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Books by Maulana Karenga
Introduction to Black Studies /
Selections from Husia: Sacred Wisdom of Ancient Egypt /
The Book of Coming Forth by Day
Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture
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Million Man March: Day of Absence
Handbook of Black Studies /
Maat, the Moral Idea in Ancient Egypt /
Kemet and the African Worldview
Kawaida Theory: An African Communitarian Philosophy
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Another View of Ron Karenga
10 March 1999
It seems the founder of Kwanzaa wasn’t any
more ethical than those who sung its praises. In fact, at the same time Al
Sharpton was glorifying the new holiday, its creator was sitting in a California
prison for torturing two black women who were members of the United Slaves, a
black nationalist cult he had founded.
The cult leader Ron N.
Everett went by the name Karenga and in the 60’s took upon
himself the title "maulana," which means "master
teacher" in Swahili. He was born on a poultry farm in Maryland,
the fourteenth child of a Baptist minister. He moved to California in
the late 50’s to attend LA Community College. He later moved to UCLA,
where he got a Master’s degree in political science and African
Studies and by the mid 1960’s, he had established himself as a leader
of the black movement- a self described "cultural nationalist".
He had purposely used the term "nationalist" to distinguish
his group from the Black Panthers who were Marxists. He wanted a
separate black state while the Marxists worked for integration.
The friction between his group and the
Panthers mirrored the centuries of tribal warring in Africa. Both groups were
heavily recruiting at UCLA in the 60’s and vying for control of the newly
developed African Studies Department. Karenga and his group backed one candidate
for dept. head and the Panthers another. Both began carrying guns on campus and
on Jan. 17. 1969, about 150 students gathered at the lunchroom to discuss the
problem. Two Panther members had been admitted to the college as part of a
federal program that helped black high-school dropouts enter the university. The
meeting turned violent and ended with two of Karenga’s group, George P. Stiner
and Larry Joseph Stiner killing two. The Stiner brothers shot two Panthers John
Huggins, 23 and Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter, 26 – dead.
UCLA chancellor Charles E. Young,
scared that the violence would hurt admissions said "The students here
have handled themselves in an absolutely impeccable manner. They have been
concerned. They haven’t argued who the director should be; they have been
saying what kind of person he should be." The remarks were made after
the shooting and the university went ahead with its Afro-American Studies
Program. Meanwhile, Karenga’s group grew and performed assaults and robberies
always following the law laid down in The Quotable Karenga, a book that
laid out the "True Path of Blackness." "The
sevenfold path of blackness is think black, talk black, act black, create black,
buy black, vote black, and live black."
On May 9, 1970 he initiated the torture
session that led to his imprisonment. The torture session was described in the
L.A. Times on May 14, 1971. "The victims said they were living at
Karenga’s home when Karenga accused them of trying to kill him by placing
crystals in his food and water and in various areas of his house. When they
denied it, allegedly they were beaten with an electrical cord and a hot
soldering iron was put in Miss Davis’ mouth and against her face.
Police were
told that one of Miss Jones’ toes was placed in a small vise, which then was
tightened by the men and one woman. The following day Karenga told the women
that ‘Vietnamese torture is nothing compared to what I know." Miss Tamao
put detergent in their mouths; Smith turned a water hose full force on their
faces, and Karenga, holding a gun, threatened to shoot both of them. The victims
Deborah Jones and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten
with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothing."
Karenga was convicted of two counts of
felonious assault and one count of false imprisonment. He was sentenced on Sept.
17, 1971 to serve one to ten years in prison. After being released from prison
in 1975, he remade himself as Maulana Ron Karenga, went into academics, and by
1979 was running the Black Studies Department at California State University in
Long Beach and converted to Marxism. Kwanzaa's seven principles include
"collective work" and "cooperative economics." He is still
there and everyone has almost forgotten the cruel and vicious attacks committed
on his fellow blacks. Kwanzaa has been successfully marketed and is now heralded
as a great African tradition.
The silver lining is that rather than
"de-whitinizing" Christmas as Al Sharpton purported – it has
polarized the holiday season -Hanukkah for Jews, Kwanzaa for Blacks, and Christmas for whites.
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The 10 Best Black
Books of 2010 (Non-Fiction)
Gramsci"s Black Marx
Whither the Slave in Civil Society?
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered
the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It
By H. W. Brands
In Greenback Planet, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands charts the dollar's astonishing rise to become the world's principal currency. Telling the story with the verve of a novelist, he recounts key episodes in U.S. monetary history, from the Civil War debate over fiat money (greenbacks) to the recent worldwide financial crisis. Brands explores the dollar's changing relations to gold and silver and to other currencies and cogently explains how America's economic might made the dollar the fundamental standard of value in world finance. He vividly describes the 1869 Black Friday attempt to corner the gold market, banker J. P. Morgan's bailout of the U.S. treasury, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and President Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the bank panic of 1933. Brands shows how lessons learned (and not learned) in the Great Depression have influenced subsequent U.S. monetary policy, and how the dollar's dominance helped transform economies in countries ranging from Germany and Japan after World War II to Russia and China today. He concludes with a sobering dissection of the 2008 world financial debacle, which exposed the power--and the enormous risks--of the dollar's worldwide reign. The Economy |
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Maulana Karenga: An Intellectual Portrait
By Molefi Kete Asante
In this book, the most prolific contemporary African American scholar and cultural theorist Molefi Kete Asante leads the reader on an informative journey through the mind of Maulana Karenga, one of the key cultural thinkers of our time. Not only is Karenga the creator of Kwanzaa, an extensive and widespread celebratory holiday based on his philosophy of Kawaida, he is an activist-scholar committed to a "dignity-affirming" life for all human beings. Asante examines the sources of Karenga's intellectual preoccupations and demonstrates that Karenga's concerns with the liberation narratives and mythic realities of African people are rooted in the best interests of a collective humanity. The book shows Karenga to be an intellectual giant willing to practice his theories in order to manifest his intense emotional attachment to culture, truth, and justice. Asante's enlightening presentation and riveting critique of Karenga's works reveal a compelling account of a thinker whose contributions extend far beyond the Academy. Although Karenga began his career as a student activist, a civil rights leader, a Pan Africanist, and a culturalist, he ultimately succeeds in turning his fierce commitment to truth toward dissecting political, social, and ethical issues. Asante carefully analyzes Karenga's important works on Black Studies, but also his earlier works on culture and his later works on ethics, such as The Husia, and Odu Ifa: The Ethical Teachings.
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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