Mesa Legend - ARCHIVES - Vol. 40, Issue 8


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Volume 40, Issue 8.
January 21, 2003

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Kwanzaa celebrates unity, faith
By Tara Wright
For the Mesa Legend

MCC’s Black Student Union, along with the East Valley Kwanzaa Committee, hosted the 9th annual Kwanzaa celebration in the Navajo Room of the Kirk Center on Dec. 28, 2002. This being the only public observance of its kind in the East Valley.


	PHOTO BY TARA WRIGHT/MESA LEGEND Festival provided a view into the meaning of Kwanzaa.

The standing room only crowd enjoyed vendors of African art and clothing, West African music and dancing demonstrations, as well as speeches by community members. The event culminated with the traditional Kwanzaa festival feast.

Mesa resident Stacy Banks is proud of the progress this annual celebration has made, “I think this is wonderful. This is one of the better crowds we’ve had. I really enjoy it. We get to talk about our heritage and learn about our heritage,” said Banks.

“Kwanzaa is not an African holiday. It is an African-American holiday,” pointed out key note speaker Art Mobley. “It is a time to understand where we come from, especially when our young people think that Africa is a dirty place with flies,” referring to a child’s comment that was related by a grandmother earlier in the day.

An exhibition of West African music and dancing provided a glimpse at the influence African culture has had on American, Latino and pop culture from jazz to Carlos Santana. The exhibition ended with a communal dance and song, named the Jingo, made popular in the seventies by Santana.

Along with cultural awareness, community cooperation was a major focus of the celebration. Vendors new to the area, as well as established businesses, had a chance to show what they can offer. The people in attendance were introduced to various members of the Valley from the old to young. The world-traveled journalist, Mobley, commented on the acknowledgment of the community elders by saying, “You can tell a lot about a group of people by the way they treat their children and their elderly.”

“Most people here will use this experience to renew their spiritual and intellectual mind-set for the rest of the year, which is very important when you’re a minority in a community. I’m from Kingman, Arizona. so it’s important to me that I come to this every year. It really helps,” said Njeri Njima Sambou, an African dancer.

Although most of the 300 in attendance were adults, participants were hopeful for a more youth filled future.Banks was encouraged by the attendance of a younger audience saying, “They’re coming up. We bring the younger ones and teach them. They learn a lot about their heritage and they come back.”

Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, a professor of Black studies at California State, Long Beach. The seven-day cultural observance focuses on the seven principals: unity, self- determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith. The name of the celebration is derived from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, which means “first fruits.” The traditions of Kwanzaa are a combination of many of the first fruit festivals celebrated all over Africa.

Formed in 1993, the East Valley Kwanzaa Committee began spreading awareness by organizing Kwanzaa celebrations in Chandler and Tempe. Five Years ago the committee joined forces with MCC’s Black Student Union and moved the festivities to Mesa, where the crowd size increases every year.