Meanings
- uncountableself-determination (in the context of African-American culture)
[Professor Macheo] Payne said. "It’s going to soil and spoil the kujichagulia of Juneteenth. ... It’s going to feel like it’s theirs, too."
2021 July 4, Justin Phillips, “Why I'm sitting out the Fourth of July”, in San Francisco Chronicle2 more examples
On Tuesday night at the Club Serene in Brooklyn, Mayor Koch proclaimed Kwanzaa Week in New York. Then he told the crowd of about 400 that he had practiced his Swahili in order to pronounce correctly such exotic-sounding words as kujichagulia (self-determination), ujamaa (cooperative economics) and imani (faith), the theme of Kwanzaa '83.
1983 December 30, Ron Alexander, “The Evening Hours”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 03 Jan 2022, page B7On the second day of Kwanzaa, we practice Kujichagulia, the principle of self-determination. This principle highlights for the NC State community what it means to define, name, create and speak for ourselves.
2020 November 5, North Carolina State University Calendar
Origin
- Swahilichagua
- Swahilikujichagulia
- Englishkujichagulia
Borrowed from Swahili kujichagulia (“self-determination”).
More words from Swahili
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
kujichagulia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kujichagulia
“kujichagulia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kujichagulia. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “kujichagulia,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kujichagulia.
Source: kujichagulia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.