The Soldier and the Messiah, both fighting to achieve the same thing

In this blog I will be commenting on the different ways in which Ella Baker and Martin Luther King Jr. have spoken about the cause of freedom, and the different approaches they employ in speaking about its attainment.

Baker makes it clear from the get-go that the cause she is fighting for is not limited to one specific kind of movement which is struggling to attain freedom. It is a cause for a kind of freedom that is not limited to one kind of oppression, and neither is it limited to one race and the obstacles it faced. This, to me, is beautiful. She talks about inequalities that are so internalized within humans that there are things that are not even mentioned in discussions about freedom. To me, the freedom Ella Baker is talking about almost seems abstract and surreal. It is a holistic freedom of the human body as well as the human spirit. She seems to hold a distinct perspective of a vision which looks at a range of inequalities existing not only among people, but also in the structures and every activities which govern the lives of all people. For example, she talks about poverty and how as long as people are going to bed hungry and jobless, humans cannot claim to be free. She discusses an inequality which has proven to cut across people of different colours, geographies and time.

What I also found extremely intriguing is that Ella Baker is not the saviour who leads the movement. She is the soldier who is willing to fight for the cause endlessly. Her fight is not one in which she instructs others on how to fight for freedom, she is simply ready to tirelessly fight for the cause she believes. It is perhaps because of this very characteristic that Baker believed that the Black community was not in the final stages of its struggle. For her, freedom and the struggle for justice was not achieved until humanity as a whole was free.

Moving onto Martin Luther King Jr, the letter he wrote in Birmingham Jail to leaders of the South almost seems like he is delivering a prophetic speech. In fact, he begins his letter by stating that just as prophets had to travel from their villages to spread their message and preach their cause, he has been “compelled” to do the same, clearly taking up the responsibility as the Messiah who has been chosen to lead the movement. However, I have to mention that the grace, poise and gentleness with which he discusses matters of the non-violent movement are indeed strangely prophetic in their content, in my opinion. His writing is free of vengeance, or any form of aggression. This is apparent when he is referring to the violent treatment that has been experienced by Black people who have been arrested during the movement.

What’s more is that he takes on the task of methodically explaining the logic behind the non-violent movement, and the strategic ways in which it wishes to achieve the aims of greater equality and justice. Although MLK is polite and makes no aggressive comments, he states his opinions unapologetically, bluntly.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”

MLK is clear in his vision of aiming to obliterate injustice and is also clear in sending across the message that he will lead his people to do what he feels needs to be done to fight against it. But his weapon to wage this war is not one of aggression or violence, in its conventional sense. He simply wants to create a wave that brings about a dialogue that ensures that equality is achieved through negotiation. He refers to this wave as creating “tension” but is quick to mention that this tension does not aim to instigate violence and is instead “constructive” and “nonviolent”. He lays out the agenda of the non-violent movement in a manner that is composed, yet impatient to achieve its aim.

When he states, “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor”, it immediately hit me that he is using the same language to describe the injustice he is referring to as thinkers whose work we have read before. However, unlike writers like Fanon who prescribe violence as a tool to fight against injustice, MLK is speaking about taking an entirely different path on the road towards attaining freedom.

When MLK says the means that are used must be as “pure” as the ends he seeks to achieve, he speaks again in a manner that is prophetic; free of any form of hatred or aggression. He even equates this aim as one which is among the most “sacred” values of the Judeo-Christian tradition, reaffirming that his cause is rooted in religion.