The inventor of Kwanzaa is an interesting guy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maulana_Karenga
I learned about Kwanzaa from Futurama.
We must always remember Sandra Lee's tribute to the
Spirit of Kwanzaa: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=we2iWTJqo98
I like crunching acorns as I walk season, but that was months ago.
And corn nuts. And an extraordinary amount of cinnamon stirred into a tub of supermarket white icing. And canned apple pie filling.
Everything you could want in a cake, really.
I don't even like corn nuts off of a cake.
I just learned the ASL sign for Kwanzaa!
The episode of the History of Africana Philosophy podcast on Karenga was really interesting. I admit that I had completely bought the Panther line that he was an FBI collaborator.
https://historyofphilosophy.net/karenga
Any ideas as to why Karenga used Kiswahili, an east African lingua franca, for his jargon, when 99% of African Americans trace their ancestry to west Africa, where it isn't spoken?
10: Well, I just listened to the podcast Rob recommended (thanks, Rob!) and from there learned that he chose it because he saw it as a pan-African language.
Still a little more than an hour to go here
10, 11: Yeah, the topic comes up again, in the most recent episode on Julius Nyerere, who was a big influence on Karenga. Nyerere was the first president of Tanzania, in east Africa, and an advocate of Swahili as a way to unify his country. Karenga specifically got the idea of Ujamaa from Nyerere's program of African Socialism.
https://historyofphilosophy.net/nyerere
Maybe it's just the mustache and memories of Cold War propaganda, but I thought he had issues.
West African linguae francae are mostly English-based creoles. I wonder if that was also a factor in making Swahili look more attractive to postcolonial pan-Africanists.
Happy New Year, reprobates!
Central Europe seems to have made it into 2023.
17. And French/French creoles. When I was working in an academic bookshop in England 40 odd years ago, I was approached by an African gentleman in an expensive suit who unhesitatingly addressed me in French. Fortunately, his demands were sufficiently straightforward that I was able to help him. My main takeaway from the encounter was that people where he came from (ISTR Côte d'Ivoire) spoke French much more clearly than in any part of France, but he may well have been trying to make it easier for the almost monoglot English kid. Whatever, never assume that a West African's second language is English.
One of my favorite memories from living in Little Senegal was when some lost French tourists (Harlem being a big spot for European tourists) were at maybe the weird intersection of 116th and Adam Clayton Powell where it crosses St. Nick and stopped someone to ask in broken English which way central park was, and got an answer back in fluent French.
On a related note, this was a really interesting read.
I thought Kwanzaa was just African American - apparently it's pan African as well? Is it celebrated much in Africa itself?
23: Its American creator wanted it to be a pan-Africanist thing, but it hasn't really caught on outside of the US and a few other places in the English speaking diaspora.
21. I was vaguely aware of Ajami scripts, but I had no idea that they were, apparently still used or how widely. Thanks for the link.
20. I love that there's a distinct in NYC called Little Senegal. When I first read it I thought, "Come on, that's a bit patronising, it's an average sized country!" But long live French speaking African enclaves in the USA.