{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fradio-ifriqiya-powered-by-afikra.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fherb-boyd-FgcAjuqa-x866o2qe","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"In the Footsteps of Malcolm X | Herb Boyd","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/1ce0a58c-3e05-4d4b-a2e7-f3ffb869b215/f7a8575c-a4b9-4373-ae15-07f258953d0b/radio-20ifriqiya-20partnership-20project-20file.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"","height":200,"description":"We spoke with Harlem legend and national treasure, Herb Boyd—a journalist, jazz historian, activist, and organizer who has been writing and publishing for nearly 70 years. He discusses his expansive life's work, his political evolution, and his early encounters with Malcolm X. Boyd first met Malcolm X in Detroit in 1958 and later followed him to Morocco in 1964. His life journey has followed in Malcolm X's political footsteps, spanning from Harlem to East Africa, West Africa, and the Middle East. Boyd shares that Africa marked the beginning of his journey and was critical in developing his international perspective. He delves into the research for his recent book \"Malcolm X, The CIA, and Other Blacks\" which considers Malcolm X's suspicions of being under surveillance by the CIA. This investigation led him to focus on a mysterious figure named Leo Miles, who pops up 10 times with Malcolm X during his travels, particularly in Cairo, Kenya, and Tanzania. Boyd discusses Leo Miles' suspicious association with the MPLA (People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola) and why he was eventually suspected of being an agent by foreign forces, possibly the Portuguese or the CIA. The conversation broadens to encompass the surveillance of other Black activists by the CIA, including Maya Angelou, Robert Williams, the Black Panthers, and Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael). Boyd connects these movements to the struggles against American imperialism and discusses his own travels to Palestine, including trips with Stokely Carmichael to Beirut and with Reverend Al Sharpton. He also highlights his contribution to the volume \"For Gaza's Children\". Boyd reflects on Malcolm X's perpetual importance as an internationalist, whose ideas remain relevant to contemporary global issues like the current UN situation, Ukraine, Haiti, and Gaza. Even at the age of 87, he is finishing a biography of Max Roach, a history of Harlem titled \"Epic Harlem\", and a novel about the Black Studies Movement."}