Welcome to the Web page of Kuumba Events and Communications. This page serves as a jumping-off point for several initiatives that have worked to bring positive change to our community over the past twenty years. The concept of Kuumba comes from the Kiswahili language and is inspired by the Afrikan-American Kwanzaa celebration invented by Dr. Maulana Karenga in the 1960’s. Kuumba is the principle of Creativity, “To do what we can, in the way that we can, to leave our world more beautiful and beneficial than we found it.”
Kuumba Events and Communications is comprised of the following divisions:
KUUMBAEvents: an event-planning group which occasionally sponsors community meetings, parties and cultural events.
KUUMBAMUSIC: a disc jockey and live sound-reinforcement company that concentrates on music from the Afrikan American tradition. Our motto is “Exploring the Spectrum in Black Music from Afrika, the Americas and the Diaspora”. KUUMBAMUSIC is available to help plan and perform at parties, receptions, lectures and cultural events. More information can be found on the Music page.
KUUMBAReport Online: our initial foray into the “communications” aspects of our company name, KUUMBAReport Newsletter was published as a small, hard-copy community paper in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area from 1997 to 2011. Over 44 issues, we examined issues such as Pan-Afrikan organizing, political prisoners, police misconduct, political corruption, Afrikan issues, global war, historical issues that are little-known or poorly-understood, and activists who are working to heal the suffering and divisions within and between our communities. After the newsletter ceased publication in 2011 due to financial concerns, the Web site https://kuumbareport.com was launched a few years later. On that site, most of the original issues of KUUMBAReport can be found in PDF format, and regular blog posts discuss many of the issues of the day as they impact on the Afrikan, Afrikan-American and global communities.
WorldHouse Music and Sound: a subsidiary of KUUMBAMUSIC which concentrates on music from around the world. This was inspired by our discovery of the beauty that exists in music from Afrika, South America, the Caribbean, Asia and Europe. Much of the music here is also available through KUUMBAMUSIC.
What’s New
Baba Imhotep Fatiu, Founder of the Pan African Liberation Movement (PLM), will give this lecture to address issues of race, class, culture and identity from 6 pm – 9 pm at the Temple of New Afrikan Thought, 5525 Harford Road in East Baltimore. For more information on this lecture, PLM and its work, click here.
April 16-19, 2024 is the Third Session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD), which was created by the United Nations just under two years ago. PFPAD has held two Sessions already, one in Geneva, Switzerland in December 2022 and another in New York City in June 2023. This Third Session will be held in Geneva, Switzerland from April 16-19, 2024. For more information, click here.
Maryland Council of Elders Announces African Liberation Day in Baltimore, May 25, 2024
The Maryland Council of Elders (MCOE) has sponsored African Liberation Day at Lafayette Square Park in West Baltimore for the last 6 years, having worked with Baba Charlie Dugger since 2018. Every year, African Liberation Day has grown in scope and popularity, now reaching our people in Washington DC, Philadelphia PA, New York NY, and cities further north, south and west.
This year’s theme is “Same struggle: Smash Settler-Colonialism in Occupied Palestine, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania”. This year’s gathering is dedicated to the Centenary (100 years) of Ancestor and Freedom Fighter Amilcar Cabral.
The Maryland Council of Elders is also arranging transportation for those in nearby Washington, DC who wish to attend African Liberation Day in Baltimore.
Finally, the Maryland Council of Elders is holding a training session for those who are interested in becoming a member of the Council. The training session will be held April 20, 2024. For more details, check out the flyers and contact information in the full post by clicking here.
The Maisha Washington Education Foundation Scholarship Fund
Sehwah-Liberia, Inc. and the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) are announcing the Maisha Washington Education Foundation Scholarship for high school students in Liberia.
The Scholarship Program represents part of SRDC’s continuing efforts to build bridges between the Pan-African Diaspora and the African Community on the Continent, and Sehwah-Liberia’s continuing commitment to lift up the people of Liberia as the country continues to rise up from decades of civil war.
The Scholarship Program is named after Mama Maisha Washington, who as a member of the Maryland SRDC Organization and the Maryland Council of Elders (MCOE) had led efforts to launch a successful 2020 Pan African Summer Camp in Liberia, administered and taught by teachers in Liberia and the United States. Mama Maisha was also one of the leaders of the Pan-African Library Project, which will build the first-ever public library in Monrovia, Liberia, and which will primarily serve the countries of Liberia, Guinea-Conakry, Siera Leone and Cote D’Ivoire.
Mama Maisha transitioned to the Honored Ancestors in October 2020.
The initial goal of the Maisha Washington Education Foundation Scholarship is to grant educational scholarships to 150 high school students (9th, 10th, 11th and 12th graders) in Liberia during 2022, and to expand the Scholarship Program from there. Also, in support of the Pan-African Library Project, Liberian college-age students will be trained in Library Science to equip them to manage and operate the library once it is completed.
Another objective of the Scholarship Program will be to build relationships between Scholarship donors and students in Liberia who will benefit from the Scholarship Program. SRDC has included a Scholarship Program Donor Form, which can be completed by checking out the SRDC post at https://srdcinternational.org/maisha-washington-education-foundation-scholarship-fund/ or by visiting the Maisha Washington Education Foundation Web page at https://srdcinternational.org/scholarship/.
To make a tax-deductible donation to the Maisha Washington Education Foundation Scholarship Program using PayPal, please visit the SRDC post at https://srdcinternational.org/maisha-washington-education-foundation-scholarship-fund/ or the Maisha Washington Education Foundation Web page at https://srdcinternational.org/scholarship/.
For more information and updates, check out our post or the Web site https://srdcinternational.org/scholarship/.