On Dr. Maulana Karenga: An open letter by Wesley Kabaila

[Olùkọ́ Ọbádélé]

Greetings,

For those who don't know me, my name is Wesley Kabaila and have been an advocate of Kawaida since 1967, a member of the Us Organization fro 1967-1985, and served as it's Vice Chair from 1979-1985. During the years that I served in the Us Organization, I was trained as a Simba Wachanga, our defense and security arm. During 1979-1985, I also served as Chair of the Simba Wachanga. Lastly, I went through a 3 year training period to become a Sebati, a student-priest in the Maatian tradition. During my entire tenure in Us, I was often assigned to Dr. Karenga's personal security.

I state the above as qualification for what I'm about to write. I write the following in the spirit of Maat, and the truth embodied in it. I also write it as a matter of corrective history, that has too long endured as lies. I too, applaud Geronimo Pratt for his forthrightness and honesty in speaking truth about the Us Organization being an equal victim of Cointelpro and dispelling the lies about any of it's leadership being complicit with police agencies in any way. I wish to be unambiguous and state clearly, that it is my belief and knowledge, that no one in the inner circle of the Us organization were police agents.

I feel, however, that it is equally important, that Dr. Karenga be open and honest about the demise of the Us Organization, 1969-1971. For too long now, he has incorrectly asserted that members of the organization left him, and that his jail time was served for "trumped up" charges. It is my opinion, that one of the reasons it remains believable that Dr. Karenga is a police agent in some circles, is because he has been dishonest about his involvement in the torture of two sisters, for which he served 4 years and his current wife, Tiamoyo served a stint also. I wish to state here, unequivocally, that he and his wife not only tortured these two sisters for a period of over 3 weeks, but also directed two young brothers in the torture also. Prior to this period of torture, he also locked up his first wife, Haiba, in a tiger cage that was housed in the garage of a home he leased in Inglewood, California. Dr. Karenga also hit on wives of some of his closest confidantes and I personally know of one sister, who is writing a book in which she asserts that he attempted to rape her. Now, those of us who still proclaim to be Kawaida advocates, can say that the pressures of Cointelpro, the Us/Panther conflict all contributed to this abhorrent behavior. But the fact is, there was evidence of this kind of behavior long before the UCLA shooting, January 19, 1969. In fact, there are those I've talked to personally, that state this behavior started in the Afro-American Association which pre-dated the Us Organization of 1965, when, then Ron Karenga had an affair with his Vice Chair's wife. At that time his Vice Chair was Ahyum Palmer, who later became President of Marcus Garvey School, here in L.A.

Many will ask, why raise these issues now. For one, the truth of Maat demands it. Second, there are lessons about leadership that we should and must pass on to the next generation, and most of all, there are victims who still need to be apologized to and atonement done by the victimizer. I had never heard of atonement before the Million Man March, for which Dr. Karenga authored the Mission Statement, which admonished black men to atone for their past treatment of our women. My respect for Minister Farrakhan was greatly enhanced when he took responsibility for his role in creating the atmosphere for the assassination of Malcolm. How could he ask us, as black men, to atone if he did not. The same principle applies to Dr. Karenga. My question is, how can Dr. Karenga continue to call himself a High Priest of Maat or Master Teacher, when the very principles he writes about, seemingly do not apply to him.

In sum, I challenge those of us who still consider ourselves Kawaida advocates, to demand from Dr. Karenga an apology for the continued lying, which has affected the credibility of those of us who have defended him. But even more than that, he owes an apology and release to the sister he tortured and to her family which was threatened if she broke silence about her true torturer. If we, who consider ourselves revolutionary, do not check and challenge this kind of behavior, then our revolution is not even worth fighting for. I respect and recognize Dr. Karenga, for his theoretical and practical contributions to our struggle, but that does not excuse his torture tactics of young (18) black woman, lying about it to his followers or the masses, and the continuing cover up of it, although he has already been convicted and served the time.

Before writing this, I had to ask myself, what have I been fighting for all of my life, if not to become a better African. I learned much of what I know about becoming a better African under the tutelage of Dr. Karenga, and feel it is my responsibility to hold him to the same standard and principles that he writes about for us. I have spent all of my adult life as an Advocate of Kawaida and cultural nationalist, but not to see it all reduced to lies and miss-truths. We deserve more as a people, community and as comrades in struggle for a higher level of life and humanity. I challenge those who disagree with me, to state why we should demand less.



In Unity and Struggle,



Wesley Kabaila

Los Angeles

[Simba Nerevu]

Hujambo Obadele. How old is this?

SN

[Olùkọ́ Ọbádélé]

Sijui.

I don't know.

/me