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Maulana Karenga (born 1941) an activist scholar, educator, and social theorist founded the African American holiday of Kwanzaa, a celebration of family, community, and culture based on African first harvest celebrations that urges blacks to ground themselves in their own culture in forder to address the fundamental questions of human life.
Known as the man who founded the cultural holiday of Kwanzaa in 1966, Maulana Karenga has played a key role in programs that have defined black identity and helped blacks connect themselves to their cultural roots. His identities since the mid-1960s have run the gamut from black power revolutionary and supporter of Malcolm X to mediator with whites in times of racial strife. Throughout, Karenga has stressed the importance of culture to blacks as a means of strengthening solidarity and overcoming oppression.
Karenga has played a great role in providing positive symbols to blacks through cultural reaffirmation. In speaking of his movement in Emerge!, he said, "As cultural nationalists, we believe that you must rescue and reconstruct African history and culture to revitalize African culture today in America." Karenga has acknowledged his debt to black thinkers of the past in shaping his view.
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