The Autobiography Of Malcolm X
by Malcolm X (as told to Alex Haley) (1965)
Recommended by Sarah
A little over a year ago,
Sarah and I were in Egypt.
We weren’t just arsing about in the pyramids (although we did that, too): we were working as
part of the TEMPUS project at the universities in Cairo and Assiut. We were there at a turbulent time. President Mohamed Morsi had granted himself unlimited power, and there were sweeping protests against this. If you remember the story, you probably recall UK news emphasising violence and disorder.
That contradicts what I
saw. Sarah and I went to Tahir Square with our Egyptian host. Yes, there were some
disturbing embers of conflict – rubble, tanks, streets closed off – but the
protests we saw were non-threatening. They had a message to be heard, the
people were determined, but the method was intelligent serious debate and not aggression. Protesters even
organised the street clean-ups. This politically engaged attitude was also present in
the students Sarah and I met at the universities. Apathy wasn’t on the table. Incredibly inspiring, and
something Sarah and I talked of over the crazy sludge that is Egyptian coffee
(which I got rather addicted to).
As the first time Sarah
and I had spent much time together, I found that she herself was pretty
inspiring. She is involved directly in the campaign for women bishops. I recently went
to an event that she organised, and was saddened and shocked at the depth of
opposition within the Church of England hierarchy to women bishops, while also
being supremely impressed with the fire of those working for progressive change.
With her willingness to stand up and be counted, it makes sense to me that
Sarah studied, and retains a very strong interest in, African-American history
and those who fought for political and human rights.
Malcolm X is a divisive
figure. While everyone (everyone non-racist) can feel comfortable with Martin
Luther King, Malcolm X is often accused of ‘reverse racism’. That, in his anger
at the oppression of African-Americans, he espoused an uncompromising solution:
complete segregation of black and white. He had a penchant for calling white
people ‘devils’ and was especially suspicious of any who supported civil rights
and integration.
I very much respect
Malcolm X. From my relatively privileged position, I still get so
worked up over inequalities that I want to throw paint at things; fuck, if I
was a black person in post-war America I’m sure I’d be angry, feel that white people were devils, and distrust their efforts to ‘help’.
My mother, with the baby in her arms, just made it into
the yard before the house crashed in, showering sparks. I remember we were
outside in the night in our underwear, crying and yelling our heads off. The
white police and firemen came and stood around watching as the house burned
down to the ground.
The Black Legion, a local
version of the Ku Klux Klan, set that fire. A white man raped Malcolm’s
grandmother (resulting in her pregnancy with Malcolm’s mother). White men
murdered Malcolm’s father, the Reverend Earl Little, because of his vocal
support for Marcus Garvey. As a child, the Little children were called
‘nigger’, ‘darkie’ and ‘Rastus’ so much ‘we thought those were our natural
names’. Malcolm, academically top of his class, was told to give up any
thoughts of being a lawyer and to be a carpenter instead.
Yes. I’d be really fucking
angry, too.
Malcolm Little (the X came
slightly later: it symbolises the true African family name that an
African-American could never know) responded, at first, through hustling,
drugs, pimping, crime and, as he terms it, being ‘mentally dead’. He is hard on
himself for collaborating with racist America by exploiting other black people
(selling drugs) and trying to ‘whiten’ his look by straightening his Afro hair. He ends up in prison,
and begins to read,
everything from rare anthropology texts to the dictionary itself. His curiosity
is piqued as to how and why slavery and exploitation occur.
First, always ‘religiously’, he [the white man] branded
‘heathen’ and ‘pagan’ labels upon ancient non-white cultures and civilizations.
The stage thus set, he then turned upon his non-white victims his weapons of
war. […] Europe’s chancelleries for the next century [19th] played a
chess game of naked exploitation and power from Cape Horn to Cairo.
It is during this period
when he becomes taken with the Nation Of Islam (NOI), led by Elijah Muhammad. NOI
teachings draw from mainstream Islam – there is no God but Allah, total adherence
to the Qur’an, prohibitions on alcohol and pork, for example – but have a
specific American cultural context. For instance, the ninth platform of NOI
reads:
WE BELIEVE that the offer of integration is hypocritical
and is made by those who are trying to deceive the Black peoples into believing
that their 400-year-old open enemies of freedom, justice, and equality are, all
of a sudden, their friends.
Also not a part of
mainstream Islam, and far more dubiously, NOI holds its own creation myth.
White people were the result of genetic engineering. Over six thousand years
ago, when all humankind was black, the scientist Mr Yacub (the biblical Jacob),
was embittered towards Allah. He holed up on the island of Patmos and created a
‘bleached-out white race of devils’ (the Jews). This white race stirred up
trouble, until they were exiled to Europe; they remained in caves, living
savagely, until Allah sent Moses to ‘civilise’ them.
This I find very troubling. I don’t have a problem
with African-Americans calling white people ‘devils’ on account of their
collective racist behaviour. I do have a problem with a bogus scientific explanation for devilishness that specifically targets Jewish people. We all know where that can lead.
As well as this ‘Dr Yacub’
business, the other big gripe I have with Malcolm X is his frankly atrocious
attitude to women. He casually and routinely comments on a woman's attractiveness, and how women in general are manipulative, have little purpose but to support a man and family, and should basically be treated as babies or pets. It's worth noting that this attitude predates his NOI days (although the organisation didn't exactly stop his misogyny).
Malcolm X rose through the
NOI ranks very quickly, and helped membership and visibility. His rousing and inflammatory speeches brought the race debates in America to a new intensity; he explained and challenged racism on TV and in print, often in the face of stupid and insulting interviewers.
Soon, far more
people knew his name than that of Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm X writes that he
remained loyal to Muhammad, even when scandal broke over the latter’s fondness
for impregnating his secretaries. He even massaged his
speeches in light of Muhammad’s indiscretions.
I began teaching in New York’s Mosque Seven that a man’s
accomplishments in life outweighed his personal, human weaknesses. I taught
that a person’s good deeds outweigh his bad deeds. I never mentioned the
previously familiar subjects of adultery and fornication, and I never mentioned
immoral evils.
However, like the
character Syme in Nineteen Eighty-Four,
who is eliminated because he ‘sees too clearly and speaks too plainly’, the
eloquent and high-profile Malcolm X is expelled from the NOI. Relationships deteriorate
quickly. Malcolm X tries to regroup – he undertakes a pilgrimage to Mecca,
spends much time in Africa, and converts to Sunni Islam – but, by the end of
the Autobiography, the mood is very
sombre indeed.
I do not expect to live long enough to read this book in
its finished form.
He didn’t. Nation of Islam
members murdered Malcolm X in February 1965.
I felt very galvanised reading The Autobiography Of Malcolm X, just as I was when I saw those Egyptian protests. For we need people who are not going to sit down and shut up.
It’s how shit gets done in
this troubled world.
