Alumni Spotlight Malaika Jabali
Malaika Jabali is an Alkebulan Alumni, from Shrine #9, in Atlanta Georgia. Her parents gave her the name Malaika (Angel) Jabali (Steady As A Rock), after joining the Shrine when Jabali was 3 years old. Malaika says, she’s been in Black nationalist spaces just as long, including growing up in the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. “In both the Shrine and MXGM, I learned about Black liberation through being communal and other values that aren’t widespread in dominant society. Those were all very formative years for me that have guided me into adulthood.”
Malaika says her unique childhood and upbringing allowed her to be more attuned to being critical of Western values— individualism and centering profit over people, for instance. She was less inclined to simply be “included” in the white, corporate world...she always wanted to be in a profession where she could uplift oppressed people. “I worked as a public policy attorney and now I am a journalist, specifically the Senior News and Politics Editor at ESSENCE...to hold those in power accountable and uplift Black stories.”
Malaika’s accomplishments have been “steady as a rock” ever since. She’s a Columbia Law School graduate, a retired public policy attorney, and has examined policy for the N.Y.C. council for 7 years. Malaika is currently the Senior News & Politics Editor at Essence Magazine. Her writing has appeared in Teen Vogue, The New Republic, Vox, The Root and more!
Malaika is also the author of a new book: ‘It’s Not You, It’s Capitalism: Why It’s Time to Break Up and How to Move On’ which is a fun, illustrated guide to breaking up with a system built on our exploitation. In the book she centers Black revolutionaries and thinkers to buck the stereotype that being socialist is just for white hipsters. She says, “I was actually approached to write the book by my publisher, and they pitched it as a primer on socialism centering people of color. Midway through my manuscript, I had the epiphany to make it a larger relationship allegory, because capitalism reminds me so much of toxic relationships!”
So what does the future hold for this Alkebulan Alumni member...Hopefully more books! Malaika hopes to have the resources and capacity to invest in advancing our Black political and organizing power. She says every conscious person needs to be a part of organizing and some mass movement, because we can’t just talk about our liberation, we have to work towards it.
To purchase, It’s Not You, It’s Capitalism: Why It’s Time to Break Up and How to Move On’- Link
