Kwanzaa is an African American and Pan-African holiday which was established in 1966 in the midst of the black freedom movement. The creator was Dr. Maulana Karenga. This is a cultural holiday and not a religious one which was started to celebrate family, community, and culture. The celebration of Kwanzaa takes place from the 26th of December through the 1st of January. The word Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase “matunda ya kwanza” which means “first fruits” in Swahili, the most widely used African language. There are seven symbols that are associated to this holiday.

• Mazao (crops) - This is symbolic for the celebration of the harvest for the collective labor.


• Mkeka (mat) - This represents the foundation on which the celebrators build.


• Kinara (candle holder) - This represents the roots of continental Africans.


• Muhindi (corn) - This represents the children and the future that they have.


• Mishumaa Saba (seven candles) - This represents the seven principles.


• Kikombe cha Umoja (unity cup) - This is to represent unity which makes everything else possible.


• Zawadi (gifts) - This represents the love of parents to the children.

Caution: The dangers of this holiday are somewhat hidden. If you are someone that has read about the holiday you may be asking, “what’s wrong with this, it is only about the unity of African culture.” That is true to an extent but there is much more to Kwanzaa.

Before we get to the problems with this holiday I want to mention that this is the only holiday writing, up to this point, that I will do that is not tied to religion. The reason that I am writing about this holiday is because it has been said, “the Jews have Chanukah, the whites have Christmas, and the blacks have Kwanzaa.” Look at the following quote from the official Kwanzaa website, “…it bears special characteristics [not] only [of] 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.” This, to me, shows the intention and the use of a holiday into a cultic movement. This is very dangerous. Remember, the tools that Satan uses are the things that are subtle and under the radar.

As mentioned from above, Kwanzaa may appear to be harmless but it really is quite dangerous. The thing about Kwanzaa is that they are calling for all people, regardless of your religion to come together as one, if you are of African decent. This is a holiday that does not encourage the mixing of ethnic backgrounds. As a matter of fact if you visit the official website of Kwanzaa you find that they will allow for “whites” to be at a celebration but by no means is it allowed for them to lead in any of them. The danger in this is that God has told us as believers to come together. Hebrews 10:25 says, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together…” The difference is that God wants us to come together because of what we have in common, accepting the love of Christ and His shed blood for us. But Dr. Maulana Karenga wants the heritage of Africa to be the common bond between people rather then Christ. What Dr. Karenga wants you to think is that having roots from Africa is more important then the blood of Christ. This is evident when he mentions that Kwanzaa is for all religious backgrounds. Tolerance is a dangerous but effective tool that Satan uses. The following is a quote taken from the official website of Kwanzaa, “…Kwanzaa is a cultural holiday, not a religious one, thus available to and practiced by Africans of all religious faiths who come together based on the rich, ancient and varied common ground of their Africanness.” You see, what is taught is that your religion, or as I prefer to say your relationship, is less important than where your family tree started from. The old saying is “blood is thicker than water” and they were right, the brotherhood that we as Christians share is through His blood. And that should be more important than anything else. God’s word tells us, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” (2nd Corinthians 6:14,15). Many times this scripture is only used in marriage but this verse is really applied to anyone that has dealings with anything outside of what God has desired. We must not allow anything to come between us as believers. Not politics, ethnic backgrounds, or even holidays. We must stand strong in the unity of Christ first and anything else that excludes or lumps Christ together with any other focus must be avoided.

Quickly, before we look at the principles let me make mention that all cults have the answer to the problem, it is “you” that can do it. It is almost like a self-empowering seminar when you listen to cults give their pitch. This is why I felt it necessary to write and bring to light this “holiday” called Kwanzaa. Lets look at the principles of Kwanzaa, where we will see the Home Depot theme, “You can do it. We can help.”

• Umoja (Unity) - To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race. Note: Take notice to what it is that they are wanting you to unite with. Family, community, nation, and RACE. Remember, God has not called us as believers to be isolationists. Rather He wants us to get out into our families, community, and nation to share the Good News of Christ (Matthew 28:19,20 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”). Unity is not a bad thing when the unity comes with those that believe in and stand for the same things as you and I. What I am referring to is believers of Christ. But when you are instructed to unite with a particular community, a particular nation, and a particular race you are linking yourself to everything that God has said not to (refer to above scripture from 2nd Corinthians 6:14,15).
• Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) - To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves. Note: Again, not that self-determination is a bad thing but the problem is that we have to be careful where our trust comes from. We are told that self-determination will define ourselves. The Bible tells us that “we shall be like him” (1st John 3:2) so we have already defined ourselves. We are told that self-determination will name ourselves. The Bible is clear that we already have been named, “And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” (Acts 11:26). Isaiah 56:5 says, “Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.” And finally, Isaiah 62:2 reveals to us, “And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.” We are told that self-determination will create for ourselves. Creation has been completed long ago by God Himself. He has and will continue to provide all that we will ever need (Philippians 4:19). We are told that self-determination will speak for ourselves but again the Bible clears this up for us. In Matthew 10:19, 20 we find that God has promised to give what is needed to say when the time comes. Our self-determination needs to come by way of following God’s Word and He will be sure to take care of everything including defining us, naming us, creating for us and certainly speaking for us. This principle is dangerous because is has a lot in common with the New Age movement.
• 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. Note: This principle is not a problem as long as we keep in perspective that we as believers are to shoulder each others problems with believers. Those that are like minded not just anybody. James 5:16, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
• Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) - To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together. Note: Once again, God has not called us to be isolationists.
• Nia (Purpose) - To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness. Note: Tradition is what caused the Pharisees a lot of trouble in Biblical times. Jesus asked the question in Matthew 15:3, “Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?”
• 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. Note: God has called us to be good stewards of the things that He has given us.
• 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. Note: We as believers are not called to put our belief in anything except Jesus. John 12:46, 1st John5:1, 2nd Timothy 3:15, Romans 10:9,10. In addition to this, “righteousness and victory” does not come because of a struggle. Look through the Exodus when the children of Israel had to wonder the desert. Just because of their “struggle” there wasn’t righteousness and victory and there certainly wasn’t many you could trust. That’s why they were in the desert to begin with. Now, I am not saying that people of an African decent were in a struggle because of disobedience. What I am saying is that because of the sin nature of man you can’t place your faith in just any man but it has to be Jesus.

Finally, we look at the creator of Kwanzaa, Dr. Maulana Karenga. Now before I go into this man which is referred to as "Maulana", which means '“master teacher” in Swahili and Arabic, I want to say that I do realize that God can use anyone for His glory. Look at Paul in the Bible, we see this being a man that once persecuted Christians then went out, later in life, to evangelize them. The difference is that you see the transformation of Paul but with Dr. Maulana Karenga we don’t. If you do a search on this man you find that even now there is a severe desire to separate the “whites” and the “blacks” which is what segregation was all about in the sixties.

Dr. Karenga, a.k.a. Ron Everett, was born on July 14, 1941. He was born on a poultry farm in Parsonsburg, Maryland, the 14th child of a Baptist minister. He holds two Ph.D’s one from Alliant International University and the other from University of Southern California. While his education may seem to be elevated we see that there are many flaws in his thought. This is a man that sat on the organizing committee and authored the mission statement of the Million Man March and is the director of the Kawaida Institute for Pan African Studies Pan-Africanism literally means 'all Africanism'. It is a sociopolitical world-view, as well as a movement, which seeks to unify and uplift both native Africans and those of the African diaspora, as part of a “global African community.”

Furthermore, in 1971 Dr. Karenga, Louis Smith, and Luz Maria Tamayo were convicted of felony assault and false imprisonment for assaulting and torturing two women from the United Slaves, Deborah Jones & Gail Davis. Without going into too much detail we find in the Los Angeles Times (May 14, 1971) the testimony of one of the women. In short, we find out that the women were whipped with an electrical cord, beaten with a baton, a hot soldering iron being placed in one of the women’s mouth and against the face of the other just to name a few of the torture practices.

In closing, we see that this man has had problems in the past but they are still before us here today. His thoughts are the same today as they were in the early part of his career, hate. Dr. Karenga says that Kwanzaa is “Rooted in this ancient history and culture” but he goes on to say that it is a “recreated and expanded ancient tradition.” When you read between the lines you find that it really is not about real tradition but recreated and expanded tradition. He says that it is not a religious holiday but yet he wants you (of African decent) to give up Christmas and celebrate Kwanzaa. Not only that but as we have seen in the above, he compares this holiday to other “religious holidays.” His motives are clear, he wants a following.