Word: karenga
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Karenga speaks of seven measures which could lead to Freedom City, such as Umoja (Unity), Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), and so on--all in Swahili. He emphasizes the need for basing all action on tradition as a precondition for freedom...
...Karenga, if not the leader of the nationalists, is at least their most flamboyant representative and most clamorous public relations man. His primary goal is to create a new Negro self-image, based not on white middleclass stereotypes, but on the Negro's African heritage. When I went in to see him, he was wearing a green buba--a long shirt of African origin--speaking into the telephone in Swahili...
...Just then a Negro girl walked into the office to remove some chairs. "You'd look good in a natural, Sister," Karenga remarked as she walked...
...Karenga is a "purist" nationalist and preaches a sort of up-dated, watered-down Garveyism--he is not so much interested in going back to Africa as in creating Little Africa rgiht in Los Angeles. He wants to incorporate Watts,. for instance, and call it Freedom City, with its own police force, transportation and school systems. "I am obsessed with the idea of freedom, of self-determination," Karenga said at a rally during the Watts Festival, "and I'd rather use a pump in Freedom City that we controlled than to turn on a faucet in a city where...