WATERLOO - Kwanzaa is a celebration of African ancestry and culture.

The holiday, founded in 1966 during the American civil rights movement, is meant to supplement Christmas and all its English Victorian traditions, and instill pride in African-American heritage.

"It's a source of unity and pride to the African-American community. It's something that reaffirmed unity and pride within individuals," said Janet McClain, an instructor with the University of Northern Iowa College of Education.

Seeing a teachable moment, parents of young children often make a special effort to celebrate the holiday, which runs from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, in the home.

That's what McClain did many years ago with her daughter, now 30.

"We set up a little table with some African cloths," she said.

On them they placed the symbols of Kwanzaa. They include: Crops to celebrate African harvest, a mat to recognize cultural foundations, a candle holder to symbolize African roots and corn to recognize children.

The McClains also observed the seven basic principles of African culture central to the holiday: Unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.

United Sisters, a local service organization, highlights each principle over the air each holiday season on KBBG-FM, an African-American public radio station in Waterloo.

Essie Buls, a leader in the group, said she saw the repercussions of parents not instilling a sense of African-American cultural heritage in young people during a field trip to Des Moines several years ago.

As a school group of teenagers - most of them black - left a store, a white security guard demanded to search each person's pockets.

"The girls were devastated. Some were crying," she said. "Some of the boys just shrugged."

What shocked her, she said, was most did not understand or believe racism may have motivated the search.

"Their parents had never dealt with the topic of discrimination," Buls said.

For Buls, learning about a heritage that includes slavery and racial discrimination, and how those experiences inform a community's values, is a key part of Kwanzaa.

"I think if you don't teach people from whence they came, then they're not ready to go where they need to go in life," she said.

Contact Jens Manuel Krogstad

at (319) 291-1580 or

jens.krogstad@wcfcourier.com.