Kwanzaa Symbols

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Masequa Myers and, in this clip, we will talk about the symbols of Kwanzaa. Before me, I have all the basic symbols and a few additional ones too. First of all, we want to place all the symbols on the foundation, which is mkeka, a mat, a straw mat. Find yourself a nice straw mat and place all the symbols on top of them. And you can begin with the mazao, which means "crops." Our fruits, our nuts, our staples, our potatoes and yams. And also you don't want to forget your unity cup, which is called a kikombe cup. Actually, kikombe is going to help us symbolize unity and that is what the kikombe cup is all about. And we will talk about that a little later in detail. And over here, we have corn and that corn in Swahili is said to be our muhindi. Okay? And there's a piece of corn for every child in the house specifically. But let's say that it should be for every person in the house because we all were once children. Now, we move right along to the kinara, which is the candle holder. Alrighty? And then we have the mishumaa saba, seven candles that go into our kinara candle holder. And there you have it. Our basic symbols for the Kwanzaa celebration. And in our next clip, we will talk about some of the additional symbols you will want to add to fill all of this out."