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Maulana Karenga Quotes

Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga, previously known as Ron Karenga, is an African-American professor of Africana studies, activist and author, best known as the creator of the pan-African and the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa. Karenga was active in the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and co-founded with Hakim Jamal the black nationalist group US Organization.

Born in Parsonsburg, Maryland, to an African-American family, Karenga studied at Los Angeles City College and the University of California, Los Angeles. During his student years, he involved himself in activism and joined the Congress of Racial Equality. Through his activism, he became involved in violent clashes with the Black Panther Party. In 1971, he was convicted of felonious assault and false imprisonment. He was imprisoned in California Men's Colony until he received parole in 1975. He received his PhD shortly afterward and began a career in academia. Wikipedia  

✵ 14. July 1941
Maulana Karenga photo
Maulana Karenga: 9 quotes4 likes

Famous Maulana Karenga Quotes

“We stress culture because it gives identity, purpose and direction. It tells us who we are, what we must do, and how we can do it.”

Maulana Karenga

The Quotable Karenga (1967)

“We have to distinguish between riots and revolts.… Riots are illegal. A revolt is legitimate because it is what people must do to express self-defense, self-determination, and self-direction.”

Maulana Karenga

Black Power Conference (July 1967), quoted in How Newark Became Newark (2009) by Brad Tuttle

“Belief in spooks who threaten us if we don't worship them and demand we turn over our destiny and daily lives must be categorized as spookism and condemned.”

Maulana Karenga

Kawaida Theory: An Introductory Outline (1980)

“We are not interested in spookism which is what our spiritualism in Africa degenerated into. That is, invested in a spook estate up in the sky and paying little attention to real estate on this earth.”

Maulana Karenga

Kwanzaa: Origin, Concepts, Practice (1977)

“One of the greatest powers in the world is the ability to define reality and cause others to accept it. This power is even increased although negatively when one can define reality and make others accept it even when it is to their disadvantage.”

Maulana Karenga

Kawaida and Questions of Life and Struggle (2008)

“Sometimes brothers get so hung up on the myth of revolution that they talk about bringing America to her knees and they can't even wipe out one police station. A lot of brothers play revolutionary; they read a little Fanon, a little Mao and some Marx. Although this information is necessary, it is not sufficient, for we must develop a new plan of revolution for black people here in America.”

Maulana Karenga

The Quotable Karenga (1967)

“I have been blessed to see my work flourish. Many people in history — Marcus Garvey, Ida B. Wells, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X — never lived to see their work flourish. I have seen people around the world embrace my philosophy and principles, involving themselves in a cultural institution that my organization and I created. That's something.”

Maulana Karenga

"The Man Who Invented Kwanzaa" in Ebony (January 1998)

“Kwanzaa was conceived, created and introduced to the African community as an audacious act of self-determination.”

Maulana Karenga

Annual Kwanzaa Message (2009) "Principles and Practices of Kwanzaa: Repairing and Renewing the World." http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/documents/PrinciplesandPracticesofKwanzaa.pdf

“So what, then, is the use of art — our art, Black art? Black art must expose the enemy, praise the people and support the revolution.… We do not need pictures of oranges in a bowl or trees standing innocently in the midst of a wasteland. If we must paint oranges and trees, let our guerrillas be eating those oranges for strength and using those trees for cover.”

Maulana Karenga

"Black Cultural Nationalism" in The Black Aesthetic (1971)

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