Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention [Hardcover]

The backdrop to the publication of this lucid and brilliant biography is the sad death of its author Dr Manning Marable at the age of 60 on April 1st 2011 from lung disease days before "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention" was published. The book is a fine monument to a great scholar and historian and who spent decades dissecting the life of Malcolm X. In doing so revising and recasting the role of this crucial figure in modern American history. A new approach on the life of Malcolm X is long overdue and this reevaluation fills a huge gap. In particular begins the questioning of the portrait constructed by Malcolm X and his co writer Alex Haley in the excellent "Autobiography of Malcolm X" published in 1965 and long held to be the "truth" on this subject matter. This was also the key source for Spike Lee's exhilarating biopic of Malcolm. Let's be clear it is not the purpose of this biography to negate or question the importance of Malcolm X as a giant of black history. But Marable aims to show a rounded picture of the man who was also a flawed individual, a mass of contradictions and someone whose greatest consistency was inconsistency. As Marable clearly states "The great temptation for the biographer of an iconic figure is to portray him or her as a virtual saint, without the normal contradictions and blemishes that all human beings have". Thus this new biography deals with these contradictions including Malcolm's homosexual relationship with a white businessman and his very distant role as a father and husband to Betty Shabazz.

In his time Malcolm X was viewed by mainstream America as the worse kind of subversive, an ex convict and petty criminal, a man prone for preaching incendiary ideology, littered with derogatory statements not only about "white devils" but the more moderate civil rights leaders and most importantly a fierce champion for self-respect and self-help for African Americans. The passage of time however has seen Malcolm X become a much more mainstream popular figure whose cultural legacy has possibly been stronger than Martin Luther King's. Just take the movement around black hip hop, think "Public Enemy" and especially his wider impact on Black American popular culture and politics.

Key to this biography are Malcolm's grounding within Harlem where he came to admire Adam Clayton Powell Jr the Harlem Congressman, the impact of prison on his radicalization and the drift towards the Nation of Islam led by the problematic figure of Elijah Muhammad. With the sheer charisma of Malcolm X and his increasing media profile it was inevitable that his role as a Minister would be questioned within this rigid organisation. Two incidents in particular led to his break from NOI, firstly the repercussions of the police battle over Mosque 27 in California which led to the shooting of Ronald Stokes. It was clear that Malcolm was enraged by this event and led him to preach revenge at the New York Mosque No 7 where witnesses accept that Malcolm X intended to "send somebody to Los Angeles to kill [the police] as sure as God made green apples,". This caused a huge row with Elijah Muhammad who intervened to halt such action. The final fissure was Malcolm's infamous comments on the Kennedy assassination where in response to a reporter he answered that "Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they've always made me glad." This finally broke the relationship with the NOI and led Malcolm to more radical forms of black nationalism.

It may have also signed his death warrant since Marable looks again in great detail at Malcolm's assassination with its links to the NOI but also possible FBI and other state agencies involvement, He also makes in effect calls for the case to be reopened and had he lived he intended to follow up this accusation. In particular he argues that it was allegedly Al-Mustafa Shabazz, who was once known as William Bradley, who fired the first, fatal shot at Malcolm X in the Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965. Shabbazz/Bradley is still alive and has never been tried for this and whether he is guilty or innocent Marable's case will need answering. What is sure is that even if Dr Manning Marable had lived to a 100 years of age it is very unlikely that anyone will ever write a book quite this comprehensive on this seminal American political and cultural figure.

Marable's work is a labour of love -- he has collected an extraordinary array of interviews with Malcolm's friends, family and enemies, as well as sifting though prison, hospital, military and psychiatric records and the records kept by government bodies spying on the Nation of Islam. Not only that, but he has collected private letters, and also gone through the media coverage of the period, from the mainstream, to the tabloids to minor newspapers and radical underground press copy. He also presents interviews with Farrakhan, so we gain insight into his trajectory within the NOI, and we also understand more fully how impressive Malcolm X was to him in the early days of the movement.

However, the text disappoints on a number of levels -- firstly, Manning is trying to appeal to an academic, as well as a tabloid audience, and it is sad to see him spending page after page on Malcolm and Betty's sex life, and also spreading rumour and innuendo about Malcolm's sexuality. Such cheap slander has little place in a book that advertises itself as being the definitive study of an extremely important and iconic historical figure such as Malcolm X. It is not scholarly ( Marable mainly depends on rumour ) and besides, it tarnishes Malcolm memory -- these are private matters, and should not be paraded for voyeuristic purposes, or to hype sales to a 21st century public, greedy for such details.

Secondly, Marable frequently makes sweeping statements about Islam, which seem to show an arrogant, contemptuous,condescending and dismissive attitude towards Orthodox Shia and Sunni culture, history and ethics -- he sums up centuries of Shia and Sunni cultural development in a few throw away generalisations, usually negative, for example, he mentions the 'fact' that Muslims 'beat their wives', or he portrays Islamic culture as 'intolerant of other faiths', or as a 'slave culture','racist',( the latter two slurs made in the chapters on Saudi ) and 'harsh', with very little contextual detail, evidence, or scholarly objectivity and detachment. Frankly, it looks poor, and lacking in academic seriousness too. (The perspectives on Islam Marable offers are also contradictory -- in other places in his book, he makes it clear that Orthodox Islam is in no way a racist religion.)

One has to wonder why Marable tends to portray Orthodox Islam in such a negative light in his book -- after all, if Orthodox Islam was indeed, such a hostile,intolerant religion, why is it that Christians, Muslims and Jews lived together in relative harmony and peace, for many hundreds of years, all over the Middle East ( until the founding of Israel and US/UK meddling in the region that is, and with the exception of Saudi Arabia.) One should reflect that it was actually Europe that showed little or no tolerance for other religions, right up until the post WW2 period.

And, the book should have had a good editor and proof readers -- it has more than a few glaring errors of spelling, syntax and punctuation.

Overall though, it is a very reasonable book, and a rewarding read, and I would say, it is pretty much essential to have on your shelf if you are interested in Malcolm X -- but, it is flawed and infuriating too, for the above listed reasons.

Especially, I re iterate, the speculation about Malcolm's sexuality and his private life really have no place at all in a serious academic study, and should be relegated to cheap B movies and the worst of the gutter press.

If Marable's publishers reissue the book, they should seriously consider removing those pages, not as an act of censorship, but simply because it would be the decent thing to do.

This book adds multiple layers of new information to the complex character and life of Malcolm. Having thrice read 'the Autobiography of Malcolm X' in 1978 when 21 years of age, and as a consequernce then embarking on my own transformation, this is a must read, must have book for anyone interested in the scholarship of African Studies.