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Coffee Break

9:30 Coffee Break: The seven principles of Kwanzaa

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December 28, 2015

Kwanzaa
A Kwanzaa kinara with seven candles
istockphoto.com, via NPR

Kwanzaa, a week-long celebration of African heritage in African-American culture, began this past Saturday.

We were lucky enough to be joined in the studio by Keith Mayes, professor and chair of the Department of African American & African Studies at the University of Minnesota, to learn more about the origins and traditions of this celebration. Listen above for the whole interview.

For today's 9:30 Coffee Break, we're looking for songs that relate to each of the seven principles of Kwanzaa.

Here are the seven principles. Please indicate which principle relates to each song that you suggest.

  • Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

  1. Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.

  1. Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together.

  1. Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.

  1. Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

  1. 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.

  1. Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Songs Played

Umoja (Unity): QUEEN LATIFAH - U.N.I.T.Y.

Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): JAMES BROWN - I'm Black and I'm Proud

Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): PETER PAUL AND MARY - If I Had a Hammer

Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): BILLY BRAGG - Waiting for the Great Leap Forward

Nia (Purpose): SAUL WILLIAMS - LIST OF DEMANDS

Kuumba (Creativity): TEMPTATIONS - Just My Imagination

Imani (Faith): KENDRICK LAMAR - i

Kwanzaa principles obtained from Wikipedia.

Do you deserve a Coffee Break? We at The Current's Morning Show think you do, and we want to bring treats from Black: Coffee and Waffle Bar to your workplace. Let us know why you'd like a Coffee Break - or request your own idea for a future topic.