Updated, 7:30 a.m.

Good morning on this pleasant Friday.

Habari gani?

That means “What’s up?” in Swahili, and it’s a common greeting used during Kwanzaa, which begins on Monday.

The weeklong holiday, which draws on African harvest traditions, was founded by Maulana Karenga, a professor, in 1966 as a way for African-Americans to celebrate their heritage.

We were curious about the holiday’s beginnings, so we dug into The Times’s archive for the first mention of Kwanzaa. That was in December 1971, in an article titled “Spirit of Kwanza: A Time of Giving”

In that article, a certain Alfred Sharpton, a 16-year-old ordained Pentecostal minister, taught students from Harlem about the traditions and seven principles of Kwanzaa.