Malcolm X at Oxford Union: Racial Politics in a Global Era by Saladin Ambar (review)

Saladin Ambar’s slim volume on Malcolm X’s invited remarks at the Oxford Union on December 3, 1964 adds to a growing body of scholarship on Malcolm’s oratory, generally, and to the internationalism of the black freedom struggle, specifically. Ambar’s book focuses on Malcolm’s final full international speech, through the news coverage by British print outlets and the BBC (who broadcasted the debate and who had exclusive access to him over the four days he spent in Britain for the event), through the recollections of eyewitnesses, and through a very savvy discussion of Malcolm’s intellectual and political relationships in Europe leading up to the Oxford debate. Tracing the conversations between Malcolm and Oxford Union Society president Eric Abrahams, the banter between Malcolm and his debate opponent Humphrey Berkeley, as well as Oxford member and noted leftist Tariq Ali, Ambar provides wonderful texture to Malcolm’s visit and the context of the debate. The book’s chapters are organized thematically, tackling “extremism,” “liberty,” “moderation,” “justice,” and “virtue.”

In examining these themes, one of the major assessments that Ambar makes of Malcolm’s Oxford speech is that it represented a departure in terms of Malcolm’s assessment of time and temporality. Ambar suggests, “The demands of the future, rather than a mere articulation of present or past problems, brought the very best out of Malcolm X—and it happened in Oxford. In this most basic sense, the speech represents what can only be called the lost jewel of the American civil rights movement” (33). In Ambar’s view, “Malcolm at Oxford represented the most comprehensive, best articulated, and clearest sense of his personal and political vision of the future of race relations—not only as a domestic concern, but also a global one” (33). The globalism of Malcolm’s vision, particularly after his departure from the Nation of Islam, is an important contribution of this book, since Malcolm’s travels defined a clear shift in his orientation toward politics.

Ambar argues that, in particular, Malcolm’s thinking on the situation in the Congo in 1964 was central to his rhetorical strategy at Oxford, explaining that Malcolm’s orientation to African politics “emphasized going beyond the nation’s capital in Washington to others at the heart of the colonial enterprise as well—namely London and Paris. In this regard, Malcolm’s understanding of the complexity of racial injustice as a global phenomenon was more in tune with British policymakers’ views than those in the United States” (10–11). Using the term “georacial space,” Ambar makes the case that “Malcolm was one of the few American figures of the twentieth century to be able to rhetorically navigate the streets of Harlem and the debate hall at Oxford with equal aplomb” (18). Although the book doesn’t take a theoretical turn toward the notion of “georacial space,” it does tackle the ways in which Malcolm moved through so many cultural and political contexts with a tremendous amount of success.

Arguing that Malcolm was a “man in exile” after he was expelled from the Nation of Islam, Ambar’s book is most fascinating as it traces Malcolm’s internationalism. Particularly in tracing his relationships in Europe with intellectuals like negritude writer Alioune Diop, Cuban leftist Carlos Moore, along with black American writers Chester Himes and James Baldwin, and Shirley Fletcher at Oxford Union, Ambar’s book is tremendously useful in excavating the cross-pollination of ideas among black intellectuals around the globe, demonstrating the importance of black collaboration in developing the global third world Left. Ambar suggests that “Malcolm’s refusal to disentangle colonialism, racism, international affairs, politics, and history from each other reflected a sophisticated view of modern affairs. Malcolm saw a Negro church bombing in Alabama through the same lens as an air bombing raid in the Congo” (134). Because of this perspective on colonialism and its relationship to black...