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Professor and Chair of Africana Studies

Frederick Douglass, July 4th and Us: Freedom, False Claims, Bad Faith and Unavoidable Struggle 
Dr. Maulana KarengaOpinion

Frederick Douglass, July 4th and Us: Freedom, False Claims, Bad Faith and Unavoidable Struggle 

Dr. Maulana KarengaJune 29, 2023

Whether we discuss emancipation in June, independence in July, revolt and revolution in August, Kwanzaa and cultural and political liberation in December, or achievements against the odds, resilience and resistance in February, the issue, imperative and urgency of freedom and struggle are always with us. Indeed, it runs like a red line through our most ancient, awesome and humanity-revealing history.  

Democratic Blue and Peoplehood Black: Necessary Distinctions Between People and Party 
Dr. Maulana KarengaOpinion

Democratic Blue and Peoplehood Black: Necessary Distinctions Between People and Party 

Dr. Maulana KarengaNovember 17, 2022

 It is said that the defeat of Donald Trump signals that the country is ready for a change, but we have not been given on the nightly news, on social media or by mail, anything that resembles a comprehensive view of what the change might look like. Nor have we heard from the academy, Congress, or the corporate world anything beyond convenient confessions that Black lives do indeed matter.  

Revolution and Continuing Resistance in Hayti: A Radical Refusal To Be Defeated 
Dr. Maulana KarengaOpinion

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

August 18, 2022

 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.  

Lifting and Holding Up Heaven: Women’s and Men’s Work in the World 
Dr. Maulana KarengaOp-Ed

Lifting and Holding Up Heaven: Women’s and Men’s Work in the World 

Dr. Maulana Karenga  March 10, 2022

It is a fundamental tenet of Kawaida philosophy that practice proves and makes possible everything, that is to say, practice brings it into being, makes it real, relevant and worthy of the name and quality it claims, whether it is love or life, parenting or peace, teaching or learning, art or ethics, science, religion or righteous resistance.  

Black Health, Wellness and Struggle: Towards A Radical Racial Healing
Dr. Maulana KarengaOpinion

Black Health, Wellness and Struggle: Towards A Radical Racial Healing

Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana StudiesFebruary 3, 2022

This year’s Black History Month theme, “Black Health and Wellness,” opens space for us to call into focus our self-determined and self-sustaining ways of knowing, working and struggling to achieve, protect, promote and sustain our health, health care and healing in a society which is the source of so much of our preventable sickness, needless suffering, and underserved deaths. And thus arises the undeniable need for righteous and relentless struggle, not only to achieve justice and end oppression, but also to achieve a comprehensive radical racial healing.

Haiti and the Heavy Hand of History:
Dr. Maulana Karenga

Haiti and the Heavy Hand of History:

Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana StudiesAugust 19, 2021

The heavy hand of history has fallen hard on Haiti once again. But this continuing series of devastating events are not simply natural disasters of earthquake and storm.

‘Kwanzaa and the Well-Being of the World: Living and Uplifting the Seven Principles’
Dr. Maulana KarengaFamilyLocalNews (Family)

‘Kwanzaa and the Well-Being of the World: Living and Uplifting the Seven Principles’

Dr. Maulana KarengaDecember 24, 2020

Heri za Kwanzaa, Happy Kwanzaa to African people everywhere throughout the global African community. We bring you Kwanzaa greetings of celebration, solidarity, and continuing struggle for good in the world. Kwanzaa is a special season and celebration of our sacred and expansive selves as African people. It is a unique pan-African time of remembrance, reflection, reaffirmation, and recommitment. It is a special and unique time to remember and honor our ancestors; to reflect on what it means to be African and human in the most expansive and meaningful sense; and to reaffirm the sacred beauty and goodness of ourselves and the rightfulness of our relentless struggle to be ourselves and free ourselves and contribute to an ever-expanding realm of freedom, justice and caring in the world. And Kwanzaa is a special and unique time and pan-African space to recommit ourselves to our highest values that teach us to live our lives, do our work, and wage our struggles in dignity-affirming, life-enhancing, and world-preserving ways as we continue forward on the upward paths of our honored ancestors.

Taking Down Flags and Tearing Down Walls: Some Seriously Needed Distinctions
Dr. Maulana Karenga

Taking Down Flags and Tearing Down Walls: Some Seriously Needed Distinctions

Dr. Maulana KarengaJuly 9, 2020

This is a revisiting of an ongoing conversation beginning in 2015 about taking down symbols of oppression, especially Confederate flags, but also statues, murals and all public signs, symbols and celebrations of our domination, deprivation and degradation as a people and other people of color. My argument here, as then, is that these acts are necessary, but not sufficient, an important start, but not the end of the long, difficult and dangerous journey to a radical reconception and reconstruction of the source of these racist symbols, signs and celebrations, i.e., society itself.  

Madcapping and Conning with Trump: Feeding Americans Addiction to Illusions
Dr. Maulana Karenga

Madcapping and Conning with Trump: Feeding Americans Addiction to Illusions

Dr. Maulana KarengaApril 30, 2020

Nurturing and asserting the narrowest and most degraded forms of individualism, they find it difficult to feel for others, delay gratification and think seriously about the consequences of their actions and those of their monster mentor. Afterall, Trump has assured them he needs no mask, argued early that the virus was a hoax, dismissed it for months and made no national preparations for it. Instead, he has offered them safety and salvation behind apartheid walls, bans on Muslims, Africans – Continental and Caribbean, Latinos and Asians, imprisoning and packing immigrants together in unsanitary and disease producing conditions, and urging them, his followers, to rush into the streets and rage against restrictions and rules instituted to save lives, including their own.

Bringing Forth the Fire Within Us: Weathering the Worst of Winters
COVID-19Dr. Maulana Karenga

Bringing Forth the Fire Within Us: Weathering the Worst of Winters

Dr. Maulana KarengaApril 2, 2020

Reflecting on the challenge before us, I am drawn to the word for “challenge” in Swahili, changamoto. The word is a combination of two words—moto (fire) and changa which has several meanings, but is here interpreted as both to collect and to contribute. Thus, it literally means both to collect and contribute fire, a gathering and giving of fire, interpreting fire here as vital and transformative energy and focused and determined agency.

Black Women, Men and HIV/AIDS: Shared Responsibility in Love, Life and Struggle
Dr. Maulana KarengaHealthOpinion

Black Women, Men and HIV/AIDS: Shared Responsibility in Love, Life and Struggle

Dr. Maulana KarengaDecember 6, 2018

This year as we again observe the days set aside to mark and remind us of both the tragic passing and praiseworthy endurance of victims of HIV/AIDS among us, we, of necessity, continue to search for solutions, i.e., how to increase prevention, ensure treatment and care, expand education, reduce and end high risk and reckless behavior, and encourage everyone to engage in practices to save lives, promote health and secure well-being and flourishing for us all.