Word: karenga
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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...
...three years ago, Karenga might have been received as just another preacher of black Zionism, a peddler of false hopes. But now, even though some may regard him as stylized or exaggerated, and though some may not identify with Africans, Karenga represents a new set of voices in Watts--voices that reject the tactics and the aims of the civil rights movement. And regardless of whether these new radicals support the Freedom City plan or prefer women with unstraightened hair, their attitude toward race relations is the same. They see an integrated society of equal freedom and equal opportunity either...
...evoked by the phrase "black power" has influenced a whole generation of leaders. f To some it means political power, to some separatism, to some merely a rejection of non-violence. To the youths in their late teens, black power is symbolized by the riots--or the Revolt, as Karenga calls it. It means that the Man can't come down and "whup" them without getting whupped back...
...sense, Karenga is just playing with words when he says pro-black doesn't mean anti-white--either that or he has no feel for his andience, which is not likely. But in another sense he is giving a positive formulation to what, in a great number of young militants, is a destructive sentiment. The things springing up in Watts are not new street gangs; they are new grassroots political organizations...
Pastard feels that the phrase "black power" has split the Negro community, and that before the riots triggered the slogan the community was approaching some sort of unity. Pastard views black autonomy as primarily economic autonomy--"don't call it 'black' power; call it 'green' power.'" Karenga may prefer pumps in Freedom City to the city's faucets, but Pastard is more interested in getting faucets for Freedom City. "I don't believe the poverty program is sincere...money has never been spent so loosely. It causes just greater confusion by telling the people they're equal...Developing economic power...