First Kwanzaa Celebrated - Dec. 26, 1966

The pan-African holiday Kwanzaa, created by Maulana Karenga, was celebrated for the first time beginning this day in 1966. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to This Day in History Class from how Stuff
Works dot Com and from the desk of Stuff You
Missed in History Class. It's the show where we explore
the past, one day at a time with a quick
look at what happened today in history. Hi, I'm Holly
Fry and I am sitting in this week for Tracy V. Wilson.

(00:21):
It is December and on this day in nineteen sixty six,
Quanza was celebrated for the first time. Just in case
you do not know, Quanza is a seven day Pan
African holiday and it's intended to celebrate African family, culture,
and community. But it grew out of a really tumultuous time.
In a six day stretch during August of nineteen sixty five,

(00:44):
the predominantly black Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts was devastated
by a series of riots, which started with the traffic
stop that quickly escalated into a massive conflict between police
and the neighborhood's residents. By the time the riots ended,
thirty four people had been killed and another one thousand
thirty two injured. One thousand buildings were destroyed, and an

(01:05):
estimated forty million dollars in damages was done. Dr mal
Lana Karenga, a faculty member and former Chair of Black
Studies at California State University at Long Beach, was an
activist a year into his doctoral work in African Affairs
at u c l A. At the time, in an
effort to rebuild a sense of community, Karenga founded the
organization US to encourage cultural unity among African Americans, and

(01:29):
under the auspices of US, Karenga organized Black Power rallies
and also created the idea of Quanza. The first week
Long Kwanzas celebration began on December twenty six of nineteen
sixty six, and Karenga is a controversial figure. He was
born Ronald McKinley Everett in nineteen forty one, and he
took the name mal Lana, which means master teacher in Swahili,

(01:53):
and Karenga, which means keeper of tradition in the same language,
while he was working on his doctorate. He has come
under criticism from a variety of quarters. His past as
an activist has been characterized as extremist. His organization US
was in conflict with the Black Panthers in the nineteen sixties,
which often led to violence, sometimes lethal. The FBI investigated

(02:16):
US and the Black Panthers, and in nineteen sixty eight,
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover called both the Black Panther
Party and US black extremist groups. Hoover also felt that
the Panthers and US needed to be kept divided to
prevent a union between them which would consolidate power. In
nineteen seventy one, Caarenga fell into conflict with his own

(02:37):
colleagues in the US Organization. Also that year, he was
convicted and served time for felonious assault and imprisonment in
a case which involved the torture of two women who
witnesses said Karenga believed to be plotting against him. Karenga
has consistently denied any involvement with this incident. He was
released in nineteen seventy five. In relation to Kwanza, Karenga

(03:01):
has also been criticized in that case for allowing it
to become a commercial holiday in conflict with the ideals
of celebrating and exploring African identity and community. But despite
the criticisms leveled against its creator in the decades since
its inception, Quanza has become part of millions of people's
holiday celebrations around the world. It is at this point

(03:24):
bigger than its creator, and it has become associated with
finding and celebrating joy and pride in African heritage and traditions.
Harvest celebrations from a variety of African cultures, including Ashanti
in Zulu, have inspired and informed the practices of the holiday.
The name for Kuanza comes from the phrase matunda ya Kwanza,

(03:44):
which translates from the Swahili to first fruits. Words in
Swahili were specifically chosen for the holiday because it is
a language spoken by a large number of people, and
the language is not connected to any specific region or
tribe in Africa. Kareng has described it as a non
ethnic tongue. Each of Kwanzas seven days of celebration from

(04:06):
December twenty six to January one, is dedicated to one
of the seven principles of Quanza called Gouzo Saba. Those
principles are unity, self determination, collective responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity,
and faith. As any holiday, there are variations in the
way Quanza is celebrated, from home to home and community

(04:28):
to community. But for most a candle is lit each
night in a candle holder called a kinara, often by
a child, and then there is discussion focused on the
principle related to that day. On December thirty one to
the final night of Quanza, there is a feast called
a karamu, and the final day, January one, is one
of reflection. Thanks to Eve's Jeff Cote for research on

(04:51):
this episode, and for Casey Pegram and Chandler Maze doing
their amazing sound work on it. You can always subscribe
to This Day in History class us on Apple Podcasts,
the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Tomorrow we will have a story of sobriety and a
little bit of violence.