In 1965, the Watts section of Los Angeles exploded in a week of race riots in August which devastated the largely black neighborhood. In the wake of the riots, Maulana Karenga, an activist with a deep interest in African studies who went on to become a professor of the topic, came up with the idea of a holiday which would unite black Americans in a celebration of their common African roots. It was a weeklong festival called Kwanzaa, from a Swahili phrase for “first fruits of the harvest,” and it was first celebrated 48 years ago on December 26, 1966.

Kwanzaa is an African-American holiday, in the truest sense of that phrase…a celebration of African heritage conceived by a California activist and academic. It celebrates seven principles expressed through Swahili words for ideals like unity, self-determination, creativity, and faith. It runs for seven nights, beginning on the day after Christmas and ending on New Year’s Day. Like any solstice holiday worth its salt, Kwanzaa knows the value of symbolism, and symbols are a central part of the holiday’s celebration, including a candle holder with seven candles, a communal cup, African drums, and agricultural fruits like corn.

Karenga himself has a complicated past, which as founders of tradition go, is not unheard of. (See Clement Clarke Moore from a few days ago for another holiday figure with some particularly rough edges.) He was born in Maryland as Ronald Everett in 1941 before moving to California and adopting his Africanized name as a student of Africana (“Maulana” for master teacher, and “Karenga” for keeper of tradition). He established a community organization called US, which clashed violently with the Black Panthers at the height of the Black Power movement in the 1960s. In 1971, he was sent to prison on some particularly nasty assault charges. He has since been released, and has maintained he was a political prisoner sent away on false charges. Whether he was guilty or not, he has devoted his life to improving the lot of black Americans since prison. He has earned two Ph.D.’s and is currently a professor of African studies at Cal State-Long Beach…and the holiday he began in 1966 is still going strong.

In its early days, Karenga described the holiday as an alternative to Christmas. But as Kwanzaa has become more mainstream over the years, he appears to have softened that stance, emphasizing the inclusive and family-centered aspects of the holiday. Over almost half a century, Kwanzaa has earned a respectable place in the constellation of holidays that fall around the first days of winter. While Christmas and Hannukah have gotten a pretty big head start, Kwanzaa has carved out a considerable space for itself around this time of year. The number of people who celebrate it is hard to know, but one 2004 survey suggested that Kwanzaa might be celebrated by around 5 million people in the United States. It has also gained a sizable following in Canada.

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