Malcolm X @ 51 – An Eternal Black Voice

Whenever I talk about martyred heroes, I talk about the three I know best: Imam Hasan al Banna; AbdulMalik Shabazz (Malcolm X); and General Murtala Muhammad. About Murtala I narrated last week – tomorrow 21st February is the 51st Anniversary of the murder of Malcolm X, arguably the greatest African-American philosopher ever. Born Malcolm Little […]

Whenever I talk about martyred heroes, I talk about the three I know best: Imam Hasan al Banna; AbdulMalik Shabazz (Malcolm X); and General Murtala Muhammad. About Murtala I narrated last week – tomorrow 21st February is the 51st Anniversary of the murder of Malcolm X, arguably the greatest African-American philosopher ever. Born Malcolm Little May 19, 1925, Shabazz was killed a few weeks short of his 40th birthday. But what eventful 39 years he lived! My intellectual brother Kawu Bala also never lets me forget his, our, hero, especially in light of the agitation of ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’.
Today, we shall hear Malcolm in his own voice, and hear that great eulogy by Ossie Davis at X’s funeral. First, Brother Malcolm:
“[In Accra, Ghana] I went down to my hotel’s restaurant for breakfast. It was full of whites discussing Africa’s untapped wealth as though the African waiters had no ears! It nearly ruined my meal, thinking how in America they set police dogs on black people…and now, once again in the land where their forefathers had stolen blacks and thrown them into slavery, was that white man…I made up my mind that as long as I was in Africa, every time I opened my mouth, I was going to make things hot for that white exploiter – it had been her human wealth the last time, now he wanted Africa’s mineral wealth.”
“Stumbling is not falling.”
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
“Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. <http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1882.html>”
“Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man, you take it. <http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1883.html>”
“Power never takes a back step – only in the face of more power. <http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/3191.html>”
“You don’t have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent human being.”
“I believe that it would be impossible to find anywhere in America a black man who has lived further down in the mud of human society than I have; or a black man who has been any more ignorant than I have been; or a black man who has suffered more anguish during his life than I have. But it is only after this deepest darkness that the greatest joy can come; it is only after slavery and prison that the sweetest appreciation of freedom can come. I do believe that I have fought the best that I could, with the shortcomings that I have had. I know that my shortcomings are many.”
“It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That’s the only thing that can save this country.” (February 19, 1965, just two days before he was murdered).
And then Ossie Davis’ moving eulogy at Malcolm X’s funeral on 27 February 1965, in Harlem, New York:
“Here-at this final hour, in this quiet place-Harlem has come to bid farewell to one of its brightest hopes-extinguished now, and gone from us forever. For Harlem is where he worked and where he struggled and fought-his home of homes, where his heart was, and where his people are-and it is, therefore, most fitting that we meet once again-in Harlem-to share these last moments with him.
“For Harlem has ever been gracious to those who have loved her, have fought for her and have defended her honor even to the death. It is not in the memory of man that this beleaguered, unfortunate, but nonetheless proud community has found a braver, more gallant young champion than this Afro-American who lies before us-unconquered still.
“I say the word again, as he would want me to: Afro-American-Afro-American Malcolm, who was a master, was most meticulous in his use of words. Nobody knew better than he the power words have over minds of men.
“Malcolm had stopped being a Negro years ago. It had become too small, too puny, too weak a word for him. Malcolm was bigger than that. Malcolm had become an Afro-American, and he wanted-so desperately-that we, that all his people, would become Afro-Americans, too.
“There are those who will consider it their duty, as friends of the Negro people, to tell us to revile him, to flee, even from the presence of his memory, to save ourselves by writing him out of the history of our turbulent times.
“Many will ask what Harlem finds to honor in this stormy, controversial and bold young captain-and we will smile. Many will say turn away-away from this man; for he is not a man but a demon, a monster, a subverter and an enemy of the black man-and we will smile. They will say that he is of hate-a fanatic, a racist-who can only bring evil to the cause for which you struggle! And we will answer and say to them:
“Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch him or have him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him? Did he ever do a mean thing? Was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance? For if you did, you would know him. And if you knew him, you would know why we must honor him: Malcolm was our manhood, our living, black manhood!
“This was his meaning to his people. And, in honoring him, we honor the best in ourselves. Last year, from Africa, he wrote these words to a friend: My journey, he says, is almost ended, and I have a much broader scope than when I started out, which I believe will add new life and dimension to our struggle for freedom and honor and dignity in the States.
“I am writing these things so that you will know for a fact the tremendous sympathy and support we have among the African States for our human rights struggle. The main thing is that we keep a united front wherein our most valuable time and energy will not be wasted fighting each other.
“However we may have differed with him-or with each other about him and his value as a man-let his going from us serve only to bring us together, now.
“Consigning these mortal remains to earth, the common mother of all, secure in the knowledge that what we place in the ground is no more now a man-but a seed-which, after the winter of our discontent, will come forth again to meet us.
“And we will know him then for what he was and is-a prince-our own black shining prince!-who didn’t hesitate to die, because he loved us so.”
May Allah’s mercy be upon His great servant Abdul Malik Shabazz (Malcolm X).
AND THEN THIS: Congratulations to Bayero University, Kano (BUK) colleagues who have just been given higher responsibilities, thanks to Allah and then thanks to our senior brother and this newspaper’s Friday Columnist-on-Leave and now the Honourable Minister of Education Mallam Adamu Adamu: Professor Auwalu Hamisu Yadudu as Vice Chancellor (VC) of Federal University, Birnin Kebbi; Professor Fatima Batul Mukhtar as VC of Federal University, Dutse; and Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu as VC of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). May Allah hold their hands and guide them to deliver. And also congratulations to senior colleague Professor Umar Pate who has just been appointed Dean of the first ever Faculty of Communication in a Nigerian University – my Department of Mass Communication, BUK, has really come of age!