page_title: Maulana Karenga
section_title: Kwanzaa
hierarchical_section_title: Maulana Karenga / 1960s activism / Kwanzaa
caption_attribution_description: English: 2003 Kwanzaa celebration with Ron Karenga
context_page_description: Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga, previously known as Ron Karenga, is an African-American professor of Africana studies, activist and author, best known as the creator of the pan-African and the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa. Karenga was active in the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and co-founded with Hakim Jamal the black nationalist group US Organization.
  Born in Parsonsburg, Maryland, to an African-American family, Karenga studied at Los Angeles City College and the University of California, Los Angeles. During his student years, he involved himself in activism and joined the Congress of Racial Equality. After the Watts riots of 1965 he became a founder of the US Organization, which became involved in violent clashes with the Black Panther Party in 1969. In 1971, he was convicted of felonious assault and false imprisonment. He was imprisoned in California Men's Colony until he received parole in 1975. He received his PhD shortly afterward and began a career in academia.
context_section_description: Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966 to be the first pan-African holiday. Karenga said his goal was to "give Blacks an alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society."
  Kwanzaa is inspired by African "first fruit" traditions, and the name chosen is from Swahili, "matunda ya kwanza." The rituals of the holiday promote African traditions and Nguzo Saba, the "seven principles of African Heritage" that Karenga described as "a communitarian African philosophy":
  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 brother's and sister's 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 development 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.
caption: Karenga, center, with wife Tiamoyo at left, celebrating Kwanzaa at the Rochester Institute of Technology on December 12, 2003.
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