The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X, who changed his name to Malik el-Shabbaz toward the end of his brief life, needs no introduction. Being first a crook, and then a radical black supremacist, and then an orthodox Sunni Muslim, and then a martyr, is quite overwhelming for just one person. Prior to reading this book, I knew very little about what Malcolm X stood for. The little that I did know, no doubt was due to his exceptional oratory skills that combine fiery speeches with very finely detailed and cohesive points.

The book starts out with a narration of what life was like for a black family in the first half of the 20th century. Malcolm Little (Little was his original surname before he decided to drop it) was not your average black boy. He had red hair and his complexion was fairer than usual. His grandmother had been raped by a white man, which made Malcolm's mother half white. Later in his life, after he joined the movement called "Nation of Islam", he would be sorely embarrassed by this 'fairer' complexion, but when he was a child he was a little proud that he was whiter than everyone else in the family. Malcolm said it revealed the general mentality of that age when being fairer meant you're better. (I can't help but to observe that this mentality has survived until today).

Life was tough for the Little family. After his father was killed by a group of white men for preaching 'rebellious things' to the blacks, the Little children learned to live like people of the streets, cheating their way to food, playing truant, and even compete among each other to geth their mother's attention. Being a middle child who was not particularly the darling of his parents, Malcolm soon learned that it is only by crying out loud that he could get what he wanted. This was one of the things that he carried all his life. To get something done for you, you gotta be loud enough.

The autobiography is full of anecdotes like that, of the lessons he learned from a life experience. As a reader, I was mesmerized by how well he utilised the things he learned as a crook during the time when he was already a preacher for the Nation of Islam. Speaking of that, Now there is a fascinating chapter of his life! I got to know how he became an ardent follower of Elijah Muhammad, the founder of the cult, and how his loyalty would finally lead to his own demise within the organization. It was quite hard for me to fathom how an intelligent man like him could fall prey to a movement whose basic principle revolves around the fact that the white man is the devil, but I did not go through years of discrimination as Malcolm most certainly did. And to be able to dive into his mind as he did everything under the sun that a radical does is truly an experience I'll not soon forget.

It was around the time he spent in the Nation of Islam that he became to get international recognition. Along with moderates fighting for the same cause, like Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X was starting to be synonymous to the fight to make the plight of the blacks a human right issue rather than a civil right issue. For those of you who cannot tell the difference, when something is a human rights issue, the UN can rightfully intervene. A civil rights issue can only remain within the domestic realms, therefore, the UN cannot justify any interference on its part. Malcolm travelled all over the world to reveal what it is actually like to be a black American in those days. It soon became apparent that his charisma alone was pushing his cause a step closer to success. The only problem is, there was so much disunity among the blacks that even Malcolm X, with all his intelligence and sage, could not find an effective solution to bring all the dfferent groups of black men together.

Malcolm X with his children and Muhammad Ali

As a Sunni Muslim, I have to admit that this book is particularly appealing to me because Malcolm X, toward the end of his life, became Malik El-Shabbaz. I cannot escape intellectual bias so from the start, I was looking forward to the chapter depicting the process of his conversion to orthodox Islam. His trip to Mecca was related in such a moving way that I felt I'd known Malcolm all my life. There was something he said that made me ponder about my responsibility in this world. The only reason people could have joined a cult like the Nation of Islam was that the true Muslims did not do anything to inform the Americans what Islam really is. In a way he had a point. There was not so much Islamic literature available to the masses at the time, and there was certainly no Wikipedia. Even today, most people are still quite ignorant toward Islam not because they have no access to Islamic literature, but the closest public relations tool that Islam has , the Muslims, is not doing a good job at selling it.

Of course, any book that can make the reader surprised because it was already the end, is a book worth reading. And this one definitely is one of those books. A person of Malcolm's charisma is hard to come by, and you see often in history that such people are done for by the very people they had wanted to save. This is a life that serve to teach us all the value of humanity.

I can't think of a better autobiography so far. 8.5 stars out of 10 =)