Since his violent death in 1965 aged 39, the African American activist Malcolm X has become more of a cultural icon than a properly understood historical figure. On 13 March, Moshik Temkin of Harvard Kennedy School joined Graduate Institute professor Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou to discuss the international context for Malcolm X’s activism, the scope and significance of his travels during the last year of his life to Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, and the distinctions he made between civil rights and human rights.

“Malcolm X was a geopolitical realist”, says Prof. Temkin. “That’s the basis of his strategy. This meant a transition from a civil rights framework to a human rights framework, and from looking at the African American issue through a domestic lens to understanding it internationally. He thought it was very important to spend time travelling the world, meeting with heads of state and others, to convince them of the need to link African American politics with the politics of anti-imperialism. He felt you could exert pressure on the United States through the international pressure of the human rights framework.”

Prof. Mohamedou remarks that “the mention of Malcolm X conjures up imagery and clichés about his persona but little historical knowledge about his worldview, when, at the end of his life, he was developing a unique geopolitical perspective bridging Mississippi lynchings, Patrice Lumumba’s killing and the Vietnam War.”

You can watch the conversation between Moshik Temkin and Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou, which was organised by the Institute’s International History Department, below.

NB: On 21 March, the Graduate Institute will host a lecture from Pap Diaye of Sciences Po on Martin Luther King et Malcom X: le droit à la liberté et les mots pour le dire. Register here.