8yR E
Correspondent
Dr. M ulana Kar e nga,
originator. of the African
celebr tion Kwaanza, brought
the essence of truth to the
University of Michigan's
Hutchins Hall on Mond y
. December 4, lectur d to ap­
proximately 100 tudents on the
seven principles of Kw nza.
Karenga said in the ancient
Egyptian text, the boo of Com­
ing Forth By ight, that
African are commanded to
bear witne to the truth, to set
the scales of justice in their
proper .perspective, among
tho e who have no voice.
He add res ed the cro d·
ayin , "You see, African
people, we m t tart in history.
We can't just talk the seven
principl of K aanza, we must
embrace the historical context
in which the e principles
ed.
History and culture are our
ground, and are dialectically
linked, " Karenga said He con­
tinued saying. "It is in the con­
struction of culture that history
made, and in making his-
tory con truct our culture."
Karenga s id there is a
mobile period in Blae history
t e anted to mention in
terms of reviving memory,
that t en principl being
discussed will make sense.
He said this period has
ped Blacks a people, d
same time, left them a
founder:
legacy that gives Black people a
burden of history that they must
bear with dignity and deter­
mination.
He said this period of history
Black p ople should remember
and design their lives by, as fun­
damental building blocks
carved out of understanding,
that c n answer the age old �
question, "Who am I . . '
He said this period is the
classical period of the Nile Val­
ley .Civlliz tion, when the
greatest civilization of antiquity
reached its historical climax
10,000 ago.
Karenga started his histori­
cal lecture back 10,000 years be­
cause he said that is where
Black people started and not in
Mississippi picking cotton. .
Katenga said Black peop e
still wonder why they don't
know about thi important
; period in B ck history, and why
they must be subjected to movie
interpretatio of history, aDd
why they think Egyptians are
white imply because they sa
an Elizabeth Taylor/ Richard
Burton movie.
Karenga asked why the
European feel the need to
claim this classical civilization,
rightfully belonging to the
African. His answer e­
cause if the Europe n could
claim all of hi tory be could
claim all of humanity," He said,
"Only human ave history,
_ animals' have pedigrees,"
The European tried to de-
tJfn
humanize tile African by
demonstrating that they bad DO
relevance, except through the
European, he aid.
The classical period of Egypt
is important because that is
where B c people started, He
. d the European tarts his his­
tory in Greece with cut-throats,
petty criminals and limp-wrists.
He said Egypt is the classical
civilization to the Africans just
as Greece .is the elas ical
civilization to the Europeans.
He said in any . tory course
in any university Europe begins
in Greece, even though the
bite man had no nnection
with Greece.
He id European u e
Greece as a paragon and want
to take the par gon of Blac
because their paragon evolved
from Black . tory. He said
rr'
Greece, 81 George M James
poin out in his book Stolen
Legacy, steals the legacy of the
Africans of ancient E�.
Kareng said the Egyptian
introduced the basic . . plincs
of human knowledge, . ence,
m th, medicine and philosophy.
He said the whole his ory of
religiou text is not from
Jeruselem, but from .
He said much of th te
that the Hebrew wro e are
ba ed on source that
preceeded them in frica.
Karenga said this is not his
. words but those of Prof 0
J ame Brea ted, who is
foremo t in th· field t the
University of Chicago.
Karenga . d Bre ted wrote
. that the ricb old history that .
known as the Old Testament
came, not &om the Hebre
but through them from Egypt.
Although the statement
Breasted reaffirmed,it was al­
ways a reality, Karenga s id
Black people h d alre dy af­
firmed, but w n white y it
(b cause its a raci t society), it
tends to have. more validity .
"Egyp w the light of the
world, yet it w a contested cul­
ture, m inly becau 0 what
whites owed to Blac , . areo­
ga said.
. He aid Egypt is th only
country in . ry that d to
justify its geography. He aid in
other ords, it bad to explain
why it w in Africa when it
should ha been omehere else
if racis ar right.
·Blacks are. the ones who
divided the day into 24 our,
and the calender no use,
with minor djlistment, is the
African calender", K reng
said. He said Black people ha
to know this, otherwise they will
thin white people did them
favor by enslaving them.
Karenga quoted Mary Mc­
Leod Bethune, who said, "We
are adding to the tory of a great
nation, and must bear th
burden and glory of this lega
with dignity, trength and deter­
mination. To receive it, to earn
it, to grasp it, to humbly ccept
it, to eep it, to pr erve it, to
transmit it, to share it, d to
speak our pecial truths tbat we
introduced to the world in an­
ci nt times."
