Black & Palestine - histories challenges & opportunities

Africa World Now Project

Image: Malcolm X in 1964, w/ leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Dr. Ahmad Shukeiri.

What we are witnessing, in this global moment, is not unprecedented, it is European modernity coming apart at its seams. The loosely tied myths that has kept it together are unraveling, delinking…but it intends to not go easily. The reverberating effect of it fits and fissures are being articulated in its violence. The contradictions are materialized through its human vessels, like a virus seeing its inevitable demise.

It is with the unity of struggle, that we can inoculate the praxis of liberation, to ensure this time, as with times we struggled and continue to struggle collectively against imperialism and its attendant colonialism/s, chattel slavery, Apartheid, to follow in the tradition of resistance set before us.

Today we look at a component of this unity of struggle…we pay attention to Black and Palestinian intersectional experiences with the violence of the colonial.

When thinking about Black and Palestinian liberatory continuities we have plenty to explore, but a good place that we can find its most articulate expression is with Brother Malcolm [El Hajj Malik Shabazz].
As far back as the late 1950s Malcolm had been speaking out in international support of Palestinian liberation. According to Michael Fischbach, “several factors accounted for this. As a member of the Nation of Islam (NOI), Brother Malcolm felt a natural inclination to cultivate a kinship with other Muslims, including Arabs. Arabs had long been involved or in contact with the NOI, among them Jamil Shakir Diab, a Palestinian who immigrated to the United States in 1948 and taught Arabic at the NOI’s University of Islam in Chicago. Of particular note in Malcolm’s pro-Palestinian leanings were two visits he made to the Palestinians’ homeland...He returned to Cairo and attended a press conference given by, Ahmad Shuqayri, the chair of the newly created Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), after which he published a scathing critique of Zionism titled “Zionist Logic” in Cairo’s English language newspaper, the Egyptian Gazette” (Michael Fischbach, The New Left and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in the United States; Black Power and Palestine: Transnational Countries of Color.

Today, we explore Black and Palestine...its history, challenges, and opportunities with Ajamu Dillahunt and Dr. Tasneem Siddiqui.

Dr. Tasneem Siddiqui is an assistant professor in the Department of History, Politics, and Social Justice at Winston-Salem State University.

She has a PhD in American Studies and Ethnicity from the University of Southern California (USC). She is currently working on her manuscript; Freedom is a Place: Black Self-Determination and Land-Based Struggles in the Lowcountry and Sea Islands.

Dr. Siddiqui is also a valued member of the Africa World Now Project collective where she is a senior researcher and associate producer.

Ajamu Amiri Dillahunt is a Ph.D. Student in the Department of History at Michigan State University. He is a member of Black Workers for Justice (BWFJ) and a board member with the Interreligious Foundation of Community Organizations (IFCO). He is also a former intern with the SNCC Digital Gateway Project at Duke University. In May of 2019, Ajamu graduated from North Carolina Central University with a B.A. in History and a B.A. in Political Science. Ajamu also participated in the historic Demilitarize! Durham2Palestine Coalition.

Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native/indigenous, African, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana and Ayiti; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people.

Listen intently. Think deeply. Act accordingly.