Malcolm X and Makhtar Seck Mboro: Miscellanies and Discussions

Abstract

Abstract: “A paper that should have been a comparative study,” some colleagues would tell me. However, one cannot talk about comparison unless there are significant comparative elements. There must be relevant convergence and divergence points underpinned by a common denominator that would synthesize the result from such an endeavor. From different contexts and environments, Malcolm X and Makhtar Seck Mboro share the same skin color, their religion and their distant origin, the black complexion, Islam and Africa. The Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America (USA) mostly influenced all Malcolm X’s words in the early 1960s. Malcolm X marked an era characterized by the quest for race identity, domination and imperialism. Makhtar Seck Mboro knew indeed that feudal era under the yoke of French colonization like all Senegalese people of his time, but he did not face the same ordeal as Malcolm X. This study strengthens the idea that extremism did not sully Malcolm X’s international stature of an intellectual whom a part of his words became quotations full of truth. In the same vein, this study emphasizes that Makhtar Seck Mboro’s teachings, which have fallen into folk literature for a long time, need to enrich written literature. These miscellanies and discussions evidence that being an intellectual does not depend on the number of one’s degrees, but on the value of one’s deeds and words for the sake of positive change in one’s society. Both, Malcolm X and Makhtar Seck Mboro, were not good writers, but their words brought hope and courage in a world sinking into the loss of moral values. Keywords: Civil Rights Movement, colonization, translation study, quotations, Wolof