When most of the writings on Martin Luther King, Jr. concentrate on the civil rights movement, tiny work has been produced to location his speeches and worldview in the context the Freedom and struggles in Africa and other Third Planet nations. King was informed and inspired by the liberation struggles in Africa and other Third Planet nations. What has emerged from the voluminous components and books written about Martin Luther King, Jr. is a single, truncated dimension of King and his worldview. For the most aspect, the legacy and correct which means of King has been highjacked by historians and writers and striped of its subversive and anti-establishment content material.
Africa played an essential part in informing each the Civil Rights and Black Energy Movements. African Americans have been effectively conscious and inspired by African nations breaking the hold of European colonialism on Africa. Dating back to Marcus Garvey, who placed Africa at the core of black political consciousness, African Americans have been conscious of their historical and cultural hyperlink with Africa. As Garvey had prophesied the rise of Africa strengthen the political calculus of black in America and all through the planet.
That the calculus of Africa informed Martin Luther King view of the Civil Rights Movement is a footnote in history, talked about only in passing by historians. However, Africa was as essential to King as it was for Malcolm X, who is most normally linked with Africa. King was invited and attended independence celebration of Ghana. “The minute I Knew I was coming to Ghana, King mentioned, “I had a extremely deep emotional feeling. A new nation was been born. It symbolized the truth that a new order was coming into becoming and an old order was passing away.” Hence, Africa and the liberation struggles on the continent have been central to King's evolving worldview.
Africa and King's Worldview
As reflected beneath, King references to Africa demonstrates how he viewed the value of Africa in connection with African Americans and their freedom struggle.
On Significance of the African Struggle
King linked the struggle of Africa Americans with the struggle of African individuals on the continent, observing for instance: “Quite a few of the students, when passed to express their inner feelings recognize themselves with students in Africa, Asia and South America. The liberation struggle in Africa has been the greatest single international influence on American Negro students. Often I hear them say if their African brothers can break the bonds of colonialism, certainly the American Negro can break Jim Crow.”
On Part of the African American Freedom Struggle in History
King placed the struggle of African Americans in the bigger context of the increasing tide of history, asserting: “Oppressed individuals can not stay oppressed forever. The urge for freedom will ultimately come. This is what occurred to the American Negro. Anything inside has reminded him of his birthright of freedom some thing with no has reminded him that he can obtain it. Consciously and unconsciously, he has been swept in by what the Germans get in touch with the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa, and his brown, and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean he is moving with a comic sense of urgency toward the guarantee land of racial justice.”
On How the Liberation Struggle in African emboldened African Americans
King argued that the liberation struggles in Africa gave African Americans a higher sense of human worth, awareness and assertiveness: “A issue which accounted for the new sense of dignity on the aspect of the Negro has been the awareness that his struggle for freedom in a aspect of the worldwide struggle. He watched developments in Asia and Africa with rapt interest. On these vast prodigious continents dwell two-thirds of the world's individuals.”
On African Peoples looking for Dignity and Freedom
King observed that the struggle for human dignity was a motivating force for black individuals in Africa and the United States: “Thirty years ago there have been only 3 independent nations in the complete Africa-Liberia, Ethiopia and South Africa… These speedy alterations have naturally influence the considering of the American Negro. He knows that his struggle for human dignity is not an isolated occasion. It is a drama becoming played on the stage of the planet with spectator and supporters from every single continent.”
The Lesson of Ghana's Independence
King observed the independence of Ghana offered an essential lesson for African Americans and the Civil Rights Movement: “Ghana has some thing to say to us. It says to us initially that the oppressor by no means voluntarily provides freedom to the oppressed. You have operate for it. Freedom is by no means offered to anyone. Privileged classes by no means give up their privileges with no sturdy resistance.”
