Maulana Karenga California State University, Long Beach, USA

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.