The Nation of Islam annual commemoration of Saviours’ Day held in Chicago, Feb. 24-26, was global in scope and participation. The celebration recognizes the birth anniversary of Allah (God) in Person, the Great Mahdi, Master W. Fard Muhammad, who was born in Mecca, Arabia, on February 26, 1877.
The keynote address of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan titled “The War of Armageddon Has Begun” was carried live via webcast, television, and radio outlets and viewed in several venues worldwide. From Paris, France, language interpreters translated the nearly three-hour message to Francophone viewers of the Nation of Islam’s European Region website.
The Minister’s message was also translated live into Serbian, Dutch, Haitian Creole, and the African languages of Wolof, Malagasy—spoken in Madagascar, and Shi Komori, a language of the Comoros Islands in East Africa. Upwards of 6,000 people heard the message in their own languages, said Abdul Hakeem Muhammad, the Nation of Islam student regional minister of the European Region.
Real-time translations allowed the people of Africa, Asia, Europe, parts of the Caribbean and the Americas to hear Minister Farrakhan’s profound message. To accommodate for time zone constraints, in upcoming days the message will be rebroadcast via radio in 34 nations spanning four continents, said Sister Sylvena Muhammad, Student Protocol Director of the Nation of Islam European Region.
›The London-based regional headquarters live-streamed on their Facebook and YouTube platforms and provided an audio file on their website so people across Africa could listen live. “Many of our family on the continent do not have the bandwidth to watch the actual video,” said Sister Sylvena Muhammad. “But they do have the bandwidth to listen.”
Student Minister Abdul Hakeem Muhammad added that the message was of great magnitude and definitive proof before the nations of the world that Minister Farrakhan is God’s man and Messiah in the world.
Translators who assisted this year and the language they translated the message into included: Brother Abdur Rahim (Serbian), Brother Ghislain and Sister Darikatine (French), Brother Eugene and Brother Geraldo (Dutch), Brother Cheikh (Wolof), Sister Ilona (Gasy), Sister Yakoy (Sango), Brother Antuf (Shikomori), Brother Makhandal and Brother Yasin Ganga (Haitian Creole).
Other areas heard Minister Farrakhan’s message. Nation of Islam followers and sympathizers in the West African nation of Cote D’Ivoire viewed the message at a public venue with simultaneous translation into French by Brother Frank Toh, the local student Study Group coordinator. Brother Frank Toh has been organizing in the country for many years and told The Final Call that the people received the message positively.
In Jamaica, the birth home of Minister Farrakhan’s father, the Saviours’ Day message was viewed at the Hotel Four Season where guests and Muslims alike listened intently.
For the Caribbean nation of Haiti where the message was translated into Creole, Haitians accessed the message through several local media outlets and social media. The Saviours’ Day celebration was held in five locations: Port de Paix, Mole Saint Nicholas, Plaisance du Nord, Delmas, and Jacmel, said Brother Joseph Makhandal, who represents Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam in Haiti.
The locations are strategically located in the isolated North, South, East, West, and central parts of the country. Concerning Haiti, Minister Farrakhan had expressed the need to look out for the often-forgotten people in distant places, said Brother Makhandal.
“Of course, we have not forgotten the slums in the ghettos where a lot of people are concentrated in Port au Prince, Haiti,” he explained. “But our effort is also to reach out to those remote areas in the mountains,” added Brother Makhandal. Recalling the preparation for the Minister’s earthshaking speech, Brother Makhandal, who is also a lawyer, said it was significant seeing organizers wearing tee-shirts with the Saviours’ Day flier: “The War of Armageddon Has begun” in Creole printed on the front. Haitians understand “Armageddon” in concept, he explained.
“They relate so well with it because Haiti had a history,” reasoned Brother Makhandal. “That war for our independence” was like a “war of Armageddon” where different nations gathered for the doom of Haiti, and the Haitians overcame the forces. They are very familiar with that concept of Armageddon, because they are warriors,” he said.
Armageddon was something Haitians read in the Bible for many years, but never fully understood the reality of it. “So, for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan to take on that subject matter, it resonates with the Haitian people on many levels, both historically and spiritually,” he said.
In Trinidad and Tobago, the speech was viewed by webcast at The Kwame Ture Education and Development Centre, which also serves as the Nation of Islam base for the Eastern Caribbean. “We are all filled,” said Brother Dr. David Muhammad, Student Minister for Trinidad and the Eastern Caribbean, to The Final Call.
“It is one of those messages that we look forward to dissecting and piecing apart,” said Student Minister David Muhammad.
The pivotal speech was broadcast live on the Caribbean-wide Flow Cable television network that includes Grenada, Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Lucia and Jamaica.
Student Minister David Muhammad said the speech will also be repeated in segments afterward in Trinidad in the coming days. “We look forward to literally a good few months of piecing apart some of the components of the message and unpacking all of the ideas that was said,” stated David Muhammad, adding, “It’s a very exciting time for us ideologically.”
What resonated with him was Minister Farrakhan answering the question of why must there be a war of Armageddon and emphasizing the need for truth being spoken and singling it out as the most essential ingredient for salvation, and Satan being exposed. “As a minister and a spokesperson, it makes me feel even more empowered as an instrument of liberation. So I was inspired by that,” said Brother David Muhammad.
He said the message also has special relevance to the Caribbean, considered to be under the stranglehold of Washington because the relationship is based on “fear” and “failure” of political leaders in the region to stand on truth and speak boldly to power. However, among the people of the Caribbean, the message was heard gladly.
“Some of the favorite lectures by the Minister in the Caribbean is where he’s speaking on the international bankers,” said Brother Abdul Rahman, business owner and Barbados Study Group coordinator for the Nation of Islam. He told The Final Call that Minister Farrakhan’s words hit home with people who attended the live webcast viewing in Barbados.
Subjects exposing the roots of the Synagogue of Satan and international bankers are well listened to in the Caribbean. Even though Barbados became a Republic in December 2021, and Jamaica and other Caribbean nations are debating the same move, “nothing’s changed” and they remain under the heel of the international bankers and Synagogue of Satan, he opined.
“People in the Caribbean, they understand because it’s still very much a colony,” said Student Minister Rahman.
