The African American Leadership Council of United Way of Anderson County presents Kwanzaa Expo 2014 on December 27th from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
The event is sponsored by Mainstream Therapeutic Services and Urban League of The Upstate, and it will be held at the Westside Community Center. There will be many vendors on hand selling and showcasing unique products and services.
Performing at the event will be Wona Womanlan West African Drum & Dance Ensemble from Charleston, SC.
Created by Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair Department of Africana Studies – California State University, Long Beach in 1966. Kwanzaa is an African American and Pan-African holiday which celebrates family, community and culture. Celebrated from 26 December thru 1 January, its origins are in the first harvest celebrations of Africa from which it takes its name. The name Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase “matunda ya kwanza” which means “first fruits” in Swahili, a Pan-African language which is the most widely spoken African language.
Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder called “The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa,” or Nguzo Saba (originally Nguzu Saba), which Karenga claimed “is a communitarian African philosophy” consisting of Karenga’s distillation of what he deemed “the best of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world.” These seven principles comprise Kawaida, a Swahili term for tradition and reason that Karenga used to refer to his synthesized system of belief.
Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the following principles, which are explained by Karenga as follows:
* Umoja (Unity) – To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
* Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) – To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
* Ujima – (Collective Work and Responsibility) To build and maintain our community together and make our brother’s and sister’s 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 heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
Finally, it is important to note Kwanzaa is a cultural holiday, not a religious one.
Cost to attend the event is $5 for adults and $3 for children under age 18. Children 3 and under are free.