Open Letter to the North American Africans of Houston's Third Ward

From the Desk of Marvin X

September 24, 2012

Open Letter to the North American Africans of Houston’s Third Ward

Dear Brothers and Sisters, it is with great joy, deep affection yet a heavy heart that I depart from you this morning. The last two weeks that I have shared with you has been most enlightening and enjoyable.

It has renewed my faith in the notion of a Black Nation, or what we used to call Nation Time! Swimming in your sea of Blackness has been an awesome experience, especially not having to apologize for or even afraid to say the word Black, an almost punishable offense where I come from, the so-called multi-cultural land of the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area, where, as Paradise says in his classic poem, they like everything about us but us, and where we were once in great numbers but our population has been in decline the last few decades, especially do to gentrification.

Of course  gentrification or neo-colonization is a global affair, and it is certainly happening in Houston’s Third Ward, for now you can still enjoy the power of North American African culture in an essentially free space.

I want to especially thank my precious daughter Nefertiti for arranging my tour of Third Ward. She is indeed a special child, conceived, as she noted not long ago, while her parents were in flight from American imperialism, i.e., she was conceived during my second self imposed exile for refusing to fight in Vietnam. Her mother and I had sought refuge in Mexico City and later Belize, then British Honduras.

Nefertiti has been on her own journey toward self-realization. I have never tried imposing my ideology or spiritual beliefs on her or any of my children. But today she expresses many of my ideas in her words and deeds. I can see clearly that she is highly respected by the Third Ward community. If not, I would not have been able to express myself at the many venues she arranged for me. 

Although the purpose of my national book tour is to promote the Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables, the interest of you brothers and sisters was clearly in another book of mine  How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy.

Khepera Books and the Secret Word Café have indicated they shall form study groups based on the book. As we know, a person may have one mission but God has another. Indeed as I was departing the airport, I tipped the Red Cap cash and an autographed copy of How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy. The brother said, “I have seen a lot of white supremacy during my forty years in Houston."

I want to especially thank the following persons and institutions that allowed me time and space to speak:

Deloyd Parker, SHAPE Community Center, especially the Elders Institute of Wisdom.

Dr. James Conyers, Chair, Africana Studies, University of Houston

Dr. Malachi Crawford, Professor of Africana Studies, University of Houston,

Professor Eric Rhodes, MBA, ESq., Department of Business, Texas Southern University

Zin, KPFT Radio

Minister Robert Muhammad, KPFT Radio

Annelle, KPFT Radio

Nefertari, Secret Word Café

Khepera, Khepera Bookstore

Third World Imports

Michael Demaris, Security Services

Brother Kofi, United Black Front

Brother Omowali, SPICE

As-Salaam-Alaikum,

Marvin X

Gullahland, South Carolina