A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable's Malcolm X by Jared A. Ball Todd Steven Burroughs

Author:Jared A. Ball, Todd Steven Burroughs
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Classic Press
Published: 2013-07-01T07:00:00+00:00

EUGENE PURYEAR

It’s Not That Complicated—Malcolm X Was a Revolutionary: Confused Terminology, Concepts Mar Marable Biography

Though this author offers that Marable’s book adds much-needed texture and depth to several periods of Malcolm X’s life, he concedes that it ultimately fails to frame Malcolm and the overall Black struggle for freedom adequately or to situate him appropriately within the broader Black cultural experience of his time. The result is little that is revelatory and much that is dubious regarding Malcolm’s evolving revolutionary stances and political direction.

In the years since his death, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) has become recognized as more than simply a Black leader but as a world-historic figure. For millions, he is a symbol of dignity, strength, militancy, and self-determination. The incisive prose of his autobiography, in particular, is imprinted on millions of minds across the world as an incredible story of personal and political transformation. What Malcolm was transforming into has remained, however, the subject of enormous debate. Political forces from the socialist left all the way to the leader of the Republican National Committee now claim his legacy.

The late Manning Marable’s new biography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,1 promised to unveil new details and dimensions of Malcolm’s life, helping us understand more fully where he was coming from, and ultimately where he was going. The product of twenty years of research, completed with hundreds of thousands of dollars in support from both Viking Press and Columbia University, Marable’s book adds texture and depth to several periods of Malcolm’s life and will undoubtedly serve as a key resource for those who want to go beyond The Autobiography of Malcolm X as Told to Alex Haley, published in 1965.2

Marable repeatedly points out that Malcolm’s Autobiography is part fact and part fictive, constructed by the political and personal agendas of Alex Haley, a Republican, and Malcolm, who emphasized different aspects of his life as his political world changed. Marable’s biography of the man focuses attention on Malcolm’s frequent and growing connections to both global Islam and the anticolonial movements of Africa in particular, but as an analytical work, it fails to deal adequately with Malcolm’s political influences, his ideological development, and his evolving strategy for Black liberation. Those who consider these the most critical questions and who have been attracted to Malcolm as a symbol of revolution are likely to be disappointed with the book. Several reviews have highlighted Marable’s uneven research and accused him of irresponsibly resorting to conjecture when making provocative and sometimes scandalous claims about Malcolm’s personal life. Although certainly far more remains to be said about both, this review will address Marable’s failure to frame Malcolm and the overall Black freedom struggle adequately.

As such, while Marable constantly hints at various themes, he often develops ideas and concepts haphazardly. One of his themes, for instance, is that Malcolm exaggerated certain details of his youth while obscuring others for rhetorical purposes. He argues that Malcolm “presented himself as the embodiment of the two central

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