Kwanzaa Creator To Speak at The College at Brockport

Related Media

Maulana Karenga

• No description.

BROCKPORT, NY (01/28/2009)(readMedia)-- Maulana Karenga, PhD, creator of the pan-African cultural holiday Kwanzaa and professor of Africana studies at California State University-Long Beach, will present the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Lecture at 7 pm on Tuesday, February 10, at The College at Brockport, Cooper Hall.

Karenga's talk, "The Challenge of King in Changing Times: Reaffirming His Message and Meaning," is sponsored by The College at Brockport's Department of African and African-American Studies and is free and open to the public.

Karenga holds a PhD in political science from the United States International University and another in social ethics from the University of Southern California, as well as an honorary doctorate from the University of Durban, South Africa. He is the creator of the pan-African cultural holiday Kwanzaa and the Nguzo Saba, The Seven Principles, and author of the authoritative text titled Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture.

Dr. Karenga also is the author of numerous articles and books including: Maat, The Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt: A Study in Classical African Ethics; Selections From The Husia: Sacred Wisdom of Ancient Egypt; The Book of Coming Forth By Day: The Ethics of the Declarations of Innocence; Odu Ifa: The Ethical Teachings; and Introduction to Black Studies.

When he created Kwanzaa in 1966 as the first specifically African-American holiday Karenga said his goal was to "...give Blacks an alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society." The name Kwanzaa derives from a Swahili phrase meaning "first fruits."