The Story of Kwanzaa

http://www.dartreview.com/archives/2001/01/15/the_story_of_kwaanza.php

The Story of Kwaanza

By J. Lawrence Scholer | Monday, January 15, 2001

EXCERPT

The founder of Kwanzaa, Ron Everett, a.k.a. Maulana Ron Karenga, stood at the forefront of the black power movement in the 1960s. Karenga distinguished himself as a ‘cultural nationalist’ as opposed to a traditional Marxist. In 1965 Karenga founded the United Slaves Organization (US), a group that would rival the Black Panthers on the UCLA campus. The US was more radical than the Panthers, setting off quarrels between the two.

SNIP

...On September 17, 1971, Karenga was sentenced to one to ten years in prison on counts of felonious assault and false imprisonment. The charges stemmed from a May 9, 1970 incident in which Karenga and two others tortured two women who Karenga believed had tried to kill him by placing ‘crystals’ in his food and water.

A year later the Los Angeles Times described the events: ‘Deborah Jones, who once was given the 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 vice. Karenga, head of US, also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said.’

SNIP

James Coleman, a former Black Panther, argues, ‘By only stressing the unity of black people, Kwanzaa separates black people from the rest of Americans. Americans must unify on whatever principles ensure we live in a safe, prosperous, God-loving country, with the race and ethnicity of any American seeking to abide by those principles being of no consequence.’


And the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson says "This is not a celebration of African harvest; it is a political statement for the establishment of a black nation and racial hatred against whites."



NOTE:

Kwanza Pledge of Allegiance

"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 G-d of us all, totally united in the struggle, for black love, black freedom, and black self-determination."

 

Kerenga is a Marxist who based this phony holiday on what je called the best of Chinese and Cuban style communism.

The seven principles of kwanzaa read like rules to live by in a perfect Communist society.


Umoja (Unity) To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (Purpose) To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (Creativity) To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (Faith) To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=25097

EXCERPT

"For his course “Introduction to African American Studies,” Carroll requires students to read the book Introduction to Black Studies by Maulana Karenga. Karenga, a self-proclaimed “African socialist,” is the founder of the 1960’s militant black power organization United Slaves. He is also the creator of the African American holiday Kwanzaa and its underlying philosophy called Kawaida. According to Karenga, Kawaida, which is covered in the required text, borrows from “early Chinese and Cuban socialism,” with Kawaida practitioners believing that one's race “determines life conditions, life chances and self-understanding.” In the preface of the book Introduction to Black Studies, Karenga admits that the text is “self-consciously Afrocentric,” and “demands that Black Studies root itself in the African experience.”


What to make of it?

The "holiday" is as big a fraud as it's creator. It has nothing to do with African heritage and everything to do with advancing Karenga's own special brand of Marxism.

 

Since when is the truth trash?

 

Unnecessary.

Once the truth is known, one should realize it was never legitimate in the first place.

 

I don't see how you can say they are tools of the devil.

Just phony. Contrived. Nothing at all to do with African heritage.