Dr. Maulana Karenga

Revolution and Continuing Resistance in Hayti: A Radical Refusal To Be Defeated 

 As we celebrate and commemorate this month of revolution and resistance, we call Black August, we of necessity pay rightful and special homage to the people of Haiti who mark on August 14th their 231st anniversary of the Bwa Kayiman Liberation Gathering of men and women to plan their world historical struggle which would result in a victorious revolution that has deep and enduring meaning for the quest, concept and practice of freedom throughout world.  

Swahili, Pan-Africanism and the Practice of Freedom: A Language of Liberation, Community and Culture – Part 2

  My interest in and embrace of Kiswahili as a pan-African language of choice raised questions of how best to communicate this choice and initiative to the African American community as well as the larger world African community. Important for me was, not only our learning of the language as a skill, but also and especially learning and embracing its communitarian views, values and practices.   The task, then, was not only to provide language classes, but to create a cultural context and process by which there was an ongoing and expansive dialog with African culture, using Swahili as a

Swahili, Pan-Africanism and the Practice of Freedom: A Language of Liberation, Community and Culture – Part 1 

The rapid rise of the Swahili language to global reach and significance reflected in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designating July 7, 2022, as World Kiswahili Language Day brings with it a profound sense of elation and satisfaction of work well done to all those in Africa, the U.S. and around the world who worked hard to achieve this rightful recognition of it.  

Keeping Faith with Nana Fanon, Reaffirming the Cultural Revolution 

Nana Frantz Fanon (July 20,1925–December 6, 1961), noble ancestor and teacher of the righteous, radical and transformative word, believed in Africa’s capacity to repair, raise and renew itself, and in the African people’s will to unite and liberate themselves, bring into being a new world, woman and man, and start a new history of Africa and humankind.  

The Music and Magic of Blackness: The Centering and Sustaining Beauty of Soul 

 It is good to sing and celebrate ourselves, to dance in honor of the divine spark and specialness within each of us, and to rejoice in the midst of the sacred music we together make in the many ways we love and struggle to do and share good in the world. But our celebrations must always be rooted in and reflective of our own agency, our own image and own interests.

America in Crisis Between Massacres and Myths: Seeking a Moral Compass and Commitment to Change 

America is in crisis, having become a society against itself, moving from massacre to massacre seemingly with a mad hatter’s moral compass and a woefully insufficient moral commitment to clear a path to put the gun down as solution and salvation and stop the disabling and deadly violence against those different and vulnerable and even its chosen children.  

African Liberation Day and the Nguzo Saba: Principles and Practices for Liberating Struggle

On behalf of the African American Cultural Center (Us), we send greetings of solidarity and increased and continuing struggle to all African peoples throughout the world African community, and all oppressed, struggling and freedom-seeking peoples in the world on this African Liberation Day, May 25, in its 59th year of founding in Addis Abba 1963 by the Organization of African Unity.