Ron Karenga

Ron Karenga (born July 14, 1941), also known as Ron Everett, is an African-American author and Marxist political activist, best known as the founder of Kwanzaa, a week-long celebration first observed in California from December 26, 1966 to January 1, 1967. Karenga is sometimes referred to by the title "Maulana", which means "master teacher" in Swahili and Arabic.

Karenga created the United Slaves, a Black Nationalist organization in 1965, and in 1971 was convicted of felony assault of two of the group's female members, for which he spent time in prison. After his release in 1975, he resumed his academic studies, later becoming chairman of the black studies department at California State University, Long Beach, a position he held from 1989 to 2002. ^*

He is also known for having co-hosted, in 1984, a conference that gave rise to the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations, and in 1995, he sat on the organizing committee and authored the mission statement of the Million Man March. He is the director of the Kawaida Institute for Pan African Studies, ^* and the author of several books, including his Introduction to Black Studies, a comprehensive black-studies textbook, now in its third edition.

Background and education

Karenga was born on a poultry farm in Parsonsburg, Maryland, the 14th child of a Baptist minister. He moved to California in the late 1950s to attend Los Angeles City College, where he became the first African-American president of the student body. He was admitted to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as part of a federal program for students who had dropped out of high school, and received his master's degree in political science and African studies. Karenga holds two doctoral degrees (Ph.D.). He was awarded the first in 1976 from United States International University (now known as Alliant International University) for a 170-page dissertation entitled "Afro-American Nationalism: Social Strategy and Struggle for Community." Later in his career, in 1994, he was awarded a second Ph.D., from the University of Southern California (USC), for an 803-page dissertation entitled "Maat, the moral ideal in ancient Egypt: A study in classical African ethics."

U.S. Organization and the Black Panthers

At the beginning of the 1960s, Karenga met Malcolm X and began to embrace Black nationalism. Following the Watts riots in 1965, he interrupted his doctoral studies at UCLA and joined the Black Power movement. During this time, he awarded himself the title "maulana", Swahili for "master teacher." He formed United Slaves, later called the U.S. Organization, an outspoken Black nationalist group that some allege was encouraged by the FBI in order to counter the Black Panthers.

In 1969, the US Organization and the Black Panthers disagreed over who should head the new Afro-American Studies Center at UCLA. According to a Los Angeles Times article, Karenga and his supporters backed one candidate, the Panthers another. The Black Student Union set up a coalition to try to bring peace between the groups, which ended when US members George P. and Larry Joseph Stiner shot dead two members of the Black Panthers, John Jerome Huggins and Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter. The killing was dismissed by UCLA chancellor Charles E. Young as an unrelated incident. ^*

Felony conviction and time in Prison

In 1971 Karenga, Louis Smith, and Luz Maria Tamayo were convicted of felony assault and false imprisonment for assaulting and torturing two women from the United Slaves, Deborah Jones & Gail Davis. ^* A May 14, 1971 article in the Los Angeles Times described the testimony of one of the women: "Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African queen, said she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Miss Davis' mouth and placed against Miss Davis' face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga, head of US, also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said." They also were hit on the heads with toasters.

At Karenga's trial, the question arose as to Karenga's sanity. It is theorized that Karenga may have had a mental breakdown due to the stress of dealing with the violence and murders surrounding his United Slaves (US) organization and the Black Panther Party (BPP). His behavior became bizarre. And, at his trial, a psychiatrist's report stated the following: "This man now represents a picture which can be considered both paranoid and schizophrenic with hallucinations and illusions, inappropriate affect, disorganization, and impaired contact with the environment."

Kawaida and Kwanzaa

In 1975, Karenga was released from California State Prison, with his newly adopted views on Marxism, and re-established the US organization under a new structure. One year later, he was awarded his first doctorate. In 1977, he formulated a set of principles called Kawaida, a Swahili term for tradition and reason. Kwanzaa is an adjunct of Kawaida. Karenga called on African-Americans to adopt his secular humanism and reject other practices as mythical (Karenga 1977, pp. 14, 23, 24, 27, 44-5).

Central to Karenga's doctrine are the Nguzu Saba, the Seven Principles of Blackness, which are reinforced during the seven days of Kwanzaa:

Umoja (unity) – To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
Kujichagulia (self-determination) – To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
Ujima (collective work and responsibility) – To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.
Ujamaa (cooperative economics) – To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (purpose) – To make our collective vocation the building and development of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (creativity) – To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (faith) – To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Films

In 2005 Maulan Karenga starred alongside other African-American scholars (and other Africans) in the award winning film 500 years later, directed by Owen 'Alik Shahadah.

Books by Ron Karenga

Introduction to Black Studies, 2002, 3rd edition, University of Sankore Press, ISBN 0943412234
Kwanzaa: Origin, Concepts, Practice, 1977, Kawaida Groundwork Committee

References

The Official Kwanzaa Web Site - Dr. Maulana Karenga
Biography of Dr. Ron "Maulana" Karenga.
Interview with Dr. Karenga, PBS Public Broadcasting Service and WGBH/Frontline
The Story of Kwanzaa by Laurence Scholer, The Dartmouth Review, January 15, 2001, a typical right-wing criticism of Karenga and the holiday
criticism of Kwanzaa on FOX Media Matters article that cites Washington Post article on the FBI's involvement with Karenga's organization, and summarizes the controversies surrounding the holiday.
500 Years Later The Film Site
IMDB Profile