Maulana Karenga

Dr. Maulana Karenga is professor of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach.  He received his B.A. and M.A. in  political science from UCLA, a Ph.D. in political science from United States International University and a second Ph.D. in social ethics from the University of Southern California.  An activist-scholar, he is chair of The Organization Us, National Association of Kawaida Organizations and executive director of the Kawaida Institute of Pan-African Studies.  He is also creator of the pan-African holiday Kwanzaa and author of numerous scholarly articles and books, including Introduction to Black Studies, Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture; Kawaida: A Communitarian African Philosophy; Odu Ifa: The Ethical Teachings; Selections From The Husia: Sacred Wisdom of Ancient Egypt; and Maat, The Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt: A Study in Classical African Ethics. A leading scholar in the development of the discipline of Black Studies, his fields of teaching and research are: Black Studies theory and history, Africana (continental and diasporan) philosophy; ancient Egyptian (Maatian) ethics; ancient Yoruba (Ifa) ethics; African American intellectual history; ethnic relations and the socio-ethical thought of Malcolm X.  He is currently writing a book on Malcolm X and the Critique of Domination: An Ethics of Liberation.