During the last year of his life, Malcolm X spent five months in
Africa and the Middle East, and almost another month in Europe. In
Africa, he built powerful relationships with anti-colonial resistance
leaders and the presidents of new nations emerging from colonialism. In
the Middle East, presidents and kings recognized Malcolm as the emerging
leader of Islam in the United States, and gave him lavish support. In
Europe, Malcolm X built relationships with the younger generations of
African, Asian, and Middle Eastern leaders who were preparing for their
future leadership roles through their studies at Oxford and other elite
universities.
The story of the international Malcolm X culminates with Malcolm’s
activities abroad during the last year of his life, and explores why
Malcolm thought these travels were necessary for the Black liberation
struggle in the United States. However, the roots of Malcolm’s
internationalism began before his birth: the roots lie in his mother’s
heritage, with the political organization his parents dedicated their
lives to, and with the values and visions Malcolm’s parents raised their
children with.
Marcus Garvey and the United Negro Improvement Association
Malcolm’s mother, Louise Langdon, was a light skinned Afro-Caribbean
woman from the small island of Grenada. At the age of seventeen she
moved to Montreal, Canada, during World War I. Montreal was a day’s
drive from Harlem, New York, where tens of thousands of other
Afro-Caribbeans migrated at this time. In Harlem, they contributed to
the formation of a politically radical community that soon became known
as the Black capital of the United States.
Afro-Caribbean men and women often experienced serious racism in the
United States for the first time in their lives. Such treatment stunned
and infuriated them. Many of the most militant Black voices from this
period came from Afro-Caribbeans, most famously, from Marcus Garvey.
Garvey preached that Black Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, and other members
of the African diaspora needed to stop thinking of themselves as a
small minority surrounded by overpowering White forces. Instead, they
needed to think of themselves as members of the massive African and
African diasporic population, which, if united, could gain complete
freedom from White domination. Because Asia also suffered from European
colonialism, Garvey went even further, advocating a united Asia working
alongside a united Africa in the global battle against White supremacy.
Source: The Cross Cultural Solidarity History Education Project
