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Kwanzaa 2012

ACTIVITIES THE WEEK OF KWANZAA IN COLUMBUS, OHIO

Kwanzaa 2012

UMOJA

Wednesday, Dec. 26th 6pm-9pm @

Kings Arts Complex

867 Mt. Vernon Avenue

Columbus Ohio 43203


KUJICHAGULIA

Thursday, Dec 27th 6pm-9pm@

Kings Arts Complex

867 Mt. Vernon Avenue

Columbus Ohio 43203


UJIMA

Friday, Dec 28th 6pm-9pm@

Brentnell Recreation Center

1280 Brentnell Avenue

Columbus Ohio 43219


UJAMAA

Saturday, Dec 29th 1pm-5pm @

Brentnell Recreation Center

1280 Brentnell Avenue

Columbus Ohio 43219


NIA

Sunday, Dec 30th @ 11am

Hilltop United Methodist Church

99 S. Highland Avenue

Columbus, Ohio 43223


OR


2pm-5pm

First A.M.E. Zion Church

873 Bryden Road

Columbus, Ohio 43205


KUUMBA

Monday, Dec 31st @

individual homes


IMANI

Tuesday, Jan 1st @

Ujamaa Bookstore

1511 E Livingston Ave

Columbus, OH 43205


HARAMBE!

"Roots and Branches"


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.


The first-fruits celebrations are recorded in African history as far back as ancient Egypt and Nubia and appear in ancient and modern times in other classical African civilizations such as Ashantiland and Yorubaland. These celebrations are also found in ancient and modern times among societies as large as empires (the Zulu or kingdoms (Swaziland) or smaller societies and groups like the Matabele, Thonga and Lovedu, all of southeastern Africa. Kwanzaa builds on the five fundamental activities of Continental African "first fruit" celebrations: ingathering; reverence; commemoration; recommitment; and celebration. Kwanzaa, then, is:

  • a time of ingathering of the people to reaffirm the bonds between them;
  • a time of special reverence for the creator and creation in thanks and respect for the blessings, bountifulness and beauty of creation;
  • a time for commemoration of the past in pursuit of its lessons and in honor of its models of human excellence, our ancestors;
  • a time of recommitment to our highest cultural ideals in our ongoing effort to always bring forth the best of African cultural thought and practice; and
  • a time for celebration of the Good, the good of life and of existence itself, the good of family, community and culture, the good of the awesome and the ordinary, in a word the good of the divine, natural and social.

Rooted in this ancient history and culture, Kwanzaa develops as a flourishing branch of the African American life and struggle as a recreated and expanded ancient tradition. Thus, it bears special characteristics only an African American holiday but also a Pan-African one, For it draws from the cultures of various African peoples, and is celebrated by millions of Africans throughout the world African community. Moreover, these various African peoples celebrate Kwanzaa because it speaks not only to African Americans in a special way, but also to Africans as a whole, in its stress on history, values, family, community and culture.


Kwanzaa was established in 1966 Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach, author and scholar-activist in the midst of the Black Freedom Movement and thus reflects its concern for cultural groundedness in thought and practice, and the unity and self-determination associated with this. It was conceived and established to serve several functions.


"Roots and Branches" taken from The Official Kwanzaa website

 http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/origins1.shtml

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