2024 Kwanzaa Stamps

The U.S. Postal Service celebrates Kwanzaa with a stamp issuance in 2024. The annual Pan-African holiday, observed each year from December 26 to January 1, brings together family, community, and culture.

Rendered as a digital collage, the artwork depicts three young performers: a male drummer and, behind and to either side of him, two female dancers. He wears a dark blue, green, and orange kufi, a white shirt, and pants with a geometric black-and-white mud cloth-like pattern. His djembe, blue with a white drumhead, hangs from his neck by a red strap. The two dancers wear orange dresses and gold jewelry. One has a red hair band. All three figures have silhouetted black skin and hair. The floor beneath their feet is diamond-patterned in shades of green, while the background features triangles in shades of red. Each dancer extends a knee and a bit of orange skirt beyond the image frame, into the white margin of the stamp.

Kwanzaa is intended to help unify African Americans from a wide array of religious and cultural backgrounds. It draws on a variety of African traditions, deriving its name from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning “first fruits.” With origins in ancient and modern first-harvest festivities occurring across the African continent, Kwanzaa incorporates and reimagines many of these communal traditions as a contemporary celebration and reaffirmation of African American culture. Each day of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of its seven principles: Unity (Umoja), Self-Determination (Kujichagulia), Collective Work and Responsibility (Ujima), Cooperative Economics (Ujamaa), Purpose (Nia), Creativity (Kuumba), and Faith (Imani). The Kwanzaa colors—black, red, and green—represent, respectively, the Pan-African people, the struggles they have endured through time, and the hope for a better future born from these struggles.

Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp with original artwork by Ekua Holmes.