In 1966, KWANZAA was created by a young visionary living on the west coast who was also the founder and chairman of the Black Nationalist Organization. Dr. Maulana Karenga, a trained political and cultural scientist and a participant and theoretician of the Black Liberation Movement, postulated that significant and meaningful Black movement in the U.S. was improbable, if not impossible, without a cultural component (base). He felt that at the base of any movement must be the cultural imperative that give the people a clear and precise sense of "idenity, purpose and direction."



KWANZAA "as a holiday of the first fruits" comes directly out of the traditoin of agricultural people of Africa, who celebrated and gave thanks for harvest at designated times during the year.



Although Afro-Americans are essentially an urban people and, thus, have few crops to harvest, the concept of "ingathering and celebration" formed a conceptual basis for KWANZAA.