As we enter the season when we commemorate the ultimate sacrifice made by “The eminent Prophet and King” Omowale Malcolm X (OMX), Afrikans globally find themselves still trying to replicate his work and impact. One of the main difficulties faced in doing this is that there are so many different interpretations of his legacy. He has been cast variously as enlightened spiritual Muslim (1), leftist internationalist (2) and even “race-neutral” integrationist. (3).
Failure to consolidate the narratives of our relatively recent history, let alone antiquity can have grave consequences. Indeed, as OMX himself said in one of his most referenced quotes:
“Of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward our research.” (4)
OMX was basically saying that we should use historical experiences and the outcomes of these to guide us in dealing with current challenges. Our limited capacity to effectively deal with these challenges can stand as testament of our less than effective use of our history.
The so-called revolutionary 1960s is a case in point. This period is often regarded as an organisational high watermark but so much of this era is not rendered accurately – even major themes with an abundance of evidence. For example, in this the 50th anniversary year of his assassination many of us have still reduced Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr to an integrationist dreamer. Too many of us, based on the sound bites we are spoon fed, reduce his“I have a dream” speech to the entirety of his political life – a dreamer that wanted nothing more than to little black boys and little white girls hold hands in love. Yet we fail to see even this speech, in between the allegorical flourishes that the speech in essentially a demand for reparations:
“In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check… We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. “ (5)
Elsewhere he critiqued the role of “white moderates” in stymying Black progress (6), expressed support for the Black Power movement (7) and condemned the USA as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today” (8).
Similarly, the radical, post OMX element of that era has been largely reduced to the experiences of one organisation – The Black Panther Party for Self Defence. Consequently their narrative in caricaturing and dismissing Cultural Nationalists “Black racists” (9) and purveyors of “pork chop nationalism” (10) (i.e. counter-revolutionary) have been largely accepted.
This dismissal of cultural nationalism should be particularly troubling for those who regard themselves as acolytes of OMX given that what is effectively the last testament of OMX – the programme of the Organisation of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) – was essentially a cultural nationalist one:
- “Offer to downtrodden Afro-American people courses of action that will conquer oppression, relieve suffering, and convert meaningless struggle into meaningful action.”
- “Launch a cultural revolution which will provide the means for restoring our identity…”
- “The Organization of Afro-American Unity welcomes all persons of African origin to come together and dedicate their ideas, skills, and lives to free our people from oppression.”
- “Branches of the Organization of Afro-American Unity may be established by people of African descent wherever they may be and whatever their ideology — as long as they be descendants of Africa and dedicated to our one goal: freedom from oppression.”
- “The exclusive ethnic quality of our unity is necessary for self-preservation.” (11)
Failure account for this crucial phase not only gravely misrepresents the legacy of OMX is also diminishes the importance of cultural nationalism (and Black Power) from the Garvey Movement, through the woefully under appreciated Carlos Cooks (12) and via OMX on to the like of Maulana Karenga and the Us organisation that created one of the enduring legacies of the era – Kwanzaa and the Nguzo Saba. (13) This also shows how, arguably wilfully, wide of the mark the three interpretations of OMX listed above are. Not least because none of them seems to take OMX’s own words and positions into account.
Another thrust of OMX’s legacy that is particularly relevant in these campaign-obsessed times, is building institutions as a basis for nation building. The OAAU specifically identified “education” and “economic security” but the “Reorientation” element is key as the national can only be founded on one’s own cultural identity and world-view, not somebody else’s. (14)
The iconography of OMX is an enduring factor in his ongoing appeal. (15) Yet it is clear that some of the most crucial elements of his legacy are given insufficient coverage in contemporary discourses. The preponderance of campaigning and alliance-seeking that defines much current activism is in stark contrast to where Omowale Malcolm X was heading before his brutal assassination. That this direction is so unknown to so many has to taken in context with other severe ellipses from that ere such as a more than superficial reading of cultural nationalism and those offering a prominent race-based analysis such as Carlos Cooks , Maulana Karenga/Us, Obi Egbuna and even the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
(1) Zameer Baber (10/05/96) From Malcolm X To El Hajj Malik El Shabazz – The Transformation of Malcolm X https://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~moritz/Archive/malcolmx/zameerbabermalcolmx.txt
(2) Sukant Chandan (2007) Sons of Malcolm. http://sonsofmalcolm.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-is-sons-of-malcolm.html
(3) Manning Marable (2011) Malcolm X: A Life Of Reinvention. Viking. p. 339
(4) Omowale Malcolm X (10/11/63) Message to Grassroots. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/message-to-grassroots/#doc-tabs-full
(5) Martin Luther King, Jr. (28/08/63) I Have a Dream. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
(6) Martin Luther King, Jr. (16/04/63) ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail ’ https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html
(7) Manu Ampim (1989) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. supported Black Power. http://manuampim.com/king_bp.html
(8) Martin Luther King, Jr. (04/04/67) ‘Beyond Vietnam’http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/documentsentry/doc_beyond_vietnam/l
(9) Seale, Bobby (1970) Seize The Time: The Story of The Black Panther Party and Huey P Newton. Black Classic Press, p 271
(10) Fred Ho and Diane C. Fujino (2009) Wicked Theory, Naked Practice: A Fred Ho Reader. University of Minnesota Press. p. 169.
(11) The Organization of Afro-American Unity (1965) Program of the OAAU. https://www.malcolm-x.org/docs/gen_oaau.htm.
(12) Nab Eddie Bobo (1995) Carlos Cooks: African Nationalism’s Missing Link in Klytus Smith and Abiola Sinclair (Eds) The Harlem Cultural/Political Movements 1960-1970: From Malcolm X to “Black is Beautiful.” p. 24
(13) Maulana Karenga (01/02/16) Introduction To Black Studies. University of Sankore Press. pp. 193-197/
More than 100 UN peacekeepers ran a child sex ring in Haiti. None were ever jailed. https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2017/04/12/un-peacekeepers-child-sex-ring-left-victims-but-no-arrests.html
(14) The Organization of Afro-American Unity. Op cit.
(15) Sequoia Blodgett (16/11/17) Malcolm X’s Daughters Launching a New Malcolm X Clothing Site. http://www.blackenterprise.com/malcolm-xs-daughters-launching-new-malcolm-x-clothing-site/
we ask the question:
Are we using history to “reward our research”?
1) Do Afrikans have control over representations of our history?
2) If not who does?
3) Is cultural nationalism ”black racism”?
4) Why do the final positions of OMX get so little coverage?
5) Do we need a nation building agenda or our campaigns enough?