To suggest that Kehinde Andrews is a fan of Malcolm X would be an understatement. The author, with his goatee, may be starting to favor his hero, whose picture sits on a bookshelf in his office.
The title of Professor Andrews’ latest book, “Nobody Can Give You Freedom,” comes from a famous Malcolm X quote. The book, which was released May 1 in the United Kingdom, is slated for a Sept. 9 release in the United States.
Professor Andrews, who teaches Black studies at Birmingham City University in England, has often taken Malcolm X’s words – and his legacy of Pan-Africanism – to heart. He is the founder of the Harambee Organisation of Black Unity, which takes its name from the Organization of Afro-American Unity, and has become a leading voice on topics relating to race and racism over the past decade.
Why We Wrote This
Whether you agree or disagree with Malcolm X, his speeches urged Black self-determination and Black unity. A new book investigates his uncompromising words and their relevance today, and reclaims his message from the myth-making that has attempted to distort it.
“Nobody Can Give You Freedom” might best be described as a myth-busting book about Malcolm X’s legacy, which Professor Andrews seeks to correct with the human rights icon’s own words. “Once you cut through the Malcolm myths you will find a legacy that either terrifies or inspires you,” he wrote on social media. “[One hundred] years after Malcolm’s birth, I wrote ‘Nobody Can Give You Freedom’ so we can pick his real mission.”
The Monitor spoke with Professor Andrews ahead of the book’s release in the U.S. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What was your process in putting the book together?
The biggest compliment that I’ve been paid so far is that I let Malcolm speak for himself. You have someone with a body of work that is not respected because it’s oral. But Malcolm has a very clear body of work through his speeches.
When people are writing about Malcolm, they don’t necessarily ignore his work, they just don’t center it. Malcolm isn’t thought of as an intellectual, so I wanted to take his work and say, this is really the best analysis of racism you’ll find anywhere. It also gives you a solution which maybe you like, or maybe you don’t like, but it’s consistent, really logical, and well thought out. The best articulation of Black radical politics you’ll find is in Malcolm X. Let’s just take that body of work and then see what are the key concepts? What is the solution [to racism]? And just lay it out for people.
Academics tend to do this thing where we will talk about Malcolm through [Karl] Marx or through [W.E.B.] Du Bois, but I wanted to talk about what Malcolm actually said. And that was easy for me, because Malcolm is the intellectual basis for me personally. I’ve been studying his work for probably 20 years.
How important was it for you to cut through the series of myths that have come to define Malcolm X?
The more I’ve thought about it and have answered questions about it, in some ways, it would be better if we just forgot Malcolm completely. Because the way that we remember him in these quite dangerous myths undermines his racial politics in general, and undermine him specifically. Anytime you see Malcolm X with an American flag, it’s the most ridiculous misinterpretation of him you could ever have. He was so [against] the American project. It’s ludicrous.
It takes someone who was so important, with such a revolutionary and radical voice, with an important political program, and reduces him to nothing but a figurehead. No program, no organizing, just an “angry” Black man.
The policies of Malcolm X are what we need, but the myths are the most insidious way to detract from and hide that message.
Malcolm was born 100 years ago this year, and yet his words sound very much like a living and relevant text. How does his commentary inspire you to create community in your own life and spaces?
I can’t just write about it. I gotta do it. That’s the thing. I started to get involved and engaged in Malcolm’s work when I started my Ph.D. around 2007 or 2009, and it was a blueprint. The Harambee Organisation of Black Unity, which we started in 2013, is based on Malcolm’s Organization of Afro-American Unity. Doing this book has actually helped me within the organization, because the intellectual work has impacted how the organization works.
What ideas do you want to endure in people’s minds after they’ve read the book?
I want people to recognize Malcolm as one of the most important intellectuals on race. Certainly on race and racism in the 20th century. More importantly, I want people to know Malcolm had a blueprint, and that blueprint can work. It’s really quite simple – unity of the [African] diaspora with the [African] continent. That’s how we get free. It’s time that we wake up and understand it and stop having any faith in this American or British project [based in colonialism]. What we need is global unity.
There is an analysis here that you need to understand. People say they want to understand racism, we want to understand what to do. Malcolm helps you understand it, and it’s not comfortable. I always say, if you’re having a conversation about race, and it’s comfortable, it’s just a bad conversation.
It should be uncomfortable, because it’s an uncomfortable topic. It’s the reality we still have to live with. Malcolm has the quote about the “ballot or the bullet.” There doesn’t have to be a bloodthirsty revolution. There can be a peaceful transition if people understand the stakes and understand what we need to do. Hopefully the book can help open people’s eyes, and that people will read Malcolm’s words and have access to them in a way that can make a difference in the world.
