Ron Karenga, founder of Kwanzaa
Held each year from December 26 until January 2, Kwanzaa is increasingly seen as an appropriate multicultural alternative to Christmas, a holiday considered too religious and “Eurocentric” for public schools.
But there is one not-so-insignificant problem with Kwanzaa. While many teachers believe it is an ancient African harvest festival, it was not born in pre-colonial West Africa, but in 1960s southern California. It is the brainchild of African-American radical activist, academic and convicted felon Ron Karenga.
In 1969, two rival radical groups were battling for control of the UCLA black studies program: the Black Panthers and the lesser-known US, or United Slaves, led by Mr. Karenga. Both groups sauntered around campus carrying loaded guns. Perhaps inevitably, violence erupted. As David Horowitz recalls in Radical Son, Black Panther John Higgins was “murdered—along with Al ‘Bunchy’ Carter—on the UCLA campus by members of Ron Karenga’s organization.” After the killing, the FBI infiltrated both groups, and the United Slaves turned to fighting “enemies within.”
The result: two female members were tortured by their “comrades” in May, 1970. Both alledge Mr. Karenga ordered and participated in their assaults.
In 1999, writer Paul Mulshine published his research into Karenga’s violent past on FrontPageMagazine. Mr. Mulshine found a May 14, 1971, Los Angeles Times report of the victims’ testimony, which read:
“The victims said they were living at Karenga’s home when Karenga accused them of trying to [poison] him. . . . When they denied it, allegedly they were beaten with an electrical cord and a hot soldering iron was put in [one victim’s] mouth and against her face. Police were told that one of [the other victim’s] toes was placed in a small vise which was allegedly tightened by one of the defendants. The following day . . . Karenga, holding a gun, threatened to shoot both of them.”
Convicted of felonious assault and false imprisonment, Mr. Karenga was sentenced in 1971 to up to 10 years in prison. “A brief account of the sentencing ran in several newspapers the following day,” Mr. Mulshine writes. “That was apparently the last newspaper article to mention Karenga’s unfortunate habit of doing unspeakable things to black people. After that, the only coverage came from the hundreds of news accounts that depict him as the wonderful man who invented Kwanzaa.”
Shortly after his release from prison in 1975, Mr. Karenga (now armed, not with a pistol, but a doctorate) took over the black studies department at California State University, Long Beach, which he runs to this day.
And what about Kwanzaa?
The festival’s seven days commemorate allegedly “traditional African” principles, such as “collective work” and “cooperative economics,” each referred to by a Swahili name.
“Why did Karenga use Swahili words for his fictional African feast?” asks Mr. Mulshine. “American Blacks are primarily descended from people who came from Ghana and other parts of West Africa. Kenya and Tanzania—where Swahili is spoken—are thousands of miles away. This makes about as much sense as having Irish-Americans celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by speaking Polish.”
And why would Mr. Karenga schedule a harvest festival near the winter solstice, “a season when few fruits or vegetables are harvested anywhere?”
The religious satire magazine The Door likewise questioned Kwanzaa’s authenticity. “Karenga cobbled together a mishmash of different traditions and languages and blended them with Marxist ideas to reflect a unified African culture that doesn’t exist anywhere,” it reported. Ujamaa, or “cooperative economics”—one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa—is the term the socialist leader of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, used for his disastrous policy of putting tens of thousands of Tanzanians on collective farms.
“People think it’s African, but it’s not,” admitted Karenga in a 1978 Washington Post interview. “I put it around Christmas because I knew that’s when a lot of ‘bloods’ [Blacks] would be partying.”
Comments
Excellent reporting. Kudos to the reporter.
Thank you.
Great reporting Kathy, keep up the good work
Kwanzaa is no faker than Thanksgiving or any other holiday for that matter. It's a positive celebration of black heritage that neither hurts nor offends anyone. Poor taste on your part.
Sorry Publius, you're wrong.
first of all, the only fake thing about Thanksgiving is the p.c. tale all children, like you, were fed. The fact is the Pilgrims weren't starving, just the opposite: they had so much food (thanks to their switch from the collective farming espoused by Karenza centuries later, to private enterprise) that they had food left over and invited the Indians to share it. They fed the Indians not the other way around.
Poor taste? If you find the truth to be in poor taste that simply makes you a typical leftist.
How is a fake holiday invented by a man who tortured two black women "positive"?
Obviously your reading comprehension skills are as poor as the average Leftists'. You missed the point that Kwanzaa does NOT celebrate "black heritage". There is no such thing as a universal African "heritage" -- Karenga made it all up out of whole kinte cloth.
It hurts and offends me deeply. Communism and Black Supremecy always does. There is nothing positive about Marxism, ever.
And it SHOULD hurt and offend Blacks that they are being swindled by one of their own in their search for community and authenticity with this pathetic transparently foolish snake oil.
Q: How is a fake holiday invented by a man who tortured two black women "positive"? A: in the same way that a nation founded by men who owned slaves and whom believed the average citizen was too stupid to be trusted with an active role in the governing system under which he would be expected to live could in any way be 'great"? just sayin'.
How is a fake holiday invented by a man who tortured two black women "positive"?
Oh I dunno, why don't we ask everyone who just celebrated Thanksgiving. I wonder what the native americans who our ancestors raped and killed feel about our little tradition.
On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established just and equal laws for all members of the new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs.
Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from? From the Bible. The Pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments. They looked to the ancient Israelites for their example. And, because of the biblical precedents set forth in Scripture, they never doubted that their experiment would work.
"But this was no pleasure cruise, friends. The journey to the New World was a long and arduous one. And when the Pilgrims landed in New England in November, they found, according to Bradford's detailed journal, a cold, barren, desolate wilderness," destined to become the home of the Kennedy family. "There were no friends to greet them, he wrote. There were no houses to shelter them. There were no inns where they could refresh themselves. And the sacrifice they had made for freedom was just beginning.
During the first winter, half the Pilgrims – including Bradford's own wife – died of either starvation, sickness or exposure.
"When spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats." Yes, it was Indians that taught the white man how to skin beasts. "Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not yet prosper! This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end. "Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than as a devout expression of gratitude grounded in the tradition of both the Old and New Testaments.
Here is the part [of Thanksgiving] that has been omitted: The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share.
"All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well. They were going to distribute it equally. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well. Nobody owned anything. They just had a share in it. It was a commune, folks. It was the forerunner to the communes we saw in the '60s and '70s out in California – and it was complete with organic vegetables, by the way.
Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter, which had taken so many lives.
He decided to take bold action. Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace.
"That's right. Long before Karl Marx was even born, the Pilgrims had discovered and experimented with what could only be described as socialism. And what happened?
It didn't work! Surprise, surprise, huh?
What Bradford and his community found was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else, unless they could utilize the power of personal motivation!
What Bradford wrote about this social experiment should be in every schoolchild's history lesson. If it were, we might prevent much needless suffering in the future.
"'The experience that we had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years...that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God,' Bradford wrote. 'For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense...that was thought injustice.'
Why should you work for other people when you can't work for yourself? What's the point?
"Do you hear what he was saying, ladies and gentlemen? The Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive. So what did Bradford's community try next? They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the undergirding capitalistic principle of private property.
Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products. And what was the result?
'This had very good success,' wrote Bradford, 'for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.'
Bradford doesn't sound like much of a... liberal Democrat, "does he? Is it possible that supply-side economics could have existed before the 1980s? Yes.
In no time, the Pilgrims found they had more food than they could eat themselves.... So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians. The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London.
And the success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans and began what came to be known as the 'Great Puritan Migration.'"
Now, other than on this program every year, have you heard this story before? Is this lesson being taught to your kids today -- and if it isn't, why not? Can you think of a more important lesson one could derive from the pilgrim experience?
So in essence there was, thanks to the Indians, because they taught us how to skin beavers and how to plant corn when we arrived, but the real Thanksgiving was thanking the Lord for guidance and plenty -- and once they reformed their system and got rid of the communal bottle and started what was essentially free market capitalism, they produced more than they could possibly consume, and they invited the Indians to dinner, and voila, we got Thanksgiving, and that's what it was: inviting the Indians to dinner and giving thanks for all the plenty is the true story of Thanksgiving.
The last two-thirds of this story simply are not told.
If Mr. Karenga wants to really get in touch with his African roots and really feel the love of Kwanzaa, I would gladly buy him a one-way ticket to the African country of his choice. Of course once there he wouldn't be allowed to return, meaning he would have to say goodbye to the cozy little job at the college right DR.
Obama, with his Black Liberation Theology beliefs should be a good proponent for this foolish celebration.
I wonder if OJ will be celebrating Kwanzaa in cell block D??
Sometimes good ideas come out of crappy people. I don't actually believe that those who choose to enjoy Kwanza give a rat’s ass about this guy, nor should they. Besides, it seems like a refreshing break from the commercialistic materialism of Christmas. And these none ethnocentric parties are just like the many Christians who really just celebrate Santa Clause.
Besides, all religions are fake so you better get to dispelling all of their traditions also.
Theo would have loved Jonestown.
Christmas is a made up holiday, too.
.
Game, set and match to Ms. Kathy Shaidle.
Bravo.
D.
Sorry, Ellie. I’m not smart enough to follow your deduction. But, you’re probably right; the guy who believes religions are fake and god isn't a tangible being would probably be the first to drink the kool-aid.
How Perfect. A fake holiday in an era devoted to the farcical.
A holiday made up by a con man for an age of effete appeasers. Lost in a decadent world of materialism masking as purpose.
For a culture that has abandoned belief in God, this has to be the most superstitious rudderless moraless bleeding group to ever exist.
Nicely done article Ms. Shaidle. Concisely done, with red meat not tofu.
A few fools might consider Kwanzaa appropriate, but then every group has its share of fools.
Well Christmas is a fake holiday also. And violence is inflicted by companies on those it exploit in the manufacturing of the toys for this holiday.
Let us not forget that Christmas and Easter fall on or near a solstice or and equanox because the murderous early christians needed a spot for their "High Holy Days". The violence of the '60s and '70s are nothing when compared to the blatant removal of indiginous peoples. I think there should be more holiday events not tied to a church function. Maybe we could have a real Veterans Day when the Vets got paid for staying home from work.
This bullsh**t fake holiday is just like 98% of everything else that comes from these LEFTIST CHARLATANS nothing but IDIOTIC PROPAGANDA. Wake up people we have been spoon-fed this kind of crap for 50 years and alot of the lemmings just go along with the program. The real reason communism collapsed in the Soviet Union was for years the people knew it was all a lie, and it got so ridiculous(like this crap) that they finally started speaking out against it.
"Besides, it seems like a refreshing break from the commercialistic materialism of Christmas." And you don't get why Jonestown would have been perfect for you? Google it, Theo. None of that crass capitalistic commercialism -- and lotsa nice, "refreshing" Kool-aid to boot! (Gerry and Jaoquin would've loved it, too. . .)
revenant. right. as far as those who believe in nothing. merry nothing.
glen beck says something like have a happy hana quansas something something new year ?
I find it odd that no one ever questions why this man may have wanted to connect to Africa. I do not believe or support the roots of Kwanzaa. Made up or not, it is obvious by the comments above, racism is alive and well in white America. Have you ever considered the fact that Africans read history seeing theirs has been deleted, see the many white leaders of the country, knowing that they became leaders by tearing apart families and lives, building America on the backs of the poor, white and black. If you were of African descent would choose the "American" holiday experience, or would you make one up? I mean Christmas, isn't about Jesus anymore, are you preparing an article about this "fake holiday" too?
You rock, Ben in Tanzania! Love it!
Actually, Ben rocks less than you think.
At slavery's height, slaves accounted for about 12% of the US population. Such a small number could hardly be said to have "built" the nation; the other 88% obviously did the heavy lifting, economically.
And the riches states were always non-slave states. The South was poor before during and after slavery.
Only 3% of the slaves kidnapped from Africa came to the US. The rest went to other nations, mostly Muslim ones. And slavery still goes on in Muslim countries, whereas the US was one of the last nations to adopt slavery and one of the first to abolish it.
As a matter of fact, you may remember the little war they had over it, that cost 600,000 lives, black and white.
Black history has been deleted? Ben, judging from the average ciriculum in US schools today, one could be forgiven for believing that WW2 was won singlehandedly by the Tuskegee airmen. What do you call Black History Month?
If I were of African descent and living in America, I would thank God everyday that my ancestors had been brought here against their will, because my distant relatives still living in Africa live in a literal hell hole, and would give anything for the chance to live here too.
You aren't as smart as you think you are, Ben. Do try harder next time, and get your facts straight first.
I love how your reaction would be re. Baltic and Central Asian countries being annexed into Soviet Union, after all without the USSR the Kazaks, Turkmen etc would be savages killing each other amirite? I'll wait for your hypocrisy
Kathy said: "If I were of African descent and living in America, I would thank God everyday that my ancestors had been brought here against their will"
I read an article by an African American (in The Australian, several years ago) saying exactly that. He was thankful that his ancestors in Africa had been taken as slaves to America.
No doubt he's now called an Uncle Tom, or worse, by the Official Blacks.
Kathy Shaidle, good points. I read before in National Geographic that 10% of those stolen from Africa came to North America.
So even at that percentage, you are still correct.
Ben in Tanz, you said, "see the many white leaders of the country, knowing that they became leaders by tearing apart families and lives".
Who took the Africans to the slave boats from the inland? White men?
Or tribal leaders?
Can anybody name a school or school district that actually celebrates kwanza? I know its a funny word, and a made up holiday, but why get up in arms over something that almost literaly no-one celebrates? Keep digging up those liberal enemies of Christmas!
HA ! Black leaders selling out (literally) their own people even back then.
Some things never change.
Just how did this radical get by with this? Did he slip thru the cracks? What a disgusting and obnoxious person to put this out in front of the public and for the dumb public to accept it!!!
hey, but December here is summer in the Southern Hemisphere. So they CAN have a harvest festival. Right?
First, I want to thank the author of this article for providing some long thought about insights, and some factual background on a holiday I have discussed as being a fabrication purely from what I know of African histories.
Secondly, about commentor/comment, "DRH: .
Game, set and match to Ms. Kathy Shaidle. Bravo.",… in regard to the symbolic statistics she wrote of, the statistics and history she wrote was/is incorrect.
The first U.S. Census found that Blacks outnumbered whites, thus began an authorized legal codified systems allow Whites to kill Blacks at will, and thus eliminating their historical contribution to the building of the United States. It's a fact Black people built a majority of this country, up to, and including the "White house".
The real irony here is that most of the comments here are from Whites outside the U.S. who agree with the same racist mindsets, and use the same false revisionistic history of Afrimericans that Whites (not all) in the U.S. use to deny Afrimerican achievements existence.
I am sure the author was trying to be helpful to those not well informed about the holiday, moreso than about Ron Karenga, and it is something Afrimericans need to know to become more aware of their true history.
Lastly, about the Black person who made the comment about being thankful their foreparents were stolen from Africa, that was the rap artist Snoop Dog. He did not say that as an insult to Africa, or as a promotion of the U.S. as being the great provider for slaves, he said it based on the ravages of disease and poverty that Whites left the country in after robbing it of all it's value, and keeping the people stupid, and subservient.
The context was misnomerized, and those of a simplistic, illiterate aspect of the true nature of the whole matter should look in the mirror of self and pat yourself on the back for being the racist you are. It's an ignorance of the ignorant that puts on a facade of knowing better, easily exposed as not being better by the stupidity displayed in word and deed. (attitude)
Any teacher that thinks Kwanzaa is a traditional African holiday simply hasn't done their homework. Information about the holiday is readily available from a variety of sources and Kwanzaa's origins are rooted in the black nationalism prevalent in the sixties. So, what's the problem? Is it that Kwanzaa is a manufactured holiday created our of the context of a political ideology? If this is the case, you will have to attack Christmas too as it was also cobbled together our of various traditions for political reasons. If your beef is against Karenga for being a political dissident and convicted felon, then we still don't have to look beyond the bible for stories about a convicted political criminal with ties to a holiday celebrated without too much cynicism by Christians around the world.
So some black people want to encourage co-operation among their own, downpressed people... big deal.
Your comments make me not proud of being white.
Your comments make me not proud of being white.
America was invented. I suggest the author and anybody else in search of true American History begin by reading - Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen, and A people's History of America by Howard Zinn. I am not a big fan of Dr. Karenga because of the havoc in wreaked on the Black Power Movement but the author should be as he assisted the status quo and if she knew anything about American History she would not be trashing Dr. Karenga. Many believe his position was a reward for service granted against Black Power. The reason why there is so much racial hate in this country is because EuroAmericans believe thay are the only true Americans; this is why they are quick to offer tickets out to whoever disagrees with America's way of doing things. If anybody deserves to live in this "discovered" country it is the descendents of African slaves on whose backs this country could not have been founded. Study your history and you will see who has wreaked more havoc in the world.
This is incredibly unfortunate that an individual of your caliber would not only malign Dr. Karenga, but all African descended peoples. We would have more respect for the conservatism you say you represent if such commentary was not designed to pander to the racist impulses of thoughtless and insensitive citizens.
Kathy, you need to get a real education and try not reading so many books. How is any religion or holiday, for that matter, relevant? Everyone thinks they're so smart because they read something that has been passed down as "knowledge". Everything is skewed at this point. Get it together, Kathy. You're blowing it.
An irreverent piece of writing coming from a place of aggression and confusion, defended by an author who chooses to personally attack naysayers along with their ideas and considers this logic. Had the author put as much effort into debunking national holidays that have sustained fatal systems of oppression, repression and other forms of state sanctioned tyranny I may have found this to be reputable. But instead she has chosen to focus on a minor tradition that has minor to no influence on the greater United States culture in order to defend and sustain racism, prejudice and fatal stereotypes.
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