In “Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture” Maulana Karenga (the creator of Kwanzaa) describes creativity (kuumba) as “a commitment to being creative within the context of the national community vocation of restoring our people to their traditional greatness and thus leaving our community more beneficial and beautiful than we, i.e., each generation inherited it.”

In further describing “creativity” (kuumba), the author discusses the subject in terms of two main concepts: “creative restoration” and “Kwanzaa as creative restoration”.

And in describing “Kwanzaa as creative restoration” he views it as a creative act of restoring African culture or “that which was in ruins or disuse” in parts of Africa and among African Americans in the United States.

Through his act of creating Kwanzaa, the author has given others a means to participate in the creative restoration of African culture to those who were once denied their heritage.

Reference:  “Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture”, by Maulana Karenga,   University of Sankore Press, Los Angeles, California.