Malcolm X and Maya Angelou
Marvin X on Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad
Marvin X in Harlem, 1968
photo Doug Harris
Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X influenced my life greatly, one can say I am that I am because of these two men, of which there are no divisions in my heart, I love them both deeply, always have and always shall. Shit happens in revolutions, friends become enemies, enemies become friends, there are no permanent friends, only permanent interests.
If you were a gambler (and I am not) but if you had to bet on a certain relationship that was successful for 12 years, but when divided, one individual didn't live 12 months, would we not say the twelve years of stability speaks for itself, no matter how rocky it may have been.
On a deeper level, jealousy and envy kill from within, thus it was almost inevitable that Malcolm's prominence would be challenged by senior officials jockeying for power, authority and influence, add to this the US government's Cointelpro or Counter Intelligence Program. NOI officials were FBI agents, although some confessed and continued working in the NOI. When I went to Chicago underground, 1968, and went to the NOI confessing my sin of fornication, I had to face the top officials, including Supreme Captain Raymond Sharieff, Elijah Muhammad, Jr., John Ali. They gave me time out of the NOI. When I finally arrived in the Bay Area and reconnected with my criminal Muslim brothers, they told me I was a punk motherfucker for confessing anything to those wicked officials. My Muslim brothers were former prisoners who didn't submit to anyone, especially anyone who hadn't spent time in prison. For their attitude, they were called "hypocrite Muslims" because they refused to be pimped and were free thinkers. Any free thinker was considered a hypocrite. The believers were taught to say away from such free thinkers or "hypocrite Muslims" even before Malcolm defected.
Free thinkers studied the Qur'an, Hadith and Sufi writers such as Rumi, Hazrat Inayat Khan and Ibn Khaldun, to say nothing of the West African Islamic mystics and scholars such as Bamba. His holy city of Touba in Senegal is as sacred as Mecca to West African Muslims. When I was in North Carolina riding in a taxi, I asked the Senegalese driver if he knew of Bamba? He turned around and showed his T-shirt with a picture of Bamba. I then asked him if Bamba was a holy man? He replied, "He was beyond holy!"
Free thinkers studied the Qur'an, Hadith and Sufi writers such as Rumi, Hazrat Inayat Khan and Ibn Khaldun, to say nothing of the West African Islamic mystics and scholars such as Bamba. His holy city of Touba in Senegal is as sacred as Mecca to West African Muslims. When I was in North Carolina riding in a taxi, I asked the Senegalese driver if he knew of Bamba? He turned around and showed his T-shirt with a picture of Bamba. I then asked him if Bamba was a holy man? He replied, "He was beyond holy!"
Malcolm's personal relationship with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was enough to make even the simple minded jealous and his defection and attack on HEM was sufficient for any follower to take him out. Elijah was our father and mother, especially for those who'd never had such. Don't condemn Minister Farrakhan for fanning the flames of Malcolm's assassination. Again, the lowest follower condemned Malcolm for attacking HEM.
Let us try to understand the trauma and pain in our community at the death of Malcolm, which is like the deathly tensions between Sunni and Shia, especially in the Near East. When Malcolm turned Sunni it created sectarian tensions among North American Africans approaching the level of madness in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan and elsewhere with those dogmatic believers so narrow minded they will kill anyone not professing the orthodox religiosity. As my mystic teacher Sun Ra taught me, "Sometimes you can be so right you wrong!"
Let us remember the classic master teacher relationship between Rumi and Shams of Tabriz. Shams was murdered by Rumi's jealous students, jealous of his relationship with Master Teacher Shams, thus the Sufi whirl and whirl into states of ecstasy in mourning with their teacher, Rumi, who whirled and recited poetry in his grief. One of his poetic lines:
If you come to the garden
it doesn't matter
If you don't come to the garden
it doesn't matter...
Let us try to understand the trauma and pain in our community at the death of Malcolm, which is like the deathly tensions between Sunni and Shia, especially in the Near East. When Malcolm turned Sunni it created sectarian tensions among North American Africans approaching the level of madness in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan and elsewhere with those dogmatic believers so narrow minded they will kill anyone not professing the orthodox religiosity. As my mystic teacher Sun Ra taught me, "Sometimes you can be so right you wrong!"
Let us remember the classic master teacher relationship between Rumi and Shams of Tabriz. Shams was murdered by Rumi's jealous students, jealous of his relationship with Master Teacher Shams, thus the Sufi whirl and whirl into states of ecstasy in mourning with their teacher, Rumi, who whirled and recited poetry in his grief. One of his poetic lines:
If you come to the garden
it doesn't matter
If you don't come to the garden
it doesn't matter...
And so I mourn both my teachers, Elijah and Malcolm, love them both no matter what happened between them, shit happens in revolution, get over it and move on to higher ground! Didn't Malcolm tell you the only bloodless revolution is the Negro revolution? And didn't Elijah Muhammad teach all his followers to trust no one? Some of us didn't get the lesson and ain't got it yet. As per Supreme Wisdom, a brother told me, "Yes, I got it but I didn't get it!"
Master Teacher, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and Malcolm X
Assassinations happen in all revolutions, betrayal is part of revolution, grow up, study revolution, friends betray each other, long time associates, look at Fidel and Che, Stalin and his friends. Even Noble Drew Ali had problems with friends, jealous, envious. They killed him.
Elijah ran for seven years from the jealous ones who said they would eat a grain of rice a day until Elijah was killed after he was appointed leader by Master Fard Muhammad. Check out the Mexican revolution, a history of betrayal. The Palestinians kill each other then hug and pray together in the mosque. In my last meeting with Black Panther Party co-founder, Dr. Huey P. Newton (see my play One Day in the Life or the one-act Salaam, Huey Newton, Salaam), I reminded him how Arabs reconcile after internecine war, and wished he and Eldridge Cleaver would come together, but he told me, "We ain't Arabs!" Huey also said, "There's too much blood on the path between me and Eldridge, too many BPP members lost loved ones behind Eldridge's bullshit, so in respect to them, I cannot, will not, reconcile with Eldridge even though, personally, I would like to do so."
Negroes will hate you forever over two cents, don't hate the white man for inflicting 400 years of slavery, suffering and death down to the present moment.
Negroes will hate you forever over two cents, don't hate the white man for inflicting 400 years of slavery, suffering and death down to the present moment.
In truth, most of us ain't done a damn thing Malcolm or Elijah taught us and don't intend to do a damn thing! When I finally went to prison for refusing to fight in Vietnam (after fleeing into exile twice, Canada, Mexico, Belize), brothers told me inside Federal Prison, Terminal Island, San Pedro, California, a fish factory town, "Marvin, you might think it's stinking fish that you smell but it ain't fish. It's these dead, stinking Negroes and fake ass Muslims! Allah loves a warrior, He hates a coward!"
Happy birthday, Malik El Shabazz, Malcolm X