Sask. African Canadian Heritage Museum celebrates Kwanzaa in Regina

Bryan Eneas · CBC News · Posted: Dec 28, 2019 5:00 AM CT | Last Updated: December 28, 2019

Kwanzaa celebrations featured dancing, drumming and singing performances from people from eight different countries. (Heidi Atter/CBC)

Kwanzaa is being celebrated around the world and the Queen City is no exception. 

On Thursday, the first day of celebrations, members of the Saskatchewan African Canadian Heritage Museum (SACHM) hosted their 5th annual Kwanzaa celebration.

“[Kwanzaa] is really considered an African heritage kind of celebration that [was] started in the States in 1966, I think it was,” Carol LaFayette-Boyd told CBC News. 

“It’s really an opportunity for people of African heritage to be educated about their ancestry, and other people who are not of African heritage to be educated.” 

LaFayette-Boyd said she didn’t learn of the cultural celebration until 1996 when a co-worker told her about it.

Carol LaFayette is one of the Kwanzaa celebration organizers. (Heidi Atter/CBC)

She said while Kwanzaa is a seven day celebration, members of the SACHM gather on the first day. 

Members of the group picked one of seven core principles that are celebrated during Kwanzaa, and then learned about it. 

LaFayette-Boyd said the seven principles are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose and faith. 

This year, she said SACHM highlighted unity in its Kwanzaa celebration. 

“That’s for us to strive for and to maintain unity in the family, the community, the nation, your race,” LaFayette-Boyd said.

With files from Creeden Martell