LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — The weeklong Kwanzaa holiday begins Wednesday and crowds are expected to gather in South Los Angeles to celebrate.
The 36th annual KwanZaa Gwaride Parade and Festival will start at 11 a.m. at the corner of Adams and Crenshaw boulevards.
Dr. Maulana Karenga, chair of Cal State Long Beach’s Department of Africana Studies, created Kwanzaa in 1966 in what he termed “an audacious act of self-determination.”
The holiday is based on seven principles: Unity, self-determination, responsibility and collective work, purpose, cooperative economics, faith and creativity.
Families often celebrate by lighting candles and serving traditional African foods.
While some people choose to fast during the holiday, there is generally a feast on the final night.
For more information on local celebrations, visit the KwanZaa in Los Angeles website.
23 Comments to “Parade to Mark Start of Kwanzaa in South L.A.”
December 26, 2012 at 6:29 AM
Kwanzaa, like Ebonics, was a fraud perpetrated on the California education system to get money for a Cal State Long Beach "Africana Studies" department. Kwanzaa has as much validity as a "holiday" as does Festivus.
December 26, 2012 at 5:37 PM
actually CSULB has nothing to do with it, it was CSUDH Afro-american studies program that started the farce
December 26, 2012 at 7:35 PM
This parade is better than seeing your parents march down the street wearing their white hoods.
December 26, 2012 at 7:41 AM
upto I looked at the paycheck which had said $7580, I did not believe …that…my neighbours mother woz like they say actualy receiving money part-time at their computer.. there uncle had bean doing this 4 only twenty months and just paid the dept on their apartment and bought a new Saab 99 Turbo. read more at, jump15.comCHECK IT OUT
December 26, 2012 at 8:11 AM
Hurry LAPD and LASD, go and lock up most of the crowd and I bet most of the unsolved crimes will be closed. Figures, it's raining and these idiots will have a parade in South Central.
December 26, 2012 at 8:48 AM
No offense but my black friends do not like to be called African., so why celebrate it?
December 26, 2012 at 10:48 AM
Offense taken if you had a black friend wouldn't you ask them these silly questions. Like what is the difference between Afrocentric and African. Afro Americans are truly American and are decendents of Africans stripped of their culture of origin. This being said anyone speeking, embracing a part of that lost culture and infact acknowledging our culture as its own is a trubute to our survival as a people still.
December 26, 2012 at 12:15 PM
Whether or not you believe Kwanzaa to be an authentic holiday or worthy of celebration, the principles represented are positive guidelines for any peoples to contemplate and live by.
December 26, 2012 at 3:53 PM
Then maybe the people who celebrate it should follow them.
December 26, 2012 at 7:23 PM
You got that right.
December 26, 2012 at 7:38 PM
Do you know all the people who celebrate Kwanzaa? The answer is, no you don't.
December 26, 2012 at 7:46 PM
Everyone who claims to be a Christian, Mormon, Republican, etc., should follow their belief too, but do all of them?
December 26, 2012 at 12:58 PM
Wonder why white folks dont celebrate kwanza,negroes celebrate the white mans holidays?….oh,,,and even negro children know that Santa Claus is white……LMAO!……..Happy Kwanza…..make sure you all dont kill,rob, too many people on your negro fake ass holiday!…LLAMF!!!!!!!!!
December 26, 2012 at 7:42 PM
@Mark, when all racist are in hell, you will certainly take the place of satan. You are one low-minded, low-class devil. Your idiot parents must have been sister and brother to have produced such a piece of crap like you. I know you hate what you see when you look in the mirror. You are such a filthy tramp, I bet you are too low to join the Klu Klux Klan.
December 26, 2012 at 3:11 PM
Even Obama hates Kwanza.
December 26, 2012 at 7:47 PM
There are some extremely ignorant white people in this country.
December 26, 2012 at 7:22 PM
Kwanza is nothing but a pagan holiday.
December 26, 2012 at 7:44 PM
So are Easter, Valentine, Halloween and St. Patrick Day…
December 26, 2012 at 8:28 PM
The guy that started it was a felon. In 1971, Karenga was sentenced to one to ten years in prison on counts of felonious assault and false imprisonment. One of the victims gave testimony of how Karenga and other men tortured her and another woman. The woman described having been stripped and beaten with an electrical cord. Karenga's former wife, Brenda Lorraine Karenga, testified that she sat on the other woman’s stomach while another man forced water into her mouth through a hose.
December 26, 2012 at 8:28 PM
"Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African queen, said she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Miss Davis' mouth and placed against Miss Davis' face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga, head of US, also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said. They also were hit on the heads with toasters."
December 26, 2012 at 9:31 PM
wonder why there isnt any products,goods,or services that negroes use or consume that are manufactured and produced by a negro owned company?….dey even gots to use a white mans firearm to handle dey business with…..wonder why a negro didnt invent the internet,computer,or even facebook or this website?…….LMAO!….What a buncha TOMS!……dey just love deez sail fones dont dey!!…LLAMF!!
December 26, 2012 at 9:34 PM
it is not time to change!…..GOD LOVED SLAVERY….if he didnt,it wouldnt have lasted for 400 years!