Maulana Karenga sometimes known as Ron Karenga is often praised as the sole inventor of Kwanzaa and leader of the US Organization. However he was convicted of heinous crimes and many dispute the idea that he is the sole creator. In 1969 he launched a once sided war against The Black Panther Party alongside police officers that led to the deaths of 4 Black Panthers.
The Sinister Side of Kwanzaa
The first time I can recall hearing about Kwanzaa was the fourth grade. We were discussing different holidays people celebrate around the end of the year. Kwanzaa sounded so cool to me, a Black holiday that was an alternative to consumerism that plagued Christmas, 7 principals I could get behind. I asked my mom why we didn’t celebrate Kwanzaa and I can still hear her laugh.
My jaw almost dropped to the floor in later years when I learned Maulana Karenga, sometimes Ron Karenga, or Ronald McKinley Everett, the creator, was a terrible person. He worked as a confidential informant for the LAPD and his reports were so good, they made it to then Governor Ronald Reagan’s desk. He created a Black Liberation group that truly walked the line of gang and cult. Then he helped to cause the downfall of the Black panthers. Some people would even say he directly caused the killings of four Black Panthers. I can neither confirm nor deny that he personally oversaw or called for those killings, but I can say he was guilty of torturing two women. It made so much sense to me why we didn’t celebrate Kwanza.
I’m not saying don’t celebrate Kwanza because Karenga is a terrible person. You can still celebrate it, put your own spin on it as many of the people who celebrate it do. On the surface, Kwanzaa can be seen as a great alternative to Christmas. There’re really only two things you must do, light a candle each of the 7 nights, and reflect on each of the 7 principles.
1. Umoja meaning Unity
2. Kujichagulia for self determination
3. Ujima for collective work
4. Ujamaa for cooperative economics
5. Nia for purpose
6. Kuumba for Creativity
7. Imani for faith
Make it your own, most people do anyway. Some people decorate a table with symbolic items like corn, a unity cup, pears or popcorn. Some folks really do the Harambee chant parodied by The Boondocks, because it can be kind of sweet when done by someone with care. Karenga obviously threw it together haphazardly so there’s room for however you want to celebrate.
With that being said, we should talk about Karenga. Born in 1941 as Ronald McKinley Everett. He became interested in the Black Power movement. He joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Congress for Racial Equality.
In 1965 he teamed up with Hakim Jamal to form US Organization, originally a pun on United States and the phrase “US vs Them.” It was a Pan-African group. They promoted traditional African beliefs, taught Swahili and took part in various rituals. However, Jamal felt Karenga was losing the plot, so he left to form the Malcolm X Foundation and Karenga slowly tried to turn it into a cult gang hybrid. That sounds crazy but stay with me for a few minutes.
Karenga laid out seven principles for US Organization, that he would later reuse for Kwanzaa in 1966. His goal of Kwanzaa was as follows:
“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 […] you must have a cultural revolution before the violent revolution. The cultural revolution gives identity, purpose and direction,”
That sounds like a noble idea, and it caught on for a while. At least until Karenga tried to start a gang war with The Black Panthers. The Black Panthers were not trying to create a new culture for Black Americans or lead a violent revolution, their 10 Points outlined what they wanted. Justice reform, fair housing, free and meaningful educations, an end to the robbery of Black people by capitalist and more things we’re still fighting for. The guns were for self-defense, not a “violent revolution.”
As the Black Panther Party grew, people obviously gravitated towards their mission more. Would you rather support the party giving out free breakfast to children with food they bought from local businesses and Black farmers or put on a dashiki and talk crazy about Malcolm X? I know my answer.
The FBI does their thing and infiltrates both groups, passing false information about ambushes. The Panthers are still not concerned with this group, but they see the hate. They don’t take the messages seriously but refer to them as United Slaves. However, Karenga takes it seriously.
He begins working for the LAPD as a confidential informant. Louis Tackwood a former informant, wrote a book called The Glass House Tapes where he detailed Karenga’s activity. He’d tell everything he knew about The Panthers, and in return he’d get money, guns, drugs, LAPD information about the Panther’s whereabouts and other items from the LAPD in return as well as a promise that no US Organization Member would be arrested.
In 1969 both groups are supporting different candidates to lead the Afro-American Studies Center at UCLA, or University of California Los Angeles. On January 17, 1969 Panther leaders John Huggins and Bunchy Carter were on the UCLA Campus.
Huggins has a verbal argument with Claude Hubert of US Organization after Huggins says some things about Ron Karenga. At which point Harold Jones of US Organization shoots John Huggins at point blank range. The second shooter’s identity is disputed and never confirmed but a member of US Organization shoots Bunchy Carter as well.
Many of The Panthers called this an assassination, as Carter and Huggins had no guns because they did not go to a school to have a shootout. Even if they had guns, they were ambushed at close range without a chance to fire back. The LAPD reports this as a vicious shootout caused by The Black Panther Party. Their response is targeted fully on The Panthers. Over the next week they arrested 75 members and raided multiple apartments.
May 23, 1969, Black Panther member John Savage is shot and killed, again unarmed and simply standing on the corner of Imperial Avenue and 30th Street.
August 15th, Sylvester Bell is shot while selling copies of The Black Panther Newspaper in the parking lot of a shopping center.
The Panthers budget became strained as they needed to purchase more weapons, not for defense from police or white supremacist, but other Black people all while each of these killings leads to more crackdowns on The Panthers, who are the victims of these crimes.
Karenga keeps doing his thing, until the LAPD can no longer overlook his behavior. Deborah Jones who held the title of “African Queen,” in US Organization and Gail Davis are held captive, stripped naked, beaten with extension cords, burned with soldering irons, had their feet placed in vice grips, tubes shoved down their throats and forced to gorge on a combination of water, and detergent before they were finally able to get free. Karenga, Louis Smith and Luz Maria Tamayo were all convicted and sentenced to prison, a light sentence of 1 to 10 years. Karenga served 4.
When asked about it these days, he says the women are liars and he was a political prisoner. It never happened, despite his now ex-wife testifying against him. His current wife is Luz Tamayo, who helped commit the crimes. However, in an attempt to hide the past, she’s changed her name to Tiamoyo Karenga, as if criminal records aren’t public and don’t list aliases. She promotes herself as an advocate for issues faced by Black women, as if she had been convicted of beating and torturing two Black Women.
Ron Karenga earned some PHDs, wrote the mission statement for the Million Man March. However, Louis Farrakhan felt he was slimy, and they’ve never worked together again. That mission statement also demanded that Black men atone for their past and take steps to be better. This prompted Karenga’s former bodyguard Wesley Kabaila to write an open letter in which he states Ron kept his first wife Brenda Loraine formerly known as Haiba, locked in a tiger cage located in the garage of a rented home in Inglewood. Several women also accused Karenga of attempted rapes, sexual harassment and men have accused him attempting to sleep with their wives. In nice words he calls Karenga a liar unfit for leadership who has misguided the masses and still refuses to atone for his own wrongdoing.
As I write this, Karenga is currently the department chair of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach
The talk of unity, revolution and atonement means nothing. You cannot preach unity while causing numerous deaths of other Black people. Not just those directly killed by US Organization, but those who perished as police attacked Black Panthers due to his information and in crackdowns caused by the killings of 4 Panthers by his gang. There is no revolution when you mimic the behaviors of those you claim to revolt against and inform on others to those same people. There can be no atonement when he won’t even acknowledge that he has done wrong.
So, while there’s nothing inherently wrong with Kwanzaa and for some people it is a sweet family tradition. The man behind it is a criminal, a confidential informant, a gang Leder, attempted rapist, a sex pest, a torturer and was one of the largest cogs in the machine that broke the Black Panthers. Not for greed and not for lust, not even for pride, but for what I have come to believe was envy.
Note:
I cut out a part about Tiamoyo being in National Congress of Black Women, National Council of Negro Women and International Black Women’s Congress, because she is probably lying about membership in these groups. They don’t have a public list of members for obvious reasons so it can’t be verified easily. But I’m going to make contact because I made a little discovery, and now I want to know. She also claims to be a board member for the African American Culture Center of Los Angeles, and they do publish their board members. Crazy how she isn’t on there and never has been. However, Tiamoyo Karenga is a board member for African American Cultural Center LA which is a janky spin off of US Organization’s own janky website. It even shares the same low-quality photos and parchment background. It seems like they’re creating foundations with similar names to actual organizations and using it to boost their own resumes. I’m about to do some real journalism work. The two semesters I took of journalism in high school are about to pay off; because I need answers. I’ll update this and probably make a short video when I get my answers.
What I’ve found is Karenga’s ego forces him to take credit for everything. Kwanzaa was not solely his invention, nor were the 7 principals of Kwanzaa/US Organization. He is a terrible man and did it for his ego. But, there were others involved in the creation. The letter from Wesley Kabaila shows that there are many who believe in the original goal and have concluded that they were manipulated. They became cult members and in many cases, you don’t realize you’ve joined a cult until it’s too late. It’s a slow process. Former members of US Organization have gone to great lengths to make amends for the past. Recently I watched a memorial service held by original members of US Organization and The Black Panther Party to mourn the loss of lives during and after the UCLA Shooting and unite to do more for their community.
On the low end, there’s half of a million people that celebrate Kwanzaa, it’s 12 million on the high end of the estimate. There are thousands of people every year who show how they celebrate; despite his instance that his books are required to celebrate, and it must be done his way, 99% of people have no clue who he is and honestly, it’s for the best. Despite his constant yelling into the void, the holiday has eclipsed him. When he sleeps at night, he must live with the knowledge that all of his shouting in videos, fake websites, terrible quality photos and books won’t change that. During my research I learned of a “counterculture,” version of Kwanzaa for lack of a better term. It celebrates both African and Black American cultures. It is not seen as the first step to a violent revolution, but a week of remembrance. I can vibe with that.