Kwanzaa 50th Anniversary Legislation ~ Sacramento, California

INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member
(Coauthors: )

February 1, 2015

Relative to the 50th Anniversary of Kwanzaa.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


Kwanzaa.

This measure would recognize the 50th anniversary of Kwanzaa and
proclaim December 26 through January 1 each year as Kwanzaa Week.
Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, Kwanzaa is an African American and Pan-African holiday
which celebrates family, community, and culture and is observed each
year by millions throughout the world African community on every
continent in the world; and

WHEREAS, Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, an
internationally recognized scholar and author, professor and chair of
Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach, and
founder and executive director of the African American Cultural
Center, in order to reaffirm African Americans' rootedness in African
culture, to provide a context in which Africans around the world
could come together and reinforce the bonds between them and to
introduce the Nguzo Saba, and reaffirm the importance of African
communitarian values which stress and strengthen family, community,
and culture; and

WHEREAS, Kwanzaa is a cultural holiday, not a religious holiday,
and is thus open to and practiced by Africans of all religious faiths
from December 26 to January 1 each year; and

WHEREAS, Kwanzaa is a profound expression of African people's
commitment to their cultural values and heritage, an annual
reaffirmation and reinforcement of the bonds between them as a people
and a celebration of themselves and their history; and

WHEREAS, The Kwanzaa celebration, with its emphasis on history,
values, family, community, and culture, speaks to African people
throughout the world in a special way; and

WHEREAS, The name Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase "matunda ya
kwanza," which means "first fruits" in Swahili, a Pan-African
language that is the most widely spoken African language; and

WHEREAS, First-fruits celebrations are recorded in African history
as early as ancient Egypt and Nubia; and

WHEREAS, Kwanzaa was created in order to introduce and cultivate
an appreciation for the Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles, which are:
(a) Umoja (unity): to strive for and maintain unity in the family,
community, nation, and race.
(b) Kujichagulia (self-determination): to define ourselves, name
ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
(c) Ujima (collective work and responsibility): to build and
maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's
problems our problems and to solve them together.
(d) Ujamaa (cooperative economics): to build and maintain our own
stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
(e) Nia (purpose): to make our collective vocation the building
and developing of our community in order to restore our people to
their traditional greatness.
(f) Kuumba (creativity): to do always as much as we can, in the
way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and
beneficial than we inherited it.
(g) Imani (faith): to believe with all our heart in our people,
our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and
victory of our struggle; and

WHEREAS, The Kwanzaa celebration is:
(a) A time of ingathering for people to reaffirm the bonds between
them.
(b) A time of special reverence for the creator and creation in
thanks for the blessings, bountifulness, and beauty of creation.
(c) A time for commemorating the past in pursuit of its lessons
and in honor of our ancestors.
(d) A time for recommitment to our highest cultural ideals and our
effort to bring forth the best in African cultural thought and
practice.
(e) A time for celebrating the good, including the goodness of
life, existence, family, community, and culture, as well as the good
of the awesome and the ordinary, in a word the good of the divine,
natural, and social; and

WHEREAS, It is important to commemorate Kwanzaa as a celebration
that strengthens the sense of rootedness in the best of African
culture, thereby strengthening the bonds of community and allowing
for a reaffirmation of a common identity; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature commemorates the 50th
anniversary of the celebration of Kwanzaa; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature proclaims and designates December
26 through January 1 each year as "Kwanzaa Week" in recognition and
respect of the cultural significance of this holiday to African
people throughout the world; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.