We continue our season celebrating the life and legacy of Omowale Malcolm X, in preparation for the annual Omowale Malcolm X Observance, taking place on Umoja-day (Sun) 26th February 2017, from 1pm to 8pm @Chestnuts Community Centre, 280 St Ann’s Road, N15 5BN London. This year the observance will feature a keynote messages by The Black History Man, Bro. Robin Walker (who is also an economist) as well as author (The Secret Money Manual), management consultant and recording artist Cipher J.E.W.E.L.S. on the theme Black Wealth, Key to Black Power (https://www.alkebulan.org/omxobservance/).In the previous show we asked the question Does the Black Community need a Malcolm X today? (https://www.alkebulan.org/2017/02/06/omx1/) and the interactions demonstrated and wide variety in perspective and understanding. Although on balance more callers answered in the affirmative, a significant proportion opposed this view. Thus, we can only surmise that Omowale Malcolm X is accessed from a wide range of vantage points resulting in a range of interpretations. Moreover, in what amounts to about a decade of activism, the most divergent views are largely concentrated on the last eleven months of his life (i.e. post Nation Of Islam). For many, the focal point of this period is the much vaunted (and widely misunderstood/misinterpreted) “change” that happened as a result his trip to Mecca in April 1964.
This kind of distortion propagated by the likes of the late Columbia University Professor Manning Marable:
“He became less intolerant and more open to multiethnic and interfaith coalitions. By the final months of his life he resisted identification as a “black nationalist,” seeking ideological shelter under the race-neutral concepts of Pan-Africanism and Third World revolution.” (1)
Unfortunately, Professor Marable is no longer around to explain how he equates Pan-Afrikanism with being “race-neutral.” Similarly, ‘Cross Cultural Solidarity’ advocate, Lynn Burnett manages to corrupt the legacies of both Omowale Malcolm X and Marcus Mosiah Garvey in the space of a few sentences:
“He no longer believed in Marcus Garvey’s black separatism. He no longer believed in Garvey’s notion that that the development of black capitalism would lead to black liberation… And through Islam, Malcolm was even laying the hopeful foundations for the Afro-Asian solidarity that Marcus Garvey taught would overcome global white supremacy, and the colonialism and neocolonialism it supported.” (2)
Yet, Prophet Omowale, in his own words during speech in on January 7th 1965 stated his position explicitly:
“The first thing [when] I returned I kept being asked the question by some reporters, huh, ‘we heard you’ve changed.’… how in the world can a white man, expect a Black man to change before he has changed? How do you expect us to change when you haven’t changed? How do expect us to change when the cause that made us as we are has not been removed? Why it’s infantile, it’s immature, it’s adolescent on your part to expect us to change. To expect us to be dumb enough to change. When you have not yet gone to the cause of the condition that makes us act as we do. You got the wrong man!” (3)
Moreover, not only was he seeking to reconnect with Papa Garvey’s ideological programme and ideals:
“So the first step that has been taken, brothers and sisters, since Garvey died, to actually establish contact between the 22 million Black Americans with our brothers and sisters back home..” (4)
He also sought to revive the economic one:
“The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we should own and operate and control the economy of our community… the economic philosophy of Black Nationalism shows our people the importance of setting up these little stores and developing them and expanding them into larger operations.” (5)
The post-Mecca Omowale even began to adopt Garveyite phraseology, to espouse the Black Nationalist philosophy:
“We have one destiny and we’ve had one past. In essence, what it is saying is instead of you and me running around here seeking allies in our struggle for freedom in the Irish neighborhood or the Jewish neighborhood or the Italian neighborhood, we need to seek some allies among people who look something like we do. It’s time now for you and me to stop running away from the wolf right into the arms of the fox, looking for some kind of help.” (6)
From the foregoing, it was clear that the underpinning philosophy was organically rooted in the culture:
“As this race pride develops it has the tendency to make us want to unite together and work together. And your western imperialist consider this to be a grave threat. More a threat than communism, socialism or Maoism or anything else. Afrikanism is what they consider to be the real threat.” (7)
All of Omowale Malcolm X’s active political life was rendered through the framework of organization – the parental foundation of the UNIA-ACL, the grounding in the Nation Of Islam, the transitional Muslim Mosque Incorporated and finally the Organisation of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) where there was a clear orientation to reconnect the circle to the Garveyite foundations. (8) Thus, in spite of him being an international personality, he resolutely asserted that it was only through organization that liberation can be attained.
“The greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, then you’ll get action.” (9)
(1) Manning Marable (2011) Malcolm X: A Life Of Reinvention. Viking. p. 339
(2) Lynn Burnett (18/02/16) The International Malcolm X. http://crossculturalsolidarity.com/the-international-malcolm-x/.
(3) Omowale Malcolm X (07/01/65) The Prospects for Freedom in 1965 (Audio). http://brothermalcolm.net/mxwords/whathesaidarchive.html
(4) Omowale Malcolm X (15/05/65) There’s A Worldwide Revolution Going On. http://malcolmxfiles.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/a-worldwide-revolution-going-on-feb-15.html
(5) Omowale Malcolm X (12/04/64) The Ballot or the Bullet. http://malcolmxfiles.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-ballot-or-bullet-april-12-1964.html
(6) Omowale Malcolm X (28/06/64) Speech at the Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity. http://www.blackpast.org/1964-malcolm-x-s-speech-founding-rally-organization-afro-american-unity
(7) Omowale Malcolm X (1966) in Malcolm X: struggle for freedom. Grove Press. Film Divisionhttps://archive.org/details/malcolmxstruggleforfreedom.
(8) Kwende Ukaidi (2014) From Ajar to Omowale: The Spiritual & Garveyite Journey of Malcolm X. Ku-Amba Productions. p. 30.
(9) Omowale Malcolm X (1965) Interview in Village Voice. http://www.themilitant.com/2011/7544/754449.html.
So we ask the question:
How well do we understand Omowale Malcolm X?
1. Will you be attending the OMX Observance on 25th ?
2. Why are there so many divergent views about the last year of Malcolm X?
3. Are his later views be applied today?
4. Do we still need to “wake up”?
Our very special guest:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and UNIA-ACL Ambassador for the UK and national co-Chair of the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 30 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Guide To Excellence.