Kwanzaa campus events planned

First-year organizes observance this year

The first fruits of harvest will soon emerge.

Abusua and Afrikan Heritage House are hosting their annual celebration of the African-American holiday Kwanzaa at Afrikan Heritage House next Wednesday.

Kwanzaa, which is traditionally celebrated from Dec. 26 to Jan. 2, is a nationally-recognized holiday started in the 1960s by chairman of Black Studies at California State University Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga. The new holiday was aimed at uniting black families through heritage and cultural tradition. Karenga decided the new holiday should be a harvest or "first fruits" celebration, incorporating ideas from many different harvest traditions of different African peoples. Kwanzaa comes from the East African language of Kiswahili and means "the first fruits of the harvest."

"It's a relatively new holiday," said college first-year Rosa Hyde. "Unlike Christmas, it's not commercialized."

Hyde is coordinating this year's Kwanzaa celebration. "This is my first time organizing. It's been hard but everything will turn out well in the end," she said.

Hyde hoped the student Kwanzaa event would serve a dual purpose of creating unity in the community as well as educating students about the holiday itself.

For this year's Kwanzaa, Hyde is planning a ceremonial lighting of the Kinara, a seven-pronged candle-holder with each candle representing a principle of Kwanzaa. The seven principles, umoja, kuijichagulia, ujima, ujamaa, nia, kuumba and imani are also part of the Kiswahili language and translate into unity, self- determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.

Seven students have volunteered to light the seven candles. Each one will say a few words about the importance of Kwanzaa to them. "They'll talk of a specific principle, how it relates to them personally and how it relates to the [Afrikan Heritage] House," said Hyde.

The red, black and green candles will represent the colors of black nationalism. "Red means ancestors, green means hard work in the earth and black means black justice," said Hyde.

After the ceremony, Hyde plans to have a small gift-giving ceremony. "Anyone who wants to is welcome to participate," she said.

The ceremony will begin Wednesday in the Lord Lounge of Afrikan Heritage House at 10 p.m.