Every day from December 26-January 1, Pax Christi USA will share a reflection on one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa. Pax Christi USA National Field Organizer Stephen Niamke has prepared each piece to show how Kwanzaa is an effective approach to community organizing — a celebratory, nonviolent, Afrocentric approach to wellness, justice, and peace.
In 2024, Executive Director Charlene Howard wrote, “Kwanzaa is an African American holiday … to celebrate family, community and culture. Although it was not designed to be a religious holiday, the seven principles possess a spiritual quality that is evident in holy scripture and resonates with our principles of Catholic Social Teaching inspired by Pope Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum. The binding thread is acknowledging that we thrive in community and common care for one another.”
Day 2: Kujichagulia/Self-determination: Reclaiming voice, identity, and power for the family and for community liberation.
To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
Proverbs 18:21: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” While Kwanzaa remains secular, this wisdom underscores the transformative power of naming and speech—central practices of Kujichagulia. There is also an African concept called “Nommo” which is the power of the word. It acknowledges that once something is spoken it can never be retrieved. Words then take on a life of their own fueled by the intent of the speaker. As such, naming of children takes on a particular significance in the African community.
The Kwanzaa ceremony: On the second day of Kwanzaa, the first red candle is lit. Its placement—immediately to the left of the black candle—is intentional. If Umoja reminds us who we are together, Kujichagulia asserts who gets to decide. Unity without self-determination risks conformity; self-determination without unity risks isolation. Together, they form the core of African-centered liberation. In the same way, all of the principles of Kwanzaa fold together, build upon, and support each other.
Kujichagulia in the family: Affirming identity and reclaiming agency: Within the family, Kujichagulia begins with language. What children are called, how their stories are told, and which histories are centered all shape their sense of self. Practicing Kujichagulia in family life affirms that children are not blank slates to be molded by dominant culture, but inheritors of a rich and resilient legacy. This is particularly significant for African American children, who often encounter negative racial messaging early and frequently.
Kujichagulia offers a counterweight by teaching:
- Pride in one’s name and ancestry
- Confidence in one’s voice and perspective
- Permission to question narratives that diminish worth
- Responsibility to speak truthfully and courageously
- Freeing ourselves from mental enslavement
- Teaching children how to think, not what to think
Parents and caregivers practicing Kujichagulia model self-definition by sharing their own stories of how they have resisted imposed identities and claimed their own sense of purpose. In this way, self-determination becomes relational, not individualistic.
Kujichagulia as community wellness: Resisting narratives that speak to weakness and deficiency: At the community level, Kujichagulia functions as a form of psychological and cultural wellness. Racism does not merely deny resources; it imposes narratives of deficiency, stories that frame African American communities as broken, dependent, or inherently flawed. Self-determination resists these narratives by asserting that communities possess the knowledge, creativity, and capacity to shape their own futures. This does not deny hardship; it reframes it within a context of agency rather than inevitability.
From a wellness standpoint, this reclamation of narrative has tangible effects that include:
- Increased community pride and cohesion
- Reduced internalized racism and self-blame
- Greater engagement in civic and cultural life
- Stronger intergenerational transmission of values
- The emergence of leadership
- Stimulating creativity, self-expression, and innovation
When communities define themselves, healing begins at the level of identity.
For African Americans who have experienced racism within institutions including religious ones, Kujichagulia offers a path to spiritual restoration without coercion. It affirms that one can reclaim moral and spiritual agency without submitting to systems that have caused harm.
By separating spirituality from domination and oppressive structures, Kujichagulia allows individuals to reconnect with meaning, purpose, and transcendence on their own terms. It invites reflection without shame and commitment without surrender of self.
Kujichagulia in nonviolent community organizing: In organizing for justice, Kujichagulia is a strategic imperative. Movements that lack self-determination are vulnerable to co-optation, misrepresentation, and dependency on external validation. Kujichagulia centers Black-led analysis, strategy, and leadership as a matter of integrity and authentic empowerment from within the community.
For African Americans, Kujichagulia is not an abstract concept. It is a historical necessity. From enslavement to Jim Crow to contemporary systems of mass incarceration and cultural stereotyping, Black identity has been persistently named, defined, and constrained by others. Kujichagulia directly confronts this legacy by affirming the right and responsibility of African people to author their own stories, reclaim their own destiny, and enjoy a freedom that was impossible to imagine by generations of Ancestors who were enslaved for their entire lives. Kujichagalia, self-determination at its highest level, is critical to the success of any community organizing effort. The presence of self along with foundational confidence yielded by the practice of Kujichagalia is essential to even conceptualizing a community organizing campaign. Without Kujichagalia, the African American community is prone to accept the status quo and may lack the consciousness or confidence to faintly consider anything better.
This principle demands that organizing efforts ask critical questions specific to community organizing:
- Who sets the agenda?
- Whose voices are amplified?
- Who speaks for the community and with what level of accountability?
Self-determination does not reject allies; it clarifies roles. It means support without substitution and solidarity without erasure. The red Kujichagalia candle symbolizes struggle, the blood shed in the pursuit of freedom. Kujichagulia honors that struggle by refusing to allow others to define its meaning or direction.
Ultimately, Kujichagulia asks: Who are we when we speak in our own voice? The answer is not static. It is discovered through practicing the principles of Kwanzaa within families, across communities, and in movements committed to justice and peace.
An Africentric proverb that captures this perspective is: “Until the lion tells the story, the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” Kujichagulia insists that African American communities tell their own stories, and on their own terms.
Note regarding the use of “Africentric“
From Baobab Tree: “In education, Afrocentrism has generally had an inward focus, bringing needed self-knowledge to Black children. Africentrism, in our usage, is outwardly focused – on what Black culture means in larger cultural contexts.”