Happy first day of Kwanza The founder of Kwanzaa is a deranged criminal named Ronald Everett, alias Ron Karenga. In the mid-1960s, Everett created a Los Angeles-based black militant group called United Slaves (US) for the purpose of igniting a cultural revolution among American blacks. Bill Clinton was the first U.S. president to extend official recognition to the so-called holiday of Kwanzaa, a seven-day annual African festival that runs from December 26th to New Year’s Day. Mr. Clinton has described Kwanzaa as a vibrant celebration of African culture that transcends international boundaries … link[ing] diverse individuals in a unique celebration of a dynamic heritage. In fact, Kwanzaa is a product of violent black separatism, and Dr. Karenga states that he created it at the height of the black liberation movement as part of a re-Africanization process – a going back to black. Karenga created Kwanzaa (named after a Swahili term for first fruits) as a way of evangelizing on behalf of his revolution. In his book Kwanzaa: Origins, Concepts, Practice, Karenga claims that the spurious holiday offers blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society. He dropped the Everett name, adopted the Swahili one, which means master teacher, shaved his head, and began wearing traditional African clothing. Karenga’s so-called Nguzo Saba (seven principles) for his new black value system are little more than Marxism transposed into an afrocentric key: Umoja (unity); Kujichagulia (self-determination), which, according to Karenga, refers to afrocentricity; Ujima (collective work and responsibility); Ujamaa (cooperative economics), which Karenga describes as essentially a commitment to the practice of shared social wealth; Nia (purpose), which refers to collective vocation for black people; Kuumba (creativity); and Imani (faith). However, in The Quotable Karenga, a book that laid out The Path of Blackness, the sevenfold path is described simply as, think black, talk black, act black, create black, buy black, vote black, and live black. To provide a tangible symbol of his seven principles, Karenga took the menorah from Judaism, adorning it in Kwanzaa’s seasonal colors (red, black, and green) and re-naming it the kinara. No Kwanzaa celebration is complete without the recitation of the Kwanzaa pledge: We pledge allegiance to the red, black, and green, our flag, the symbol of our eternal struggle, and to the land we must obtain; one nation of black people, with one God of us all, totally united in the struggle, for black love, black freedom, and black self-determination. Karenga and his black nationalist holiday have been eagerly embraced by the apostles of multiculturalism and tolerance. In his presidential messages commemorating Kwanzaa, Bill Clinton has stated that Karenga’s seven principles ring true not only for African Americans, but also for all Americans … bring[ing] new purpose to our daily lives. In recent years the mainstreaming of Kwanzaa has proceeded at an astonishing pace. The U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in 1997, and the Smithsonian Institution sponsors an annual celebration. There is even an article in the World Book Encyclopedia that legitimized Dr. Karenga as a black cultural leader. He wrote the article himself. On several occasions, factional quarrels between Karenga’s US organization and the Black Panthers erupted into open gunplay, which resulted in the death of several people. US members, similarly attired, often clashed with other black militant groups such as the Black Panthers. The fighting was about which group would control the new Afro-American Studies Center at UCLA. In 1970, Karenga and two of his followers were arrested and charged with conspiracy and assault in the torture of Deborah Jones and Gail Davis, two of his female followers. Believing that the women had tried to poison him, Karenga forced the women to disrobe at gunpoint and had them beaten. Vietnamese torture is nothing compared to what I know, he informed his victims, whereupon he forced a hot soldering iron into the mouth of one while the other had a toe squeezed in a vice. Both women were also forced to consume detergent and a caustic liquid as part of their discipline. According to the July 27, 1971 Los Angeles Times, a psychological profile of Karenga described him as a danger to society who is in need of prolonged custodial treatment in prison. The profile noted that Karenga, while legally sane, was confused and not in contact with reality. A May 14, 1971, article in the Los Angeles Times described the testimony of one of them: 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. Back then, it was relatively easy to get information on the trial. Now its almost impossible. The Los Angeles Times seems to have been the only major newspaper that reported it and the stories were buried deep in the paper, which now is available only on microfilm. And the microfilm index doesnt start until 1972, so it is almost impossible to find the three small articles that cover Karengas trial and conviction on charges of torture. That is fortunate for Karenga. The trial showed him to be not just brutal, but deranged. He and three members of his cult had tortured the women in an attempt to find some nonexistent crystals of poison. Karenga thought his enemies were out to get him. And in another lucky break for Karenga, the trial transcript no longer exists. Reporter Paul Mulshine filed a request for it with the Superior Court of Los Angeles. After a search, the court clerk could find no record of the trial. So the exact words of the woman who had a hot soldering iron pressed against her face by the man who founded Kwanzaa are now lost to history. The only document the court clerk did find was particularly revealing, however. It was a transcript of Karengas sentencing hearing on Sept. 17, 1971. A key issue was whether Karenga was sane. Judge Arthur L. Alarcon read from a psychiatrists report: Since his admission here he has been isolated and has been exhibiting bizarre behavior, such as staring at the wall, talking to imaginary persons, claiming that he was attacked by dive-bombers and that his attorney was in the next cell. … During part of the interview he would look around as if reacting to hallucination and when the examiner walked away for a moment he began a conversation with a blanket located on his bed, stating that there was someone there and implying indirectly that the someone was a woman imprisoned with him for some offense. This man now presents a picture which can be considered both paranoid and schizophrenic with hallucinations and elusions, inappropriate affect, disorganization, and impaired contact with the environment. Neither his criminal record nor his insuperable difficulties with reality has impeded Karenga’s career prospects, however: He is presently professor and chair of the department of Black Studies at California State University-Long Beach. No one remembers the part about re-Africanization or the sevenfold path of blackness that Dr. Karenga once espoused. Hardly anyone remembers the shootings, the beatings,the tortures and the prison terms that were once the center of his life. Its just not PC to bring that sort of stuff up now that Kwanzaa is commercialized and making big bucks. Dr. Karenga does his part to promote the holiday and forget the past. In December, he goes on his annual Kwanzaa circuit of speeches and appearances. Is Karenga, and his holiday, a complete sham? Or is Karenga simply a retard? People think its African, but its not, Karenga said about his holiday in an interview quoted in the Washington Post. I came up with Kwanzaa because black people in this country wouldnt celebrate it if they knew it was American. Also, I put it around Christmas because I knew thats when a lot of bloods would be partying. Bloods is a 60s California slang term for black people. Look at any map of the world and you will see that Ghana and Kenya are on opposite sides of the continent. This brings up an obvious question about Kwanzaa: Why did Karenga use Swahili words for his fictional African feast? 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 several thousand miles away, about as far from Ghana as Los Angeles is from New York. Yet in celebrating Kwanzaa, African-Americans are supposed to employ a vocabulary of such Swahili words as kujichagulia and kuumba. This makes about as much sense as having Irish-Americans celebrate St. Patricks Day by speaking Polish. One possible explanation is that Karenga was simply ignorant of African geography and history when he came up with Kwanzaa in 1966. That might explain why he would schedule a harvest festival near the solstice, a season when few fruits or vegetables are harvested anywhere. While some might consider Ron Karenga’s implausible triumph to be an illustration of P.T. Barnum’s axiom regarding human gullibility, there is something much worse than foolishness at work. Kwanzaa offers a potent illustration of Communist theoretician Antonio Gramsci’s strategy for overthrowing Western society by conducting a long march through the institutions of culture, including educational and religious institutions. It is this urge to destroy and defile our Western patrimony that represents the true spirit of Kwanzaa. Quotes from article On Black Art by Karenga: All education and creation is invalid unless it can benefit the maximum amount of Blacks. Whites can imitate or copy soul, but they cant create out of that context. All nationalists believe in creativity as opposed to destruction and a nationalist must create for the Black nation. All art must be revolutionary and in being revolutionary it must be collective, committing, and functional.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 14:52:21 +0000
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