Fifty-eight years ago this month, the Eminent Prophet Omowale Malcolm X made the ultimate sacrifice being gunned down in a shower of assassins’ bullets while preparing to outline the programme of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), the latest phase of his evolving revolutionary trajectory.  But physical death has been unable to extinguish his capacity to inspire generations of activists ever since, which isn’t to say that there hasn’t been attempts to confine his legacy into some ideological straight-jacket such as spiritual Muslim, political careerist or all-embracing leftist internationalist. (1)

The first of these would seek to divest “our living Black Manhood” of all racial awareness in the service of religious brotherhood. The second dares to suggest that his “vision lives on” in the likes of Barack Obama, and presumably other Afrikan occupants of high office.  We do have generations of elected officials (in addition to Obama) to test this theory with and Malcolm’s “Ballot Or The Bullet” message to measure it against. (2) The latter of these persuasions has been persistent in its aggressive attempts to co-opt his legacy by severing him from antecedents like Marcus Mosiah Garvey, whom they dismiss as proponents of “petit-bourgeois nationalism” and also from his political descendants like “cultural nationalists” that they suggest “is a justification for retreat from struggle.”  Instead, they argue that his ideological endowment to the world was an “understanding of the need for multi-racial unity, and the pivotal role of working people to achieve basic change.” (3)

These perspectives fly in the face of Omowale Malcolm X’s words and deeds in the final phase of his physical life.  He declared himself a “Black Nationalist freedom fighter.” (4)  In fact, he originally named the OAAU the Afro-American Freedom Fighters, before being encouraged to adopt a less militant sounding title. (5)  He remained an organization man, committed to establishing institutions as a conduit to nation building – not just campaign politics as a means of consorting with white “allies.”

In fact, the programme of the OAAU advocated nothing less than a “cultural revolution” founded on the principles of “Self-determination, National unity, Restoration (of communications with Africa), Reorientation, Education, Economic security and Self-defense”:

“Upon this establishment, the Afro-American people will launch a cultural revolution which will provide the means for restoring our identity that we might rejoin our brothers and sisters on the African continent, culturally, psychologically, economically, and share with them the sweet fruits of freedom from oppression and independence of racist governments.” (6)

Some would argue that it has been to our ongoing cost that we have failed to recognise and apply this legacy of “our shining Black Prince” to help fortify ourselves from the ongoing machinations of racist governments that we see currently in the UK. (7) At the sharp end of this are the same working-class whites that elements of the left would have us align with.  The folly of this was witnessed first-hand in the horrific “racist attack” on an Afrikan Princess outside Thomas Knyvett College, in Surrey seven days ago where she was set upon by a gang of white thugs while (white) onlookers, apparently including school staff and the head teacher allowed it to continue.  (8)

We think of Child Q, we also think about the victims of the “more than 7,000 pupils suspended over racist attacks, including N-word taunts” in English schools (we can only guess how many go unpunished). (9)  This, arguably is the consequence of not going beyond the speeches, the soundbites and the iconography to implement the true legacy of Omowale Malcolm X as propagated by the OAAU.  The alternative is to leave our community in general and our children in particular at the mercy of beasts that continually demonstrate that they are way beyond redemption, let alone alliance.

(1) See 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) Ta-Nehisi Coates (2011) The Legacy of Malcolm X: Why his vision lives on in Barack Obama. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/05/the-legacy-of-malcolm-x/308438/; Omowale Malcolm X (12/04/64) The Ballot or the Bullet. http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/blackspeech/mx.html

(3) Anthony Monteiro (19/05/20) The revolutionary legacy of Malcolm X. https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/the-revolutionary-legacy-of-malcolm-x/

(4) Omowale Malcolm X (12/04/64) The Ballot or the Bullet. http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/blackspeech/mx.html

(5) Jared Ball (2012) An introduction to a lie in Jared Ball and Todd Steven Burroughs (Eds) A Lie Of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X. Black Classic Press. p. 11. https://imixwhatilike.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/alieintropdf.pdf

(6) newafrikan77 (28/06/16) Program of The Organization of Afro-American Unity. https://newafrikan77.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/program-of-the-organization-of-afro-american-unity/

(7) Nels Abbey (09/09/22) Liz Truss’s ‘diverse’ Cabinet will wage a culture war unlike any other. https://inews.co.uk/opinion/liz-truss-diverse-cabinet-culture-war-unlike-any-other-1836651; PA News Agency (10/02/23) Hostile environment policy review finds disproportionate impact on people of colour. https://www.saffronwaldenreporter.co.uk/news/national/23312967.hostile-environment-policy-review-finds-disproportionate-impact-people-colour/

(8) Sam Elliott-Gibbs, Melissa Sigodo & Richard Blackledge (11/02/23) Teachers who watched ‘racist attack’ outside Surrey school ‘should be sacked’, says victim’s relative. https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/teachers-who-watched-racist-attack-26205952

(9) Saskia Rowlands (11/02/23) EXCLUSIVE: More than 7,000 pupils suspended over racist attacks, including N-word taunts. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/more-7000-pupils-suspended-over-29194306

We ask the question:

Malcolm X – Do we know his true legacy?

1) Has his legacy been misrepresented.  If so by whom and why?

2) Does his vision live on in the ‘Black faces in high places’ model of empowerment?

3) Can we really forge alliances with the class of people that brutalise our children daily?

4) What would it take to complete the mission of the OAAU?

Our Special Guest:

Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and an Afrikan-Centred Education Consultant.  Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of almost 40 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Approach To Excellence.