Commentary, articles and essays from Dr. Maulana Karenga
By Dr. Maulana Karenga — On this the 54th anniversary of our coming into being, September 7, 1965, as the organization Us, we look back on the long, difficult, dangerous and demanding road we’ve travelled. It is a journey of liberation in thought and practice that began with radical reasoning about ourselves and our culture. It involved rightfully raising Africa as our moral ideal, setting ourselves at the center of…
By Dr. Maulana Karenga — On this our 54th anniversary, I remember and raise up the momentous marking of our 50th anniversary. I said then and reaffirm now with four added years this. September 7 will mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of our organization Us, the introduction of the Nguzo Saba (The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa and Kawaida philosophy), and the establishment of the African American Cultural Center….
By Dr. Maulana Karenga — The Anniversary of the 1965 Watts Revolt occurs in the context of a larger history of Black struggle, sacrifices and achievements: the assassination, sacrifice and martyrdom of Min. Malcolm X; the Selma March; the Voting Rights Act; the founding of our organization Us and the African American Cultural Center; and the introduction of the Black value system, the Nguzo Saba, which became the core values of…
By Dr. Maulana Karenga — The month of August for our people is a special month, full and overflowing with commemorations of our awesome march and movement through human history in our ongoing quest for freedom, justice, expanded human good and the sustained well-being of the world. This year and month mark the 400th year of our brutal insertion in this country, enslaved and in resistance. And so, we must…
By Dr. Maulana Karenga — PART 1. We don’t have to be familiar with Frantz Fanon to concede that social conditions create, shape and even determine social consciousness. Nor do we have to be conversant with Kawaida philosophy to realize that ideas do not drop from the sky, grow from the ground or float in from the sea. They come from the society in which we live and learn to…
By Dr. Maulana Karenga — This is not a drill. “Houston, we have a problem,” or more historically and currently correct, “Houston, we’ve had a problem, here.” It’s not a problem of a ship in space, but rather the ship of state, setting aside its best-documents claims and making a hard right turn towards its worst-practices. And both the captain and crew are unrepentantly and defiantly doing and saying immoral,…
Dr. Maulana Karenga — In spite of the forked-tongue talk, doublespeak and patently racist ranting of the pretending president Trump and the White supremacist mob-like cheerleaders chanting hatred at his rallies, we must not miss the fresh, air-clearing and uplifting wind that is steadily rising and blowing our way. It is the transforming force of the voice, views and defiant struggles of the courageous four “freshmen” congresswomen: Rep. Ayanna Pressley…
By Dr. Maulana Karenga — Frantz Fanon (July 20,1925–December 6, 1961), noble ancestor and teacher of the righteous, radical and transformative word; believed in Africa’s capacity to repair, raise and renew itself, and in the African people’s will to unite and liberate themselves , bring into being a new world, woman and man, and start a new history of Africa and humankind. He posed, at the beginning, a deep-rooted, wide-ranging,…
By Dr. Maulana Karenga — Usually when we want to confront and discount America’s founding myth of creating a democracy of free and equal persons, its hypocritical and high-hype claims of justice for all and its self-congratulatory celebration of this myth on the 4th of July, we call Frederick Douglass to the dais. Or we hear Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer and others knocking at the door, coming to insist…
By Dr. Maulana Karenga — The recent hearing in the House of Representatives on reparations marks an important step on the long struggle for justice for Black people and accountability from the larger society for the horrendous and harrowing history of enslavement, Jim Crowism and racist oppression of varied kinds. However, in the spirit and speech of Amilcar Cabral, we know we must “mask no difficulties, tell no lies and…
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