The Necessity of ASCAC in the Newark, NJ Area

Newark, NJ-In response to a high demand from Black people to get involved in an intense study of Afrikan history and culture, we have worked to establish an ASCAC (the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations) chapter in Newark, NJ. In the 1980s, and early 1990s, there was an ASCAC study group chapter in the city. In time, ASCAC cease to exist in Newark. Now in the millennium, the call for ASCAC’s resurgence is again echoing in the streets.

ASCAC:

The Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations (ASCAC) is an independent study group organization founded in 1984 by Drs. John Henrik Clarke, Jacob H. Carruthers, Yosef Ben-Jochannan, and Maulana Karenga (https://ascac.org/). It is devoted to the rescue, reconstruction, and restoration of Afrikan history and culture. But most importantly, ASCAC helps Black people develop an Afrikan centered world view. ASCAC is an organization that provides the opportunity for Afrikan peoples to educate other Afrikan peoples about our culture. It was founded by scholars deeply rooted in Afrikan American communities in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. It derives its membership from Afrikan / Afrikan Americans across social classes and occupational fields. The ASCAC organization has since expanded into an international organization with membership regions and representatives from the Caribbean, Afrika, and Europe. ASCAC has four commissions which advance this agenda: education, research, spiritual development, and creative production. Along with creating study groups throughout the world, ASCAC holds an annual conference, operates a youth enrichment program, and is editing a comprehensive history of Afrika.

Bashir Muhammad Akinyele, a history and Africana Studies teacher, and the coordinator for ASCAC's study group chapter in the city, says, "our study group is a great opportunity for all people to learn about Afrika being the birthplace of humanity, the progenitor of civilization, and the root of the world's major religions (i.e., Judaism, Christianity, and Al-Islam). On the world stage of human progress, civilizations began in the Nile Valley, and there were many major civilizations in that area of Afrika. However, ancient Egypt reflected humanity's march toward creating the world's first highly advanced civilization in times of antiquity. It played a central role in the development of mathematics, philosophy, medicine, science, government, architecture, a written language, art, monotheism, education, ethics, morals, and religion. Many cultures and nations borrowed from the knowledge and wisdom of the ancient Egyptians, who called their nation Kemet, to push their civilization forward towards the foundations of modern society. The word Kemet means the land of the Blacks. Akinyele added, "unfortunately, white supremacy has made ancient Egypt a European or Arab civilization. When in fact, Egypt began as a Black civilization. This is because racists cannot accept the genius of Egypt coming from Black people. They had to put a non-Afrikan face on Egypt to justify its greatness being white or Arab. Some white supremacist scholars even went further to deny Egypt’s role in the foundation of western and modern civilization. Therefore, we as anti-racist educators and activists must work to create curriculums and history departments that include Egypt as the cornerstone of ancient and modern-day history. And must also tell the truth about the original Egyptian being Black." Akinyele teaches at Weequahic High School.

But we are not just seeking knowledge for knowledge's sake. We want to help Black people connect knowledge to Black liberation.

Dr. John Henrick Clarke, the late and great Africana studies historian, Pan-Afrikan nationalist, and community activist, committed his adult life and scholarship to working to rebuild the Black mind. For centuries, the Afrikan mind was almost completely destroyed by White supremacy and the systematic institutionalization of racism. In his book, Notes for An African World Revolution: Africans At the Crossroads, he said, “we need an internal cultural revolution, and it's going to have to start inside of our minds." We will use the wisdom and resources of ASCAC as a vehicle to help liberate our minds from the grips of European and Arab hegemony in the Afrikan world community.

The murder of George Floyd, a unarmed Blackman killed by the Minneapolis, Minnesota police department on May 25, 2020, has angered but inspired masses of Black people in America to fight for social justice. Mass rallies have taken place under the banner of Black Lives Matter to demand to justice from police brutality. But most importantly, Black Lives Matter activists are challenging America, and the world, to respect and value Black humanity. Although Black liberation movements to make the world recognize Black people as human beings has been in existence for centuries, the struggle continues.

But the killing of George Floyd has also sparked something else in Black people. It has opened the door for some of our people seeking to develop an Afrikan centered consciousness, particularly Black youth.

Therefore, we decided to step up to accommodate our people’s interests in blackness. Although we started working on ASCAC over a year ago, the continued struggle for racial justice has forced us to quickly establish an ASCAC chapter now to help give our people an Afrikan centered historical, political, and cultural education in the Newark area.

Since the co-operation and repression of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements by the power structure in America, and in the world, the Black freedom struggle has been left in chaos. We have witnessed the ongoing disunity and disorientation of the Afrikan world community.

We have lost our way with learning the lessons in history from our Afrikan ancestors to help us have a clear analysis on Black freedom struggles. And because of this situation, many of us lost our commitment to the struggle for Black liberation.

But the murder of George Floyd is forcing us to learn from our Afrikan ancestors the many lessons on social justice and on Black empowerment. And our ability to apply these lesson to acquire Black political power.

That is the spirit of Kawaida:

The creator of the philosophy of Kawaida is Dr. Maulana Karenga. He is a co-founding member of ASCAC. Dr. Karenga says, “Kawaida is a Kiswahili word meaning tradition or reason.” It is pronounced, “ka-wa-EE-da.” In his book called, Kawaida: And Questions of Life and Struggle, on page one Dr. Karenga writes that the philosophy of Kawaida is simply, “a communitarian African (Afrikan) philosophy created in the context of the African (Afrikan) American liberation struggle and developed as an ongoing synthesis of the best of African (Afrikan) thought and practice in constant exchange with the world."

Dr. Karenga is a professor of Afrikana Studies at California State University at Long Beach. He co-founded the Us Organization-a revolutionary cultural nationalist Black Power movement established on September 7, 1965 in Los Angeles, California.

Kawaida became the foundation for Kwanzaa - a non religious pan-Afrikan centered holiday celebrated from December 26 to January 1.

According to Dr Karenga’s book on Kwanzaa called, Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture, on page 114 he writes, “the word Kwanzaa comes from the Kiswahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza” which means “first-fruits.” Kwanzaa’s extra “a” evolved as a result of a particular history of the Organization Us. It was done to as an expression of African values in order to inspire the creativity of our children. In the early days of Us, there were seven children who each wanted to represent a letter of Kwanzaa. Since kwanza (first) has only six letters, we added an extra “a” to make it seven, thus creating “Kwanzaa.”

Amy Mckeever of the National Geographic Magazine published a history article on the American racist conditions that created Kwanzaa. Her article was printed on December 22, 2020. She writes, "Kwanzaa was founded in 1966, a year after a historic rebellion rocked the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Frustrated by years of abuse at the hands of police and crushed by poverty, the community protested and rioted. The unrest lasted a week and left 34 people dead and 1,000 injured. In the weeks after the Watts rebellion, Maulanga Karenga—an activist and leader in the Black Power Movement—founded the Us Organization to rebuild the neighborhood and promote a Black cultural revolution that would inspire pride in Black history and achievements, long dismissed and suppressed by the dominant white culture. From the beginning, the plan was to create a holiday for African Americans to honor their African roots and reaffirm their cultural connections. Kwanzaa was also envisioned as a secular alternative to the holiday juggernaut that is Christmas. To establish the traditions of the new holiday, Karenga drew upon a pan-African set of cultural symbols and practices. In particular, he believed that the annual harvest festivals—in which communities came together to celebrate the fruits of their collective labor—were an apt model for building family, community, and culture"(https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/kwanzaa-history-traditions-information).

Dr. Karenga’s Kawaida philosophy and the seven principles of Kwanzaa were applied to Black people’s struggle for power in US politics in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It opened the door to help Black people seize Black political power.

Karenga, a voracious reader, was awarded his first PhD 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., in social ethics, 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."

The philosophy of Kawaida found its national voice in Newark’s own Imamu Amiri Baraka.

For example, when it comes to the struggle for Black political power, this movement is thoroughly represented by Imamu Amiri Baraka. He is one of our greatest Afrikan ancestors for Black political power.

Born LeRoi Jones, became a famous respected writer and poet. But his transformation into Imamu Amiri Baraka was inspired by the Black nationalist teachings of Malcolm X (Omowale El Hajj Malik El Shabazz and the burgeoning struggles for Black liberation in the Afrikan world in 1960s.

Imamu Amiri Baraka is the father of the Black Arts Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He inspired many intellectuals, poets and writers across America to teach Black pride in the Afrikan/ Afrikan American community.

But many scholars, activists, and community leaders, argue that Imamu Amiri Baraka is also the father of Black political power in America. His influence of the philosophy of Kawaida led Baraka to mobilize masses of Black people for political power. He led, and taught us, many powerful lessons in politics. Baraka wisdom showed us how to acquire, organized, and seize Black political power under the Kawaida philosophy and the Kwanzaa principles. And one of the biggest lessons of organizing was “unity without uniformity.” In other words, when you organize under “unity without uniformity,” it does not matter whether you are a Democrat or Republican, the objective is the protection of Black interests for Black power.

In 1972, Baraka was the co-convener of the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana. This convention brought tens of thousands of Black people from every spectrum of life and political thought together for the sole purpose of obtaining Black political power nationally and locally. With all of this political activity taken place in the Black America in the early 1970s, the percentage of Black elected officials increased dramatically since US Reconstruction.

Five years prior to the National Black Political Convention, Baraka was in Newark, NJ to locally organized Black people to challenge White supremacy in his city. Imamu Amiri Baraka organized masses of Black people to challenge White supremacy in the city by helping to elect Ken Gibson, its first Black Mayor, and a myriad of Afrikan American Councilpersons. Baraka’s lessons and wisdom are examples of our ancestor’s work that can help to us build an intelligent mass struggle for Black liberation.

Baraka's lessons and wisdom helped to build an intelligent mass struggle for Black power in America and in Newark.

But because of Dr. Karenga’s and Imamu Amiri Baraka’s community activism, Kwanzaa is now observed by thousands of Black people in the city of Newark, NJ.

However, if we don’t study our history and culture, we as Afrikan people will lose our way for the importance Black unity, Black pride, a Black agenda centered on reparations, the liberation of Afrika, Black empowerment, and the necessity of an Afrikan centered worldview. And unfortunately, in this new millennium, we are struggling to learn the real lessons for Black liberation.

The Lens of Afrocentricity:

One of our most important living scholars for a collective consciousness on Afrikan centered thinking for Black liberation is Dr. Molefi Kete Asante. He is an Afrikana Studies Professor at Temple University, Pan Afrikanist, community activist, author, and member of ASCAC. Dr. Asante has argued that our Black de-centeredness is all by design from White and Arab oppression. Therefore, he has spent his adult life, and scholarship, committed to developing in Black people an Afrikan centered world view for Black liberation. He knows that an Afrikan centered consciousness will help rebuild Black unity, liberate Afrika, instill Black pride in Afrikan people, and establish a Black agenda centered on reparations needed for Black liberation. In his book, Afrocentricity, he writes, “it is not unity that we must seek but a collective consciousness. The particular nature of this consciousness expresses our shared commitments fraternal reactions to assaults on our humanity, collective awareness of our destiny, and respect for our ancestors. When we come to acceptance, as surely we are coming of this consciousness we will experience the rise of Afrocentricity. But consciousness is more than acceptance, it is response, it is action demonstrable and meaningful in terms of psychological and political actions. There are numerous consciousnesses and that Black consciousness is a collective consciousness for us made singularly important by our unique presence in a predominantly white if not predominantly alien society.” Dr. Asante’s book, Afrocentricity, is one of the most important books to read and study. Therefore, we will start with Dr. Asante’s book to help us understand the framework behind the necessity for the redevelopment of the Black mind. His book gives us a clear analysis on the need for a collective Afrikan centered consciousness for Black liberation.

We could go on further, but we need to stop there dear family.

The Blackman and Blackwoman are in bad shape in America and in the world. Elected officials in America have not committed themselves to creating US reparations to equalize the social and economic disparities in Black America. For that matter, Europe and the Arab world have not committed any policy for reparations to help rebuild Afrika and the lives of Black people that they exploited for centuries. Many of them have shown that they do not respect Black humanity.

With all that being said, we must unify with ourselves to find the path to Black liberation. Without our unity, we will not have the power to force the world’s power structures (i.e., America, Europe, Saudi Arabia, etc.) to give us our justice.

But aside from knowing the true facts on the history of civil rights and Black power freedom struggles in the world (i.e., abolitionist movement, US reconstruction, anti-apartheid, the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the Moorish Science Temple, Nation of Islam, the Negritude Movement, the Black Panther Party, Kwanzaa, etc.), we must also know the true facts on Black people’s contributions to world history before foreign invasions, slavery, segregation, colonialism, and apartheid.

The Maafa:

The European and Arab slave trade of Afrikan people is also called the Maafa. It is a Kiswahili word that means the force scattering of Black people from Afrika to the world due to slavery. The Maafa by Europe lasted for nearly 500 years. Unfortunately, the Maafa by the Arabs is still ongoing in the world. Europeans and Arabs enslaved Black people for the sole purpose of the exploitation of free labor. Rooted in the European Maafa was white supremacy. But Arab supremacy is rooted in the Maafa within the Arab world.

The ideology of White and Arab supremacy is a belief that whiteness and non Afrikan culture are inherently superior to all Black people. Therefore to justify the enslavement of Black people, Europeans and Arabs had to almost destroy any knowledge in the world of Afrikan people being the authors of civilization and religions (i.e., Judaism, Christianity, Al-Islam, etc.). They fabricated world history to create a racist fictitious narrative about Afrikan people, Afrikan history, Afrikan culture, and Afrikan spirituality.

Some of us know that their versions of history are not true. However, many Black people, and many segments of the world’s humanity, believe in the false racist history of Afrika that is taught by White and Arab hegemony.

In the western world, White supremacy, and the systematic institution of racism, were created by White domination to justify slavery, European colonialism, US segregation, South Afrikan apartheid, police brutality, and community violence.

However, to make the world respect us, and to make us respect ourselves, it is necessary that Black people and humanity know that Afrika is the birthplace of the world’s civilizations and religions. The world must also know that Black people are the mothers and fathers of humanity.

Afrika-the Mother of Humanity and Civilizations:

We must all know the Black people were the first people on the planet earth to created government, science, mathematics, medicine, architecture, history, schools, philosophy, the aseity (the existence of God), monotheism (a belief in the oneness of God), theology, writing, paper, family structures, rites of passage programs to teach the principles of adulthood to children, and calendars.

We must all know that Afrika produced great civilizations such as Nubia, Axum, Ethiopia, Kemet (Egypt), Ghana, Mali, Songhay, and Monomotapa.

Kemet (Egypt):

We all must know that the world’s first civilizations started in the Nile Valley region of Northern Afrika. The first Afrikan nation from the Nile civilizations to emerge as a major leader in the world is called is Kemet.

We all must know that Kemet is to Afrika, like Greece and Rome is to Europe. Kemet is the Afrikan world community’s classics.

In ASCAC, we learn that it is necessary to start our studies of Afrikan history and culture with Kemet (Egypt).

The name Kemet is the original Afrikan name of Egypt. Kemet means the Black land. Unfortunately, Europeans, and Arab invaders and conquerors, changed Kemet’s name to Egypt. Kemet is considered by Egyptologist and historians as the greatest civilization in human history.

However, White supremacy and the systematic institution of racism tries to claim Kemet as a white or Arab civilization. This is absolutely not true. Kemet was a Black civilization. In ASCAC, we will learn the methodology of the epistemological pursuit of knowledge and information on the history of the Black people and Afrika. That is why we will back up our arguments on Kemet being a Black civilization with sound research and scholarship.

But we also learn ASCAC’s Afrikan centered pedagogical methods to teach our people the knowledge on Afrikan history and culture.

Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop:

One of the most creditable scholars that proves Kemet’s autochthonous roots in Afrika is the great Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop. He was one Afrika’s most brilliant historians, Egyptologists, scientists, and Pan Afrikanists. His intellectual scholarship is one of the foundations for ASCAC.

Dr. Diop lived from December 29, 1923 to February 7, 1986 in Dakar, Senegal. He was raised in a Senegalese Muslim family in Afrika. Dr. Diop spent his elementary and secondary years in Islamic schools. In his youth, Dr. Diop received both his masters and Doctorate graduate degrees from the University of Paris in France. He even did some of his graduate work at the prestigious Sorbonne. However, when he reached adulthood, Dr. Diop committed himself to reclaiming, rescuing , and restoring Afrikan history and culture from the falsehoods of White supremacy and systematic racism. Dr. Diop had a complete love for the facts on historical events, especially on the history of Black people. He believed that a corrected written history of Afrika will help lead to an end to racial oppression, promote human dignity, and put Afrikan people on the road to Black liberation. Although his scholarship examines many aspects on Afrikan history, Dr. Diop's primary focused was centered on Kemet (Egypt) belonging to Black Afrika. He not only argued that Kemet was a Black civilization, Dr. Diop also said that Kemet influenced the world’s civilizations (i.e., Greece, Rome, the Middle East, China, India, etc.) and religions (i.e. Judaism, Christianity, Al-Islam, etc). (The word Kemet means land of the Blacks.)

Dr. Diop wrote many books, but one of his most important texts is The African Origins of Civilizations: Myth or Reality, Published in 1976. Dr. Diop documents with sound data, evidence, and research on Afrika’s contributions to the world’s civilizations and religions. But he begins his arguments on Afrika’s role in the development of the world’s civilizations and religions starting with Kemet. In Kemet, the world found its pathway to civilization and religiosity.

In the preface of the book on pages XIV-XV, Dr. Diop writes, “The ancient Egyptians were Negroes. The moral fruit of their civilization is to be counted among the assets of the Black world. Instead of presenting itself to history as an insolvent debtor, that Black world is the very initiator of the “western” civilization flaunted before our eyes today. Pythagorean mathematics, the theory of the four elements of Thales of Miletus, Epicurean materialism, Platonic idealism, Judaism, Islam, and modern science are rooted in Egyptian cosmogony and science. One need only to mediate on Osiris, the redeemer-god, who sacrifices himself, dies, and is resurrected to save mankind, a figure essentially identifiable with Christ.

A visitor to Thebes in the Valley of the Kings can view the Moslem inferno in detail (in the tomb of Seti I, of the Nineteenth Dynasty), 1700 years before the Koran. Osiris at the tribunal of the dead is indeed the “lord” of revealed religions, sitting enthroned on Judgement Day, and we know that certain biblical passages are practically copies of Egyptian moral text.”

Profound research coming from Dr. Diop.

Although we believe it is important for our people to know the work of Afrikan centered scholars, we will not limit our search for the facts on Afrikan history and culture to Black scholars. Wherever the fact takes us to extract information on the contributions Afrikan people made to civilization and religions, we will use that scholarship to argue our place in human history. And there are thousands of books written by Afrikans, Europeans, Arabs, and Asians on Afrika being the mother of the world's civilization and religions.

For example, Count C.F. Volney went to Kemet (Egypt) with Napoleon Bonaparte's team of European scholarly professionals in 1798. At this this time Napoleon was the Emperor of France, but he had an interest in the ancient world. They discovered that Kemet was a great Black civilization in Afrika and that she influenced the world. But Volney's research already led him to see that Kemet (Egypt) was a Black civilizations before his trip to Kemet (Egypt) with Napoleon. In 1787, Volney writes in his book, Voyages on Syrie Et En Egypt on pages 74-77, "all have a bloated face, puffed up eyes, flat nose, thick lips; in word, the true face of the mulatto. I was tempted to attributed it to the climate, but when I visited the Sphinx, its appearance gave me the key the riddle. On seeing that head, typically Negro in all its features, I remember the remarkable passages where Herodotus says: "as for me, I judge the Colchians to be a colony of the Egyptians because, like them, they are Black with wooly hair......" In other words, the ancient Egyptians were true Negroes of the same type as all native-born Africans. That being so, we can see how their blood, mixed for several centuries with that of the Romans and Greeks must have lost the intensity of its original colour, while retaining nonetheless the imprint of its original mould. We can even state as a general principle that the face is a kind monument able, in many cases, to attest or shed light on historical evidence on the origins of peoples.....But returning to Egypt, the lesson she teaches history contains many reflections for philosophy. What a subject for meditation, to see the present barbarism and ignorance of the Copts, descendants of the alliance between the profound genius of the Egyptians and the brilliant minds of Greeks! Just think that the race of Black men, today our slaves and the object of our scorn, is the very race to which we owe our arts, sciences, and even the use of speech. Just imagine, finally, that it is in the midst of peoples who call themselves the greatest friends of liberty and humanity that one has approved the most barbarous slavery and questions whether Blackmen have the same kind of intelligence as Whites!"

In summation, ASCAC will be here to help our people develop an Afrikan centered world view. ASCAC will join the struggle in the Newark area to help our people make Black lives matter to ourselves and humanity.

For more information on the ASCAC’s Newark, NJ Chapter, contact Bashir Muhammad Akinyele at (bashir.akinyele@gmail.com) and (doshonfard@gmail.com).

Hotep (An Afrikan Kemetic Egyptian Word for Peace)!

Bashir Muhammad Akinyele

Doshon Fard
-Newark, NJ Chapter of ASCAC

*Bashir Muhammad Akinyele is a History and Africana Studies teacher at Weequahic High School in Newark, NJ. He is also the co-coordinator for ASCAC's (the Association for Study of Classical African Civilizations) Study Group Chapter in Newark, NJ. (https://ascac.org/)

*Doshon Farad is a highly regarded community activist and respected journalist.He is also the co-coordinator for ASCAC's (the Association for Study of Classical African Civilizations) Study Group Chapter in Newark, NJ. (https://ascac.org/)

Note: Spelling Afrika with a k is not a typo. Using the k in Afrika is the Kiswahili way of writing Africa. Kiswahili is a Pan -Afrikan language. It is spoken in many countries in Afrika. Kiswahili is the language used in Kwanzaa. The holiday of Kwanzaa is celebrated from December 26 to January
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