Word: kwanzaa
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...final night of the holiday, friends and relatives join the family for a feast known as the Karamu. This year a compendium of celebratory recipes has been published in Eric Copage's Kwanzaa: An African-American Celebration of Culture and Cooking (Morrow; $25). The book also contains stories about black history and culture, along with suggestions on how to use them to illustrate the seven principles...
Museums and other institutions have begun to adopt the celebrations. Last year more than 8,500 people attended poetry readings, music performances and puppet shows during the sixth annual observance at Manhattan's American Museum of Natural History. The Smithsonian added a program of Kwanzaa activities to its Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations...
...proximity to Christmas and the fact that gifts are bestowed have led some people to think of Kwanzaa as a Yule alternative, but increasingly, black families observe both. As the black holiday spirit spreads, however, so do problems of creeping commercialism. One black-owned publishing company already markets 21 styles of Kwanzaa cards and a 32-page activity book for children. Future products include a Kwanzaa kit, complete with a kinara and instructions for novice celebrators...
Some parents even purchase bicycles and Nintendo sets for Kwanzaa gifts; they rationalize the excess by buying from black-owned businesses. That, they say, is in the spirit of ujamaa, or cooperative economics. "This is the U.S., and if anything becomes successful, it almost automatically becomes commercial," says Copage. "Doing otherwise is like trying to surf without getting...
What next? Cedric McClester, author of Kwanzaa: Everything You Always Wanted to Know but Didn't Know Where to Ask, has created Nia Umoja, "an African answer to Santa Claus." The character, who is supposed to represent an African griot, or wise man, wears a Nehru-style suit and joins hands with youngsters to ask what they have learned about Kwanzaa. Says McClester: "Kwanzaa needed a character because we need to attract younger people and their parents...