[upbeat music] - Habari gani?

It means, what's the news?

And it's the question that's asked at the beginning of every Kwanza celebration.

Hi, my name is Sira Williams, and we're celebrating Kwanza today.

Welcome to Karamu, our Feast of the Seventh Day.

I celebrate Kwanza every year with my family.

It's a tradition that I cherish because of my own family ties to Mali.

It's where my mom and dad were married.

It's where I was born and raised for a few years and where I was able to visit again as a young adult.

So celebrating Kwanza each year is a way for me to share those African traditions with my own family, my husband and my three beautiful daughters.

Kwanza was created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, who was a university professor.

This was during the height of the civil rights movement and he created it to encourage Black people here in America and throughout the African diaspora to connect with our African roots.

And so there are seven days of Kwanza that fall between Christmas and New Year's from December 26th to January 1st.

And for each day there is a principle.

They're referred to as the Nguzo Saba.

They're centered around the values of community, of family, of history, and culture.

And the whole holiday is based on the ideals of the first fruits of the harvest.

That's what the word Kwanza actually means.

So when I say habari gani, you're supposed to answer with the principle of the day.

So let me tell you about those principles right now.

The first principle is Umoja.

It means unity, joining together as a family, community, and race.

The second principle is Kujichagulia.

It means self-determination, or responsibility for one's own future.

The third principle is Ujima, which means collective work and responsibility, building our community together and solving our problems together as a group.

The fourth principle is Ujamaa, or cooperative economics, the community building and profiting from its own businesses.

The fifth principle is Nia, which means purpose, the goal of working together to build community and further the African culture.

The sixth principle is Kuumba, which means creativity, using our new ideas to create a more beautiful and successful community.

And the seventh principle is Imani, which means faith, where we honor our African ancestors, traditions, and leaders, and celebrate past triumphs over adversity.

So my nephew, Joshua, is here with me now to help make sure that we have everything we need for our Kwanza display.

So Josh, show me what you got.

- All right.

Well, the first thing I have is this mat right here.

- Perfect.

Hey, I think I'm gonna remind you of the Swahili words for these symbols.

- All right.

- Okay, so our mat is called an mkeka.

- [Joshua] Mkeka.

- And it's the foundation of our display because it represents our community.

That's the foundation for everything, and it represents community because all the fibers of the mat are woven together, making it strong.

- All right, makes sense.

- Okay, let's put our candle holder on next.

Perfect.

- There you go.

- And this is called a kinara.

- [Joshua] Kinara.

- [Sira] Yes.

So the kinara goes right here, and of course it has holes for seven candles.

- [Joshua] All right.

- For the seven days of Kwanza.

So grab our candles, and while you're setting them up I'll remind you what the colors represent.

- Sounds good.

- [Sira] So the black candle represents Black people.

That's the easiest one.

- [Joshua] All right.

- The green candles represent our future, because green is the color of plants and new growth.

And so you can just envision the future and going onward and upwards.

And then the red candles represent our history and the struggles that we've gone through, but not just the struggles, but also the triumphs and all the good in our history as well.

So these are the colors of Kwanza, and guess what.

They're also in our mat.

- [Joshua] Okay.

- Let's put our unity cup on next.

I'm gonna teach you this word.

Well, it's actually three words for the unity cup.

It's kikombe.

- Kikombe.

- Cha.

- Cha.

- Umoja.

- Umoja.

- Kikombe cha umoja means cup of unity.

And you know that every night of Kwanza, when we light our candles, we talk about the principle of the day and how we'd like to incorporate that into our lives, and then we take a sip from the unity cup and we give honor to one of our ancestors.

- Okay, so.

- What's next?

- I have this corn here.

- Awesome.

The corn is really important.

The Swahili word for corn is muhindi.

- [Joshua] Muhindi.

- Yes, and I have three ears of corn and they're meant to represent the number of kids we have in our family.

- [Joshua] Okay.

- So I have three ears of corn.

At your house you have a different number of ears of corn, right?

- [Joshua] That's right, yes.

- And the corn represents kids because each kernel of corn is a seed.

And from that seed, more corn will grow, just like our children will carry on the generations of our family.

Awesome.

We're just needing one more thing, and that's our fruit.

- Can't forget that.

- We can't, because the fruit represents the bounty of the harvest, and that's what Kwana means.

So we have our fruit to remind us of all of our blessings, all of the good things that we have to be thankful for.

And that completes our Kwanza display.

So I think we're in good shape for tonight.

- All right.

- But did we wanna practice a toast?

- Let's go for it.

I think I have an idea.

- Okay.

- All right.

- [Sira] That's ginger tea.

- All right.

So I poured this libation in honor of my grandfather, who is really the embodiment of all of the principles of Kwanza.

He worked so hard, you know, running his own jewelry business, and he really passed down so many important things and traditions, and just it's really important to me and my family.

So, cheers to Grandpa.

[light music] - I like that.

I'd also like to honor Grandpa.

We miss him.

Perfect.

All right, I think we're all ready.

- I think we're good to go.

- So let's set this up in the other room and get ready for our celebration.

- Perfect.

- Thanks for helping me.

- No problem.

[light music] - We're gonna get started with jollof rice.

You know, countries throughout West Africa have their own versions of this recipe, and there are so many opinions about whose is best.

I'm gonna share with you my family's favorite and we love it because it's hot, it's spicy, and it just makes the kitchen smell so, so good.

Let me tell you what you're gonna need for the recipe.

Red peppers.

You could use red poblanos, but I'm using just red bell peppers.

We need red onion, chopped, and tomatoes.

You can use canned tomatoes in any variety, or of course, you could use fresh plum tomatoes.

I've got some habanero peppers, very spicy chicken stock, sliced red onions, that's gonna go in our sauce.

Oil.

This is canola oil.

You could use vegetable oil, but olive oil is not gonna work in this recipe.

We've got thyme, butter, salt, and pepper, both black and white pepper, curry, tomato paste, and bay leaves.

And of course we have long grain rice 'cause this is the rice-based dish.

I'm using basmati rice today.

There's two parts to this recipe.

We're gonna start in the blender to make our sauce and then we're gonna turn to the stove to cook everything up.

So, this is the fun part.

I'm gonna add my peppers and onions.

We need our tomatoes and our habaneros.

These are so spicy, I'm not even gonna cut them up.

I'm just gonna let them blend up in there.

And I'm gonna add the chicken stock now.

And I'm ready to pulse it up.

Make sure that lid is on tight.

You're gonna have to pulse this or blend this for about two minutes to get it nice and smooth.

I'm gonna take it to the stove and let it simmer for about 10 to 12 minutes.

So this is phase two of our jallof rice.

We have our red pepper, onion, and chili sauce already done.

I'm working on my onions.

They're softening here and I'm ready to add my dry spices.

I'm gonna add a pinch of salt and pepper.

Remember, I have white pepper and black pepper, and then I have curry powder and thyme.

I really want these spices to melt.

So I'm gonna let these cook for a couple minutes.

I'm adding my bay leaves.

And my next step is going to be to add my tomato paste.

Here we go.

We're gonna mix that all together.

And once again, I want these flavors to really meld and mix together.

My next step is to add our pepper, onion, and chili sauce.

I'm gonna add it to this mixture and let that whole thing simmer down for about 10 minutes 'cause we want it to reduce before we add our rice.

The whole special thing about jallof rice is that the rice cooks in the sauce.

So everything is spicy, hot, and delish.

I'm gonna add my rice with the chicken stock and a little butter.

I think I'll do the stock first.

And just a little butter so it doesn't stick.

And I'm gonna seal this up and let this simmer down and cook all of that deliciousness in.

One special trick is to cover the pot with foil before putting the lid on to really seal this up.

I can't wait for everyone to taste this dish.

It's gonna be yummy.

[light music] [soft music] [upbeat music] Let's talk about red red.

Red red is a traditional Ghanaian dish that's made with black-eyed peas, and black-eyed peas are a staple throughout the African diaspora.

So if you have Southern roots, then you know that eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day brings good luck and good fortune.

It's the perfect tie-in for Kwanza because the last day of Kwanza lands on New Year's Day.

And so this is gonna connect our African traditions, our American traditions, and that's what our celebration is all about today.

So I wanna show you the ingredients in red red.

I have chicken stock, red chili paste, salt, tomato paste, garlic, and ginger.

Of course we have our black-eyed peas, some diced onions, diced tomatoes, and plantains.

I wanna talk to you about the plantains because they're bringing in our Caribbean flavor.

You can fry them up and add them to your stew about 10 minutes before it's done as part of the stew.

Or you can serve them on the side.

Either way, they're delicious.

I've got my chopped onions and I actually have them already sauteing on the stove, so our onions are softened up nicely.

And I'm gonna get ready to add some other ingredients.

Aren't one pot dishes the best?

I'm just gonna add my garlic and ginger and the tomato paste and the hot chili paste.

And lastly, I'm gonna put in the tomatoes.

I'm gonna let this simmer down for just a couple of minutes.

And let's add the rest.

We're gonna put in our black-eyed peas.

And our chicken broth.

This is gonna smell so good.

It already does.

Looking good.

I'm gonna add a little salt to taste and I'm gonna let this simmer for about 10 minutes and then I'm gonna add some plantains just because.

I'm gonna use these tongs to add the plantains to the stew.

And they're gonna cook in here for about 10 minutes just to absorb some of that flavor.

I think our guests are really gonna enjoy this.

Hey, come on, you little plantain.

Looks great.

[soft music] [upbeat music] This is the dish that I'm most excited to share with you today because it's very personal to me.

My mom learned this recipe in Mali, where she married my dad and lived for several years, and I was actually born there but I grew up in California and my mom made sure to bring the Malian traditions with us.

And I have really strong memories of her coming to my elementary school classes and doing presentations.

She would wear the clothes, she would bring the artifacts and the maps, and she would always serve this dish.

The kids loved it and they could never believe that the secret ingredient in it is peanut butter.

But it was, and I wanna tell you the other ingredients in it.

The official name of it is tilgatige.

I think I'm saying that right.

The way I grew up saying it is tilgatige, and let me show you what's in it.

We've got beef cubes, eggplant, which is optional.

When I grew up, we didn't use eggplant, but we're gonna try it today.

We've got chopped garlic, canola oil.

This is seasoning cubes or bouillon cubes.

We've got chopped okra, peanut butter.

There it is.

Some chopped shallots, diced tomatoes, white onion, chopped, and long-grain rice.

Again, this is basmati.

It's been soaked.

And we're gonna use water also in our recipe.

So I already have actually the onions, the garlic, the tomatoes stewing on the stove.

And I'm going to add the okra, the eggplant.

Okay, I'm gonna put my water in and my seasoning cubes.

And then I wanna talk to you about the meat for a minute.

This is stew meat, beef.

It comes in big chunks usually when you buy it at the store.

So I'm just gonna cut it into bite-sized chunks so it's easy to eat.

But I wanna let you know that traditionally mutton is used or goat meat or even pork.

You can use whatever you want.

But this is what I like and that's what I'm doing today.

So I'm gonna take it to the stove now and finish the recipe.

Okay, I've got the onions, garlic, and shallots simmering here for my tilgatige and I'm ready to add my diced tomatoes.

I'm gonna stir that in.

And the next ingredients that are gonna go in is the peanut butter, that's my secret ingredient, and the meat.

See if I can get this out of the dish.

Okay.

And I brown this meat up just a little bit, and it goes, and let's stir everything together.

I'm gonna let this saute for just a few minutes and then I'm gonna add the okra and the seasonings and the eggplant.

I wish you guys could smell this.

The peanut butter has a really unique fragrance and taste.

I'm ready to add my okra, my eggplant, my seasonings, and the stock.

I'm gonna stir it all together.

And then we're just gonna let it simmer for about an hour and it's going to be so delicious.

I can't wait for everybody to taste it.

[upbeat music] [soft music] [upbeat music] Fufu is a traditional West African dish that's served as an accompaniment with soups and stews, and we're making stews today for our Karamu feast.

And so I'm excited to tell you about fufu today.

The base of fufu is usually root vegetables.

I have a good assortment of things here to share with you but I wanna show you that I have plantains in my bowl as well because you can make fufu with plantains.

Now, I went to the local grocery store and I was able to find some traditional sweet potatoes and yams.

I was also able to get a cassava, and this may be what's more traditionally eaten in West Africa.

You can tell it looks different than the other root vegetables.

It has a rougher texture to it and it will have a different flavor.

Of course, all of these are gonna have a different flavor, but you're gonna use what's available to you at your grocery store.

They're all gonna be skinned and diced.

And I have here some diced yams.

And then traditionally those would be put in the mortar and pestle and they would be ground down into a paste.

And it takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of muscle and it takes a lot of time.

And actually, during this holiday season when I'm so busy, to be honest with you, I don't have the time or the inclination to go through all that trouble.

So while I was at the specialty shop I was able to pick up a fufu mix.

And that is perfect because all you have to do is add water.

Now, if you don't have a specialty shop near you you might be able to find that online.

When you get to the point where you have your fufu dough ready, you're gonna form it into balls just like this.

And actually, I have some already prepared for my event tonight, and this is what they're gonna look like.

And so that's how I'm gonna serve them, but I wanna show you what we're gonna do when we eat.

We're gonna take our fufu.

Grab a little finger full.

And traditionally in Africa, in West Africa, people eat with their hands.

And so you have a bit of fufu on your hands, you scoop that into the stew and you take a bite just like that.

And to be honest with you, eating with your hands is a special experience.

I hope that you'll try it because it just adds a whole level of sensuality and culture to your meal.

[upbeat music] [cheery music] We've had such an amazing day.

Thank you so much for joining us.

I was so happy to have my friends and family with us as we celebrated our Karamu, our Feast of the Seventh Day.

We're eating all the delicious West African meals that we made, and I think we're all gonna have a great time.

Thank you for joining us.

I hope you'll try some of our recipes, and happy Kwanza.

Harambee!

- [All] Harambee!