The first Kwanzaa was celebrated on Dec. 26, 1966, in Los Angeles under the direction of Maulana Karenga, the chairman of the Department of Africana Studies at California State University in Long ...
Created in 1966 by Maulana Ron Karenga, Kwanzaa is a weeklong African American and Pan-African celebration observed Dec. 26-Jan. 1. Kwanzaa gets its name from the Swahili phrase, “matunda ya kwanza” ...