The Wisconsin Black Historical Society will host its annual Kwanzaa celebration tonight. It will be a night filled with food, music, dance, and community.
Kwanzaa is an African-American cultural holiday that lasts seven days, from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. Each day is dedicated to a specific principle. Today’s principle is umoja, which means “unity” in Swahili.
Eighteen-year-old dancer Unijah Tillman has been performing at the Wisconsin Black Historical Society’s Kwanzaa celebration every year since she was 6-years-old. She is part of the Nefertari African Dance Company, one of the groups that performs at the Historical Society’s Kwanzaa celebration.
Tillman says that anyone who comes to the event can expect to see a lot of uptempo dancing that matches the celebratory spirit of Kwanzaa.
“We’ll be doing a lot of West African dances,” Tillman says. “We bend our knees low to the ground because we usually say when we’re low that means we’re low to the earth. Everything comes from the earth, so we’re praising the earth.”
This will be the museum’s 36th year celebrating Kwanzaa in Milwaukee. The seven-day holiday was originally started in 1966 in Los Angeles by activist Maulana Karenga. Karenga wanted to give Black people in the United States an opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history as an alternative to Christmas.
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Executive Director of the Wisconsin Black Historical Society Clayborn Benson says that Kwanzaa and its seven principles have been integral to the development of the Milwaukee museum from the very beginning.
“As we study, we learn and remember our African roots, and Kwanzaa is certainly part of that cultural experience people enjoy as they come here,” Benson says. “That’s why we have the seven principles across the wall in the other room, and that’s why we live that lifestyle, every moment of our lives.”
Kwanza’s seven principles are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. For a lot of Black people who celebrate, Kwanzaa is more than a seven-day holiday. Benson says he uses Kwanzaa’s seven principles to guide the way he lives his life.
“Kwanzaa is my identity, the spirit that drives me,” Benson says. “It’s the thing that gets me up in the morning and makes me walk the walk. It’s the thing that I fall back on when I want to accomplish something. It gives me the energy and the drive to accomplish those things. When I get tired, Kwanzaa picks me up.”
Benson says the museum’s very first Kwanzaa celebration only had about 10 attendees. Since then, the event has grown significantly. Benson says the museum has hosted as many as 500 people in past celebrations.
“There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people,” Benson says. “You can’t even walk from one side of the room to the other side of the room because there’s so many people. They come in with their children. They come in with their families, and they don’t want to be turned down.”
Unijah Tillman first learned about Kwanzaa when she performed at the museum’s celebration as a child. Now, she is on the verge of graduating from high school. Tillman says she has taken Kwanzaa’s lessons into her everyday life.
“I take some of the principles with me, self determination, unity, and stuff like that,” Tillman says. “I try to hold myself to those standards, even when I’m not dancing.”
The Wisconsin Black Historical Society will open its doors tonight at 5 p.m., and the Kwanzaa program will begin at 6 p.m.
