NationStates Jolt Archive

There are few holidays we can actually attribute to one man's vision. Kwanzaa is such a holiday – coined by Ron Karenga in 1966.

Who was Ron Karenga?

He is a convicted felon – sentenced five years after inventing Kwanzaa for torturing two black women by whipping them with electrical cords and beating them with a karate baton after stripping them naked. He placed in the mouth of one of the victims a hot soldering iron, also scarring her face with the device. He put one of her big toes in a vise, and detergent and running water in both of their mouths.

This little poem tells the tale:


Twas the night before Kwanzaa
And all through the 'hood,
Maulana Karenga (http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/) was up to no good.


He tortured a woman and spent time in jail. (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5251)
But that's just the beginning of his little tale.
"So I stuck a woman's toe in a vice?"
"Nobody said revolution was nice!"

The Sixties were over. Now what would he do?
Why, he went back to school, now that's "Doctor" to you!
He once ordered protests at UCLA
Now he teaches Black Studies just miles away.

Now on the agenda , the good Doctor's new plan
Was to get rid of Christmas and piss off The Man.

Karenga invented a holiday that was clearly a fake.
He called the thing Kwanza, it's of Swahili make.

"You don't get what's 'black' about Maoist baloney?"
"You say that my festival's totally phony?"

"Who cares if corn isn't an African crop?
Who cares if our harvest's a month or two off?
Who cares if Swahili's is not our mother tongue?
A lie for a cause never hurt anyone!"

"Umoja! Ujima! Kujichagulia, too!
Collectivist crap never sounded so cool!
Those guilty white liberals are so easy to fool.
Your kids will celebrate Kwanzaa even in school!" (http://www.floridaradioactive.com/issues/Holidays/Kwanzaa_phony.htm)

As we heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight:
"Happy Kwanzaa to all... except if you're white!"

Kwanza=first in Swahili. Don't know exactly what Kwanzaa means though. I really should scrub up on my Swahili - I don't understand the stuff near the bottom too well either (although moja=one).

Kalinga (which I can only imagine to be the same as Karenga, as they mix their l's and their r's) is a very common surname in East Africa.

I think it was best said on Futurama: "What the hell is Kwanza, anyway?"

This thread makes the baby kwanzaa-bot cry.

Kwanza=first in Swahili. Don't know exactly what Kwanzaa means though. I really should scrub up on my Swahili - I don't understand the stuff near the bottom too well either (although moja=one).

Kalinga (which I can only imagine to be the same as Karenga, as they mix their l's and their r's) is a very common surname in East Africa.

Yeah, I wrote Kwanza, but it should be Kwanzaa - The word 'kwanza' I used is the official currency of Angola. Kwanzaa means "first fruit".

Kwanzaa is a racist holiday. :mad: After all, it was started by a racist.

Yeah, I wrote Kwanza, but it should be Kwanzaa - The word 'kwanza' I used is the official currency of Angola. Kwanzaa means "first fruit".
Really? In actual Swahili, or another Bantu language (there's a lot of very similar tribal languages round East Africa)?

Kwanzaa is a racist holiday. :mad: After all, it was started by a racist.
Does that follow? That's a bit like saying that if a man is sexist, then all of his actions must be born out of that sexism, therefore anybody who engages in the same actions must also be sexist.

Kwanzaa is a racist holiday. :mad: After all, it was started by a racist.


Newsflash: They all were.

Newsflash: They all were.

May Day?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7b/Kwanzaastamp.jpg

The name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase "matunda ya kwanza", meaning "first fruits" An additional "a" was added to the Swahili "kwanza" so that the word would have seven letters, one for each of the seven principles.

The name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase "matunda ya kwanza", meaning "first fruits" An additional "a" was added to the Swahili "kwanza" so that the word would have seven letters, one for each of the seven principles.
Thanks. I didn't think kwanzaa was an actual Swahili word. It also changes the pronunciation and sounds daft (emphasis is always on the penultimate vowel).

When I get my website on my time in Tanzania up and running in the New Year, I'll put a small Swahili section in.

To keep anyone going in the meantime:

Tazama! Hii ni kwa sababu naweza sentensi moja kwenye lugha yako, hii haikuruhusu kunijibu haraka haraka. Ongea polepole, au nyamaza. Umenipata?!

This is the Swahili version of the phrase that always gets missed out of teach yourself... books, as according to Tony Hawks in "Playing the Moldovans at Tennis" (when he was learning Romanian).

Look, just because I can manage one sentence in your language, does not give you carte blanche to reply to me at speed. Slow up, or shut up. Got it, pal?!

Sometimes I just need to show off.

May Day?

Started by Saxons. They hated everybody!

However, the modern version of May Day (US and Canada) was started by the Knights of Labour, a virulently and violently anti-Chinese organization.

I would like to learn how Kwanzaa became a National Holiday.