Part 29: My Friend the Devil

Marvin X


Rev. Moon wanted "Paul" to speak at a Moonie Conference in Jamaica. Cleaver asked me to handle the negotiations. My counterpart was Rev. Moon's right hand man, Col. Pak, publisher of the Washington Times, although I don't think it was out at this time, 1979. At first Col. Pak was only going to pay for Cleaver's ticket, but as per usual, Cleaver wanted me to travel with him, so since Col. Pak was resisting, I refused to answer his phone calls or return calls for several weeks. He left messages saying I was a very difficult man to contact. But I was being difficult on purpose. When we finally conversed again, he agreed that I should go, additionally he wanted Mrs. Cleaver as well. We agreed but this presented a crisis since the Cleavers were separated or divorced by this time. We tried telling Col. Pak Mrs. Cleaver wasn't available but they insisted she come, so we told them we'd get back to them on this matter while we figured out what to do. We came up with Hurriyah's friend, Nzingha, a fairly light skinned sister who might pass for Kathleen--all Negroes look alike, right? When it was almost departure time Col. Pak called to say we could take a delegation of six people, so I scrambled together a crew of six, including Cleaver, Nzingha,Hurriyah, Hasan James, Rasul Taifa and myself. The brothers had two or three days to get their passports and meet us at the airport. We landed in Montego Bay and checked in at the conference hotel Royce Hall. As per the African American tradition, once checked in, we wanted to find the dope as in ganja, so we sought out the brothers on the periphery of the hotel who were "bald head" dred because they didn't want trouble from Babylon police, so they cut their hair but they were Rasta just the same and they had all the dope we wanted and then some. They also had art work which Cleaver began to purchase. We told them we were writers and that I had a suitcase full of books I'd brought to trade. They told me to go get my books on black consciousness and I could get all the ganja I wanted. Thereafter they called me "culture teacher" and wanted me share knowledge with them and didn't want me to leave Jamaica because they said they needed culture teachers.

These were young brothers so I reflected on youth back in the US who were sometimes difficult to reach with conscious knowledge. Elijah Muhammad used to say he could teach blacks outside of America in six months while it would take six years to reach and teach black Americans because they were hard headed, stiff necked, deaf, dumb and blind and in their arrogance perceive they know everything, yet they know nothing. As Khalid Muhammad said once (may he rest in peace), "How can Jesse Jackson say I am somebody when he doesn't know who he is, so how can he be somebody?"

But I must say lately that black American youth are seeking conscious knowledge. I've had young men and women spend thirty and forty dollars to purchase my books. And I was shocked and proud. One young brother held me up in a fish cafe for at least two hours questioning me on a variety of topics. He said he did so because he didn't know when he was going to see me again. He also said he quit his girlfriend because she didn't like to read and he was a reader.

Meanwhile back in Jamaica, Eldridge spoke in the "Hellfire" Room at the hotel. It was a great speech, so powerful all the hotel workers stopped in to listen intently. Essentially he asked why have Christians allowed Communists to be the Good Samaritans of Latin America? He said you cannot blame the people for turning to Communism when the Communists are the ones who've given them the rope to climb out of the hole of poverty, ignorance and disease. The Jamaican hotel workers applauded loudly, but at breakfast the next morning, which was soon a private conversation between Col. Pak and myself, everyone else was asked to leave, including Cleaver, Col Pak said, "Mr. Jackmon, you tell Mr. Cleaver his speech too radical, too radical." I just laughed to myself. And then he and I got down to the business at hand: Rev. Moon wanted "Paul" to make a world tour condemning Communism, but when I presented our figures for doing such a tour, Col. Pak said, "Mr. Jackmon, your figures are unacceptable, unacceptable!" I informed him that Mr. Cleaver could not and would not risk his life making a global tour to condemn his old friends in the Communist world for pennies. The more our conversation continued, the more Col. Pak repeated this line, "Mr. Jackmon, you very difficult to deal with, very difficult.
And you were a very hard man to reach, Mr. Jackmon, very hard man." Thus ended our negotiations on the world tour.

Nzingha and Hurriyah wanted to visit Kingston. I refused to go because I had seen enough poverty in Mexico and Central America. I mean how much do you need to see of people suffering before you understand what's really going on. But Hurriyah was in the process of adopting a child whose family could not afford to feed him, so she had good reason to visit Kingston. The ladies took off for Kingston since we would be in Jamaica six days. I think Cleaver finally told the Moonies Nzingha was not Mrs. Cleaver. They didn't trip. After the Jamaica conference, Eldridge phased out his association with the Moonies. It appears after Rev. Moon couldn't get Eldridge to be a whore for his anti-Communist agenda, we next see him developing an association with Minister Farrakhan.

Farrakhan's Million Family March was reported in the San Francisco Chronicle as "a Rev. Moon sponsored event." I have no doubt that every Asian pictured in the video of the event was a Moonie. Certainly the group marriages performed were a Moonie ritual. After having experienced Rev. Moon, I was shocked to see Farrakhan associating with him. If anyone was the devil it was Rev. Moon who has a world following of brainwashed people, enslaved to his unification theology. Rev. Moon not only tells them when they can marry but when they can have sex after marriage. I condemned Farrakhan in an essay called Rev. Farrakhan Moon, although my objective was to attack Moon more than Farrakhan. But after the article appeared on line and in my book In The Crazy House Called America, Farrakhan sent me a message by way of Akbar Muhammad, his international representative, someone I've known since I met him and the minister in 1968 at Mosque #7 in Harlem. Farrakhan told Akbar, "Tell Marvin I love him but he raked me over the coals in his article about me. Tell him the next time he wants to write something about me, please call me first to get my side of the story."