Toward the Unity of North American Africans: 3, Unity of Black Men

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Unity of North American Africans: 3, Unity of Black Men

Unity of North American Africans: 3, Unity of the Black Men

AncestorJohn Douimbia, my mentor who gave me manhood training one on one, saidwhen I agreed to produce the Black Men's Conference in Oakland, 1980,that I was embarking on a most dangerous project that would challengethe deepest recesses of my soul. He begged me to slow down and pacemyself since he had tried without success to bring together anorganization of black men since the 1950s in the Bay Area. He hadpresented the concept of a secular organization of black men to manysocial activists but they ran from it like it was a hot potato. John hadbeen an associate of Malcolm X when they hustled in Harlem. After hisrelease from prison, Malcolm and John D, as we called him, aka TheCount, since he dressed immaculately and the only brother who could outdress him was the living legend Willie Brown, an associate of John D'swho became a state legislator, speaker of the state house and Mayor ofSan Francisco--Malcolm and John met together in Los Angeles when Malcolmarrived to organize the mosque for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Johnwas doing some organizing on his own when Malcolm arrived, so he invitedMalcolm to his meeting, a multi-cultural socialist gathering. WhenMalcolm saw what John was doing, he begged the Count to help put themosque together in San Francisco. John was a merchant seaman but he toldMalcolm he would see what he could do when he returned from overseas.

Johnkept his word and attempted to take the San Francisco mosque to ahigher level, but the minister and members were not ready to accept theconcept of an organization of black men outside the mosque butassociated with the mosque. This idea freaked them out and they labeledJohn a hypocrite. As we know, Malcolm came to the same idea once hedeparted the Nation of Islam, that black men needed a secularorganization where we could all come together regardless of ourreligious views, that's why he established the Organization of AfricanAmerican Unity, modeled after the OAU or Organization of African Unity.

JohnD and I planned and organized the Oakland Black Men's Conference in1980 at the Oakland Auditorium, bringing together a thousand black men.Participants included Dr. Nathan Hare,
Dr. Wade Nobles, Dr. ObaT'Shake, Dr. Lige Daley, Dr. Yusef Bey, Paul Cobb, Dezzie Woods Jones,Betty King, Michael Lange, et al. As a symbol of unite, we had tried tobring Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton together, but it didn't happen.The final word we got from Huey was through his brother Melvin who toldus Huey said there was too much blood on the path between him andCleaver. Although he, himself, wanted to reconcile with Cleaver, inrespect to the comrades who had lost loved ones in the war between theHuey and Cleaver factions, he could not meet nor reconcile withEldridge.

In my last meeting with Huey in a West Oakland Crackhouse, I challenged Huey. "Why can't black men come together, after all,Arabs kill each other but they then embrace in the Mosque."
Huey's reply was, "We ain't A-rabs!"

Andso this grand opportunity of black man unity was lost. My meeting wasthe last time I'd see my friend. He was murdered by a youth a few weeksafter our meeting in the Crack house. Even his murder was supreme ironyfor had he not unified black youth into an army of liberation the likesof which America had never experienced, making the Black Panther Party athreat to the national security of the United States?

And yet,in spite of their negrocities (Amiri Baraka term), the Black PantherParty had unified black men and women into an organization of fearlessyouth and adults that achieved international recognition as therepresentatives of the North American African nation. The Nation ofIslam had done the same, under Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. Malcolmwould later say the NOI was the best organization nigguhs ever had, andEldridge said the same thing about the Black Panther Party. Of coursemany people blame him for the internal problems, aside from what the FBIand its Cointelpro (Counter Intelligence Program did to destroy allblack organizations and to prevent the rise of a black messiah who couldunify all factions.
--Marvin X ( El Muhajir)
12/8/10

See Marvin X's Eldridge Cleaver, My Friend the Devil, a memoir, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2009.

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