Counting backwards, you might feel cheated and betrayed

From Zionist Logic -- Malcolm X on Zionism:

The Zionist armies that now occupy Palestine claim their ancient Jewish prophets predicted that in the "last days of this world" their own God would raise them up a "messiah" who would lead them to their promised land, and they would set up their own "divine" government in this newly-gained land, this "divine" government would enable them to "rule all other nations with a rod of iron."

If the Israeli Zionists believe their present occupation of Arab Palestine is the fulfillment of predictions made by their Jewish prophets, then they also religiously believe that Israel must fulfill its "divine" mission to rule all other nations with a rod of irons, which only means a different form of iron-like rule, more firmly entrenched even, than that of the former European Colonial Powers.

These Israeli Zionists religiously believe their Jewish God has chosen them to replace the outdated European colonialism with a new form of colonialism, so well disguised that it will enable them to deceive the African masses into submitting willingly to their "divine" authority and guidance, without the African masses being aware that they are still colonized.

African? The Beta Israel were mostly still in Ethiopia when this was published in 1964.

(I know, I know. . .)

And it somehow escaped me that today is also the anniversary of Steve Biko's death. I imagine that last year, what with that conference in Durban, the U.S. was avoiding mention of South Africa as much as possible. Or I'm still cranky and half-awake.

Twenty-five years ago Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko became the best known martyr of the struggle against apartheid when he died of head injuries in a prison cell after being beaten into a coma.

He was just 30 at the time but had found a wide following with his call on blacks to first liberate their minds from white domination, urging that the "most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."

His radicalism created a rift between his Black Consciousness Movement and the African National Congress (ANC), symbolised by the more temperate Nelson Mandela.

It took 20 years for the ANC to claim Biko as a hero of the collective struggle, but today he is remembered as the intellectual who inspired Africans to be proud of being black and one of the continent's great nationalists, along with Patrice Lumumba and Kwame Nkrumah.There should be something here about U.S. complicity in Lumumba's murder, but I'm already getting rather far afield of the original point. Couldn't find any comments on Paletinian independence from Biko. There is a page of quotes:

"The basic tenet of black consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity."

"We are looking forward to a non-racial, just and egalitarian society in which color, creed and race shall form no point of reference."

"Even today, we are still accused of racism. This is a mistake. We know that all interracial groups in South Africa are relationships in which whites are superior, blacks inferior. So as a prelude whites must be made to realize that they are only human, not superior. Same with blacks. They must be made to realize that they are also human, not inferior".

"The overall analysis, therefore, based on the Hegelian theory of dialectic materialism, is as follows. That since the thesis is a white racism there can only be one valid antithesis i.e. a solid black unity to counterbalance the scale.... We can never wage any struggle without offering a strong counterpoint to the white races that permeate our society so effectively".

Christ, we need somebody like him nowadays. Or even wider knowledge of what he was saying then, because it's still disturbingly appropriate.