Malcolm and the music
sfbayview.com | May 19th 2011
by Norman (Otis) Richmond aka Jalali
Malcolm X, loved then and now by the people, eulogized by Ossie Davis as our
“Black Shining Prince” El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) was assassinated 46
years ago, on Feb. 21, 1965, because of his attempt to internationalize the
struggle of African people inside the United States. Malcolm was born 86 years
ago on May 19, 1925. While U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama has acknowledged
Kwanzaa, I doubt very seriously if he will show Malcolm the same love.
Manning Marable’s new volume, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” has sparked a
renewed interest and debate about Malcolm. Previous works like Karl Evanzz’
“The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X,” Zak Kondo’s “Conspiracies:
Unraveling the Assassination of Malcolm X” and Bill Sales’ “From Civil Rights
to Black Liberation: Malcolm X and the Organization of Afro-American Unity” are
all being reopened.
Contrary to popular belief, it was Malcolm, not Martin Luther King, who first
opposed the war in Vietnam. Malcolm was the first American-born African leader
of national prominence in the 1960s to condemn the war. He was later joined by
organizations like the Revolutionary Action Movement, the Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. This was
in the tradition of David Walker, Henry Highland Garnet, Martin R. Delaney,
Bishop Henry McNeil Turner, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Ella Baker and Paul
Robeson.
Malcolm continued to link the struggles of African people worldwide. King came
out against the Vietnam War in his famous April 4, 1967, speech at Riverside
Church in New York City. Malcolm spoke against this war from the get-go.
Musicians have done their part to keep Malcolm’s legacy alive. Long before
Spike Lee’s 1992 bio-pic, “X,” hip hop, house, reggae and R’n’B artists created
music for Malcolm, high-life and great Black music (so-called jazz) artists
first wrote and sang about Malcolm. The dance of Malcolm’s time was the “lindy
hop,” and he was a master of it. “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” which
Malcolm wrote with the assistance of Alex Haley, gives a vivid description of
his love of dancing.
Years later, on a visit to the West African nation of Ghana, Malcolm spoke of
seeing Ghanaians dancing the high-life. He wrote: “The Ghanaians performed the
high-life as if possessed. One pretty African girl sang ‘Blue Moon’ like Sarah
Vaughan. Sometimes the band sounded like Charlie Parker.” Malcolm’s impact on
Ghana was so great that one folk singer created a song in his honor called
“Malcolm Man.”
After Malcolm’s death, many jazz artists recorded music in his memory. Among
them, Leon Thomas recorded the song, “Malcolm’s Gone” on his “Spirits Known and
Unknown” album; saxophonist-poet-playwright Archie Shepp recorded the poem,
“Malcolm, Malcolm Semper Malcolm,” on his Fire Music album. Shepp drew
parallels between Malcolm’s spoken words and John Coltrane’s music.
Said Shepp: “I equate Coltrane’s music very strongly with Malcolm’s language,
because they were just about contemporaries, to tell you the truth. And I
believe essentially what Malcolm said is what John played. If Trane had been a
speaker, he might have spoken somewhat like Malcolm. If Malcolm had been a
saxophone player, he might have played somewhat like Trane.”
Malcolm wrote: “The Ghanaians performed the high-life as if possessed. One
pretty African girl sang ‘Blue Moon’ like Sarah Vaughan. Sometimes the band
sounded like Charlie Parker.” Malcolm’s impact on Ghana was so great that one
folk singer created a song in his honor called “Malcolm Man.”
Shortly before Malcolm’s death, he visited Toronto and appeared on CBC
television with Pierre Berton. During the visit, Malcolm spent time with
award-winning author Austin Clarke talking about politics and music. Time was
too short to organize a community meeting, but a few lucky people gathered at
Clarke’s home on Asquith Street. Clarke had interviewed Malcolm previously, in
1963 in Harlem, when he was working for the CBC. Clarke recalled they “talked
shop,” but also discussed the lighter things in life, like the fact that both
their wives were named Betty.
It is not surprising that Malcolm made his way to Canada. His mother and
father, Earl Little, met and married in Montréal at a Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA) convention. Both were followers of Marcus
Garvey. His mother, Louise Langdon Norton, was born in Grenada but immigrated
first to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and later to Montreal in 1917. Jan Carew’s book,
“Ghosts in Our Blood: With Malcolm X in Africa, England, and the Caribbean,”
documents this aspect of the life of the pan-Africanist.
While on a visit to Nigeria, Malcolm was given the name Omowale, which means in
the Yoruba language, “the son who has come home.” It was in this period of his
life that he visited Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Senegal, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt,
Ethiopia, Kenya, Guinea and Tanzania. It was during this period that he met
with Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Julius K. Nyerere, Nnamoi Azikiwe, Sekou
Toure, Jomo Kenyatta, Dr. Milton Obote, Abdul Rahman Muhammad Babu and others.
During this visit he also met Ras Makonnen, a legendary pan-Africanist from
Guyana, Richard Wright’s daughter Julie Wright, Maya Angelou, Shirley Graham Du
Bois, the wife of W.E.B. Du Bois, and Chinese Ambassador Huang Ha.
It must be mentioned that Paul Robeson, W.E.B. Du Bois, his wife Shirley Graham
Du Bois and Robert F. Williams all supported the 1949 Chinese revolution.
Malcolm also was a huge supporter of the People’s Republic of China. He was
delighted when China tested its first nuclear weapon.
Babu talked about the significance of this event at the Malcolm X: Radical
Tradition and a Legacy of Struggle Conference in New York City in 1990.
In Nigeria, Malcolm was given the name Omowale, “the son who has come home.”
This photo was taken in 1964. Says Babu: “When Malcolm X came to Tanzania, I
took him to meet President (Julius) Nyerere on another historic date. Because
that very day, China exploded her first nuclear bomb. And as we went to see
Nyerere, Nyerere said, “Malcolm, for the first time today in recorded history,
a former colony has been able to develop weapons at par with any colonial
power. This is the end of colonialism through and through.”
Malcolm was the chief organizer of the Nation of Islam and the founder of the
group’s newspaper Muhammad Speaks. He split with the nation and its leader
Elijah Muhammad in 1963. At the time of his death he headed two organizations.
The secular group, the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), was his
political arm. He also organized the religious group, Muslim Mosque Inc. (MMI),
which practiced Sunni Islam.
Today Islam is the second largest religion in the United States and Canada.
Many credit Malcolm with helping spread Sunni Islam as well as revolutionary
Black Nationalism and pan-Africanism among African people in the Western
Hemisphere.
Like Augusto Cesar Sandino of Nicaragua or Sun Yat-sen of China, Malcolm was
embraced by all sectors of the Black Nationalist and pan-Africanist movements.
All Nationalists and Pan-Africanists claimed to follow his example.
Revolutionary Nationalist groups like the Black Panther Party and the League of
Revolutionary Black Workers emerged in the late 1960s, after Malcolm’s death.
Even after the BPP and the League embraced Marxism, Malcolm was still their
man. The cultural Nationalists who maintained that the cultural revolution must
precede the political one also embraced Malcolm.
Fidel Castro was demonized when he came to New York City in October 1961 to
speak at the United Nations, but he felt safe in Harlem when he and his
delegation moved from a hostile hotel to the Hotel Theresa, where he was
welcomed by Malcolm. He was a controversial figure. Actor Ossie Davis eulogized
him as our “Black Shining Prince” while the director of the U.S. Information
Agency, Carl T. Rowan, referred to him as “an ex-convict, ex-dope peddler who
became a racial fanatic.”
He was loved by the oppressed and hated by the oppressors. Malcolm spoke about
the MMI and OAAU in these terms: “Its aim is to create an atmosphere and
facilities in which people who are interested in Islam can get a better
understanding of Islam. The aim of the OAAU is to use whatever means necessary
to bring about a society in which the 22 million Afro-Americans are recognized
and respected as human beings.”
“The Autobiography of Malcolm X” by Alex Haley and other books by and about
Malcolm continue to sell worldwide. Some of his books have recently been
published in Cuba. Malcolm was one of the few Black Nationalist leaders who
welcomed Cuban leader Fidel Castro to Harlem in 1960.
Many Nationalists didn’t want to be identified with communism. Carlos Cooks,
the leader of the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement, absolutely refused to
have anything to do with Castro. But African people in the West could easily
identify with the slogan, “When Africa called, Cuba answered.” Kwame Ture
(Stokely Carmichael) was fond of reminding us that the only place in the United
States that Fidel felt safe was in Harlem.
Toronto-based journalist and radio producer Norman (Otis) Richmond can be heard
on Diasporic Music the last Thursday of every month at 8-10 p.m., Uhuru Radio
every other Sunday 2-4 p.m., Saturday Morning Live on Saturdays 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].
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