AJAR is the name of the African progenitor of the Little/Shabazz clan.
This fact was revealed through the typical African American practice of tracing down ones family history. The links in the following text provide additional background information.

The only published source on the African origins of the Little family is found in the recent book by Rodnell Collins, Seventh Child: A Family Memoir of Malcolm X (1998). Rodnell Collins is the son of Ella Collins. Ella was a half-sister of Malcolm X and the first child of Earl Little, Sr. The following two sentences come from that book. (see Bibliography for full citation and online purchase.)

"His name was Ajar," Uncle Oscar told our stunned family members, "and he was brought to enslavement in South Carolina in 1815." (page 3)

Uncle Oscar told us that Ajar possibly came from the Bambara people of Mali, West Africa, the home region for many Africans who ended up enslaved in South Carolina. (page 5)

Malcolm X: A Research Site • Launched May 19, 1999
University of Toledo • Abdul Alkalimat, Ed • send email
URL http://www.alkalimat.org/brothermalcolm