Ujamaa School

Ujamaa School, an independent non-profit Afrikan community school, was founded and organized in 1968 by Baba El Senzengakulu Zulu. El Senzengakulu Zulu was one of the organizers of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. It was also during that time that Baba Zulu worked closely with leaders of civil rights movement such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Medger Ever., James Fornian, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, Marion Barry, and Fannie Lou Hammer. He worked along side others throughout the south to help organize the Freedom Rides. Ujima Va IJjamaa school was founded to provide an institutional base that would ensure Afrikan children the development ofa strong, positive self-image, a valid value system, and the achievement of academic excellence. lJjamaa’s program provides for training in all facets of life. Character, independence, self-sufficiency and positive approaches to meeting life’s challenges are built into the school’s program. The overall program is geared to develop the total being, to help each child reach his or her ultimate goal and to develop to their highest potential. Based on Baba Zulu’s belief that we must do for self, in May 1968 lijamaa Shule was born. Later, several other committed and dedicated brothers and sisters such as Mama Rose Pringle, Akbar, Mama Almasi, Mwata and Nkechi Namtambu, Hamid, Askia, Mama Khadijah, Baba Rasafik, Baba Ngoma and others came to help strengthen Ujamaa. lijaniaa Shule began at 904 Florida Avenue, NW., next door to the old site of Ujamaa Bookstore, with only three watoto.