Malcolm X College kicks off its annual day-long Kwanzaa celebration Dec. 29 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., with a procession and drum call at noon.
There will be live performances and shopping, courtesy of local artisans. Performer include Najwa Dance Corps, Dee Alexander and the A Team, Armen Rah, Ugochi and the Muntu Dance Theatre.
The event is free and open to the public and will be held on the first floor of 1900 W. Jackson St.
Kwanza is an annual celebration of African-American culture that is held from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. It was created by Maulana Karenga and is rooted in the African harvest festival traditions from various countries.
Kwanzaa, first celebrated in 1966, is based on seven principles of Kwanzaa, or Nguzo Saba. These seven principles comprise Kawaida, a Swahili word meaning “common.”
Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the principles:
- Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
- Kujichagulia (self-determination): To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves.
- Ujima (collective work and responsibility): To build and maintain our community together, and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems and to solve them together.
- Ujamaa (cooperative economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
- Nia (purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
- 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.
- 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.
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