning opportunity for all family members.

Symbol Two: Crops/Mazao- Collective Achievements

Explanation: The Kwanzaa symbol “Crops/Mazao” represents the collective achievements of the family, neighborhood, and African Americans. This symbol is also representative of the historical foundation and theme- “First Fruits” celebrations- of the Kwanzaa holiday. Families should discuss and celebrate the school performance and achievements and moral behavior.

The Kwanzaa practice of reflecting on and celebrating family accomplishments comes out of the “First Fruits” celebrations in traditional African societies where the communities as a whole worked (Ujima) to harvest the crops at the end of the year. The amount of work families and communities put into harvesting the crops as well as investing in the well-being of their communities was the key factors in the realization of a prosperous harvest. As modern day people, the crops for us are the outcome of our labor and service. The knowledge and effort which we apply to our labor and service, like that in traditional African societies, will determine quality and quantity of our outcomes (healthy families, thriving children, safe and supportive neighborhoods, successful schools).

For the family in general, it’s a time to celebrate what the family, individually and collectively, have accomplished, reinforcing the values and practices which made their accomplishment possible. Similarly, school may celebrate the achievements of individual students as well as that of the classroom or school.

As for this symbol, families should underscore that the productive harvest, i.e., the rewards, are the result of collective work and effort. Hence, the productive yield is directly related to the Kwanzaa principles Unity/Umoja, Collective Work and Responsibility/Ujima, and Cooperative Economic/Ujamaa. The Crops/Mazao symbol, consequently, presents and excellent opportunity to reinforce the lessons derived from the Kwanzaa color pattern-black, red, and green.

HAPPY KWANZAA

The Mat/Mkeka

Kwanzaa symbols make up the “Kwanzaa Set” and are essential to the Kwanzaa celebration. Kwanzaa symbols reinforce the values, concepts and themes of the Kwanzaa holiday. The symbols also are instructive, furnishing lessons and narratives which can serve as powerful illustrations in support of an enriched social, moral and intellectual development. There are 7 essential symbols and two optional ones.

Symbol One: Mat/Mkeka - Tradition and History

Explanation: This Kwanzaa symbol is symbolic of the tradition and history for African Americans both on the continent of Africa and in the United States. All Kwanzaa symbols are placed on the mat. This symbol instructs African Americans to ground their worldview and practice in their cultural traditions and history.  Tradition is a historically extended socially embedded narrative about the systems of though (moral, social and political) and social practice of a specific people. Hence, the practice of tradition reinforces the shared understanding of African Americans, i.e., their collective identity and makes more probable and possible the practice of the 7 Principles.

Moreover, all of the Kwanzaa items are placed on the “mat” as a reminder and reinforcement that African Americans have a duty to know, think, act, and build upon (the Self-Determination/Kujichagulia principle) their cultural and takes their social and political/economy glues from their history. During Kwanzaa, family members engage in a robust discussion on African American history and culture. We study and honor African American History to learn its lessons, honor its heroes and heroines, and emulate its spirit.

The Ghanaian word Sankofa which literally means “to go back and get it,” highlights and stresses the importance of tradition. The symbols for Sankofa depicts a mythical bird flying forward with its head turned backward. The egg in its mouth represents the “gems” or knowledge of the past upon which wisdom is based; it also signifies the generation to come that would benefit from that wisdom. This symbol often is associated with the proverb, “Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi,” which translates to, “It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten.” The Akan believe that the past illuminates the present and that the search for knowledge is a life-long process. The pictograph illustrates the quest for knowledge, while the proverb suggests the rightness of such a quest as long as it is based on knowledge of the past.

HAPPY KWANZAA