Kwanzaa: The Making of a Black Nationalist Tradition, 1966–1990

ELIZABETH PLECK

A SEVEN-DAY FESTIVAL beginning on December 26th, Kwanzaa, created in 1966, is one of the most lasting innovations of United States black nationalism of the 1960s. Becoming more popular in Canada, the Caribbean, and elsewhere, Kwanzaa is still chiefly celebrated in the United States. Designed to resemble the ritual at an African harvest festival, Kwanzaa consists of a number of activities, from feasting and lighting candles to recitations and the giving of small gifts to children. A marketing survey in 1997 estimated that Kwanzaa is celebrated by one out of seven United States blacks. Two successive acts of national imprimatur demonstrate the growing acceptance of Kwanzaa. The Postal Service offered a Kwanzaa stamp for sale in 1997. The same year President Clinton became the first United States president to issue a proclamation sending good wishes to Americans who celebrate Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is significant both because of its popularity and because it retells the African American story, with the distant African rural past elevated to the point of origin. It is even more significant as a cultural event where African American racial identity is formed and refashioned in the post-civil rights era.