Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.
By Manning Marable
(New York: Viking/Peguin Group, 2010. Pp.594. Prologue, Epilogue, Bibiliography and Index,
$30.00)
Marable's Impartiality:
Tony Martin wrote the essay "George Padmore as a Prototype of the Black Historian" in his book "The Pan African Connection". He explains that there is a distinction between historical impartiality and so called objectivity.
Objectivity is academic colonialism because one can hide his biases in the shadow of objectivity. Impartiality is when the historian or social scientist honestly presents facts accurately but interprets and analyzes them critically. After reading "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention" I must say that consistent with the methodology of African history, Professor Marable was able to be impartial (scientific objectivity is impossible).
Sometime being impartial is not popular, but at least all facts concerning the subject are appraised in an effort to prove or disprove certain claims. The basic question I think Marable raises is : "Has the many published works about Malcolm done him justice?"
I think Professor Marable answered the question by saying, "Yes, but only to the extent that those writing about Malcolm were (personally) affiliated with him. So their personal misconceptions and limitations about Malcolm, to the reader of their works, becomes Malcolm's misconceptions and limitations.
Let's put Manning's narrative in context, with the thousands of documents in the book. For a long time I thought Brietman's "Last Year of Malcolm X", Collins'"Seventh Child" and Sales' "From Civil Rights to Black Liberation" were substantial attempts to articulate aspects of whom and what Malcolm was about, but the tinge of personal affiliation adversely affected their overall impartialness in assessing Malcolm and his contributions to advancing African humanity
Let's not forget Kly's "Black Book: The True Political Philosophy of Malcolm X", that Marable, or his researchers forgot to cite in his extensive Bibliography). For a long time Brietman's work stood out because he was a European American affiliated with the Socialist Workers Party and was the only writer able to show Malcolm's ideological development in the last year of his life; there seemed to be no documented works written by an African objective enough to meet this goal.
Sales was exceptional in that his was one of the few books in which the OAAU (and to an extent the MMI) was analyzed and assessed. Sales was an observer/participant in the OAAU, in the manner of Muhammed Ahmed's affiliation with RAM (see his work,"We Will return in the Whirlwind"), and was able to make a major contribution to African historiography.
Collins' "Seventh Son" was a major contribution to understanding Malcolm because it provides us with the central role that Malcolm's big sister, Ella Collins, played in his development, as well as a crucial narrative of Boston's historical role in Malcolm's development. (Marable was able to 'impartially' do this with other cities as well)
Kly's Black Book is the first book I recall that specifically deals with Malcolm's political philosophy, grounded in a uniquely Muslim perspective, especially in terms of struggle and martyrdom, and the specific objectives of the OAAU. Considering that Kly, once the Canadian coordinator of the OAAU, joined the ancestors earlier this year and Marable recently joined the ancestors, we can only wonder what insights each could have provided each other, if they were not already in communication. Dr. Kly, in line with the Aims and Objectives of the OAAU, has left us with the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities (IHRAAM); http://www.ihraam.org/ and Marable was able to leave us with this final narrative about Malcolm.
Marable has not said anything 'new'. What he did, in fact, was present as many sides and dimensions as humanly possible in one work. I cite the Breitman, Sales, Collins and Kly because they(like all who speak on Malcolm) are speaking from their personal, limited perspectives.
Manning has simply used a good method to present information available about Malcolm. No one has ever alluded to those missing "Alex Haley chapters" that the Negro lawyer (who tried to get Rosa Parks to sue the hip hop group Outkast) bought and put away in a vault.
White publishers probably had knowledge of their existence, but to make the info plain, to provide it for the people, tha the Marable contribution. But the information is not new, for certain controversies concerning Malcolm (his infidelity, internal conflicts with personnel, diplomatic ties, etc) has been housed in communities over the country.
I think Marable had the ability to present as much as he could in one document, which takes courage and impartiality, which is what he had! In this manner, the reader is presented with a fuller picture of Malcolm, and can make their own judgments and observations, because the same information is presented in a fresh manner.
What I must say to defend and support Marable's scholarship is that this book has in the most impartial way possible (since to our knowledge he was too young to be involved in the organizations centered around Malcolm), yet he provides a historiographical biography in a superior fashion than Haley.
Haley was more of a novelist, lacking the intellectual tools, acumen and agenda that Marable had to paint the most accurate picture of Malcolm based on all the information about his ideology and organization(s).
--ZULU King
Zulu King is Minister of Logic, First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists. He is associate editor of the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Issue, Guest Edited by Marvin X.
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