The essence of X
THERE is no more popular political leader among young African
Americans today than El Hajj Malik Shabazz - Malcolm X. Everything from tapes of his speeches to the Autobiography of Malcolm X is in high
International Viewpoint #243 March 1993 as a part of the majority of people in the world who are Black people and people of colour. Hence, African Americans should build cultural, economic and political bridges to our African homeland and similar demand.
This resurgence of interest in Malcolm is refreshing and encouraging. However, to the extent that it is mere fad and fashion, it also carries with it certain dangers. There is the challenge, particularly to young African American men and women - the new generation of leadership, to understand the essence of Malcolm X and to study the basic tenets of his teachings.
ties and alliances with other oppressed people internationally.
• Malcolm also taught that the quest for African-American liberation in the USA was a human rights struggle, not just a matter of civil rights. He argued that human rights, or those rights to which all human beings are entitled, supercede civil rights, or those rights which may be granted by a particular government. Malcolm was determi-
RON DANIELS*
M ALCOLM X was born • and the maximizing of our own resources
on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska as Malcolm Little. He died February 21, 1965 as El Hajj Malik Shabazz, felled by assassins' bullets at the Audobon Ballroom in upper Harlem, New York.
Much of his early life was spent in Lansing, Michigan and later in the expanding ghettos of Detroit, Boston and New York. He was a troubled spirit who was forced to cope with the trauma of the murder of his father (Malcolm's father was an organizer for Marcus Garvey's Universal Improvement Association, UNIA). And he witnessed the trials and tribulations of a devoted mother struggling against terrible odds to keep the family together within a racist and oppressive society.
Malcolm Little became a hoodlum, a drug pusher and a pimp. This life of crime eventually landed him in prison. He turned the prison into a classroom, reading every book in the prison library and mastering every word in the Webster's English dictionary. In prison, Malcolm joined the Nation of Islam under the guidance of its leader Elijah Muhammad.
The following are a few basic points which constitute an outline of Malcolm X's philosophy:
• Given the cultural aggression and degradation which African people have suffered within a racist society, Malcolm believed that the liberation of Black people must begin with a healthy appreciation of self.
The struggle for liberation must begin with self-respect and self-help. Black people must break the psychological, cultural, economic and political dependency on the oppressor. This requires a knowledge of self for self-help and self-development. Malcolm's goal was to see African American people achieve self-reliance and indepen-
• Closely related is Malcolm's emphasis on the study of history. Malcolm was concerned with probing for the true knowledge of the history of African people in the unfolding of human history and civilization. Hence, Black people must move beyond a Euro-centric version of history to discover the real contributions of African people to human development. Of equal importance, Malcolm saw the study of history as a way to learn how other oppressed peoples had gained their freedom.
• As a proponent of Black nationalism, Malcolm advocated that African American people must control the politics and economics within the African American community. Black people should strive to establish control over the territory where we have been forced to subsist by a racist and exploitative society. Control of the African American community was just a starting point for the struggle for complete separation and independence from an oppressive country. Africans in America are not the least duty bound to hold allegiance to a government or nation that has not held allegiance to African American people.
• Malcolm X was a Pan-Africanist and an internationalist. His study of history gave him a deep appreciation for Africa and African people the world over. On the question of identity, Malcolm X was clear that we are an African people whose destiny is inextricably linked to our African homeland. As an internationalist, Malcolm taught that as
Africans in America we should not view ourselves as a minority in this country, but ned to take the US government to the United Nations and before the World Court to charge the USA for its past and present violations of the human rights of Africans in America.
• Though Malcolm never advocated initiating acts of violence against other people, he was firmly committed to the principle of self-defense in the face of violent attacks by white racist elements or oppressive authorities. His famous "freedom by any means necessary" position was intended to suggest that Black people should use whatever strategies and tactics that produce a rational and positive result: the ballot or the bullet, non-violent peaceful protest or armed resistance against enemy attack.
• Finally, Malcolm's position evolved from an analysis based exclusively on race and racism to a race-class analysis which saw racism, capitalism and imperialism as systemic manifestations of global white supremacy and domination. Until his death, Malcolm remained a Black nationalist. However, his break with the Nation of Islam and his subsequent international travels broadened his perspectives on a range of issues and questions. He embraced an analysis of racism and economic exploitation as functions of a system of global exploitation and oppression. When he was gunned down, he was still growing and evolving.
Malcolm symbolized uncompromising resistance to racism and oppression. He embodied our hopes for what we can become as a free and self-determining people.*
*Ron Daniels served as a campaign director for Jesse
Jackson in 1988, and was an independent candidate for president in the 1992 elections. This is an abridged version of an article wich appeared in the January-February 1993 issue of The Black Collegian.
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