Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies, California State University-Long Beach; Executive Director, African American Cultural Center (Us); Creator of Kwanzaa; and author of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture, The Message and Meaning of Kwanzaa: Bringing Good Into the World and Essays on Struggle: Position and Analysis, ww.AfricanAmericanCulturalCenter-LA.org; www.OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org; www.MaulanaKarenga.org.
In his classic work, The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon laid out an extensive explanation of how an oppressed people, which does not fight fiercely and self-consciously against its own oppression, will witness the emergence of those who turn the pent-up anger, disdain and righteous rage they have for their oppressor…
When Rodney King was snatched up into the whip and whirl of the winds of racial history in this country thru his savage beating in 1991 and the resultant revolt in 1992, it was an invitation of history he had no idea would come, no interest at first in accepting and ultimately, no way to engage it except as the man he was and tried to be.
With all due respect to the eminence and awesome insightfulness of W.E.B. Du- Bois, it is not only de-centered and dislocated Blacks who suffer a “double-consciousness,” but also self-centered and supremacy-committed Whites …
It is in this month of June that we pay special homage to Kwame Ture (June 29, 1941— November 15, 1998), tall and unwavering tree in the revered forest of Pan-Africanist freedom fighters; tireless unifying organizer of our people in their righteous pursuit of liberation, justice and power over their destiny and daily lives…
Surely, as it is written in the sacred texts of our ancestors, the Husia, “to do that which is of value is for eternity. A person called forth by his work does not die for his name is raised and remembered because of it.” And so it is with this man of immeasurable meaning to us all, our beloved brother and attorney for our people, John Morgan Caldwell, Jr.
Let us begin by saying, we send greetings of solidarity and increased and continuing struggle to all African people throughout the world African community and to all the oppressed and…
For most of us who celebrate the sacred lives of heroes and heroines of our history, the month of May immediately brings to mind the towering moral teacher and freedom fighter, Min. Malcolm X and African Liberation Day, but we of The Organization Us also celebrate and commemorate in this month the uplifting life and enduring legacy of Limbiko Tembo…
Clearly, Min. Malcolm X was/is a giant in a generation of great leaders, a moral teacher that lifted up the light that lasts, and a leader who like the top of the mountain is unconsciously there, but mighty and enduring in its awesome majesty and meaning.
A rightful reading of history and the signs our times unavoidably evokes concerns and calls for a critical assessment of where we are and to what tasks we should direct our attention and efforts in our ongoing quest for a free and empowered community, a just and good society and a good and sustainable world.
If the possession and pursuit of money can change even the focus of faith from social justice to personal prosperity, we cannot wonder how concerns about funding and maintaining favor can contribute to redefining, not only the memories and meanings of the 1992 Los Angeles Revolt, but also those of our history and struggle, and even of our being Black.
As Earth Day approaches this year, it provides an important opportunity to focus on critical environmental issues in a post-Katrina era of devastating storms and flooding, increasingly disastrous climate change, continuing toxic contamination of land, water and air, the ravaging of rain forests, the racist sacrificing of the health and well-being of unfavored peoples…
In thinking deep and determined about the strategy and struggle for justice for Trayvon Martin and all the other Black boys and men, and persons and peoples of color similarly targeted, abused, maimed and murdered, we are compelled to recall the essential teachings of Amilcar Cabral about the long, toll-taking and relentless struggle …
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