Principles

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Umoja

Umoja means unity in Swahili. Karenga defines this on his Kwanzaa website as: "To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race."

Kujichagulia

Or self-determination. This principle refers to defining, naming, creating and speaking for oneself.

Ujima

Translated as "collective work and responsibility," ujima refers to uplifting your community.  "To  build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and  sister's problems our problems and to solve them together," Karenga  writes.

Ujamaa

Cooperative economics.  Similar to ujima, this principle refers to uplifting your community  economically. "To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other  businesses and to profit from them together," he writes.

Nia

Nia means purpose. Karenga  expands on this principle with, "To make our collective vocation the  building and developing of our community in order to restore our people  to their traditional greatness."

Kuumba

Meaning  "creativity," Karenga defines this principle as "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."

Imani

The final principle translates to "faith." Karenga  defines this as faith in community, writing, "To believe with all our  heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the  righteousness and victory of our struggle."