What could Kwanzaa possibly mean?

What does Kwanzaa' mean?

• Answer:

  first fruits cCLARIFICATION: The word was made up in 1966 by Maulana Karenga as the name for a festival for African-Americans. It is not Swahili and both the word and the holiday are recognized by very few people in East Africa, the home of the Swahili language. But is a variation on a Swahili word, and possibly a portmanteau word combining kwanza and kuzaa. Kwanza (KWAH-nzah), accent on the first sylllable, is the ordinal number for one, first. If kwanzaa were a Swahili word, it would be pronounced kwah-NZAH-ah). All but a few Swahili words are accented on the penultimate syllable (kwanzaa has three syllables to a Swahili speaker: kwa-nza-a). Kuzaa is the Swahili verb for to bear, to give birth to, of people, animals, plants, etc. First fruits in Swahili is mazao ya kwanza (referring to the harvest). Matunda ya kwanza, given as a translation of "first fruits" by Wikipedia, is restricted to fruits such as apples, oranges, etc. Mazao covers all foods grown and harvested, as well as the offspring of domestic animals.