Mkeka (the mat)
The mkeka is the mat at the heart of a Kwanzaa display, on which the candleholder and the other symbols are set. Maulana Karenga calls it a symbol of “our tradition and history”, the foundation on which a people builds.
Meaning
Mkeka (m-KE-ka; plural mikeka) is Swahili for a mat. Madan’s Swahili-English dictionary of 1903 describes the mats of Zanzibar: oblong, made of leaves (ukindu) slit into strips, plaited and stained in various colours, the strips sewn together and bound round the edge, the commonest plain white or striped across in colour, and their making “the ordinary occupation of women” when not busy with other household work. A Swahili saying it records, kama kitanda kupata mkeka, “like a bedstead getting a mat”, means the final touch. Britannica describes the Kwanzaa mkeka as a straw mat. It goes down first: in the order the official Kwanzaa website gives, a table in a central place in the home is spread with African cloth, the mkeka is laid on it, and all the other symbols go on the mat or right beside it “to symbolize our rootedness in our tradition”.
Origin and history
The mat’s meaning comes from Kawaida, the philosophy out of which, Karenga writes, Kwanzaa and its seven principles were created. In his column for the Los Angeles Sentinel in 2024 he calls the mkeka “symbolic of our tradition and history and thus the foundation on which we build our lives, in a word, our culture”, a cultural anchor. Kawaida, he writes, says “we base everything we do on tradition and reason”, and the other symbols are placed on the mkeka to stress the role of tradition. The International African American Museum gives the mat as the foundation “upon which all else rests”. Buffalo Toronto Public Media’s description of 2021 puts it a little differently, as the foundation for self-actualisation, the fulfilment of a person’s talents and potential.
What goes on the mkeka
Everything else. The official website places the Kinara on the mat and the seven candles in the kinara. Buffalo Toronto Public Media lists the other things on it: the Mazao (the crops), bowls of fruit and vegetables for the harvest; the Muhindi (the corn), corn for the children; the unity cup; and the Zawadi (the gifts), the gifts.
Read next
- Next in Kwanzaa symbolsMazao (the crops)Mazao, Swahili for “crops”, are the fruit and vegetables set out on the mat at Kwanzaa. They stand for the African harvest festivals the holiday is modelled on, and for the reward of productive work done together.
- The same shape in Andean and Inca symbolsGateway of the Sun (the Staff God)A doorway cut from a single block of andesite at Tiwanaku, near Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, carved above the opening with a god holding a staff in each hand. Who the figure is remains open: Britannica lists a sun god, a thunder god and Viracocha among the readings.
See also
Kinara, Mishumaa saba (the seven candles), Kwanzaa colours (bendera), Muhindi (the corn), Kikombe cha umoja (the unity cup), Zawadi (the gifts).
Sources
- The Symbols of Kwanzaa (Official Kwanzaa Website), Organization Us, Official Kwanzaa Website, “The Symbols of Kwanzaa”; text summarised from Maulana Karenga, Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture (University of Sankore Press, 2008), Official Kwanzaa Website (Organization Us), Primary Symbols: Mkeka
- The Celebration (Official Kwanzaa Website), Organization Us, Official Kwanzaa Website, “The Celebration”; text summarised from Maulana Karenga, Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture (University of Sankore Press, 2008), Official Kwanzaa Website (Organization Us), Candle Lighting
- Symbols and Insights of Kwanzaa: Deep Meanings and Expansive Message (Maulana Karenga, Los Angeles Sentinel, 2024), Maulana Karenga, “Symbols and Insights of Kwanzaa: Deep Meanings and Expansive Message”, Los Angeles Sentinel, 4 December 2024, Los Angeles Sentinel, paragraphs on the mkeka
- Swahili-English Dictionary (A. C. Madan, 1903), A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), Internet Archive (University of California Libraries scan), entry Mkeka
- Kwanzaa (Encyclopaedia Britannica), The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Kwanzaa”, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, article text
- HEAR: The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa (Buffalo Toronto Public Media, 2021), Buffalo Toronto Public Media (WNED/WBFO), “HEAR The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa”, What’s Next?, 29 December 2021, Buffalo Toronto Public Media, segment for 29 December
- What is Kwanzaa? (International African American Museum), International African American Museum, Charleston, “What is Kwanzaa?”, International African American Museum, Seven Symbols of Kwanzaa
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from lines or squares and rectangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 8, 2026. How we research
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