MALCOLM X: MAU MAU SELF-DEFENCE

The word ‘terrorist’ has been bandied around since the US kicked off its ‘War on T*rror’ in 2001 and really even before that. But who gets the label depends on whose interests the ‘t*rrorists’ serve.

For example, although the mainstream media touts Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, leader of al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as Syria’s new tolerant leader, the US still designates HTS a t*rrorist organisation, with US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller claiming on 9 December that the US can still work with such entities. Miller said he could not verify that a $10-million bounty remained on Jolani, though a 2017 FBI press release indicates so.

Similarly, more than a century ago, European colonialists claimed they brought civilisation and progress to the 'Dark Continent', despite employing extreme violence and brutality to subjugate and exploit Africans. However, when our ancestors rose up to liberate our homelands, the West depicted them as t*rrorists and savage criminals. 

In this clip, Pan-Africanist Malcolm X (1925-65) courageously defended Kenya's Land and Freedom Army, popularly known as the Mau Mau. Like so many Pan-African freedom fighters, such as Frantz Fanon (1925-61), Kwame Ture (1941-98), Josina Machel (1945-71), Amilcar Cabral (1924-73), Titina Silá (circa 1943-73), Malcolm X understood that the violence oppressed deploy differs fundamentally from the oppressor’s violence, hence his famous line, 'by any means necessary.'

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Sources:

https://news.sky.com/story/who-is-syrian-rebel-leader-abu-mohammed-al-jolani-and-what-are-his-links-to-al-qaeda-13270212

https://www.history.utoronto.ca/events/mau-mau-face-international-terrorism-1950s-contemporary-perspective

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1952/oct/21/mau-mau-terrorism-in-kenya

https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-december-9-2024

https://www.odni.gov/nctc/terrorist_groups/hts.html

https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/washingtondc/news/press-releases/up-to-10-million-reward-offered-for-information-on-the-leader-of-the-al-nusrah-front