Malcolm X The Saabiq

Book Review: The Dead are Rising by Les Payne and Tamara Payne

Of the many Malcolms eulogised to comfort us in his absence we could add one more:

Malcolm X was a Saabiq.

One of the foremost in deeds in this life

One of the foremost in the next.

“And the foremost (in faith) will be the foremost (in the Hereafter). Those will be the Nearest to Allah.” (Waqiah:10-11)

To strive, to forsake, to be the first to stand up to oppression is to invite censure, suivallance and death. There is a reason that the Sabiqun are a few in number. 

Which is why the first half of The Dead are Rising makes uncomfortable reading. We know there’s a past Malcolm X wasn’t proud of. 

It's in the Autobiography. It's re-enacted in Spike Lee’s film. Generally, as Muslims we tend to not dwell on past mistakes.

Especially when they’ve embraced Islam.

Especially when we've taken them to be a Saabiq. 

But this is where we have to appreciate the tenacious dedication of Les Payne - his 28 years of research included first hand interviews of the shoulder rubbers, the double crossers and those closest to Malcolm. Such was the colossal undertaking that Les Payne enlisted the help of his daughter, Tamara, who completed the book after his passing.

From his Autobiography we know that his father was a Garveyite and his mother a proud West Indian immigrant. 

We meet little Malcolm who 

“loved especially to grow peas…

who would gaze up in the blue sky…

and think all kinds of things.” 

Only to later withdraw from the system because he was told to be “realistic” about becoming a lawyer. 

The Paynes’ took these details and raised the dead. 

Earl Little died when Malcolm was six. 

Louise Little was incarcerated in an asylum when he was fourteen. 

If his parents’ commitment to “self-reliance, independent mindedness and fierce racial pride” sounds familiar, it's because in setting up an International Chapter, Marcus Garvey taught blackness to his parents first. 

If Malcolm X learnt to sharpen his mind and deliver words will killer intent it was because Louise Little was an educated Granadain who 

“was emphatic” in how she taught her children and

 “…was the one who brought knowledge out of us.” (Philbert Little)

Malcolm X was raised on the shoulders of giants.

But when he came crashing down at the age of 12 

Malcolm was just a kid. 

In Boston, East Lansing Red was just a teenager. 

While the opportunities for young black minds were slim, the street and nightclub provided an eclectic horizon for illicit dealings and cash streams. 

He was not a pimp, nor did he ever relish violence. But he took advantage of women, was off his head, and said that he was hurtling towards death if he hadn’t ended up in prison. 

Malcolm was just 19 when he was convicted of burglary. A reminder that black boys were always set up to fail. Ironically up to this point he had gotten on well with whites. Prison resurrected childhood terrors of lynching, the KKK, arson to the family home and the state attack on the black family. 

The reality is that we can’t just claim Malcolm in the post-hajj two years of his life, every year in those precious 39 meant something. In understanding the heady life of the streets Malcolm understood his own. 

He was the Saabiq of the people whose past never ceased to be his present. 

N Abida Ali