Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures In History Malcolm Xs Views

CSPAN3 Lectures In History Malcolm Xs Views On Africa July 14, 2024

Middle east, and of course we read a few of the letters that he sent home when he was traveling in 1959 as well as in 1964, in africa as well as the middle east, as well as a few speeches that he made. In 1965959 and another before he was killed, that really talked about his thenoints on africa, and also a very critical interview attendedave when he the organizational the organization of African Unity late july of 1964, in which he sort of discussed his strategy and the reason why he came to that conference and was appealing to these african heads of state. Hopefully everyone has read and listened to these speeches. For us to understand why malcolm did what he did in these letters, because we see he is arguing against particular ideas within the black community that were widespread in africa. It is critical for us to have a very good Vantage Point to understand how americans, and specifically black americans were thinking about africa in the late 1950s, early 1960s. Before we talk about that, in many ways when i think about my own life and even my existence itself, it is deeply tied to africa. I see some of you open your eyes, like what are you talking about . So my father and mother, they actually attended this concert together, and they had met before the concert a few times, but they sort of reconnected after this concert that happened in december of 1970. You are smiling, i cant tell how my parents hooked up. My father approached my mother, they talked after the conference, my father got her digits, and he called my mother a few days later to really ask her out. My mother stated that she had been called to the mission field. She actually was leaving to go to liberia in a few months and basically told him, we can talk, but if we get close before i leave because it was still a few months away i am still going to go to africa. They both were sort of part of this black power movement. I think i spoke about this earlier in class, and more specifically the black theology movement, specifically this notion that god was black and christianity should be this tool of liberation, and really every sector of the black power movement. Black theologians were one sector were connecting to africa. In the case of those who were inspired by black theology, many of them were returning to africa as missionaries, but a different type of missionary than many europeans of previous generations. She told them i am going to africa, and she ended up going. They got close before she left, so they managed to stay in touch during the nine months she was in liberia. She actually taught at this school in this rural village outside of monrovia, the capital of liberia, and she was there for nine months. So i grew up, as you would imagine, hearing about these stories. She loved to talk about liberia. But i simultaneously grew up as a result of her hearing very fond and positive things about africa. I didnt realize until later in my life that in many ways, i was lucky, because many sons and daughters had not been born to people who traveled to africa or had a fond perspective of africa. Even in the 1980s and 1990s. And certainly that was the case in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when malcolm was speaking out and speaking for africa. Just to sort of give us a sense of just how much africanamericans knew so little about africa, or when they did know, their thoughts were negative anybody heard of w. E. B. Dubois . Of course. So w. E. B. Dubois, three years after publishing his landmark book, the souls of black folk, which he published in 1903, he helped invite this Columbia University anthropologist, franz boas, who came to Atlanta University where dubois was teaching at the time, and he gave the commencement address. During the address, boas recounted the glorious history of african kingdoms below the Sahara Desert for upwards of 1000 years before the slave trade. So he talked about these classical greek colonial kingdoms like ghana. Dubois later wrote in one of his books, i was too astonished to speak. He talked about boas as suddenly awaking him from the paralysis of the commonly held judgment taught to me in high school and two of the worlds great universities that africa had no history. Those two universities were harvard university, where he earned his bachelors and phd, and the university of berlin, which in the early 1900s was the Preeminent University in the western world. So he, deemed the greatest and most educated africanamerican in the country, had no clue about africas history. So for him, he viewed africa like africanamericans generally viewed africa, as this place of barbarism, this place where civilization was never really known. And he also wrote in his reflections that, i came then and afterwards to realize how the silence and neglect of science can let truth utterly disappear. Essentially the truth about africa. So he took it upon himself, and really from that point forward he started to write more and more and speak more about africa. But unfortunately by 1912, dubois was battling a novel that was First Published in this periodical named all stories magazine written by edgar rice burroughs. Anybody know what novel i am talking about . It became an instant sensation. This novel, more than any other cultural product of the 20th century, locked the concept of the animal african into the american mind. The main character in this novel was tarzan. So the plot was this orphan, infant of white parents, is abandoned in Central Africa and is raised by this ape in this tribe of apes. And john clayton, naming him tarzan, meaning white skin in the ape language, he grows up and becomes the ape tribes most skilled hunter and warrior. He somehow finds his parents cabin and teaches himself to read while his body is being chiseled away from this savage upbringing. His straight and perfect figure, muscled as the best of the ancient roman gladiators must have been, muscled and yet with the soft and sinuous curves of the greek gods. That is how he is being narrated in this text. So essentially this plot is somewhat similar to a recent film. The name of it is escaping me, with the blue people . Avatar. Prof. Kendi it is basically the same plot. He becomes the greatest of the warriors, he comes the greatest of this ape tribe. He is relating to the apes, but he also comes across and has to relate to who else . Africans. It is basically tarzan, apes, and africans. Of course tarzan becomes the superior warrior and becomes the most superior being in that area. Of course tarzan, this novel inspired comic strips, merchandise, 27 sequels, and 45 motion pictures, the first in 1918. I dont know if there is a more famous fictional character in the 20th century than tarzan, and there is quite possibly no more racist plot than the plot that burroughs wrote up and continued to write until his death in 1950. Just to give you a sense of how salient and pervasive tarzan was because for many americans, tarzan was africa. They were witnessing and viewing africa and understanding and learning africa through tarzan, to the point in which, in 1966 at howard university, students there elected the first black woman homecoming queen with natural hair. It was like the start of black power at howard, as well as around the country. This led to a massive student march around campus. What the students chanted was ungawa black power. Ungawa was the way in which tarzan related and communicated to animals and black people in that movie. When people thought about how even words that africans used or people thought about how to communicate with africans, they thought of tarzan. This was the world, the nation, the community of ideas that really raised malcolm, and that malcolm was facing in the late 1950s when he started challenging many of these ideas. We should know that in many ways, malcolm was lucky, too. Because his parents were raised in what movement . Who were they following . Marcus garvey, right. So Marcus Garvey in the 1910s and 1920s talked fondly about africa and African People worldwide and about africa for the africans. But for many africanamericans, of course they were not raised to think of africa as this equal place with the rest of the world. They were raised to think of the dark continent where enlightenment had never existed, a continent that was impoverished because of the poverty, the behavioral and cultural poverty of the people. The african was synonymous with the savage and the savage were synonymous with the animal and the animal were synonymous with the african. As a result, many, as i stated, africanamericans did not want to be associated with those savages, those animals, and more so wanted to be associated with civilization, with america. So for malcolm, as we read about in our text, he was quite happy in 1959 when he received the assignment from Elijah Muhammad to travel to the middle east and even to africa, on behalf of Elijah Muhammad. Elijah was asked to come to egypt by the president of egypt at the time, and Elijah Muhammad decided to send his emissary instead to pave the way for elijah. That was really malcolms even though he grew up having been taught about the beauties and glories of africa and its history, this was his first trip to africa and even to the middle east. Being someone who identified as muslim, he of course was excited to visit a muslim nation in egypt. He also hoped and planned when he arrived when he planned his trip, to go on a hajj as well. He arrived on july 4 in egypt, but immediately falls ill, so he is not able to travel to mecca, but he is able to spend more time in egypt, as well as he traveled to saudi arabia. This is one of the more critical periods in malcolms life, and we wouldnt necessarily see the effects of it in his public rhetoric, but according to many biographers of malcom, this was a critical period as he lived in these muslim nations, because he began to see how much nation of islams theology and traditions and practices was so unorthodox. But of course, he couldnt necessarily publicly speak out against those traditions and policies, but he certainly saw the distinctions when he was in saudi arabia, as well as egypt. One thing that struck him about saudi arabia and of course he wrote back about this was all of the variety of skin colors that existed in saudi arabia. He stated, it was almost like black america. You have the lightest of people as well as the darkest, in this letter home. He talked about almost all of these Saudi Arabians would be jim crowed at home. When he was seeking to do was make this connection of people of the middle east with africanamericans, just as he was trying to make a similar connection of African People to africanamericans, specifically making the case that African People were concerned and were looking into and were studying what was happening to africanamericans in the United States. He argued, of course, in his letter home from the sudan, when he visited there in 1959, that he wanted africanamericans to realize that africans cared about them. He talked about how he was trying to fight against this u. S. Propaganda that of course was saying, dont worry about those africans, because they dont care about you. Meaning this is what it was saying to africanamericans and they were saying the same thing in africa. Those africanamericans dont care about you either. He also made very plain what people in africa thought about the condition of africanamericans. He writes that the african finds it difficult to understand why, in a land that advocates equality, 20 million black americans are without equality. Why, in a land classifying itself as a leader of the free world, 20 million black americans are not free. Why, in a land of colleges and all forms of educational opportunities, 20 million negroes need army escorts to accompany them. He ends the letter stating, here in africa, the all seeing eye of the african masses is upon america. This would become a theme throughout his speeches over the next five years, making his case that to africanamericans, africa cares about you. As i stated, he was both trying to build this sense of afro asian solidarity, while also trying to rebuild what was known as panafricanism, the panafricanism of garvey, the notion that African People worldwide have this collective shared identity, this but at the same time, i think the panAfrican Unity became easier for him in 1959 than afro asian solidarity. From the standpoint of the nation of islam and Elijah Muhammad, he was arguing that the solution to the negro problem was a separate black state. So he essentially wanted complete separation of black people from everybody not just white people, but all nonblack people. So malcolm of course had the struggle that certainly caused malcolm to emphasize more so the panAfrican Unity than the afro asian unity in those letters. He also, of course we also listen to this speech that he gave in 1959 for african liberation day. The nation of islam was not the only group or organization in the United States that was advocating panafrican ideas. There were many groups that were doing so, specifically in new york city. Malcolm of course was connected to many of these groups, so he was invited, as well as Elijah Muhammad, to come speak at this african liberation day. And yet again in this speech, as in his letters home from africa, he continuously tried to emphasize the unity of African People. And one of the ways he did this is he sounded very similar in 1964 as he did in 1959, when he would talk about the enemy the european enemy of every single african state. Your european enemy is french, who is the european enemy of this country, that country . It is british, it is the portuguese, it is dutch. What do they have all in common . They are all from europe. What do we have all in common . We are all from africa. He would make this case that they are working together to oppress us, speaking to black people, so why are we not working together . He asked in that speech, how could so few white people rule so many black people . How could europe, which from a land standpoint is much smaller than Africa Africa is three times the size of the United States, let alone europe. How could such a small landmass, a Smaller Group of people, rule such a massive continent, Massive Group of people . According to him, the disunity of those people. So of course he wanted to emphasize, to really encourage people of african descent around the world to come together, arguing again and again that we have a common enemy, and that common enemy is colonial masters in europe. I should also add, as i think we talked about in previous classes, that this was a critical sort of period in the history of africa, right . Because what was going on in africa in 1959, 1960 . [inaudible] prof. Kendi decolonization, all over the continent. These Decolonization Movements were inspiring africanamericans, and was of course inspiring people of african descent around the world. But he didnt want people just to become inspired, he wanted people to become connected. He wanted this to become a global struggle against white supremacy. And he felt it was critical to emphasize that unity in order to make that global struggle happen. Of course, malcolm, probably his most critical trip throughout his life is when he went back to africa and the middle east in 1964. And this was after he left the nation of islam, or pushed out of the nation of islam. 1964 would go on two extended trips to africa. The first of course left april 13, 1964, and on this trip he would travel throughout the middle east and africa, traveling to egypt, lebanon, saudi arabia, nigeria, morocco, and algeria. But of course, what was the most critical aspect of this trip . What city, what town was most important to malcolms development . [inaudible] prof. Kendi mecca, without question. Of course, as we talked about in previous classes, being raised in nation of islam theology, he was raised to think that white people were fundamentally evil. And in many ways, his own experiences, his own Life Experiences with white people reinforced that. He was told while he was by his brothers and sisters who had converted to the nation, it didnt surprise him. It actually clicked for him because, according to him, it made sense in the terms of the way he had been treated, the way his parents had been treated. Of course he is the son of a father who most likely was lynched. Some of his uncles were lynched in georgia. He of course experienced and watched his own family broken up and not supported by michigan authorities. He saw his mother, instead of being supported by other people, because she had so many children to take care of on her own after her husband was assassinated, he saw her thrown into what . An insane asylum. And then of course, the way in which he was treated in high school when he spoke about being a lawyer, apparently, and his teacher said, thats not the type of job for a negro, you should think about being a carpenter. Or when he felt he was being a mascot at other times, or even when he started robbing houses in boston, and as part of his robbery crew, he had two white women. Of course he felt, when he was arrested and found out that these two white women were assisting him, he felt he got a much harsher sentence because of his affiliation with these women. Up to that point, malcolms life he had experienced so many negative things at the hands of white people. But it wasnt until he went to mecca and he, for the first time, had not just positive experiences, but he was in a space where there were people of all different colors, hair textures, there was tremendous amounts of diversity in mecca when he visited. Racial diversity. But he simultaneously saw all of these people were essentially doing the same thing, engaged in the same rituals, they were all, according to him, treating each other as if they were brothers. He writes in his first letter home, in which he has to tell people back home, you may be shocked that i say this, but he says there were tens of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blueeyed blondes to black skinned africans, but all par

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