Thus it is that the god of a tribe becomes “their” god. History is replete with battle scars left when the gods of an opposing people fought it out on the plains and in the valleys. When tribe meets tribe in war, at least one of the tribes is bound to lose. But even in defeat the god of the tribe becomes more powerful than ever before as the tribe is convinced that, though it has lost a battle, it will eventually win the war. Thus, in the words of one of the great tribal leaders, “Our god is able to deliver. But if not, we will not bow down and serve your god.”
Although tribal life revolves around the god concept, few tribal states have actually become theocracies. Religious leaders have taken their place beside temporal leaders, and they function in concord, under the umbrella of their god to make the state a practical institution.
With the dawn of modern history, gods began to fuse and merge as people began to widen the circle of their experience and accept the reality of tribal pluralism, and civilizations that have survived to matter in the context of the current world are those that fly the banner of the world’s four or five major religions.
Modern man knows little of all this because he inherited already thought-out religions. Thus he has no idea how primitive and crude his gods once were. And it is precisely because of modern man’s religious sophistication that the Black Muslims rasp: At stage center, and before an audience that is weary of racism and religious bigotry, the all-black Nation of Islam gleefully re-enacts the shoddy scenes of our cultural beginnings.
“We are in the image of God,” Malcolm says.
“Make it plain, Brother Minister. Make it plain.”
“That means that God--we call him Allah--must be black like me!”
“So we were here from the beginning”--and Malcolm X smiles.
The people come roaring to their feet with shouts of thanks and deliverance.
“And that which was here from the beginning must be the daddy of everything else. Am I right or wrong?”
“This blue-eyed devil talking about he is superior. It’s about time he found out that we are his pappy!”
“Now listen to this,” Malcolm told a rally of three thousand on a Harlem street corner, “and you will know why black is superior.”