Dr. Maulana Karenga

If you were fortunate enough to have lived and loved in the 60s and were blessed to have heard Jammin’ Jai Rich (James Roy Richardson, 1934-2012)…

There is always a great sense of loss at the passing of a generational giant, a tall- standing and steadfast leader whose long shadow offered us protective shade and whose lengthy strides and enormous efforts hurried us toward victory in our ongoing struggle for good in the world.

In the midst of the thick fog and fantasy of this imaginary post-racial era, it might seem racially outrageous and socially scandalous…

The conception and development of our philosophy, Kawaida, the work and struggle of our organization Us, and the people focus, cultural groundedness and social consciousness of the leadership we seek to cultivate, teach and exemplify, all began with what our ancestors called in the Husia a “courageous questioning”.

The conversations around the absence, presence and putting of God in the platform at the Democratic Convention immediately raised questions and invites reflection on the ways ritualized references to God become a substitute for a more substantive engagement and honoring.

No one with even a minimum of historical awareness can avoid noticing that most of the organizations that once loudly claimed privileged space and special voice in the Black Liberation Movement have disappeared…

To refresh our memories of ourselves at our best, to recommit ourselves to principles and practices that demand and draw from us the excellent, uplifting and enduring, and to rebuild our Liberation Movement and go forth to repair and renew ourselves and the world, we must reaffirm and reconstruct our culture as a culture of struggle.

Regardless of persistent post-racial rumors, urban legends and lingering plantation hopes about the declining significance of race and the deserved death of racism, the recent construction of celebratory social relevance around the latest “discoveries” of Whites in Black beds, bodies, bloodlines and history offers abundant evidence to the contrary.

Each August brings with it a commemoration of the 1965 Watts Revolt and thus rightful reflection on how it fits within our history as a people, how it spoke and speaks to vital issues of life and struggle, especially to the right and responsibility of resistance.

The month of August opens for us a special space and time to pay rightful homage to the life and legacy of one of the great pan-African leaders of the 20^th century, and the father of modern Black nationalism as an emancipatory political and cultural project, the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey (August 17, 1887).