The year 1965 began on an ominous and unsettling note the assassination and martyrdom of Nana Malcolm X, the Fire Prophet. Even in the white and winter cold of February, it was a sign of the coming fire. Indeed, it pointed toward the fiery fulfillment of prophecy, which Nana Malcolm, himself, had predicted.
This year and month marks the 57th anniversary of the assassination and martyrdom of El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Nana Minister Malcolm X, who offered and gave his life in the sacred and sustained struggle of his people for liberation and an uplifted life.
This year’s Black History Month theme, “Black Health and Wellness,” opens space for us to call into focus our self-determined and self-sustaining ways of knowing, working and struggling to achieve, protect, promote and sustain our health, health care and healing in a society which is the source of so much of our preventable sickness, needless suffering, and underserved deaths. And thus arises the undeniable need for righteous and relentless struggle, not only to achieve justice and end oppression, but also to achieve a comprehensive radical racial healing.
The ancient African ethical imperative of serudj ta, to repair, renew and remake the world, remains as relevant today and perhaps more urgent for us and all human beings, given the times in which we now live and the damage, devastation and dangers we sense and see all around us.
In the midst of our rightful celebration of the life and legacy of Nana Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is important to note that no honor is more important, no action more essential than reclaiming his life and legacy as our own as a people.