Today, December 26th, we share...

...books about Kwanzaa.

Habari Gani!

Kwanzaa is a 7 day festival celebrating the African American people, their culture and their history. It is a time of celebration, community gathering, and reflection. A time of endings and beginnings. Kwanzaa begins on December 26th and continues until New Years Day, January 1st.
Share a book about the seven principles of Kwanzaa! We like Seven spools of thread : a Kwanzaa story by Angela Shelf Medearis ; illustrated by Daniel Minter.


The seven principles are:

The Seven Principles (Nguzo Saba) of Kwanzaa are:
Umoja (oo-MOH-jah): Unity
To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.

Kujichagulia (koo-jee-chah-goo-LEE-ah): Self-Determination
To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.

Ujima (oo-JEE-mah): 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.

Ujamaa (oo-jah-MAH): Collective economics
To build, maintain, and support our own stores, establishments, and businesses.

Nia (NEE-ah): Purpose
To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

Kuumba (koo-OOM-bah): Creativity
Using creativity and imagination to make your communities better than what you inherited.

Imani (ee-MAH-nee): Faith
To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.


Like Christmas, Kwanzaa has its own customs and traditions. Kwanzaa Recipes will have any class cooking and sampling unique foods for the season. Find a handful of ideas for activities your students will enjoy at Kwanzaa Activities at this site. Learn about the holiday, create holiday stationery, and bring the celebration to your computer desktop with Kwanzaa Fun from Billy Bear.
Re-create the Kwanzaa kinara, or candle holder, on paper with the pattern from Kwanzaa Craft.

Happy Kwanzaa from our family to yours!
-r