El Hajj Malik El Shabazz: the continuity & legacy of a critical Africana HRs consciousness

Africa World Now Project

Image: Original artwork by @ultravivre
There are many attempts to explore and examine who Malcolm X, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, was and is. there are books, documentaries [focused on his life and his assassination], movies, songs, poems, etc.

They all explore and examine various aspects of El Shabazz, dissecting his very being. But no matter the complexity of or simplicity in the treatment of El Shabazz’s life, mind, or work…they all lead back to one answer: El Hajj Malik El Shabazz is all of us.

Many of us adhere to the idea that nothing ever dies, it only transforms. This is based on what many may call a universal principle, which says that: energy can neither be created nor destroyed.

If the idea articulated by this universal principle can be tested…made knowable, then it requires a deeper look into various phenomena.

The evolution of the human, its totality, is based on a few factors, which are related to geographical location, the groups understanding of their place, role and responsibilities in this geographical location and the range and scope of the group’s ability to evolve its philosophical and cultural foundations.

Important to note this is all based on the response to systemic implications caused by a balance/imbalance dialectic in the midst of this evolution.

Ok, ok…what does all of this mean?…the conditions within which a people develop is based on their understanding of their relationship to each other, the environment and the universe.

An interdependent process that directly impacts who they are in relationship to more than themselves.

What is important to note about this process of becoming is, its ability to imagine. To create ways of being...ways of knowing that transcend the structures of the current or immediate conditions one finds themselves, whether voluntarily, through coercion, or by force.

Key to any way of knowing is the ability to develop one’s imagination.
It was [and still is] the platform, upon which a people can adequately deal with the balance/imbalance dialectic.

It is the most attacked part of the African ways of being.

Why? Because we find that the Black imagination is the place best suited to find the most articulate expression of basic human capacities to create, maintain, evolve…to negate the negation.

I present this all to say, this is what is meant when we say El Hajj Malik El Shabazz is us.

He is the measuring scale upon which we deal with the balance/imbalance dialectic. He is the archetype and most articulate expression of a Black radical imagination. The most articulate expression Black possibilities.

What you will hear next is a recent discussion centered around an exploration of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz as critical Africana human rights consciousness with Tasneem Siddiqui, Josh Myers, with reflections from: Dr. Kamau Rashid and Dr. Iyelli Ichile.

Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native/indigenous, African, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana and Ayiti; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people.

Listen intently. Thinking deeply. Act accordingly.

Link to article: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12111-020-09486-3