Newark, Black Pride, and Kwanzaa

Hotep (An Ancient Afrikan Word for Peace)

Take notes!!!

White supremacy and systematic racism left Black people as one of the most oppressed groups in America. Many Afrikan American leaders came forward to help liberate Black people from centuries of socioeconomic disparities caused by racial discrimination. During the high levels of the Black Liberation Movement in the 1950s to the early 1970s, Civil Rights and Black power became the world wide rallying call for social justice. We as Afrikan people in the United States have been in a protracted struggle to protect our blackness and our humanity ever since 1619. That is the year Black people arrived on the American shores in chains. Like millions of Afrikans before us, we were kidnapped in Afrika and forced into an European-American slave making system that totally disconnected us from our land, language, and culture for the sole purpose to be exploited by whiteness and capitalism. But Afrika’s children were not the only thing Europeans wanted for their possessions. They wanted the entire continent of Afrika itself. During the late 1800s, Mother Afrika was subjected to nearly a century of colonialism. Therefore in Afrika, and throughout the Afrikan diaspora, whiteness made us believe that we had no history of being the very first people on the planet earth that initiated the world’s humanity, civilization, religion, and culture. But throughout our sojourn in America, some Black leaders came forward to rebuild the Afrikan American community through Afrikan centered cultural empowerment and advocating for Black political power. In the 20th century, a respected Los Angeles, California community activist named Ronald McKinley Everett, a spokesperson for pan-Afrikan self -determination in the 1960s, created a Black nationalist political and cultural empowerment philosophy called Kawaida. The word Kawaida is a Kiswahili word meaning "tradition" and "reason.” It is pronounced as the following ka-wa-EE-da. Ronald McKinley Everett would later change his European name to the Afrikan name of Maulana Karenga, and eventually become a major leader for Black power.

In Dr. Maulana Karenga’s book called, Kawaida: And Questions of Life and Struggle, the philosophy of Kawaida is simply defined on page 1 as, "a communitarian African philosophy created in the context of the African American liberation struggle and developed as an ongoing synthesis of the best of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world." Kawaida became the foundation for Kwanzaa - a non religious pan-Afrikan centered holiday celebrated from December 26 to January 1.

This new Afrikan American holiday grew out of the Organization Us. Dr. Karenga co-founded this group as a revolutionary Black cultural nationalist movement on September 7, 1965 in Los Angeles, California.

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 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/reference/holidays/kwanzaa-history-traditions-information/).

He chose the Afrikan continental pan Afrikan language of Kiswahili to connect and communicate Kwanzaa's rituals and principles of the holiday nationalistically to the Black world.

Currently, Dr. Karenga is a professor of Afrikana Studies at California State University at Long Beach. He is also a co-founding member of ASCAC (the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations). This organization is a world wide independent study group organization founded in 1984 by Drs. John Henrik Clarke, Jacob H. Carruthers, and Yosef Ben-Jochannan (https://ascac.org/). ASCAC is devoted to the rescue, reconstruction, and restoration of Afrikan history and culture. But most importantly, ASCAC helps Black people develop an Afrikan centered worldview.

Dr. 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."

His Kawaida philosophy, and the 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.

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

The movement for Black political power was thoroughly represented by Imamu Amiri Baraka. He was one of the world’s greatest Afrikan American leaders for Black political power. He is the father of Ras J. Baraka-the current Mayor of Newark, NJ.

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

Baraka went on to become 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 real father of the movement for Black political power in America.

His embracement of Dr. Karenga’s philosophy of Kawaida and the principles of Kwanzaa inspired Baraka to mobilize masses of Black people for political power. He taught many powerful lessons on the science of electoral politics from an Afrikan centered perspective.

In 1967, Amiri Baraka organized the very first Black Power Conference in America in Newark, NJ. This conference takes place after Newark experiences a massive Afrikan American rebellion against years of racial violence and oppression. The White establishment calls Black resistance to centuries of racial discrimination in the city as “the Newark Riots.”

But the three day Black Power Conference in Newark, “produced a Black Power Manifesto that demanded the end of “neo-colonialist control” of black populations on the globe and they wanted to unite African Americans by promoting a “philosophy of Blackness.” The document also demanded reparations for the black community because of the horrors they had to face during slavery. This was the first Black Power conference ever held, and it comprised of organizations such as the NAACP, The Urban League, Afro-American Unity, Harlem Mau and Maus along with big names such as Jessie Jackson, Ron Karenga, Floyd McKissick, Rap Brown, and Charles 27X Kenyatta. It helped to develop a systematic approach to combating inequality among all groups in the United States.” (http://blackpower.web.unc.edu/.../1967-newark-black.../). He went on to organize a second Black Power conference and a Black and Puerto Rican convention in the city.

In 1970, Baraka organized masses of Black people to politically challenge White supremacy in the city of Newark. His efforts helped to elect Ken Gibson, its first Black Mayor, and elect a myriad of Afrikan American Councilpersons to city hall.

During that same year, Baraka co-convened the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana. The event brought over 10, 000 Black people to the Midwest to organize and fight for Black political power.

Baraka’s wisdom demonstrated to Black people how to acquire, organize, and seize political power under the Kawaida philosophy and the principles of Kwanzaa. And one of the biggest lessons Baraka taught, by example, was organizing through “unity without uniformity” manifesting itself under Umoja. The first principle of Kwanzaa is called Umoja (Kiswahili for unity). It means to strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race. 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 empowerment.

The seven principles of Kwanzaa are the following: Unmoja (Kiswahili for unity, Kujichagulia (Kiswahili for self-determination), Ujima (Kiswahili for collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (Kiswahili for cooperative economics), Nia (Kiswahili for purpose), Kuumba (Kiswahili for creativity), and Imani (Kiswahili for faith).

As a direct result of the political activities of Black nationalists taking place in the Afrikan community in America during the early 1970s, the percentage of Afrikan American elected officials dramatically increased since US Reconstruction.

In summation, Baraka's lessons and wisdom helped to build an intelligent mass struggle for Black power in Newark and in America. His leadership has set a template for coalition building, Black unity, Black pride, and a clear understanding of the history of the Black liberation movement for future generations to study for social justice. But because of Dr. Karenga’s and Imamu Amiri Baraka’s Black revolutionary cultural nationalism from the 1960s and early 1970s, Kwanzaa is now observed by thousands of Black people in the city of Newark, NJ, and by millions around the world, as a platform to speak our Afrikan and human truth.

Hotep!!!

-Bashir Muhammad Akinyele is a History and Afrikana 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/)

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 1.