Hello and welcome to African Elements where
we're producing Africana Studies content and
leaving it right here where the people are
at.
In this video we’ll look at the various
often conflicting elements of Black Nationalism
in the struggle for black liberation and self-determination,
and specifically at Maulana Karenga and his
notion of cultural nationalism within the
US organization.
Is conflict inevitable between Black Nationalist
organizations such as US and other civil rights
organizations such as the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, which operate outside
the Black Nationalist framework?
Can there be unity in diversity?
All that coming up next.
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In an earlier video, I discussed six overlapping
characteristics of Black nationalism.
If you haven’t had a chance to check that
the link is in the description below.
Of the six overlapping characteristics of
Black Nationalism: cultural nationalism, religious
nationalism, economic nationalism, political
nationalism, and pan-Africanism, Maulana Karenga
and the US organization, which will be the
focus of this program emphasized cultural
nationalism.
Founded by Maulana Karenga in 1965, the US
organization and cultural nationalism emphasizes
that black people have a culture, style of
life, and approach to the problems of existence
that is distinct from white Americans in particular
and westerners in general.
As such black cultural nationalists tend to
place a heavy emphasis on African-centered
education religion and culture.
From a cultural nationalist perspective, this
African centered framework informs black historical
perspectives and highlights unique contributions
to humanity.
The definition of culture as US organization
saw it, is a complete value system as well
as a means of maintaining that value system.
Cultural nationalists tend to look at adoption
of European culture-- everything from European
languages, religious practices, holidays,
customs, traditions, and even political and
economic structure-- as counterproductive
for persons of African descent.
The problem of Western cultural imperialism
as black cultural nationalists view it is
particularly apparent in the many problems
facing the African continent that are largely
rooted in colonialism and the fundamental
transformation of the African continent as
a legacy of European colonization.
The Anglophone Francophone crisis in Cameroon
is just one example, but others include conflict
minerals such as diamonds and cobalt as well
as the border crisis in South Africa among
many other nations.
Cultural nationalist further believe that
the problems visible on the African continent
as a result of cultural imperialism also manifest
in persons of African descent throughout the
world.
The writings of Frantz Fanon are probably
the best starting point for those who want
to dive deeper into that topic.
The psychological impact of colonization and
the fundamental harm it’s caused is evident
most famously in the doll test, which was
first conducted in the 1940s but has been
repeated on a number of occasions including
in this clip here…
So, this is the reason reason that black cultural
nationalists such as Maulana Karenga promote
an African-centered world view as a remedy
to the European centered way of being, which
Karenga and other black nationalists see as
a root cause for African and African American
self-hatred and self-destructive behavior.
Because as persons of African descent worldwide
the very language we use to express ourselves
is often the very language of the colonizer,
many cultural nationalists have sought to
replace that language with one that is African-centered.
It’s for that reason that Kiswahili, or
Swahili has special appeal to Black cultural
nationalists.
Swahili is a pan-African language spoken by
a broad range of ethnicities in regions throughout
eastern and Central Africa as well as parts
of Southern Africa.
As Karenga stated 1966, "We don't know what
tribe we came from, so we chose an African
language that is non-tribal which is widely
spoken in Africa."
At the second Congress of African writers,
held in Rome in 1966, Kiswahili came to be
seen as the optimum choice for a continent-wide
adoption of a single African language.
As a direct challenge to European notions
of blackness, Karenga articulated his own
principles of blackness, or "Nguzo Saba.”
Those principles--"Umoja" (unity), "Kujichagulia"
(self-determination), "Ujima" (collective
work and responsibility), "Ujamaa" (cooperative
economics), "Nia" (purpose), "Kuumba" (creativity),
and "Imani" (faith)--are each celebrated over
the seven days of Kwanzaa.
Organization US founder Maulana Karenga explains:
. . . and so I created Kwanzaa for three basic
reasons.
First, to reaffirm our rootedness in African
culture.
Because even though we are African people,
due to the holocaust of enslavement, we were
lifted out of our own history, and made a
footnote and forgotten casualty in European
history.
And so the struggle we were waging, as Kabron
said, is to return to our history, and to
use it to enrich and expand our lives.
Secondly, I created Kwanzaa in order to give
us a time when we as African people all over
the world could come together, reaffirm the
bonds between us, and meditate on the meaning
and awesome responsibility of being African
in a world.
And certainly it has flowered because of that.
Because if you look at how it has grown, over
28, 000, 000 people celebrate this holiday
on every continent in the world throughout
the world African community.
And the third reason I created Kwanzaa was
to introduce and reinforce the importance
of African culture and African communitarian
values.
And by communitarian values, I mean values
that stress and strengthen family, community,
and culture.
These are our strengths.”
US organization, in further defining blackness,
articulated the Kanuni--21 rules and behavioral
characteristics that define their particular
brand of black cultural nationalism.
Among them: Advocates shall refrain from unnecessary
or loud talking or screaming, smoking, drinking,
profanity, and horseplay.
Refrain from disrespecting each other in terms
of their roles as men and women, advocates,
and officers.
Refrain from playboyism and playgirlism, and
refrain from using physical force against
each other in settlement of disputes.
So here we see a few examples of how cultural
black nationalists emphasize redefining what
culture is for persons of African descent.
It's important to understand that this redefining
of culture is an effort to shape the way black
people view themselves on the most fundamental
way.
As Karenga states everything that we do, think,
or learn is somehow interpreted as a cultural
expression.
That includes not only customs and behaviors,
but as we've seen, it also includes language
religion politics and economics and the reshaping
of all those elements into an African- centered
world view.
Black Nationalist philosophy was not the only
ideology in use in the black liberation struggle.
The ideology of non-violent passive resistance
as practiced by Dr. Martin Luther King and
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
and groups like the Congress on Racial Equality
or CORE, represented a fundamentally different
approach to the black liberation struggle,
that was often in conflict with that of US
and other black nationalist organizations
such as a Nation of Islam and the Black Panther
Party.
Likewise socialist oriented groups as well
as the Communist Party offered alternative
approaches to black liberation that often
clashed with Black Nationalist organizations.
While certain aspects of socialism would seem
to be complementary to what was organization
defined as "The Seven Principles of Blackness,”
particularly the notion of Ujamaa--a Kiswahili
word that means literally "familyhood"--on
the surface it would appear that the two ideologies
could operate in tandem.
In fact, the first Tanzanian head of state,
Julius Nyerere, attempted to operationalize
the idea of African socialism as state policy
by naming his government's African socialist
program "Ujamaa."
Socialism, or Ujamaa, is needed to ensure
that the people care for each other's welfare,
which is a core tenant of African-centered
frame of thought.
The problem however is that both socialism
and communism are associated with the very
European dogmas African-centeredness sought
to distance itself from.
Thus a distinction had to be made between
collectivism or communism which represented
the European model whereas "communalism" was
the term Karenga used for the African- centered
model.
To be communalistic, Karenga stated, is to
share willingly, but to be collectivistic
is to force to share which is a European concept.
Historically, the goals of the communist party
and the socialists were inherently in conflict
with those of black nationalists like Marcus
Garvey.
Garvey rejected class unity in favor of racial
unity.
Class unity between blacks and poor whites
would never work, in Garvey's view, because
he viewed racial prejudice as congenital and
that it can never be purged from whites.
So the central inherent conflict between the
two ideologies--communism and Black Nationalism--was
one of class unity vs. racial unity.
While Marcus Garvey sought a pan-African approach,
a viewpoint which placed blacks in the United
States in common cause with blacks throughout
the world and on the continent of Africa,
the Communists sought brought our international
coalition not confined by race or pan-Africanism.
Between Black Nationalism and civil rights
there's also a fundamental difference and
worldview that's going to frame the ideological
divide between folks like Martin Luther King
Jr. and Malcolm X as well as other black nationalist
organizations.
The integrationist goals of the civil rights
movement and the goals of separatism and self-determination
forwarded by black nationalists mix together
about as well as oil and water.
The civil rights agenda that sought reform,
social justice, political rights guaranteed
by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights
were considered by Black Nationalist to be
counterproductive in that the nation's governing
principles were simply the instruments of
government oppression of African Americans
and other people of color.
The different approaches between the various
organizations often brought about open hostilities
between sometimes manifesting in the groups
ruthlessly undermining one another.
The NAACP, for example, cooperated with the
FBI in the prosecution of Marcus Garvey that
led to his exile from United States.
Thurgood Marshall would later cooperate with
the FBI and undermining the Nation of Islam.
Alex Haley, the author of Roots, was actually
hired by the FBI and when he was working as
a journalist to help develop negative articles
on the Nation of Islam.
As we see in the following clip, even when
groups such as the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee coalesced around the same issue
such as the March against Fear-- a 220 mile
solidarity march from Memphis, Tennessee and
Jackson, Mississippi to protest racism often
their different ideologies prevented them
from working together effectively.
FLOYD MCKISSICK.
. . I think it was more of a youth movement
in all of the organizations asserting themselves
far more than it was competition among leaders
themselves.
It was a clash of ideas--no question about
a clash of ideas.
MARTIN LUTHER KING: If We Are Going to Be
Free We Will Have To Suffer for That Freedom.
We will have to sacrifice for it.
STOKLEY CHARMICHAEL.
. . I'm not going to beg the white man for
anything I deserve.
I'm going to take it!
I'm going to take it!
KING.
. . Let me say first that this march is nonviolent.
It is a nonviolent expression of our determination
to be free.
This is the principle of the March, and certainly
we intend to keep this march nonviolent.
REPORTER: Mr. Carmichael, are you as committed
to the nonviolent approach as Dr. King is?
CHARMICHAEL: No, I am not.
REPORTER: Why Aren't You?
CHARMICHAEL: Well, I just don't see it as
a way of life, I never have.
And I also realize that no one in this country
is asking the white community in the south
of the nonviolent, and that, in a sense, is
giving them a free license to go ahead and
shoot us at will.
