E-Phi
12-30-2003, 03:19 PM
African Publishers on Maulana Karenga (http://www.africanpubs.com/Apps/bios/0846karengaMaulana.asp?pic=none)
Maulana Karenga
1941-
Nationality: American
Occupation: Writer, Educator, Activist
PERSONAL
Born Ronald McKinley Everett, July 14, 1941, in Parsonsburg, MD; married, 1967, wife's name Tiamoya. Education: Los Angeles City College, B.A.; University of California, M.A. and Ph.D. (political science and social ethics). Addresses: Addresses: Office--Department of Black Studies, California State University, Long Beach, CA.
CAREER
Formed US (a group promoting black cultural nationalism based on African heritage), 1965; collaborator, with Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., on major black-power conferences, Washington, DC, 1966; Ujima Housing Projects/ Mafundi Institute, Los Angeles, CA, coplanner; established cultural holiday Kwanzaa in United States, 1966; convicted of assault and incarcerated at San Luis Obispo Prison, CA, 1971-75; switched ideological focus to Marxism, 1975; California State University at Long Beach, associate professor and chairperson of black studies department, c. 1991--. Cofounder, Brotherhood Crusade; has served as chairperson of the President's Task Force on Multicultural Education and Campus Diversity, California State University at Long Beach and director, African-American Cultural Center, Los Angeles.
WRITINGS:
The African American Holiday of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture, University of Sankore Press, 1988.
Introduction to Black Studies, Kawaida Publications, 1982.
(Editor with Jacob H. Carruthers), Kemet and the African Worldview: Research, Rescue and Restoration, University of Sankore Press, 1986.
Kwanzaa: Origin, Concepts, Practice, Kawaida Publications, 1977.
Selections from the Husia: Sacred Wisdom of Ancient Egypt, University of Sankore Press, 1984.
Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture, commemorative edition, University of Sankore Press, 1998.
Author of numerous articles published in Black Scholar.
NARRATIVE ESSAY:
Maulana Karenga (born 1941) an activist scholar, educator, and social theorist founded the African American holiday of Kwanzaa, a celebration of family, community, and culture based on African first harvest celebrations that urges blacks to ground themselves in their own culture in forder to address the fundamental questions of human life.
Known as the man who founded the cultural holiday of Kwanzaa in 1966, Maulana Karenga has played a key role in programs that have defined black identity and helped blacks connect themselves to their cultural roots. His identities since the mid-1960s have run the gamut from black power revolutionary and supporter of Malcolm X to mediator with whites in times of racial strife. Throughout, Karenga has stressed the importance of culture to blacks as a means of strengthening solidarity and overcoming oppression.
Karenga has played a great role in providing positive symbols to blacks through cultural reaffirmation. In speaking of his movement in Emerge!, he said, "As cultural nationalists, we believe that you must rescue and reconstruct African history and culture to revitalize African culture today in America." Karenga has acknowledged his debt to black thinkers of the past in shaping his view. Veronica Chambers wrote in Essence that Karenga's "intellectual voice is born of a mixed palette of teachings, from W. E. B. DuBois to Anna Julia Cooper, a legendary Black nineteenth-century feminist who attended the Sorbonne while in her sixties and received a Ph.D." The holder of two Ph.D.s of his own, Karenga pays particular homage to path-breaking blacks such as DuBois, Cooper, Fannie Lou Hamer, Malcolm X, Mary McLeod Bethune, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Frederick Douglass.
LEADERSHIP SKILLS REVEALED IN COLLEGE
The son of a Baptist minister, Karenga was born on a poultry farm in Maryland. He moved to Los Angeles in 1958 to attend Los Angeles City College, and while there became the first black ever elected president of the student body. He earned his bachelor's and masters' degrees in political science and African studies at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). At the beginning of the 1960s, Karenga met Malcolm X and began to embrace black nationalism and following the Watts Revolt in 1965, he interrupted his doctorate studies at UCLA and joined the Black Power Movement.
In the mid-1960s Everett started the group known as US (meant as a counterpoint to "them") that he "created as a social and culture change organization," according to The Black 100. It was at this time that he adopted the name Maulana Karenga--Maulana is Swahili for "master-teacher." All members of US were required to take on Afro-Swahili surnames, learn Swahili, shave their heads, and wear African-style attire. A central element of US was the embracing of the seven principles of the Nguzo Saba, a black value system that was to be a code of living for blacks. The principles consisted of Umjoya (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity), and Imani (faith). The goal of this value system was to promote a national liberation of African Americans and US soon attracted a large following among blacks on the West Coast.
With US, Karenga was instrumental in building independent schools, black-studies departments, and black-student unions. As he gained status in the black power movement, he proceeded to organize a series of gatherings to provide blacks with a platform for social change. Working with other black leaders, he set up major black-power conferences in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Newark, New Jersey, where he was instrumental in triggering development of an ideological framework for black politics in the years to come. Central to Karenga's efforts was the espousal of cultural nationalism to instill racial pride and confidence among American blacks.
Among the blacks who took leadership roles in the black cultural movement of the 1960s were LeRoi Jones (who became Amiri Baraka), Sonia Sanchez, Addison Gayle, Jr., Larry Neal, and Haki Madhubuti (formerly Don L. Lee). During this period Karenga worked alongside such people, founding the Brotherhood Crusade, as well as housing projects, community health centers, and other associations to aid blacks. "From the beginning, we were into institutional building for both the local and national community," he claimed in Essence. Karenga made it clear, however, that blacks had a right to act up if the system did not change. "Unless America awakens to the fact that she must contend with us as an enemy, or bargain with us as citizens, it will be to her serious disadvantage," he was quoted as saying in Newsweek in 1966.
CULTURAL HOLIDAY BECOMES WORLDWIDE PHENOMENON
One year after the creation of US, Karenga introduced a lasting source of black unity by introducing Kwanzaa to African Americans. Kwanzaa, which is Swahili for "first fruits," is a holiday based on African agricultural rites and communal activities that urges blacks to look back to their cultural roots as a source of celebration. On each of the seven days of Kwanzaa--from December 26 through January 1--a principle of the Nguzo Saba is acknowledged.
Although it coincides with the Christmas season, the holiday has no religious aspects and therefore allows people from all countries and backgrounds to join in without conflicts. A pan-Africanist, Karenga's support of Kwanzaa was an offshoot of his belief that blacks should consider themselves one people, regardless of their country. "Kwanzaa was created to reaffirm our culture and the bonds between us as a people," he told Essence. After initially being observed by a few hundred people, Kwanzaa celebrations have spread well beyond the borders of the United States in ensuing years.
Throughout the mid-1960s, Karenga's voice was clearly heard in speeches across the nation about the importance of racial pride. His reputation soared due to his role in helping the Los Angeles police limit black rioting after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in 1968. Karenga's mediating skills made him in demand for meetings with political leaders that included then-California Governor Ronald Reagan, ex-Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, Senator Hubert Humphrey, and Ford Foundation head McGeorge Bundy. At the same time he was working with these leaders, Karenga's continued outspokenness also put him under surveillance by the FBI.
A number of factors isolated Karenga within the black-power movement. While some African Americans did not care for his overpowering manner, others disagreed with his philosophy for dealing with the problems of blacks; more extremist blacks spoke out against his dealing with whites. The cultural nationalists could not bridge the gap between blacks who wanted to overthrow the system and those who were willing to promote change through the normal political process.
Karenga's status was eroded considerably after the killing of Black Panther members John Huggins and Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter by US gunmen in 1969. It was also felt by many that the so-called cultural movement promoted by Karenga and Baraka compromised the rights of women. Karenga's male chauvinism came to the fore in 1971 when he was arrested and convicted of assaulting a female US member. After he was sent to prison to serve time for his offense, the US organization began to dissolve and was officially ended in 1974.
IDEOLOGICAL SHIFT DURING IMPRISONMENT
In prison, Karenga actively complained that his sentence was more harsh than for others convicted of a similar offense, and noted that his repeated parole recommendations were ignored. During his incarceration he maintained a rigorous schedule of activity and received a steady flow of visitors. He would often endure 19-hour work days consisting of work in the prison library, running a humanist discussion group, and conducting research. His studies resulted in articles published in Black Scholar magazine that encompassed subjects ranging from feminism to pan-Africanism.
After three years, Karenga won his freedom due to the efforts of various black elected officials in California. After his release he admitted that US had made mistakes that weakened the movement and compromised its ability to change appropriately with the times. He also revealed an ideological reawakening by announcing his adherence to Marxist principles of class struggle. As Thomas L. Blair said in Retreat to the Ghetto, "In Karenga's new view, black nationalism is reactionary because in the pursuit of an elusive ideal of unity it makes class contradictions among blacks." Baraka also made the shift in philosophy, thus ending the militant cultural revolution of blacks started in the 1960s.
In the years that followed, Karenga would continue to rethink his position on black identity and once again embrace the principles of black culturalism. Prominent in his thoughts was the need for blacks to work together toward common goals and, especially for Africans to transcend borders of country and tribe. "In the final analysis shared social wealth and work are key to African economic development," he said, according to The Black 100.
Karenga's Marxist leanings continued to show in his negative opinion of black capitalism, which he felt subverted the black cause and resulted in blacks losing touch with their true identity. To further press the cause of black unity, Karenga and his wife Tiamoya increased their involvement with the Kwanzaa holiday over the years. By having no elements of elitism, exclusivity, or intellectualism, Kwanzaa is fully accessible to the masses and cannot be claimed as the special province of any one group, according to Karenga.
VOICE OF REASON DURING LOS ANGELES RIOTS
In addition to serving as professor and chairperson of the Department of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach in the 1990s, Karenga became chairperson of the President's Task Force on Multicultural Education and Campus Diversity at the school. He also was appointed director of the African American Cultural Center in Los Angeles. After the 1992 riots in Los Angeles that followed the beating of Rodney King by police, Karenga once again became a voice of healing in the aftermath.
Karenga sponsored workshops and lectures to help close the racial wounds resulting from the event. Karenga remained reasonable and called for cool heads while the Rodney King trial was underway and blacks were threatening retribution if the jury gave the police a light sentence. "L.A. can be a model in a positive way or a negative way," he was quoted as saying in Newsweek while the trial was underway.
The Kwanzaa holiday remains Karenga's most important legacy to the black cause. His influence is demonstrated by the fact that by the 1990s Kwanzaa was celebrated by over 18 million blacks in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa. He and his wife have presided over hundreds of Kwanzaas all over the world. "As cultural nationalists, we believe that you must rescue and reconstruct African history and culture to revitalize African culture today in America," he said in Emerge. "Kwanzaa became a way of doing just that. I wanted to stress the need for reorientation of values, to borrow the collective life-affirming ones from our past and use them to enrich our present."
SOURCES:
BOOKS
Blair, Thomas L., Retreat to the Ghetto, The End of a Dream, Hill & Wang, 1977.
The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader, Penguin, 1991.
Salley, Columbus, The Black 100, Citadel Press, 1993.
Van Deburg, William L., New Day in Babylon, The Black Power Movement and American Culture 1965-1975, University of Chicago Press, 1992.
PERIODICALS
Black Enterprise, December 1991, p. 22; December 1993, p. 107.
Detroit Free Press Magazine, December 4, 1994, p. 6.
Ebony, September 1975, p. 170.
Essence, December 1989, p. 50; December 1992, pp. 96-98, 129.
Emerge, January 1992, pp. 11-12.
Newsweek, August 22, 1966, pp. 28-29; March 29, 1993, p. 30.
Biography Resource Center
©2001, Gale Group, Inc.
[ December 30, 2003, 03:21 PM: Message edited by: E-Phi ]
Originally posted by jimmymack-2000:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by neco:
and all this "truth" is important because.....?
Because this holiday, which is supposed to unite African-Americans in common celebration of their roots, was founded by a man who was convicted and did time for torturing two black women who disagreed with him, and may be implicated in the killing of two men for the same crime--disagreeing with him.
Originally posted by neco:
i think the postive impact that kwanzaa has had on the black community far outweighs karenga's purported acts of nastiness and violence...
HAPPY KWANZAA EVERYBODY!!!!! smile.gif Would you say the same about Charles Manson, or David Koresh, or the Reverend Jim Jones, had a feel-good holiday been their last legacy? Does that make up for it?
I'm not attacking Kwanzaa really--I just didn't know the dude behind it appears to have done some real evil, and has serious megalomaniac tendencies... </font>[/QUOTE]gotta question your integrity, you are leaving out a lot of facts regarding this guys life
Originally posted by jimmymack-2000:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by mhd:
gotta question your integrity, you are leaving out a lot of facts regarding this guys life Question away. Admittedly, I don't know all the facts--it's impossible to, unless you're Karenga himself.
Here's an interesting discussion sparked by a seminar on social justice he gave--I agree with every point he advances. The world would definitely be a better place if these were put into practice:
Seminar in Social Theory and Practice (http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/292.html)
However, given his past treatment of those that didn't share his worldview, would you trust this man to implement these?
P.S. Reading a book right now called "Drylongso" by John Langston Gwaltney--good stuff, but speaking as a white guy, pretty disturbing... </font>[/QUOTE]e-phi just posted a pretty good description of his life and accomplishments, plus, a little thing called cointelpro requires that i look at his arrest and conviction with more than a little skepicism. as for kwaanza, sounds like a great concept with some positive ideals for folks to embrace, i bet 90% of the people observing it have never heard of karenga
Mike Johnson
12-30-2003, 06:44 PM
Originally posted by jimmymack-2000:
Here's one of those dissenting takes on Kwanzaa:
NY Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/26/opinion/26DICK.html) The writer states:
My objection is not that Kwanzaa is "made up." What observance isn't? My problem is its rejectionist nature. Certainly, some celebrate both Kwanzaa and Christian holidays. Also, some celebrate Kwanzaa affirmatively, as a way of honoring the African ancestors who were taken from us and of mourning the lives we were prevented from living. Too often, though, Kwanzaa feels as if it is more about thumbing black noses at white America than at embracing the lost cause of resuming our Africanness.
and....
The ultimate cop-out of Kwanzaa, and other Afrocentric artificialities, is that they devalue and even negate the lives blacks actually live. The romance of our lost heritage reclaimed seeks to situate the black self in a time, and a tradition, before whites came along to make us hate ourselves — a time when we lived at the center of the world's knowledge, art and commerce. It rejects our slave and Jim Crow ancestors because it's a focus on who we were rather than who we are. I am not ashamed of who we are. Is Dr. Karenga?
I think, however, that what often gets lost or overlooked in these evaluations, criticisms, of the invention/creation of "African artificialities" so as to "reclaim" a heritage lost, or to advance these "artificialities" in the name of promoting self-pride and establishing a sense of culturalism is that more so than not, ideas are promoted out of a reaction of having been rejected, overlooked by white society who for the most part never gave blacks a place at the table when this country was formed, therefore, leaving blacks without any stated contribution to the good old American way of life or any presence in the creation or advancement of American idealism.
Consider that Kwanzaa was established in the 1960's, a time period when blacks spent a tremendous amount of energy to get this country to recognize them as equal citizens, with entitlements to rights and civil liberties granted all other people under the Constitution.
Consider that the story of the black people's contribution to the development of this country was neglected in the history books and gave him no place at table of life.
Consider that even after the passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960's that blacks had to continue to fight for equality, racial and economic justice.
Consider that after the passage of civil rights legislation that blacks, well into the 1970's and 80's and 90's, disproportionately attended inferior schools, more likely lived in poverty, got lower paying jobs, were more likely to be jailed than whites for similar crimes, etc.
And consider that images of Christmas in this country NEVER included the faces of people of color, from Norman Rockwells to fairy tale images of Charles Dickens, to constant pictures of happy, smiling white children on Christmas day enjoying the presents left by a jolly white Saint Nick who made visits to folks living in the suburbs. And as the writer says, all observances are created - it's just that given the time period in which Kwanzaa was conceptualized and promoted, the observance of Christmas cast many images that were void of people of color or their cultural way of life (does anyone ever question why Hispanics have established and celebrate Three Kings Day, which follows Christmas?)
Taking this all, and then some, into consideration, it doesn't leave me surprised as to why someone like Karenga advanced an idea based on African principles as a means to promote self-pride and of partaking in the celebration of life (the birth of Christ / the newness of the first harvest), and of giving blacks a presence at this time of celebration (another motive may have been, as others before Karenga, to create and/or reinforce a connection with Africa as the motherland from which slaves were separated).
I don't fully observe Kwanzaa but I can understand the intent behind the advancement of this concept - it appears to have been in reaction to having been overlooked. And considering that the principles can apply to anyone of any faith, creed or color, it ain't such a bad thing. Maybe the need for a Kwanzaa period of celebration may dissipate when the images of Christmas and the various means of celebrating it truly reflects the melting pot this country claims to be.
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