So today, were going to be, of course, reviewing and discussing section that really talks about malcolms views, malcolm xs views on on africa and even the 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. One in 1959 and another in 1965 before he was killed. That really sort of talked about his viewpoints on africa. And then also a very critical interview that he gave when he attended the organizational organization of African Unity conference in in 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. So hopefully, everyones read and and listened to these speeches. And so we can really sort of get a sense of of malcolm xs viewpoints on africa. But really, i mean, i think in order for us to really understand why malcolm expressed some of the things he did in these in these letters. Because in many ways, we see that hes sort of arguing against particular ideas within the black community that were widespread in africa. Its its critical for us to to have a very good Vantage Point of of how americans, and more specifically black americans, were thinking about africa in the late 1950s, early 1960s. But before we talk about that, i in many ways, when i think about my own life, and even my existence itself, its its deeply tied to africa. 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 didnt they they had met before the concert a few times. But they sort of reconnected after this concert that happened in december of 1973. You smiling . I cant tell what happened. How my parents hooked up. So actually, so so my father approached my mother. They talked after the conference. My father got the digits. And and he called my mother a few days later to really ask her out. And 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 that, i mean, you know, we can talk. But if we get close before i leave, because it was still a few months away, im still going to go to africa. And they both were sort of part of this blackpower movement. I think i had spoke about this earlier in class. And, more specifically, the black theology movement. More specifically, this notion that sort of god was black and christianity itself should be this sort of tool of liberation. And really, every sector of the blackpower movement and really black theologians were sort of one sector, were connecting to africa. In the case of of those who were inspired by black theology, many of them were returning to africa as missionaries. But in a way, a different type of missionary than many sort of europeans of previous generations. So she told him im going to africa and she ended up going. And they got close before she left. So they managed to stay in touch during the nine months that she was in liberia. She actually taught at this school in this rural sort of village outside of monrovia, which is the capital of liberia. And she was there for nine months. And so i grew up, as you would imagine, hearing about these stories. She just loved to talk about liberia. But i simultaneously grew up, as result of her, hearing very fond and positive things about africa. And and i didnt realize until later in my life that, in many ways, i was lucky. Because many sons and and daughters had not been born to people who traveled to africa or who had fond who had a fond perspective of africa. Even in the 1980s and 1990s. And certainly, that was the case in the late 1950s when when and early 1960s when malcolm was speaking out and speaking for africa. And just to sort of give us a sense of of just how much africanamericans knew so little about africa. Or when they did know, their thoughts were negative. Anybody heard of wb 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 by the name of france boaz who came to Atlanta University where he was teaching. Dubois was teaching at Atlanta University at the time. And he gave the commencement address. And at this commencement address, france boaz recounted the history of the glorious history of african kingdoms below the Sahara Desert for upwards of 1,000 years before the slave trade. And so he talked about these classical, precolonial african kingdoms like ghana, mali. And dubois later wrote in one of his books, quote, i was too astonished to speak. He he talked about boaz 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 great universities were Harvard University where he earned his bachelors and ph. D. And the university of berlin, which in the early 1900s, was the Preeminent University in the western world. And so he, the quite possibly the greatest and mosteducated africanamerican in the country, had no clue about africas history. And and so, for him, he viewed africa like like africanamericans generally viewed africa. As this sort of place of of of barbarism. This place of where civilization was never really known. And he also wrote in his reflection that i came then and afterwards to realize how the silence and neglect of science can let truth utterly disappear. So essentially, that truth about africa. And so then he took it upon himself. And really, from that point forward, he started to write more and more and speak more and more about africa. But unfortunately, by 1912, dubois was was battling a novel that was first sort of published in this periodical named all stories magazine written by edgar rice boroughs. It became an instant sensation and this novel locked the concept of the animal african into the american mind. The main character in this novel was tarzan. And so the plot was this this this orphan, infant of white parents. Is abandoned in Central Africa and is raised by this sort of ape named kayla and this tribe of apes. And john clayton is then named after named tarzan, meaning white skin in apes language. He grows up. He becomes the ape tribes most skilled hunter and warrior. He he somehow finds his his parents cabin and teaches himself to read while his body is being chiseled away from this sort of savage upbringing. He he, quote, his straight and perfect figure im narrating the book muscled as the best of the ancient roman gladiators must have been muscled. So this is how hes sort of being narrated in this text. And so essentially, this plot is somewhat similar to a recent film. The name of it is escaping me with the blue people. Avatar. Its basically the same plot. He becomes the greatest of the warriors, right . He becomes the greatest of this sort of ape tribe. So really, hes relating to the apes. But then he also comes across and has to relate to who else . Africans. And so its basically tarzan, apes, and africans. And of course, tarzan becomes the superior warrior and becomes the most superior sort of being in that sort of area. And of course, tarzan inspired this novel, inspired comic strips, merchandise, 27 sequels, and 45 motion pictures. The first occurring in 1918. And i dont know if theres a more famous fictional character in the 20th century than tarzan. And quite possibly no more racist plot than the plot that boroughs wrote up and continued to write up until his death in 1950. And 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. And as well as around the country. And and so it led to this massive student march around campus. And what the students chanted was, black power. Black power. What was ungawa . Ungawa was the way in which tarzan related and communicated to animals and black people in that movie. So so when people thought of how even words that africans used. Or people thought of how to communicate with africans, they thought of tarzan. So really, this this is what sort of this was the 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. And 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 . And so marcus garvey, in the 19 teens and in the 1920s talked fondly about africa and about African People worldwide and about africa for the africans. But for many americans, for many africanamericans, of course they werent raised to think of of africa as this equal place with the rest of the world. They they were raised to think of the dark continent. Where enlightenment had never existed. A continent that was poverished impoverished because of the poverty, the behavioral and the cultural poverty of the people. The african was synonymous with the savage. And the savage was synonymous with the animal. And the animal was synonymous with the african. And so 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. And so for malcolm, you know, as we sort of read about in our text, he was quite happy in 1959 when he received the assignment from Elijah Mohammad to travel to the middle east and even to africa on behalf of Elijah Mohammad. So elijah was asked to come to egypt by the president of egypt at the time. And and Elijah Mohammad decided to send his instead. So that was really malcolms. Even though he grew up having been taught about the beauties and the glories of africa and its history, this was his first trip to africa and even to the middle east. And being someone who identified as muslim, he of course was excited to visit a muslim nation. In egypt. And he also hoped and planned when he arrived, sort of when he planned his trip, to go as well. So he arrives on july 4th in egypt. But immediately, of course, falls ill. And so hes not able to to travel to mecca. But hes able to spend more time in egypt, as well as he traveled to saudi arabia. Theology and traditions and practices was so unorthodox. And so but, of course, he couldnt necessarily publicly speak out against those against those traditions and policies, but he certainly saw that the stipulations when he was in saudi arabia as well as in egypt. But one thing that i think 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 of people he talked about almost all of these Saudi Arabians would be, quote, jim crowed. And what he was seeking to do was make this sort of connection between people in the middle east with africanamericans. Just as he would try to make a similar connection to African People in with 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 was 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. And i think he talked about how he was trying to fight against this u. S. Propaganda that, of course, was saying, oh, dont worry about those africans because they dont care about you, meaning thats what it was saying to africanamericans and he was saying they were saying the same thing in africa. In other words, yall shouldnt those africanamericans dont care about you, either. He also sort of 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, why millions are not equal. In a land that colleges in all forms of educational opportunities, 20 million negroes need army escorts to accompany them to many of these institutions. And then he ends this later stating here in africa, the allseeing eye of the african of the african masses is upon america. And this would become a theme sort of throughout his speeches over the next five years, making this case that to africanamericans, africa cares about you. Because as i stated, he was both trying to sort of build this sense of afroasian solidarity while also trying to sort of rebuild what was known as pan africans and really the Pan Africanism of garveyism. This notion that African People worldwide have sort of collected, shared identified, this collective shared political sort of interest, this collective shared cultural similarities. And so essentially, African People worldwide need to care about each other, need to struggle for each other and need to come together for each other. But at the same time, i think the pan African Unity came much easier for him in 1959 than afroasian solidarity. Because from the standpoint of the nation of islam and Elijah Mohammed, he was arguing that the solution to the negro problem was a separate black statement. So he essentially wanted complete separation of black people from everybody. Not just white people, but all nonblack people. And so i think you know, so malcolm, of course, had to struggle that caused malcolm to sort of emphasize more so the pan African Unity than the afro asian unity in those letters. He also, of course, we also listened to this speech that he gave in 1959 for african liberation day. And so the nation of islam was not the only groups or organization in the United States that was advocating pan african ideas. There were many groups that were doing so specifically in new york city. And malcolm, of course, was connected to many of these groups and so he was invited as well as Elijah Mohammed to come and speak at this african liberation day. Yet again, in this speech as in his letters home from africa, he continuously tried to sort of 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. So your european enemy is french, your european who is the european enemy of this country, of that country is british is the portuguese is the dutch. And what do they have all in common . Theyre all from europe. And what do we have all in common . Were all from africa. And he would make this case that theyre working together to oppress us. Speaking to black people. So why are we not working together. So he asked in that speech, how could so few white people rule so many black people . How could europe, which, of course, 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 land mass, such a Smaller Group of people rule such a massive continent, such a Massive Group of people . Well, according to him, the disunity of those people. And so, of course, he wanted to emphasize, to really encourage people of african dissent around the world to come together, arguing again and again that, quote, we have a common enemy. And that common enemy is colonial is those colonial masters in europe. I should also add, as i think weve talked about previously in previous classes, that this was a critical sort of period in the history of africa, right . Because what was going on in africa . What was going on in africa in 1959 . 1960 . Yes . Decolonization all over the continent. And, of course, decolonization moments were inspiring africanamericans. And were, of course, inspiring people of african dissent around the world, but he didnt want people to just become inspired. You 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, malcolms probably his most critical sort of trip throughout his life is when he went back to africa and the middle east in 1964. And this was after, of course, he left the nation of islam. Or pushed out of the nation of islam. And he in 1964 would go on two extended trips to africa. The first, of course, left on april 13th, 1964, and on this trip he would travel throughout the middle east and africa, traveling to egypt, lebanon, saudi arabia, nigeria, ghana, 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 . Yes . Africa, without question. And, of course, as weve talked about in previously classes, being raised in the nation of islam theology, he was raised to think that while white people were fundamentally evil. In some ways, his own Life Experiences with white people reinforced that. So when he was told that while he was in prison, you know, by his brothers and sisters who had converted to the nation, it didnt surprise him. It clicked for him because according to him, it made sense in terms of the way he had been treated, in terms of the way his parents had been treated. Of course, hes 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 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, right . And so then, of course, the way in which he was treated in h