Nuwaubian Pan-Africanism: Back to Our Root 9781498598583, 9781498598590

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Nuwaubian Pan-Africanism

Nuwaubian Pan-Africanism Back to Our Root

Emeka C. Anaedozie

LEXINGTON BOOKS

Lanham • Boulder • New York • London

Published by Lexington Books An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com 6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom Copyright © 2020 The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available ISBN 978-1-4985-9858-3 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4985-9859-0 (electronic) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Contents

Prefacevii Introduction1 1 Historical Development of the Nuwaubian Nation

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2 Nuwaupu as the Panacea of Emancipation

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3 Nuwaupu on Social Discourse

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4 Nuwaubian Cultural Nationalism

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5 The Nuwaubian Cause and the Big Picture: An Assessment

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Conclusion117 Appendix 1: Essay on Sources

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Appendix 2: Nuwaubian Publication History

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Bibliography131 Index141 About the Author

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Preface

Nuwaubian Nation, founded in 1967 by Malachi York (aka Dwight York), is a Pan-Africanist group with a tinge of Black Nationalism whose stated aim was to inspire racial consciousness and social as wells as historical interconnectedness among African descendants. As a Black Nationalist organization, they formed their own communities outside of Euro-American cultural influence and theoretically employed a Pan-Africanist paradigm to instill virtues of racial pride, self-help, and intellectual renaissance on their adherents across the African diasporan world. Unlike their forbearers, Nuwaubians sought a different kind of Back-to-Africa—that of the mind, hence their focus and attempt at decolonizing and emancipating the minds of Africans in diaspora and at home to help them reconnect with their lost past: Turn ye now, from the filthy foods that El Yahuwa warns you are an abomination to your bodies, and causes [sic] all kinds of diseases and sicknesses. . . . Turn ye, now, from excessive alcohol, that is slowly destroying you, and burning your brain to idiocy, rendering you helpless and more common than you are already, and other forms of drugs which are doing more damage to you than alcohol. Turn ye, now, from integration, that is slowly destroying you, and helps to rob you of your remaining heritage. Integration is not freedom. Integration is slavery, disease, unholiness.1

With words similar to the ones above, York aimed to drive home his message of racial consciousness and to offer intellectual and psychological rehabilitation which the group implied were needed due to centuries of enslavement, subjugation, and dehumanization. Without any official policy nor programs aimed at rehabilitating the descendants of the enslaved and victims of Jim Crow, Nuwaubian Nation, like many other Black Nationalist groups, sought to heal the wounds caused by the aforementioned oppressive regimes. vii

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Figure P.1  Nuwaubian founder, Malachi York, participates in the procession of Osiris, June 26, 1998. Credit: AP Images.

Black Nationalism and the black liberation struggle are as old as slavery. Africans, who were forcefully brought to and enslaved in the Americas by Europeans, represent the only group of immigrants in the hemisphere whose immigration was forced during the course of the Transatlantic slave trade. Since their capture from their homes and public places, they had naturally resisted forceful separation from their families and communities. Many had longed for ways to not only unite with their families, but with their ancestral land.2 They had utilized every available means to attempt to throw away shackles of enslavement, Jim Crow, and all forms of imperialism. From generation to generation, they have risen up to challenge various forms of institutional racism with available tools, within and outside the legal parameters. In the nineteenth century, the likes of Paul Cuffe, Frederick Douglass, and some white abolitionists, such as John Brown, employed intellectual, diplomatic, and self-defense mechanisms in their quest to further the course of their emancipation. Zenitha summed up nineteenth-century Black Nationalism as epitomized by Martin Delaney: Martin Delany was a man who made a habit of defying the odds. He was selfeducated in a time when, for Blacks, being educated could mean death. . . . Delany also sought to elevate Blacks by imbuing them with a sense of racial identity and self-determination. He was arguably, the proponent of American Black Nationalism. . . . Convinced at one point that Blacks would not get a fair

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shake in the United States, Delany proposed that Blacks form a new country somewhere in the West Indies or South America.3

By the 1960s, a new brand of Black Nationalism emerged reveling in the burgeoning Human Rights Movement and Black Power Movement of the era with a view to empowering African Americans. These Black Nationalist groups audaciously embraced African cultural values and preached separatism rather than assimilation and integration as proffered by Martin Luther King jr. and some of his contemporaries. Among these groups was the Nuwaubian Nation of Moors led by Malachi Z. York. Nuwaubian Nation is the broad term used to describe the organization and movement founded by York. The group’s ideology of liberation, according to them, is “Nuwaupu.” Their English interpretation of the term is “Right Knowledge.”4 According to Nuwaubians, African descendants are in need of right education and knowledge which was necessitated by centuries of subjugation and mis-education. Thus, this book examines the Nuwaubian philosophical thoughts and argues that their concepts and operation is a micricosm of the post-Human Rights Black Nationalism anchored on Pan-Africanist ideals. It is further held here that, despite their seeming controversial and unique antecedents, Nuwaubian separation from mainstream Western values and culture as well as evolution of an alternative value system place them within the emerging Black Nationalist groups of the post-Human Rights era. Their Africa-centered epistemology and dogma fit well with Pan-Africanist principles of racial pride, consciousness, unity, and interconnectedness. Although their goal was not to relocate to Africa, they were interested in going back to Africa, not physically but culturally. By so doing, they not only went to Africa, they brought Africa to the Americas. The significance of this research lies in the dimension the Nuwaubian model adds to the post-Human Rights Black Nationalist discourse. Despite many similarities to other Black Nationalist groups, Nuwaubian Nation and its founder, Malachi York, are also culturally and dogmatically eccentric in their concurrent and variegated transformation of their thoughts, especially when viewed from the Eurocentric perspective. Also fascinating is their ideology of Nuwaupu which they held in opposition to Eurocentric paradigm and posited it as the panacea to African descendants’ racial apathy, self-hate syndrome, and amnesic attitude toward their ancestry, as well as their lack of racial consciousness. Furthermore, this study is unique in that it seeks to explore the intellectual history of peoples of African descent in the context of their agency. Others who have studied the Nuwaubians have often focused on the group’s troubles while ignoring their exegesis this study takes them seriously as an important variant of Pan-Africanist thought. By so doing, it attempts to understand the

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contemporary Back-to-Africa efforts of the Nuwaubian Nation in their bid to reinterpret and reposition the African diasporan history with African people as subjects rather than objects. Thus, attention is paid to the Nuwaubian narrative of the African diasporan history and culture from an African worldview. In this context also, Africa becomes the center of their philosophical and cultural reality. The period from 1967 to 2002 is of symbolic importance to understanding the Nuwaubian history. The former date’s significance stems from it being their founding year and the latter represents the year when their leader was incarcerated leading to a de facto end of the group. Since a start and end date was chosen for research convenience, this book refers to them and their thoughts in the past tense. This does not suggest the group’s demise. Thus, this study conceives the Nuwaubian Nation as having a Black Nationalist character despite some of its seeming dogmatic inconsistencies and missteps. Although Black Nationalism, pragmatically, can function within defined geographical boundaries, many times it transcends such artificial delineation in reach and scope by connecting African descendants to a common history and destiny in the face of global oppression via Pan-Africanism. By so doing, it contextualizes African descendants’ history by demonstrating that their dispersions, especially in the Americas, was forced. This book utilizes the qualitative textual analytical method to investigate, interrogate, and interpret the Nuwaubian thought system. Without taking sides in the ongoing legal issues involved, it is concerned with the intellectual and cultural underpinning of the Nuwaubian dogma. This approach allows the audience to fully engage with the ideas, anecdote, and narratives so as to arrive at their own conclusions. The Nuwaubian literature, published mostly by York, form the bulk of the primary sources utilized. Unfortunately, many of these publications are unconventional in an academic sense and do not have publication dates and places to allow for a consistent citation pattern. To work around this problem, some dates have been estimated. Few authors have delved into the debate on the place of Nuwaubian Nation in history. Most of these writers are nonacademic. The major dividing issues among them are 1. Are Nuwaubians a hate group, a cult or just a reclusive religious organization? 2. Are they crooks founded by a crook? 3. Are they an African American religious group bent on bringing spiritual salvation to their adherents? A few authors like Bill Osinski, a Georgian-based journalist with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, perceive them as a hate and subversive group. Osinski reported on the group for several years and based his biased account, Ungodly, solely on his interview of disenchanted and estranged members.5 In the same vein, Philips, a Muslim convert, who studied the group in his

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master’s thesis in the 1980s, conceives them as a subversive group bent on misleading African Americans, and urged donors to not donate to them.6 On the other hand, the second group of writers perceive Nuwaubians as either cult-like or crooks. Leading this group was Donna Kossy, who in Kooks dismissed their efforts and that of the founder. She ties the group with the fate of its founder, reasoning that the entire enterprise was duplicitous. Kossy evidently could not grasp how an ex-convict could be redeemed or how a school dropout could eventually rise to become an intellectual or become an author like herself.7 Susan Palmer, a Canada-based religion scholar, seemingly agrees with Kossy by chastising and ridiculing the group’s efforts as well as their Africa-centered dogma calling it odd, eccentric, and weird—words that betray her Eurocentrism and cultural arrogance.8 The third group of authors comprises of scholars who place Nuwaubians as an African American religious group bent on redeeming their race and bringing spiritual salvation and emancipation. Kathleen O’Connor explores the Nuwaubians through a religious prism. Unlike the above authors, she takes a methodical approach in dissecting the group’s dogma. O’Connor specifically delves into the Messianic posture of the founder, York, describing that as an age-old tradition in African American religious thought. “Messiahhood” and human divinity, she posits, stand for the divinity of prophets whom these African American religious leaders supposedly represent. Importantly, O’Connor argues that the concept of human divinity, although more prevalent among African in the United States, is also found among various Islamic sects across the Islamic world.9 In the same vein, Julius Bailey’s “The Final Frontier: Secrecy, Identity and the Media in the Rise and Fall of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors” represents currently the best scholarly effort at studying the group. Bailey interprets them as a microcosm of the New Religious Movement’s (NRM) tradition of messianism, evolutionism, syncretism, and salvationism. The crux of his research is focused on the factors that informed the public’s perception of Nuwaubian Nation as a secret organization including the media. Accordingly, their apparent reclusive style, which is a defensive and survivalist strategy, is usually misrepresented and misunderstood by the larger society, hence the label of “cult,” secrecy by Philips, Palmer, and Osinski among others.10 Unlike previous writers, Bailey presents the Nuwaubian Nation with an agency. With this, he makes the case for the understanding of Nuwaubian Nation as a dynamic organization whose philosophy changes in response to peculiar needs and challenges. According to Bailey: Although opponents of the movement as well as most treatments of the Nuwaubian Nation, to this point, locate seeming contradictions in York’s theology to delegitimate the group, York’s views indicate a complicated mapping of identity

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that . . . seems more aptly described as tendencies in a scale in which multiple beliefs are held simultaneously, rather than sharp departures.11

Chapter one of this book investigates and unearths the history and evolution of the Nuwaubian Nation. It highlights the formation and growth of the organization, its relocation to Eatonton, Georgia as well as various problems Nuwaubians had with law enforcements leading to the incarceration of Malachi York in Florence, Colorado. Chapter two delves into the meaning and essence of Nuwaubian dogma or ideology named, Nuwaupu. In the chapter, the significance and function of the latter is buttressed showcasing how it was utilized to build a nation in the minds of Nuwaubians including their children. The chapter also unveiled the Nuwaubian application of Nuwaupu to critique the Europeanized Christian doctrine of Trinity alleging that it was doctored to suit the latter’s patriarchal cultural context. Chapter three, in the same vein, examines Nuwaupu in its social critique and rejection of integration as a form of suicide for African people. Thus, Nuwaupu beckoned on blacks to be proud of themselves and heritage. The Nuwaubian evaluation of the notion of “Civil Rights Movement” is examined exposing the idea of begging another person for one’s right to be human as preposterous. The chapter also delves into the Nuwaubian critique of European construction of gender. To African Americans, Nuwaubians admonished them not to buy into the post-1960s liberal definition of gender roles as fluid and flexible. Theirs was traditional, based unapologetically on the husband as the head of the household and the “bread winner,” while the wife was constructed in a support role—to reinforce the work of the husband as the homemaker. In chapter four, the Nuwaubian adaptation of African values and mores is the focus. Their invention of a distinct language called Nuwaubic Language is discussed as well as its relationship and differences with the English language. Also, the chapter explores the marriage tradition under Nuwaupu and details how Nuwaubians intended the practices to be held, including forms of courtship and dowry payments. The Nuwaubian calendar, which differed significantly with the conventional one, is also highlighted as part of their efforts at separating themselves from Western conventions. Chapter five focuses on the big picture. This picture puts separatism in historical context. By so doing, it delves into the history of black separatism and perceives it as a response to racialized and racist policies of the West and its governments. The chapter, contemporarily also, examines various socioeconomic categories that indicate that black people are helplessly at the bottom of all indices of progression. Unfortunately, the only two places they are overrepresented are in the playing categories of some sports and in the prisons.

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NOTES 1. Rabboni: Y’shua, The Lost Tribe, (New Babylon: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, n.d.), 7. 2. Jeremiah Dibua, “Pan–Africanism” in Africa: The End of Colonial Rule Nationalism and Decolonization, ed. Toyin Falola (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2002), 29–31. 3. Zenitha Prince, “Martin Delany, An Unknown But Extraordinary 19th Century Black Man,” The Afro-American Newspapers, April, 2012. 4. Malachi York-El, What is Nuwaupu?: For the Lost But Found, (Eatonton, GA.: The Ancient Egiptian Order, n.d.), 9–10. 5. Bill Osinski, Ungodly: A True Story of Unprecedented Evil (Macon, GA.: Indigo Publishing Group, 2007). 6. Abu Bilal Philips, The Ansar Cult (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Tawheed Publications, 1988). 7. Some of Donna Kossy’s publications include, Strange Creations: Aberrant Ideas of Human Origins from Ancient Astronauts to Aquatic Apes (Los Angeles: Feral House, 2001). 8. Susan Palmer, The Nuwaubian Nation: Black Spirituality and State Control, (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2010), 36. 9. Kathleen O’Connor, “The Islamic Jesus: Messiahhood and Human Divinity in African American Muslim Exegesis,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 66, no. 3 (1998), 493-95, 499–502. 10. Julius Bailey, “The Final Frontier: Secrecy, Identity, and the Media in the Rise and Fall of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 74, no. 2 (June, 2006): 302–03. 11. Ibid; 305.

Introduction

This section seeks to provide context by placing the Nuwaubian Nation among the league of Pan-African and Black Nationalist organizations. The 1960s provided a perfect climate for their rise as the era was a decade of revolution not just in America but also in Africa. The Nuwaubian peculiar approach to nationalism reflects the delicate niceties of Black Nationalism. Although not all Black Nationalist organizations are Pan-African in worldview, the Nuwaubian Nation was; and their Pan-Africanism meant that they sought to connect and unite Africans in the diaspora with Africa by importing Africa materially and immaterially into their fortress. THE 1960S CLIMATE: CIVIL RIGHTS OR HUMAN RIGHTS? The 1960s was a phenomenal decade in the United States and around the world. It witnessed African Americans’ bold and fearless demand for social justice thereby seeking to end centuries-old Jim Crow laws and norms that had kept them at the bottom of the socioeconomic pyramid in the country. The “Civil Rights Movement,” as the revolution is called, fundamentally transformed race relations in America by enthroning and mainstreaming real democracy to some degree. Nevertheless, the term “civil rights” seems inadequate to capture the true spirit and the essence of the struggle. To understand the movement, a deconstruction of the phrase that is popularly used to describe it would suffice. First, what is civil? Merriam-Webster English Dictionary offers some literal definitions such as (1) “of or relating to the regular business of the people in a city, town, state, etc.: not connected to the military or to a religion”; “relating 1

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to laws that describe a person's rights rather than to laws about crime.” In its contextual definition, the phrase denotes something that is fixed, forged, or artificially created by custom or law rather than by nature. Basically, civil rights of individuals are those rights granted to them by the state by virtue of their citizenship or residence within the state. There were two types of struggle in the 1960s—the struggle for civil rights and the struggle for human rights. The former represented the fight for equal rights and access to social infrastructure as well as the right to vote. These rights are afforded individuals through legislation and the citizens or residents have such rights because they live within the confines of the state. The human rights component of the struggle was the most critical part of the struggle as one has to be human to become a citizen or resident. Such rights are inherent and cannot be legislated. For example, the right to live, to eat, to breathe, as well as the right to not be lynched, terrorized, or brutalized—by the police or any other organization—cannot legally be granted to someone. Regardless of where one lives or is from he has these rights. These are natural rights which African Americans were audaciously trying to assert. Thus, that revolutionary struggle should be renamed to reflect the true essence of the struggle. Otherwise, it will give the impression that America of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is still justifying the racist notions of the nineteenth century—that an African person is still three-fifth human or subhuman. Not calling the revolution Human Rights Movement validates these nineteenthcentury racist notions. From the foregoing, the fight of the 1960s was beyond civic or civil issues such as voting rights, right to interracial marriages, and institutional biases. It was more about the fight to be human—to be full human in the United States. African Americans’ marches, speeches, and writing were principally about something fundamental than just the right to integrate. Even in 2019, the incessant police killings and harassment of African American people indicate that their human rights are still being violated. It is a demonstration of amnesia or naivete to label a movement or revolution, whose principal objective was to restore human rights of African Americans, “Civil Rights Movement.” The phrase “Civil Rights Movement” highlights the superficial element of the struggle such as the right to vote and the right to ride buses, among others, while not accounting for its essence. Since the end of World War II, African descendants around the world intensified their demands for social justice including human rights. In Africa, young African students, who had been educated in the United States and across Europe, came back home to demand an end to European sociopolitical and economic exploitation of Africa. One of such revolutionary leaders was Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana who was educated at Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, and later in the United Kingdom. As a student, he liaised with many

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African American activists as well as Pan-Africanist groups, which helped him hone his leadership skills he used later to lead independent Ghana.1 With sustained pressure, the African liberation movement across the continent gathered momentum so that by the 1950s most European colonizers were forced to embark on a decolonization program leading to the independence of most African nations between 1960 and 1970. Prior to that, Ghana, led by Nkrumah, had led the way in 1957. This movement, as well as the Human Rights Movement, was borne out of the foundations laid by Pan-Africanism and the Garveyist movement of the 1910s and 1920s.2 While the nationalism of the African continent attempted to attain freedom by eradicating imperialism and its exploitation of the colonized, the liberation movement’s goal in the United States was premised on attaining human and civil rights. The Human Rights Movement employed legal action, boycott, mass demonstrations, and all forms of civil disobedience measures to challenge racist Jim Crow laws that fundamentally disenfranchised and racially subjugated African Americans. Following the leadership he provided in organizing the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, the 1963 nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama, and the famous 1963 March on Washington during which he delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King Jr. rose to become the face of the Human Rights Movement.3 These efforts by human and civil rights advocates culminated in various landmark achievements that helped alter the future of race relations in the United States. Some of the major achievements of this movement include the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling (1954), which nullified the Jim Crow laws of separate but equal schools; Civil Rights Act of 1964; Voting Rights Act of 1965; and numerous other acts and executive orders. These federal interventions empowered to some degree African Americans and other disadvantaged groups in the social fabric of the nation. The Black Power Movement, an offshoot of the Human Rights Movement, differed from the mainstream human rights organizations in its advocacy for Black Nationalism and total rejection of integration. The movement, with its insistence on black consciousness and pride, helped to compel American schools and educators to rework their curricular and pedagogy as well as rethink their research paradigm, which led to the creation of black studies programs and the increased thematic inclusion of African American history within mainstream US history textbooks.4 One of the most crucial areas that have dominated debate on the Human Rights Movement is the subject of the method of attaining liberation and freedom for African Americans. The two central characters in this sphere are undoubtedly Dr. King and Malcolm X. Their differences, evidently, are mostly on the method rather than on the goal which is liberation. The former’s approach and thoughts epitomized the views of those African

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Americans who believe that true emancipation and social upliftment of blacks can only be attained through an end to racial injustice and integration of African Americans into the nations’ Euro-American social fabric. On the other hand, Malcolm X represented Black Nationalists whose argument hinged on ending racial injustice via total separation from the Euro-American social system and the creation of an African identity for African Americans. To paraphrase James Cone, integrationist thinkers believe that it is possible for blacks to be both African and American. They sought to appeal to the conscience of whites by demonstrating patriotism and at the same time pointing out the moral contradictions in racial oppression. By so doing, they hoped, whites would be embarrassed by their own hypocrisy in subscribing to, for instance, the trope that people of African descent are intellectually inferior, despite it being the former who prevented the latter from demonstrating his full potential. Integrationists believed that by pointing out these contradictions more forcefully whites would see the light and then eschew oppressive prejudicial attitudes that had held blacks down for centuries.5 Black Nationalists, on the other hand, have countered this argument, asserting that they cannot be both African and American owing to the experiences they have faced. They use historical precedents to underscore their point, contending that over 200 years of slavery, the enactment of Jim Crow laws, and economic exploitation and deprivation have reinforced their belief that the United States was forged to be a white man’s nation. Accordingly, they argue that whites were brutalizing blacks generation after generation, making it impossible for the two to coexist in one nation as coequal citizens—hence the need for separation.6 Even in marriages, it is no longer acceptable to be married at all costs. There comes a time, especially in cases of abuse and neglect, when a couple decides that dissolution of the marriage is the best course of action. While the two sides have some merits in their arguments, a merger of Malcolm X with Martin Luther King’s ideas would have provided a synthesis that would be enduring for African Americans. Thus, the two schools of thought agreed that there was an urgent need for the social emancipation of African Americans. They also concurred on the fact that those espousing the notion that “civil rights” should be gradual are historically racist as it has been used by the enslavers to counter the argument for the emancipation of the enslaved. Gyasi Foluke described such gradualism doctrine as manifesting in the form of “the Ghost of Thomas Jefferson,” whereby the oppressor set the emancipation date and timeline for the liberation of the oppressed.7 To him, no one wants to lose power or privilege except if he was forced to. The synthesis could come in the form of limited separation, enough to preserve African American values and identity. An example of limited separation is commonly found among the Chinese Americans who maintain their

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values and have complete economic control over Chinatowns nationwide and beyond. THE INTERSECTION OF PAN-AFRICANISM WITH BLACK NATIONALISM It is hoped that when the time comes for American and West Indian Negroes to settle in Africa, they will realize their responsibility and their duty. It will not be to go to Africa for the purpose of exercising an overlordship over the natives, but it shall be for the purpose of Universal Negro Improvement Association to have established in Africa brotherly cooperation . . . that is to say, we shall enter into a common partnership to build up Africa in the interest of our race.8 —Marcus Garvey

To many contemporary Pan-Africanists and Black Nationalists, Marcus Garvey epitomized leadership and his philosophical call for emigration is understood contextually for its metaphorical, literal, and pragmatic essence. Nuwaubian Nation, like the Nation of Islam and Five Percenters, among others, are indebted to Garvey’s Pan-Africanism, especially its call for selfreliance, racial consciousness, and unity. Nuwaubian Nation, as forged by its founder, York, answered this call by blending Nuwaupu and used it to call for a return to Africa socioculturally while remaining in the diaspora physically. To this end, Nuwaupu emerged as an intersection of Pan-Africanism and Black Nationalism, and Nuwaubians utilized this tool to attempt to unite their membership, indoctrinate them, and sought to empower racial consciousness, cultural and economic self-reliance, and historical and intellectual connectedness with the land of their ancestors—Africa. To achieve this goal, they seemingly contradicted the earlier movements which they were indebted to by bringing Africa to the Americas via their daily living, the structures they erected, as well as the type of thoughts they espoused without translocating to Africa. PAN-AFRICANISM IN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE Pan-Africanism translates into the awareness that African peoples, both at home and in the diaspora, share not merely a common history, but a common destiny. This ideological thought, which has reflected varyingly in writings of African descendants since the nineteenth century, was codified, advanced, and made a household concept by Marcus Garvey in the first quarter of the

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twentieth century. Thus began the movement for intellectual, cultural, and political unification of Africa-descended people irrespective of national boundaries. The notion of unity for African-descendants, who were separated by the oppressive regime of slavery, began to surface in the writings and thoughts of black intellectuals in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. One of such can be found in David Walker’s thoughts, expressed in the book Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World. Walker and some of his contemporaries like Paul Cuffe, in spite of deliberate policies and attempts to curtail and deny them access to education, were able to not only critique and expose the ills of slavery, but also provide a path toward African descendants’ liberation from bondage. More importantly, David Walker saw the liberation struggle beyond the geopolitical confines of the United States. By appealing to the colored citizens of the world and not just the United States, Walker sagaciously saw beyond the artificial political boundaries of nation-states. He also demonstrated understanding of the need for a unified front in the face of global African oppression. The impetus for this consciousness having been drawn from literature, Africans across the globe began to converge, confer, and strategize on the way forward in the age of aggressive European imperialism. By the last decade of the 1800s, many Pan-Africanist conferences were held in Manchester, London, and in Chicago. In the Chicago Conference on Africa, convened on August 14, 1893, the discussion theme centered on “The African in America,” “Liberia as a Factor in the Progress of the Negro Race,” and “What Do American Negroes Owe to Their Kin Beyond the Sea.” In the same vein, Trinidadian-born Pan-Africanist and lawyer Henry Sylvester William formed an organization along the same theme, goal, and ideology—African Association (AA).9 In writing, critiquing, and exposing the evils of slavery, Walker utilized biblical and moral arguments to appeal to blacks’ emotion. To him, Africans are one people separated by an oppressive system of chattel slavery; their oppressors, as he implied, were also one people and were united by the ideology of capitalism; therefore, it was logical that the oppressed forged a united front in their resistance. As a result, he set out to awaken the broken minds and spirits of Africans around the world, inviting them to unite, rise up, and fight for their rights and future. The activist, certainly, understood that the problem of enslaved Africans was fundamental and went beyond their physical confinement and their socioeconomic designation as “slaves.” He seemingly diagnosed the problem as mental and psychological, hence his emotional appeal to their conscience and minds. In his Preamble, “Appeal &c,” Walker attacked the misleading notion sold to the enslaved that “Heaven has designed us and our children to be slaves and beasts of burden to

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them and their children.”10 Evidently, the author understood that his targeted audience have been brainwashed all their lives about the divine sanction of their status and thus he feared many might have bought into that falsehood. Walker’s Appeal delved into the past—Africa’s glorious past—with a view to inspiring racial consciousness and confidence among Africans who had been told by their enslavers that they were racially and biologically inferior. To achieve this aim, Walker asserted and reminded his audience that the Egyptian civilization was built by their ancestors on African soil. This, despite being enslaved, they were capable of replicating if they stood up to their oppressors. He was also unequivocal on the fact that science, arts, and civilization in general originated in Africa from where Europe, starting with Greece, derived its own. With this global paradigm, Walker was not only connecting the past to his present; he was also building a strong case for PanAfricanism by inviting Africans to be proud of their ancestry and to strive to replicate what their ancestors had achieved. He further made the case that Africans’ ancestors were not naturally subservient and slaves, but had great empires and kingdoms from where great generals like Hannibal emerged.11 Thus, by telling the story of how Hannibal marched and conquered parts of southern Europe, Walker perceptively made it clear to the enslaved that they were not weaker than their white enslavers physically or mentally as they have been made to believe. He attempted to inspire the enslaved to rise and fight off the shackles of slavery and that, as Hannibal once did, there was a possibility of victory if only they would unite and fight. With his articulations and thoughts, Walker made a serious case for black liberation and for African unity in the face of oppression. These ideas were later organized, advanced, and made actionable by Marcus Garvey, W. E. B Du Bois, Sylvester-Williams, and Blyden among others in the last decade of the nineteenth century and in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Originally conceived by Henry Sylvester-Williams and Edward Wilmot Blyden at the twilight of the nineteenth century, Pan-Africanism was bolstered and transformed from theory to practice by Marcus Garvey by the 1920s.12 With his charisma, intellect, and rhetorical prowess, Garvey energized and inspired African descendants across the world to be proud of their skin complexion and history and work together toward their own collective emancipation. To him, for blacks to attain consciousness, unity, and dignity Africa must be liberated from the clutches of imperialism and led by Africans. Thus, a strong Africa equals respected Africans across the globe. Although he predicted the liberation of the continent, he added that “no one knows when the hour of Africa’s redemption cometh. It is in the wind. It is coming. One day, like a storm, it will be here. When that day comes all Africa will stand together.”13 By the mid-1910s, when Marcus Garvey touched the shores of the United States, Pan-Africanism received its highest boost in history. Garvey, through

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Introduction

the United Negro Improvement Association, built a massive Pan-Africanist movement. It is believed that by 1920 the association had over 1,900 divisions in more than forty countries and numerous other businesses to inspire Africans to patronize one another, employ each other, and to secure their economic future. The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) established offices to coordinate the social activities of its foot soldiers around the world. There were offices in several countries: Venezuela, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, and South Africa among others.14 This movement would inspire other social liberation movements across the globe. In the United States, for instance, the Human Rights Movement and the attendant Black Power Movement drew inspiration thereof in their bid to defeat Jim Crow and to restore African Americans’ dignity and human rights. Also, the Afrocentric movement—which is an intellectual movement that offers an alternative worldview to the Europe-centered paradigm in research and thought—followed the same pattern with its emergence as a legitimate academic tool in the 1980s. INTERNATIONAL BLACK NATIONALISM Nuwaubian doctrine did not evolve independently; it was built on the scaffolding of classical Black Nationalism of the nineteenth century, Garvey’s Pan-Africanism, and the fervor of the 1960s Black Power Movement. This ideology eclectically encompasses various philosophical thoughts and actions espoused by African descendants across the globe. Their emphasis on black emancipation took an international dimension by recognizing, as Kate Dossett points out, “that the freedom of all peoples of African descent is interlinked.” She further stresses that the international system of oppression of peoples of African descent was responsible for this international notion of Black Nationalism, beginning with the Transatlantic slave trade.15 Black Nationalist principles manifested since the late nineteenth century in African Americans’ response to the challenge posed by Western imperialism abroad and Jim Crow at home. African Americans’ responses to the dictates of Western imperialism varied, sometimes in support, but most times in opposition through direct actions and indirectly through the media. Among notable African American critics of Western imperialism was Booker T. Washington. He advised that the United States should solve the black and “Indian” problems first before assuming new “humanitarian” burdens abroad.16 Opponents of US imperialism decried the missions and motives as racist and an attempt at extending domestic Jim Crow abroad. Supporters, on the other hand, sought more African American participation in the military campaigns as a means of gaining employment and income as well as proving their patriotism.17

Introduction

9

By the first quarter of the twentieth century following the burgeoning PanAfricanism and Harlem Renaissance, Africa increasingly occupied the center stage in African American foreign policy discourse. The second Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s, in an attempt to colonize it, heightened PanAfricanists’ interest in Africa across the world. To many, Ethiopia remained the beacon of hope for Pan-Africanism and a source of pride for peoples of African descent because of its independence and its earlier defeat of the Italian army in the 1890s. African American opponents of Western imperialism sympathized with Africans at home in the face of European colonial offensives. They identified with their ancestral land across the ocean, thus linking their economic and political subordination to that faced by their kin at home.18 In addition to raising funds in defense of Ethiopia, these Black Nationalists and Pan-Africanists in diaspora started to clearly articulate their oppression to mirror the dilemma faced by Africans at home. African Americans, for instance, conceived of their conditions as that of a colonized nation within a nation. They fretted over their lack of influence or control of any of the public institutions which shaped their daily lives. Highlighting their condition as that of colonized subjects at the periphery of a colony’s social pyramid, blacks analogously linked their domestic oppression to the European exploitation of their homeland.19 Also, the manner of the Italian invasion was another source of concern for blacks. The Europeans utilized poison gas and various weapons of mass destruction against defenseless but gallant Ethiopians. Another reason for the outrage was the European and American governments’ silence or tacit support for Italy. Black Americans rallied around and evolved a philosophy of Ethiopianism which stands to glorify the country and Africa in general for its beauty and biblical connections with Israel. Ethiopianism, as a concept, united many African Americans and drew many of them closer to Africa while arousing their anti-imperialist sentiment abroad and their demands for human rights or separation at home.20 The black press, as usual, was in the vanguard of the opinion-making process during World War II. The Chicago Defender emphasized the need for African liberation, stating that if there was any point in the ideals of democracy and freedom then imperialism must end. The Baltimore Afro-American, protesting against Western tyranny and oppression, specifically exposed the double standards of the United Nations, arguing that for the UN to be credible its charter had to apply to the “Hausas and Fulahs as well as to Belgians and Dutchmen.”21 From the foregoing, it is clear that, from an African American perspective, racial policies at home influenced and shaped US attitudes abroad. Like Walker in the nineteenth century, African Americans of the early twentieth century perspicaciously saw black oppression in a global context. Thus, they

10

Introduction

interpreted American foreign policies through the prism of the oppressed, hence their sympathetic posture and allegiance to the oppressed. By internationalizing and universalizing their predicaments, African Americans broadened their appeal and expanded their definition of Jim Crow, gained more support, exposed US hypocrisy, and helped provide a united front against Western hegemony. By the time of the Nuwaubian founding in 1967, many African nations had gained their independence which meant that International Black Nationalism was no longer solely a question of opposition to imperialism. Decolonized Africa also became a source of pride and offered home to teeming African Americans who saw no future in Euro-America. Nuwaubians expressed solidarity with Africa through indirect action and their publications. They demonstrated this by highlighting the various victories recorded by African empires and kingdoms. A notable instance is found in the Nuwaubian discourse on Muhammad Ahmad Al Mahdi’s resistance to the British in Nubia (Sudan). Al Mahdi had successfully resisted and repulsed the British attempt to annex his nation until his death in the 1880s. The Nuwaubian Nation reveled in this victory and Malachi York strongly identified with Sudan, and he would later visit that country. Nuwaubians point to the Sudanese resistance, among others, to demonstrate and instill pride in their adherents. They also attempted to debunk and dismiss Eurocentric notions that many of the African armies and military

Figure I.1  Entrance to Tama-Re. Credit: AP Images.

Introduction

11

leaders were savages and fought like “savage warriors.” Further, Nuwaubians laud Al Mahdi’s efforts toward nation building, especially in the minds of his people, by developing an African-based Islamic dogma, “The Raabtib” from where Nuwaubians proudly adapted their own philosophy. Thus, they linked their syncretism with the inspirations derived from their Ansar counterparts in Sudan. In About the Raabtib: The Book of the Mahdi, York pointed out the rationale behind Muhammad Ahmad, son of Mahdi Abdullah, writing it. In his words, “this is one of his recordings that the Ansaars in Sudan are known to read at least twice every day.” He added that “for confirmation of who he was, or as warnings to surrounding tribes to come and follow the true way of life.”22 Additionally, Nuwaubian literature between 1967 and 1972 demonstrated solidarity with newly independent African nations. More importantly, the fact that Ethiopia remained uncolonized and had defeated the Italians was celebrated. Hence, Nuwaubian authors, like other Black Nationalists, cited this as a source of pride. Thus, in their celebratory mood, they described peoples of African descent as Ethiopians rather than as “blacks or Negroes.” In Malachi York’s first publication in 1967, he asserted that “Nuwaupu is the spiritual heritage of Ethiopians.”23 To him, Negro was derogatory while black denotes color and had been contextually constructed by Europeans to mean evil while white stood for purity. Thus, within this period, their appropriate names for African descendants were: Ethiopians, Nubians, or Nubuns.24 These names consciously connect Africans in diaspora with their history, culture, and geography. Nuwaubians’ attitudes toward imperialism were premised on the fact that although political imperialism had ended in most countries, economic, psychic, and social imperialism was still prevailing. Educational and economic deprivation through targeted policies, Nuwaubians averred, were tools of imperialism used to keep people of African descent at the ebb of the social pyramid. Thus, Malachi York called on Nubians to rise, to unite under Nuwaupu and wake up from their comatose state.25 The first step toward Nuwaubian nationalism occurred in the minds of their adherents. BACK-TO-AFRICA: CLASSICAL AND NUWAUBIAN CONTEMPORARY MODELS The desire by the descendants of those who were forcefully removed from the land of their ancestors, to return home is as old as the oppressive system that informed their dispersion. Thus, the Back-to-Africa idea is a manifestation of their centuries-long yearning to reconnect with their disconnected root.26 Without such natural desires, something would have been wrong. Africans’

12

Introduction

predicament is akin to that of a kidnapped person who longs to return to his or her family and employs every available tools to accomplish this goal. If the desire to be free is lost, then he or she must have developed a misguided love and affection for his/her captor which is tragically suicidal. The earliest organized movement in the United States to resettle enslaved Africans back home was by American Colonization Society (ACS). Founded in 1816, the ACS was dedicated to resettling free Africans in Liberia. It is noteworthy to add that most enslaved Africans in the United States did not buy into this movement’s goal mainly because it was a white organization whose goal was racist. The mission of the ACS was to repatriate free blacks while leaving the enslaved to languish in slavery. By implication, the ACS espoused the notion that the United States was a Caucasian nation. While the government pushes the Native Americans into what they called “Reservation Camps,” the ACS sought to deport free Africans to Africa. To this end, blacks in America were meant to be properties, if one is free America was not the right place to exercise such freedom. To the majority of African Americans, the idea of Back-to-Africa championed by ACS was unacceptable because of the ideology and personnel behind the movement. As represented by prominent African Americans like Frederick Douglass, they argued that America is now their home and that those seeking to repatriate blacks to Africa should correspondingly go back to Europe, where they and their ancestors came from. No doubt, the unpopularity of Back-to-Africa among blacks at this time was mainly because of the contempt for ACS rather than the feeling of disconnection, self-hate, or disdain for their ancestral homeland. Nonetheless, there was a handful of African Americans, who in spite of the above, were still in support of emigrating to their motherland. Some of those persons included Paul Cuffe and Martin Delaney; they took practical steps in arranging, financing, and coordinating their own Back-to-Africa efforts. What is evident in this is that these African Americans, in spite of the stereotypical and derogatory depiction of their homeland, were courageous in seeking to define the terms of their emigration. They certainly wanted the movement and idea to originate from Africans in diaspora themselves; they also wanted the logistics to be designed, the movement to be led and controlled by the potential emigrants themselves rather than the oppressors whose rationale was at odds with theirs.27 By the turn of the twentieth century, the Back-to-Africa movement received new impetus with the formation of the aforementioned UNIA led by Marcus Garvey. Garvey’s vision for Africa and African descended people was crisp and clear—that Africa should be controlled by Africans; that African descendants should unite to confront their oppression, geographical barriers notwithstanding; and that blacks should not seek assimilation culturally and

Introduction

13

racially. His thoughts encapsulate and represent the black vision on emigration, nationalism, and liberation in twentieth century, especially in pre-World War II and Human Rights era. According to Garvey, This belief is preposterous. I believe that white men should be white, yellow men should be yellow, and black men should be black in the great panorama of races, until each and every race by its own initiative lifts itself up to the common standard of humanity. . . . The white man of America will not, to any organized extent, assimilate the Negro, because in doing so, he feels that he will be committing racial suicide.28

By the 1960s, various Pan-Africanist groups emerged to carry the torch of black liberation message to their constituencies with a view to inspiring racial consciousness, self-pride, and interconnectedness. Nuwaubian Nation, then known as Ansar Pure Sufi in 1967, represented such efforts by designing a message of spiritual, social, and cultural emancipation of African descended people modeled after Garvey’s to some degree. Nuwaubian Nation, in this book, represents a contemporary Back-toAfrica group with a pragmatic style. They, like their predecessors, desired a connection with their ancestral land. Unlike their forbearers, they wanted to go back to Africa not in the physical, but in intellectual and cultural forms, hence their rejuvenation of African values in the diaspora. As illustrated in chapter two, the Nuwaubian Nation set out to engage its audience with its Nuwaupu message, targeting their minds, bodies, and souls, the first step in nation building.

NOTES 1. David Birmingham, Kwame Nkrumah: The Father of African Nationalism (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1998), 3–8. 2. Guy Martin, African Political Thought (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 85–91. 3. Ira Katznelson, When Affirmative Action was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005), 1–8. 4. See, Jeffery Ogbar, Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity. Reconfiguring American Political History (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005); Peniel Joseph, ed. The Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights-Black Power Era (New York: Routledge, 2006). 5. James Cone, Martin and Malcolm and America: A Dream or a Nightmare (New York: Orbis Books, 2012), 4. 6. Cone, Martin and Malcolm and America.

14

Introduction

7. Gyasi Foluke, The Real-Holocaust: A Wholistic Analysis of the African American Experience, 1441–1994 (Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2007), 13–14. 8. Amy Jacques Garvey, ed., Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey or, Africa for the Africans (New York: Routeledge Taylor & Francis Group, 1923), 52. 9. Minkah Makalani, “Pan-Africanism,” Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, last modified June 27, 2014, http:​//exh​ibiti​ ons.n​ypl.o​rg/af​rican​aage/​essay​-pan-​afric​anism​.html​. 10. James Turner, David Walker’s Appeal (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1993), 22. 11. Turner, David Walker’s Appeal, 39. 12. Crystal Z. Campbell, “Sculpting a Pan-African Culture in the Art of Négritude: A Model for African Artist,” The Journal of Pan-African Studies 1, no 6 (December, 2006): 28–32. 13. Marcus Garvey, Emancipated From Mental Slavery: Selected Sayings of Marcus Garvey, (Kingston, Jamaica: UNIA-ACL, 2013), 6. 14. See, Ronald Walters, Pan-Africanism in the African Diaspora: An Analysis of Modern Afrocentric Political Movements (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1993). 15. Kate Dossett, Bridging the Race Divides: Black Nationalism, Feminism, and Integration in the United States, 1896–1935 (Tampa: University Press of Florida, 2008), 6. 16. Willard Gatewood, Black Americans and the White Man’s Burden, 1898–1903 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1973), 180–89. 17. Robert Weisbord, “Black America and the Italian-Ethiopian Crisis: An Episode in Pan Negroism,” in Race and U.S. Foreign Policy From the Colonial Period to Present: A Collection of Essays, ed. Michael Krenn (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1998), 152–155. 18. Gatewood, Black Americans and the White Man’s Burden, 182–95. 19. John Baskerville, The Impact of Black Nationalist Ideology on American Jazz Music of the 1960s and 1970s (Lewiston: The Edwin Mellin Press, 2003), 21–23. 20. William Scott, “Black Nationalism and the Italo–Ethiopian Conflict, 1934– 1936,” The Journal of Negro History 63, no. 2 (1978): 118. 21. Scott, “Black Nationalism and the Italo–Ethiopian Conflict, 1934–1936,” 262. 22. As Sayyid Al Mahdi, About the Raabtib: The Book of the Mahdi (np: Ansaaru Allah Community, 1987), 3–11. 23. Amunubi Rahkaptah, Bible Interpretations and Explanations, Booklet One (New York: Those Who Care, 1967), 33. 24. Wu Nupu Asu and Naba Nupu, The Nine Ball Count I: Liberation Information (New York: n.p., 1971), 9. 25. Malachi York, Malachi, I Will Send You Elijah: By the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Part I (n.p.: Ancient and Mystic Order of Malachizodok, n.d.), 38–40, 96–98. 26. Jeremiah Dibua, “Pan–Africanism” in Africa: The End of Colonial Rule Nationalism and Decolonization, ed. Toyin Falola (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2002), 29–31.

Introduction

15

27. For further discussion on nineteenth century Back-to-Africa movement, see the following, David Jenkins, Black Zion: The Return of Afro-Americans and West Indians to Africa (London: Wildwood House, 1975); Kenneth C. Barnes, Journey of Hope: The Back-to-Africa Movement in Arkansas (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004); Emma J. Lapsansky-Werner and Margaret Hope Bacon eds. Back to Africa: Benjamin Coates and the Colonization Movement in America 1848–1880 (Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania University Press, 2005). 28. Amy Jacques-Garvey, ed., Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (New York: Brawtley Press, 2014), 21.

Chapter 1

Historical Development of the Nuwaubian Nation

The Nuwaubian Nation emerged within the clouds stirred up by the Human Rights and Black Power Movements of the 1960s. In 1967, young Dwight York (later known as Malachi) founded the organization. At first, it emerged as a religious organization tapping into the prevailing African American feeling of disillusionment with Christianity (majority of their white oppressors have always been Christians) as well as with the Eurocentric society at large. To provide succor to these African Americans, who have been failed repeatedly by the US government, the Nuwaubian Nation began to build its own independent communities within the United States, but outside its legal and cultural influence. When the group moved from urban New York to rural Georgia, the level of scrutiny, resistance, and resentment they faced was unprecedented. This eventually led to their dislodgement from their enclave and the arrest and incarceration of their founder. York is serving over a hundred years prison term in Colorado’s Federal Supermax prison in Florence alongside dangerous terrorists. ORIGINS OF THE NUWAUBIAN NATION Founded in Brooklyn, New York, in 1967 as Ansaar Pure Sufi, Nuwaubian Nation first emerged as an Islamic religious group but has since undergone various metamorphoses. At inception, they claimed to offer African descendants a clear and an alternative path to Islam with their Africa-centered theology and social liberation thought. Their thought system and separatism, certainly, mirrored that of the Nation of Islam, but differed from it in worldview. The Nuwaubian Nation from onset seemed more Pan-Africanist and paradigmatically Afrocentric than the former. The leader on founding 17

18

Chapter 1

the group changed his name from Dwight York to Amunubi Rahkaptah (an ancient Egyptian name) to reflect their Africa-centeredness. Eventually in the mid-1970s, York became known as Imam Issa (and added Muhammad) to reflect his increased embrace of the Islamic faith at that time. Between 1967 and 1972, the transmutations of York were followed by his organization as it changed from Ansaar Pure Sufi to Nubian Islamic Hebrew and then to Ansaaru Allah Community.1 As stated previously, since its inception in 1967, the name of the organization, as well as that of adherents, has always indicated vestiges of Black Nationalism anchored on Pan-African ideals. Their first name on inception was Ansar Pure Sufi (a derivation from the Sudanese Ansar movement) which was later changed to Nubian Islamic Hebrew (1968–72), Ansaaru Allah Community (1972–93), Nuwaubian Nation of Moors and Egyptian Church of Karast (from 2000 to York’s incarceration in 2002).2 Members’ names also followed this line: the founder, Malachi York, has been known as Amunnubi Rooakhptah, Kobina, Issa Al Haadi Al Mahdi, and Amun NebuRe among others. The uniting factor in these terms is their African heritage and roots. Thus, while pro-integration African Americans were reluctant to embrace their African heritage, Nuwaubians were proud to do so.3 Their usage of the name Ansar or Ansaar is illustrative of their claims of affinity with the Ansars of Sudan. The Sudanese Ansar, a nineteenth-century Islamic movement, was founded by Muhammad Ahmad Al Mahdi who mobilized his nation successfully to repel British military incursions winning numerous battles.4 It is not surprising that Malachi York accentuated

Figure 1.1  Nuwaubian Nation of Moors founder, Malachi York, talks to a reporter in an interview in Putnam County during the Founders Day Festival on June 26, 1998. Credit: AP Images.

Historical Development of the Nuwaubian Nation

19

this piece of victorious history with a view to inspiring racial pride and selfconfidence. Following this paradigm, Nuwaubians connected with Africa’s ancient past rather than its colonized and diluted present. The reasons are not far-fetched. Humiliating histories of the Arab and European trade on Africans as well as European conquest of the continent, all combined to compel Nuwaubians to concentrate on classical Africa rather than the contemporary one.5 Modern Africa was perceived as diluted culturally and socially following its unequal historic relationship with Europeans and Arabs, which Nuwaubians stressed, robbed Africa of its spirituality, intellect, and primacy in knowledge and acumen. The imperatives of Africans in diaspora knowing Africa’s rich history has always been emphasized by Black Nationalists and Pan-Africanists from the nineteenth century through the 1960s to the present. According to Malcolm X, a foremost Black Nationalist, understanding the true history of Africa is an inevitable tool of liberation fight. He averred that apathy, cynicism, and hatred toward Africa by some Africans in diaspora was responsible for the prevailing self-hate syndrome bedeviling them arguing that disdain toward Africa is a manifestation of low self-esteem.6 The Nuwaubian preference for a victorious Africa also comes into play when one considers the term, “Nuwaubian.” This name was an obvious derivation from the word, Nubia.7 Currently, Nubia is known by its imperially imposed name Sudan, which is Arabic for country of blacks. Thus, by referencing “Nubia” they placed emphasis on purity of African culture prior to debasement via slavery and imperialism. The Nuwaubians not only minimized the impact and legacy of European scramble, partition, and colonization of Africa, but also ignored the Arabs who had enslaved and colonized parts of the continent previously. This factor was also prevalent in the Nuwaubian Africa-centered history which correctly recognized classical Egypt and Nubia as black African nations that were also substantially influential in the evolution of Judaism, Christianity, modern science, and philosophy.8 Nuwaubian Nation and its founder have had a long history of a frosty relationship with law enforcement. From their early days in New York to their relocation to Eatonton, Georgia, their relations with local police had always been marked with hostility. This acrimonious relationship with law enforcement was informed by two main factors: the group perceived itself as a nation and acted outside the laws. The law enforcement and non-members treated Nuwaubians with contempt, especially in Georgia. The group had been under more intense scrutiny by security agencies since they built their fortress community, Tama-Re (an ancient Egyptian term) in Georgia. The community served as the living quarters for hundreds of York’s followers. In May 2002, York was arrested and charged with child molestation, racketeering, and money laundering. He was convicted and sentenced in 2004 to 135 years in prison at a supermaximum prison in Florence, Colorado.9 York’s followers

20

Chapter 1

and sympathizers allege conspiracy by the American government to silence their leader because of the non-Western thoughts he espoused. They also, curiously, link his predicament to that of Marcus Garvey who was jailed and deported to Jamaica due to a frivolous allegation of mail fraud. They stress that York’s trial was a miscarriage of justice and that many of the witnesses used against him were coerced or bribed, many of whom later recanted their testimonies on YouTube. The compound has since been seized and later demolished by the Georgia authorities.10 The Nuwaubian pedagogy sought to join the growing community of Black Nationalist scholarship that attempts to deconstruct Eurocentric misrepresentation of Africa by presenting and advancing a victorious narrative. Therefore, one can discern that part of the essences of Nuwaupu (Nuwaubian doctrine) was to propagate “Right Knowledge” or “Right Wisdom” and narratively emphasized on the splendor and magnificence of Ancient Egypt, Nubia and, to some extent, Ethiopia for Nuwaubian adherents. By so doing, it attempts to restore the lost glories of classical Africa while simultaneously inspiring racial pride and offering a pedagogical alternative.11 Nuwaubian efforts were geared toward proving that Africa’s past was a magnificent one—filled with pioneering deeds in science, philosophy, art, and religion. These exploits, they asserted, were led by Egypt, Ethiopia, and Nubia.12 Nuwaubians emphasized that Africans at home and in diaspora have been physically, culturally, and spiritually uprooted and disengaged from their values and history by centuries of slavery, imperialism, and racial oppression, hence their amnesia. According to them, European descendants have deliberately concealed these facts from Africans and the rest of the world to help maintain the racist notion that Africa is the “Dark Continent” and that people of African descent are inherently inferior. Nuwaubians were not alone in making this charge about deliberate efforts to conceal the historical and intellectual accomplishments of Africa. Writing in the 1980s, Chancellor Williams, an Oxford University-trained historian, asserted that his curiosity inspired his education in England during which he visited various European cities and museums and was amazed to find scores of African artifacts stashed away there. Many African descendants, he continued, were oblivious to this reality as well as to the contributions of their ancestors to world civilization. These deliberate acts, Williams submitted, serve to reinforce Europeans’ racist declaration that Africa was the “Dark Continent,” the land of “primitives,” all of which were used to justify the former’s continued exploitation of the latter and its people across the globe.13 Building on this model, Nuwaubians claimed to have the solution to black oppression and disunity. To them, it involved reaching out to the minds of Nubians (African descendants) with a view to refocusing them. They argued that black minds have been hypnotized for centuries and that they have been

Historical Development of the Nuwaubian Nation

21

under various spells including that of amnesia and self-hate, causing their present disunity. In York’s words: I have devoted my mission on this planet to the resurrection of the mentally dead, which I affectionately refer to as mummies. Never did I know that the evil one had done such a great job with these people both mentally and physically as to have them hate self and kind. My greatest hindrance has been the black devil. Born amongst you, and by you, married to you, socializing with you, praying in the same sacred houses of worship as you; but secretly, they have a special pack [sic] with the devil, which makes it near[ly] impossible for them to totally surrender to Nuwaupu.14

The above quote epitomizes their perception of Nubians’ predicament and mental colonization. Thus, York took a messianic tone in addressing the phenomena, asserting that his spiritual and earthly mission was to help salvage the souls, minds, and the physical conditions of Nubians, who were in need of rejuvenation and revival having been in a metaphorical comatose state for ages and there was, thus, a need for them to regain their consciousness. Nuwaubians argued that Nuwaupu, as a dogma and ideology, was the means toward Nubian liberation. Any Nubian who negated this doctrine was scolded as an agent of the devil; the devil here meant any perceived oppressive force, be it a class, race, gender, or the government and its oppressive law enforcement.15 Nuwaupu represents a version of the Black Nationalist thought system that abounded in the 1960s America. This thought had tenets of Black Nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and their theoretical framework sister, Afrocentricity, in its stated mission of charting a path for black intellectual emancipation via paradigmatic separatism. The Nuwaubian leader, York, evidently was influenced by Afrocentricity, the foundation of which was laid by Marcus Garvey in the first quarter of the twentieth century. He critically assessed and questioned the academic curricular, paradigm, and pedagogical methods at all levels bemoaning the focus on European culture and perspective. Afrocentricity contends that Eurocentrism, as an alternate knowledge system, imposes and espouses a particular worldview as universal misleadingly.16 The Africa-centered paradigm, as an alternative to Eurocentrism, essentially, maintains the right of African descendants to an alternate perspective in dissecting ideas and bodies of knowledge.17 An example of Nuwaubian application of this Afrocentric paradigm is found in their critique of Christianity. They challenged the Christian principle of Trinity, replacing it with the principle of Quadity. They argued that when Europeans learned about Christianity, characteristically they hijacked it. Politicized it, colonized the image of God, and transformed the principle of Quadity to Trinity. In the case of this principle, Nuwaubians argued that

22

Chapter 1

the latter was an aberration occasioned by European masculine chauvinism, whilst the former was the original notion—a notion that had its roots in Africa. Europeans eliminated god the mother to reflect the extreme sexism inherent in their culture for their culture had no room for a female god or any position of authority for females. Nuwaubians averred that Quadity epitomized god the father, mother, son, and the holy ghost.18 They contended that in most African religious traditions, there was god the mother or mother-god. This pattern of critical assessment and critique of Western institutions and beliefs are common within the Black Nationalist literature which underscores the premise that Nuwaubians are walking within this tradition. Numerous Black Nationalist scholars have put forward similar lines of argument. James Taylor, in his account, argues that W. E. B. Du Bois had also rejected the notion that Jesus and other major biblical characters were white by espousing the notion of black Jesus. According to Taylor, Du Bois made Jesus relevant to African American social needs by depicting him as a laborer, who was crucified and lynched like African Americans.19 Others, such as Paul Boyd and Yosef ben-Jochannan, have argued that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam were extensions of African religious practices, notably the Egyptian Mystery System which was plagiarized by the Hebrews who spent time in Egypt before their march to their “promised land.”20 Nuwaubians’ approach to this tradition mirrored the Afrocentric principle of “alternative perspective on phenomena” advanced by Molefi Asante.21 It calls for the decentralization of knowledge and its epistemology to reflect the experiences of non-Westerners. Within this paradigm, Nuwaubians challenged Western assumptions including the premise that Jesus, his disciples, and classical Hebrews were pale-skinned, had blue eyes, and blond haired. They argued that the Israelites including Moses, who was African born, were black Africans.22 This pattern of critical appraisal goes beyond the Old and New Testaments, but encompasses the Quran whose notions were similarly domesticated to conform to the specific spiritual and social needs of Nubians.23 As an organization, Nuwaubian Nation could be operationally and ideologically described as Black Nationalist that subscribed to an Africacentered value system and believed they ought to have their own geographical and political nationality, separate from white America. The Nuwaubian efforts at building a cultural alliance among African descendants, however haphazard it appears, was meant to be used to redress the wrongs the people had suffered under the domination of various hegemonic powers. To this end, the Nuwaubian Nation of Moors emerged as part of the countermeasures utilized by Africans in the diaspora to dispel and remedy the sociocultural oppression of their people and serve as a touchstone toward reinvigorating and rejuvenating African cultural and historical significance.24 There is a need for a cautious approach when assessing

Historical Development of the Nuwaubian Nation

23

“unconventional” and “reclusive” groups because unlike other organizations, they operate underground. They also face massive pressure and scrutiny from the society at large. Success may mean holding on for as much as permissible. NUWAUBIAN TERRITORIAL EXPERIMENTS As stated earlier, the Nuwaubian Nation was founded in Brooklyn, New York, in 1967. York, at that time, was known as Amunnnubi Rooakhptah and later as Imaam Isa. Their founding headquarters was on 25th Bedford Avenue, an apartment building that doubled as York’s abode. Within five years, the Nation had grown in size and resources that it began to expand and buy up properties to expand its community. During this Ansaar phase in the Nuwaubian history, their publications began to flood the streets of Brooklyn, most of which were marketed by York himself and his few converts. Their targets were African Americans and indeed all peoples of African descent who were known in this phase collectively as Ethiopians (Ethiopia is a source of pride for Pan-Africanists because it successfully resisted European attempts to colonize it). Two books published by the group in 1967 included Bible Interpretations and Explanations book I and II. These books provided the framework and insights into their founding goals, ideological, and epistemological trajectory. From inception, Nuwaubians began immediately to critique monotheistic religions such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism while at the same time focusing on black liberation—psychological, social, and spiritual.25 By the 1970s, their name was changed to Ansaru Allah Community (AAC) which heralded their increased embrace of Islam in the Nation of Islam’s epistemological model—Black Nationalism as against mainstream Sunni Islam. They thenceforth declared themselves an official religious sect, thus ushering in an era of communal living. Ardent followers moved into their newly acquired official abode, a small house situated on Neptune Avenue and Twenty-Third Street in Coney Island, New York. There, they started opening up community businesses in various parts of New York City, including bookstores, where their publications and cultural artifacts were sold to the public. This attempt was geared toward self-sustenance. One of the stores was called the Pure Sufi Bookstore situated on 720 Flatbush Avenue; they also owned a printing layout on 492 Flatbush Avenue, right down the block. “Twenty eighty thirteen West twenty Ninth Street served as a meeting place and lecture hall which was my home in Coney Island,”26 York wrote. The AAC phase saw Nuwaubians’ status legitimized as a bona fide social organization by the New York City government. The city government

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partnered with them in their fight against drug abuse and crime. Thus, the AAC earned for themselves public trust and respect. According to Susan Palmer, there were several news reports of Mayor Ed. Koch and NYPD praising Nuwaubians for their good work in the Bushwick community.27 During this period, Ansaaru Allah was credited to have had between 2,000 and 3,000 members spread across the country, mostly African Americans. Certainly, not all were dedicated to the AAC’s cause nor lived within the community. As they grew in size, wealth, and influence they expanded to other American cities like Baltimore and Washington, DC, as well as internationally to Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, and England. At this time, they were headquartered at Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York before moving to a new place they called “Camp Jazzir Abba” in Sullivan County, New York in 1983. As for the reasons for this movement, the founder argued that it was a prudent decision and that it required commitment and selflessness to accomplish the task ahead. In his words, “The time was right for this Prepared Savior, so we moved up into the Catskills Mountains of Liberty, New York and set up what I called Jazzir Abba. And set up the nineteen test[s] of nineteen weeks of the faithful that would come through blizzards, to be taught once that was accomplished.”28 In 1993, to accommodate their growing followership which they claimed ran in hundreds of thousands around the world, Nuwaubians relocated to Eatonton, Georgia. At Eatonton, they had identified themselves as Holy Tabernacle Ministries and later, in early 2000s, as the Egiptian Church of Karast (Egyptian Church of Christ). Ultimately, these changes in name seem like deviations, but to York it was inevitable evolutionary steps required to move up. This phase also saw Nuwaubians increasingly embracing more mythological thoughts and belief in alien invasion. Having unsuccessfully sought cooperation within the mainstream African American religious community, Nuwaubians boldly declared themselves non-denominational whilst still maintaining a cultural and spiritual reverence for Africa.29 Sometime between 1992 and 1993, York purchased 473 acres of land in rural Putman County, GA, for about one million dollars. In this large plot, the group built structures that replicated the ancient Egyptian pyramids and monuments and named it “Tama-Re” (which according to their translation stands for Egypt of the West). They also changed their name officially to United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors. With the structures in place which included a sphinx and pyramids, York and hundreds of his followers moved to Georgia. By the time of their relocation in 1993 to the rural village, according to Athens Banner-Herald, Tama-Re was home to some 500 Nuwaubians, while The Augusta Chronicle puts it conservatively at between 100–400 residents.30 Although the Nuwaubians had been relatively accustomed to confrontations with law enforcement dating back to their New York years, the type

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of resistance they were met with in Georgia was of a different proportion. Essentially, the bone of contention was usually their plans to erect new buildings in their compound. As soon as they settled, Nuwaubians sought “to build a health-food store, a recording studio, a taxicab company and a social club inside the village” which inevitably attracted the state’s attention. The authorities argued that the area where the Nuwaubians built their headquarters was zoned for agricultural use and as a result denied them the opportunity to put the land to commercial use.31 This standoff persisted and by 1998 it led to the sealing off and padlocking of several buildings in Tama-Re, which the state thought were built without appropriate authorization. This led to a series of Nuwaubian demonstrations in and around Eatonton. Nuwaubians protested against alleged racist policies perpetrated against them by racist government agents. Both parties also sued each other in courts. Nuwaubians alleged oppression by the local authorities because of their race and alternate belief system, which did not conform to the established societal norms in Georgia. There were also constant complaints by local Caucasian residents in the area against the Nuwaubians. Some alleged that the emergence of the group within their vicinity had defiled their serene environment. They claimed that the group’s activities had brought noise and led to a filthy environment. Others complained about the 40-foot pyramid as well as statues of other ancient Egyptian gods in Tama-Re. Defending the Nuwaubians, attorney Leroy Johnson echoed the Nuwaubians in asserting that their only offense was to be African American in a Caucasian neighborhood. To make matters worse, he stressed, they had the temerity to acknowledge their ancestors by erecting those ancient Egyptian type architectures which obviously made people with low self-esteem uncomfortable.32 Attempts by mediators to ease the tension failed. However, the one initiated by Georgia State Representative Tyrone Brooks (Democrat, Atlanta), who headed the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, led to a temporary ceasefire. In a bid to stem the tide of unrest, he went to Putman County to help defuse the tension. Thus, the two parties sorted out their differences and avoided violent confrontation albeit temporarily. This resolution meant that the padlocks were removed, but their social club remained sealed because of disputes over the sale of alcohol. By the early 2000s, other types of trouble began to brew for the Nuwaubians. Unknown to them, they had been under FBI surveillance and had been profiled for five years, ostensibly as “a dangerous sect,” just like many Black Nationalist groups usually are. Since sometime between 1997 and 1998, the Bureau had been paying closer attention to the activities of the group apparently via spies. Having surveyed the group for so long to determine their security network, the FBI arrested York and his legal wife, Kathy

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Johnson, on Wednesday, May 8, 2002. They were charged with calculatedly transporting minors from Sullivan County, NY, to Putman County, Georgia, for the purpose of sex.33 This arrest coupled with the salacious content of the charges the leader and his partner faced led to a crisis of the highest proportions. When the suspects were arraigned in court on May 9, the prosecuting team was led by assistant United States attorneys Richard Moultrie and Stephanie Thacker while the defense team was led by Leroy Johnson and Edward T. Garland. At this early hearing, the prosecutors had one named witness— Agent Ward. The defense on the other hand presented a total of ten witnesses, most of whom were Nuwaubians. Allowed to utilize anonymous witnesses, the prosecutors proceeded to recount the allegations of abuse by York and Johnson, narrating salacious scenes of how the former with the help of the latter sexually abused victims from childhood.34 This anonymous witness arrangement, Nuwaubians complained, deprived the defense of the opportunity to cross examine these faceless witnesses and attempt to debunk their testimonies. Thus, the prosecution had an edge from the onset which meant one thing for York—his fate was sealed from the onset. Jelaine G. Ward, an FBI agent for Macon, Georgia, in his testimony cast aspersions on the integrity of Nuwaubians and its founder in particular. Ward emphasized the frequent change of name by the organization and its founder to bolster his argument that they were not a credible organization. Furthermore, he told the court that he had identified eighteen cooperating witnesses, interviewed them and ascertained that there were between thirty and thirtyfive victims of child molestations by York and his wife, Johnson. Their ages ranged from four to eighteen. These children, he stressed, were controlled and were not allowed access to their parents without York’s permission in line with Nuwaubian communal living setting. York micro-managed the affairs of the group including who got what and when, the agent submitted. When the turn of the defense to argue its own case came, the ten witnesses testified and vouched for the reputation of the defendants as caring people. They vehemently rejected any assertion or suggestions that they both might have molested children in the compound. The first witness, Tyrone Brooks, a Georgia state representative and the leader of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, narrated how he met York through a suggestion from Jesse Jackson. At the time of prosecution, he stressed, he had come to know York as a reputable figure in his role as the leader of the Nuwaubian Nation as well as through his exploits as an astute entrepreneur. Brooks painted a picture of York as a selfless leader who, through his organization, organized African Americans, helped reduce unemployment among them, and uplifted them socially and culturally so as to be conscious and appreciative of their uniqueness.

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Angela Lorraine Bright, who lived in Conyers, Georgia, was one of the defense’s witnesses to affirm the reputation of the group and its leadership. According to court documents, she was an advanced practicing nurse, licensed by the state as well as a graduate student. Narrating her experiences in the community, Bright averred that she had lived at Tama-Re intermittently since 1996 and had known Johnson ever since. Johnson, according to her was “an advocate in the community, very much on health, education and welfare for children and the elderly and also women’s health issues.” She also affirmed Johnson’s reputation for truth and honesty. Ella Louise Solomon, who was a retired Ohio State worker, who had run unsuccessfully for County Commissioner District Four for Putman County, stated in the same vein that she had a close relationship with Kathy Johnson; they raised funds together for the welfare of children and their community in particular. She, like Bright, dismissed any suggestions that Johnson was a child molester or complicit in such acts. Johnson was later convicted of lesser charges.35 York was convicted on all the charges against him after he initially pled guilty and then recanted. The charges against him were grave but have nothing to do with his ecclesiastical mission and thoughts—seventy-seven counts of child molestation, forty counts of aggravated child molestation, racketeering as well as two counts of influencing witnesses among others. He was sentenced to 135 years in a federal penitentiary in Florence, Colorado. The previous judge, Mr. Lawson, had rejected the plea bargain York negotiated with the prosecutors which would have made him eligible for parole in fifteen years. The judge uncharacteristically argued that that was too short for a crime of such magnitude. His apparent bias was illuminating, hence he eventually recused himself from the case after the Garland-led defense team requested that he did so. Attempts to get the conviction thrown out have been unsuccessful as of this writing. Certainly, the charges against York are disturbing, but to be sentenced to 135 years in a federal supermax prison is unprecedented and suggests that Nuwaubians were right in their allegation of bias and frame up to get rid of their leadership and destroy their organization. York’s followers charged that his conviction was marred by prejudice, adding that his former lead counsel, Garland, a white attorney and the predominantly white jury made it impossible for him to obtain justice. York claimed that the attorney Garland had misled him into pleading guilty. He, further, alleged that he was severely and frequently tortured into submission by the agents of the government. His defense counsel pointed out that many of the defense witnesses had recanted and confessed that they were coerced by the agents of government to make those false accusations against their leader. This includes star witness Habiba Abigail Washington. Nuwaubians alleged

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Figure 1.2  Nuwaubian leader, Malachi York, (in dark suit) waves goodbye to followers after he made his first appearance with four other defendants on October 4, 2002. Credit: AP Images.

grand conspiracy and attempts to undermine Black Nationalism spearheaded by Howard Sills, the white sheriff who started the tug of war with the group after his election in 1996.36 Nevertheless, the appellate court dismissed the defense’ case for lack of merit on October 27, 2005, and upheld the conviction. The Supreme Court also had a similar opinion on the case when the team approached the apex court for adjudication. Raising the same issues that were used in the appellate court, the Supreme Court refused to entertain the case on June 26, 2006.37 This series of refusals by the judicial system to reexamine the case has prompted various forms of agitation by Nuwaubians as well as the larger African American community.38

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Figure 1.3  Nuwaubian Leader, Malachi York, in cuffs. Credit: AP Images.

As the Nuwaubian leader continues to spend the rest of his life in jail, Nuwaubians continue to endure, albeit without a central unifying figure. Their population continues to dwindle as have their businesses including their various websites, some of which are inaccessible now. This does not mean the death of the organization; many younger generation Nuwaubians use the internet to fight their cause. In one such debate, Hotep, a Nuwaubian man, engaged Bill Osinski, who had prejudicially covered their activities for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and also wrote a vitriolic book

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about the organization. Hotep took on Bill Osinski’s book Ungodly and addressed his allegations and criticisms point by point. An excerpt from his blog reads: Raahubat, As much as I truly do not wish to address the sheer ignorance of this so-called and typically ignorant expose by the ridiculously religiously stupid, bias [sic] southern media, I feel obligated to do so for those who are falling back under the spell of Kingu/Leviathan (666) and are reading this article as though it actually has some sort of intellectual relevance. The other thing I noticed while reading this is the apparent undertone of blatant racism. It appears Malachi York has become their public lynching icon in their attempts to ward off other esoteric melanites from achieving true knowledge of self and propagating in the promise land of Atlan. My responses are in red. Finally, I might add that only a complete fool would buy this book and any scholarly person will easily see the intelligence of Malachi's work matched against this person's slander.39

African Americans elite’s support or lack thereof of the Nuwaubian Nation is difficult to quantify. This is even harder now that the leader of the group is incarcerated. However, during their height of influence in the early to mid1990s, an estimated 5,000 people thronged Tama-Re annually for the “Savior’s Day” festival which doubled as York’s birthday. Nuwaubian Nation also associated with the local NAACP in Georgia, which, for instance, accorded them a prominent role during the Georgia NAACP banquet of 2000.40 With the group’s outreach in major American cities across the east coast and reaching internationally to Canada, the United Kingdom, Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous countries in West Africa, the Nuwaubian brand of nationalism, certainly, was and is still welcomed by segments of African descendants who are disenchanted with Christianity and Islam and by those who are seeking to repair broken cultural ties with Africa.41 Prominent Black leaders and celebrities at some point identified with the group. Judging by his suggestions to Brooks to broker peace with the Putman County authorities, Jesse Jackson, who visited Tama-Re, was certainly a sympathizer. Wesley Snipes, a movie star, was another noted figure who not only associated with the group, but in 2000, “sought a federal permit for a military training compound on land next to the Nuwaubian camp; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms rejected the request.”42 No doubt, York’s incarceration has been a big blow for the organization and has cost them momentum as well as enthusiasm from celebrities and the general public alike. He was very central to the Nuwaubian Nation; everything seemed to have flowed from and through him. This is underscored by how his name changes synchronized with the prevailing doctrinal position of his group as well as his authorship of nearly all their publications since

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inception to his incarceration. Apparently, York dreamed of catapulting himself to the leadership of African American religious community. However, this dream was cut short following his imprisonment. Nuwaubians have been managing to disseminate the Right Knowledge in York’s absence. But without their “messiah,” their intellectual and spiritual director, many followers could not hang on, some went astray. While the Nuwaubian charge of racial bias and systemic oppression against white America is valid and can be seen, they contributed inadvertently to their own downfall. There are some deductive reasons to this effect. One is concerned with how Nuwaubians compounded their problems by moving their headquarters from the liberal North to the conservative South—Georgia which was decisive in their downfall. Bailey observes: Eatonton, Georgia, seems an odd choice for an almost entirely African American community that had a consistent membership estimated at approximately 400 from the early 1970s. The predominantly white town has signs recognizing a chapter of Sons of Confederate Veterans, and an annual ten-kilometer run was once commonly known by locals as “Tar Baby Run” in remembrance of native Eatonton Joel Chandler Harris’ Br’er Rabbit folktales.

This rural part of Georgia, evidently, has a long history of affiliation and sympathy for ideals and groups that oppressed blacks. Apparently, the present residents of the area still feel attached to the racist legacies of their ancestors. This may explain why they felt threatened by the arrival of the Nuwaubians. More worrisome to the residents appeared to be the Africa-centered basis of Nuwaubian culture: their pyramids, sphinxes, dances, and pride in their African heritage. Combined with Nuwaubians’ Afrocentric thoughts that elevated African descendants from the bottom of the social pyramid to its crescendo, Nuwaubians faced determined foes backed by local authorities and resources. Unlike the Nation of Islam which remained predominantly in the North, Nuwaubians attempted to shake the social order by actually acquiring their own territory in Georgia in their bid to assert independence. It was an effort they lived to regret. But the above needs to be situated in proper context. The Nuwaubians had a goal—goal of separation from Euro-American cultural influence to carve out identity for themselves. They thought that the best way to attain it was to move to a more isolated part of the country. With the benefit of hindsight, even if they had remained predominantly in urban New York, it would not have prevented the FBI from surveilling them like they did to Garvey’s United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and the Black Panthers who were all predominant in the urban centers. Thus, researching Black Nationalist and other separatist organizations, one has to employ different technique

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in measuring their successes and failures. For in this case, the Nuwaubian success was their endurance, their resistance, and how long they persevered against the odds.43 One cannot overemphasize the immense impact of York’s imprisonment on the group organizationally and dogmatically. Since his incarceration in 2002, the group has been in disarray and left fragmented. Various city branches seem to operate independent of one another without national coordination. Some Nuwaubians fear that their group has been infiltrated by federal agents who conspired to get their leader off the pulpit and into prison. A Nuwaubian who does not want to be identified in this research shared a video with me online which he used to underscore this point. The Nuwaubian linked this infiltration with that meted out to Black Nationalist groups of the 1960s sanctioned by Hoover, the notorious former FBI boss. In the video, Darthard Perry, an African American, describes in detail how he was recruited, funded, and instructed by the FBI to infiltrate targeted black groups with a view to causing disharmony and thus sabotaging and destroying them.44 The Nuwaubian Constitution Nuwaubian social and political structure revolved around its leader and founder, Malachi Z. York. He initiated and defined the modus operandi of the organization including its spiritual and social character. The constitution of the nation, which did not surface until June 26, 1992, inevitably followed this line. By the time it was drafted, the group had metamorphosed into The United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors and moved to rural Georgia. Their political nationalism is outside the mainstream demands and aspirations of the majority of African Americans. This argument is strengthened by Melanye Price, who contends that most African Americans are in favor of moderate separatism—limited separation within the existing geopolitical and social boundaries. Politically, most African Americans, for instance, seek not to have their own country with a distinct constitution and president as the Nuwaubians apparently had, but a system that would enable them to have control over their politicians and control over social and economic activities within their communities just like the Chinese have in Chinatowns. Thus, nationalism within this context denotes limited autonomy;however, it meant complete autonomy to some black organizations like the Nation of Islam and the Nuwaubian Nation, hence their building of Tama-Re and the introduction of a separate constitution. Importantly, Price’s study underscores the fact that the majority of African descendants believe in shared destiny, collective redemption, and some form of separatism as opposed to integration. To this end, Africans in diaspora perceive their personal fate as linked with the rest of their racial group—that

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if some blacks are being oppressed somewhere that it concerns them, and that they need to fight together to attain a common objective, which is freedom. Also, her research suggests that although the majority of African Americans would disagree with Nuwaubian method of separation from mainstream America, they want some sort of autonomy; to assert control and to be able to influence the conduct of their elected politicians as well as to be able to influence the curricular development of their children’s schools.45 But Price’s and Nuwaubian models seem to intersect in objective and goal—they are both seeking ways of advancing the social fortunes of African descendants outside the mainstream Euro-American, disparity in methods notwithstanding. This constitution is very eccentric when viewed from Western lenses in so many respects as with other Nuwaubian concepts. With a total of 118 pages, a substantial portion of it was dedicated to critiquing social oppression of the hegemonic white men in America. Comparison was also drawn between it and the US Constitution as well as the US justice system in general. Like the US Constitution, the Nuwaubian Constitution declared that sovereignty resides with its people, and that it is such people that are bestowed with the power to uphold, amend, or jettison the law. Within this document, Nuwaubians defined themselves as indigenous to America and as such deserved indigenous rights and privileges. Their rights included “self-determination,” “self-rule,” and “autonomy.”46 The Nuwaubian Constitution was fraught with some inconsistencies that are quite remarkable. One of these include the racial description of Nuwaubians—at the beginning of the Constitution, it described members as being of the “Yamassee tribe.” A few pages later, the same Nuwaubians were described as Moors. The constitution devoted the first seven pages to issues of law and the constitution, while the rest was based on dialogue between Nuwaubians and their leader in question and answer form. One of the questions was the meaning of autonomy. In his answer, the author, utilizing the American Heritage Dictionary, answered it as the condition or quality of being independent; or the right of self-government.47 Essentially, this constitution defined Nuwaubian contemporary Black Nationalism—as embodying tinges of Classical Black Nationalism in wanting total separation, and epitomizing contemporary Black Nationalism in seeking to relocate elsewhere in resistance to oppression. ANALOGOUS ORGANIZATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES Various groups, since the nineteenth century, have emerged in response to the oppression of blacks with a view to proffering solutions to their social

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conditions via separation from mainstream Euro-American society. In the twentieth century, such efforts increased astronomically with the formation of UNIA led by Marcus Garvey in the second decade of that century. By the 1930s, the Nation of Islam evolved—having been influenced by the former— to offer not only spiritual solace to blacks but also messages of social, cultural, and economic empowerment. In light of this change, multiple other groups like the Five Percenters also followed suit in the 1960s. Thus, it is imperative to briefly examine the evolution of the Nation of Islam for it is the most enduring Black Nationalist organization as well as the Five Percenters and the Nu-Covenant for being the closest to Nuwaubian Nation ideologically. It is noteworthy that the Nation of Islam has been extensively studied through multiple lenses, hence the emphasis here is on lesser known nationalist groups. The Nation of Islam (NOI) Since the abolition of slavery several attempts have been made by Africans in the diaspora to set up their own communities with a view to asserting their Africa-centered culture outside of Western social and cultural influence. The NOI, a “black-centered” Islamic group, was founded in 1930 by an obscure figure, Muhammad Wallace in Detroit, Michigan. They are “black-centered” because their stated goals are not limited to mere spiritual redemption like most spiritual cum religious organizations, but geared toward improving the spiritual, mental, social, and economic conditions of African Americans as well as that of all humanity.48 Thus, the Nuwaubian Nation on being founded in 1967 would emulate such all-encompassing mission geared toward social uplift of Africa descended people. Minister Louis Farrakhan, who succeeded Elijah Muhammad (the latter was the successor to the founder), enunciated what the NOI stands for and the essence of NOI’s separatism in an interview at NBC’s “Meet the Press” with Tim Russert: The first part of that program is that we want freedom, a full and complete freedom. The second is, we want justice. We want equal justice under the law, and we want justice applied equally to all, regardless of race or class or color. And the third is that we want equality. We want equal membership in society with the best in civilized society. If we can get that within the political, economic, social system of America, there's no need for point number four. But if we cannot get along in peace after giving America 400 years of our service and sweat and labor, then, of course, separation would be the solution to our race problem.49

This statement poignantly illuminates the NOI’s agenda for African Americans—full freedom, justice, and equality before the law in all spheres

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of the social strata. By demanding equality unequivocally, Farrakhan underscores the driving force behind Black Nationalism, which is white oppression and consequent need for freedom. Thus, nationalism is an instrument of resistance against dehumanization and all forms of institutionalized oppression. The Five Percenters The Five Percenters aka Nation of Gods and Earths followed this separatist tradition by evolving a separate cultural community away from EuroAmerican culture. The Five Percenters emerged in Harlem, New York, in 1963 having, ostensibly, broken away from the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad’s leadership. An FBI document report dated June 2, 1965, stereotypically portrayed them, at the onset, as a group of youth “gangs” who operated in the Harlem area of New York City, 1965–1967. Accordingly, the Bureau set out to monitor the group’s activities instructing its New York Office to “conduct investigations to completely identify [its] leaders and to determine [the] policy of this group.” This report, which confirmed that the investigation of the group was intense, included military intelligence and that of the Secret Service and was extremely biased. The group was depicted as extremists who were bent on creating “disturbance.” The heavily redacted report pointed to how the group “berated and cursed a patrol man and continued on to Seventh Ave,” as one of the cases in point.50 Founded by Clarence 13X (born Clarence Jowars Smith), the group call themselves Nation of Gods and Earths. The founder was formerly a member of NOI as well as an ardent follower of Malcolm X, when he was with the Nation of Islam. The former left the NOI because of disagreements over the identity and nature of God to found his own group.51 The Five Percenters name which guided their philosophy was anchored on the premise that 85 percent of people in the world live in total ignorance. But the other fifteen percent know the truth about life and existence. Within this smaller percentage, ten percent guarded their wisdom and knowledge and are unwilling to enlighten the rest. The remaining five percent are determined to impart their knowledge to the masses and they are the Nation of Gods and Earths a.k.a. Five Percenters.52 The crux of the Percenters’ disagreement with mainstream Islam and the Nation of Islam lay in the fact that the duo separate God and humans. Clarence 13X, in contrast, posited that African descendants were gods personified. He also rejected the Nation of Islam’s claim that Fard, their founder, was Allah, claiming instead that Fard was Caucasian while his successor, Elijah Muhammed, was racially mixed. Therefore, both could not have been

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god(s) respectively or collectively. According to Christopher Johnson of the National Public Radio: To Clarence 13X and a handful of close friends, these new ideas were a revelation. To the Nation of Islam, they were heretical. So Clarence 13X split with the Nation in 1963 and changed his name to Allah the Father. He took his message to the youth on Harlem's city streets, teaching them that black Americans had inherited a legacy stretching back to the great civilizations of Africa, and that they should reclaim their greatness by fighting for racial equality and selfdetermination. To help his students tap their divinity, Allah the Father also taught an elaborate philosophical system called “Supreme Mathematics” and the “Supreme Alphabet.” By applying both, devotees believe they can interpret ordinary numbers and words as spiritual messages to guide them through life. Allah the Father's students took responsibility for spreading his message across the nation, even after the 1969 murder of their leader in a Harlem housing project. The echoes of that message eventually found their way into hip-hop culture. Phrases and symbology of the Five Percent Nation endure in songs by some of the genre's best-known musicians, including Busta Rhymes, most of collaborators in the Wu Tang Clan, and Lord Jamar of the rap group Brand Nubian.53

Allah, as he renamed himself, also disagreed with Nation of Islam on racial discourse. He averred that he was neither pro-black nor anti-white. And as Michael Knight notes, he even allowed white members.54 Allah’s death devastated the group, just as the incarceration of Malachi York dealt a blow to Nuwaubian Nation. Before his death, Knight notes, he advised his enthusiastic followers not to cry over his potential death and that the best way to preserve his legacy and dream was to unite. As he predicted, on June 13, 1969, Allah was shot on his way to see his ex-wife. The murder has remained unsolved at the time of writing. Knight, again, captures the feeling of loss experienced by his enthusiastic followers in Harlem in the following words: “Allah had been their Allah, but he was something even greater, a father for the fatherless young gods. Without him, some fell hard . . . others walked away.”55 The Five Percenters and Nuwaubians have a lot in common both ideologically and in the circumstance of their founding. Both Clarence 13X and Malachi York were groomed in Islam, and they both separated to found their own organizations in New York. The two founded their groups in the 1960s; 13X founded his in 1963, while York inaugurated the Ansar Pure Sufi in 1967. The former disagreed with Nation of Islam on doctrine, while the latter separated himself from the teachings of mainstream Sunni Islam to establish his own group with Africa-based epistemology. The two established contemporary Black Nationalist groups that attempted to empower African American urban youths intellectually and otherwise. While the Five

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Percenters remained predominantly in urban New York and other major cities, Nuwaubian Nation’s decision to put their separatism to the test in the rural South proved a disastrous miscalculation. The Nu-Covenant Formed by a former member of the Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, Amun-Re Sen Atum-Re, aka Brother Polight, the Nu-Covenant is a millennial Black Nationalist group bent on uniting African Americans and helping them fight post-human rights era oppression or the new Jim Crow. Based on the speeches and writings of its founder, the group is geared toward correcting some of the seeming ideological and operational flaws in its predecessor organization, Nuwaubian Nation, with a view to avoiding the pitfalls that led to the dismemberment of the latter. Thus, they have designed a pragmatic blueprint and roadmap toward African American economic and social emancipation built on what they call economic spiritualism. This approach takes contemporary legal and political realities into the equation in their bid to chart a progressive path toward racial, social, and economic upliftment of the oppressed African Americans. Born in 1983, Polight is a father, a husband, an activist, social critic, and a public speaker, who has transformed his life from degenerating involvement in gang activities. When he was eight years old, his father walked away from his life and returned back when he was already sixteen, by which time his life had already turned for the worse. According to him, his mother died shortly after he met her for the first time in seventeen years. The apparent lack of parental love and mentoring in his childhood and adolescent years inevitably accounted for his social deviancy. Yet, like Malcolm X and Malachi York, Polight was able to turn around his life for good. The Nu-Covenant website describes him as a leader who is fluent in eight languages including English, Hebrew, and Nuwaupic. To ensure that young black children do not fall into the social entrapment that cost him his youth, Polight discloses that he donates some of his publications to children and teenagers of African descent both in Africa and the United States to catch them young. An energetic, articulate, and charismatic intellectual leader, Brother Polight seems to be building a new brand of Black Nationalism on the foundations of Marcus Garvey’s Pan-Africanist thought, as well as on Malcolm X’s and Malachi York’s. According to the organization’s website and publications, he has published over eighty books and pamphlets, all geared toward providing a roadmap to liberating the minds and physical conditions of blacks. According to their mission statement on their website, Nu-Covenant stands for unity, oneness, goodness, humility, and respect for all humanity according to natural law.56 This stance conveys and heralds a new paradigm for Black Nationalism

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in the millennial era. It suggests a departure from bombastic collective attack on Caucasians as the “devil,” as was the case with Nation of Islam and early phase of Nuwaubian Nation. Thus, with the gospel of oneness, humility, and respect for all humanity, the Nu-Covenant seemingly recognizes that all people of African descent in some shape or form have been victimized and oppressed by some people of European descent, mostly the bourgeoisie as well as their institutions. The implication is that the poor whites are victims of the former’s mental enslavement and manipulation to achieve their selfish agenda. This contention evokes the memory of the social structure of the US’ antebellum South whereby the rich white planter class manipulated poor whites to support slavery even though the institution deprived them of job opportunities because it coercively relied on forced free labor of African people. Hence, Nu-Covenant calls for a flexible approach toward addressing the perineal issues of oppression and subjugation of Africa-descended people socioeconomically. Like the Nuwaubian Nation, the Nu-Covenant describes itself as a nondenominational organization that seeks to use the principle of economic spirituality to uplift African Americans from modern-day institutionalized oppression. It posits thus, NU alludes to the primordial waters that have been here since your inception as well as Earth’s. Nu represents the state or quality of the basic and fundamental needs that are prerequisite to life being precipitated anywhere. How might one become a master of their own destiny devoid of economical sovereignty? When will you be able to take life into your own hands again? Have you ever? Money is not evil though the intention of man may be. Spirituality and economics has always been integrated by the spiritual masters. It is your divine birthright as organic living souls of The Most High to own property, gain assets, and build capital in as many diverse ways as possible. Your life should not be on hold for a 401k, Roth IRA, Social Security, interest rates from your life savings in the bank, tax refunds, public assistance, section 8, credit card suspensions, credit scores, su su money, lottery tickets, mortgage, and the likes. You know that the list does in fact go on and on. You need to make money in real-time, not for it to accumulate after a lifetime. At the NU-Covenant we implore that you join us in our endeavor to expedite socio-economical [sic] reform. Our construct is reminiscent to that of the primordial waters in which all germs of life need to generate more highly evolved life forms. It is not enough to make a living. You should enjoy living as well. Since living is the premise. Our socio-economical [sic] construct represents the waters that you may germinate from to encourage your economical [sic] prosperity.

Economic spirituality in this context is derived from the biblical account of God’s injunction and endowment of man with creative potentials. Tapping into this philosophy, the Nu-Covenant invites blacks to be creative, to strive to be producers of goods, services, and knowledge rather than passive consumers.

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By so doing, they tap into their unexploited potentials, do the will of God, and become agents in charting their history rather than being consumed by a sense of powerlessness and defeatist syndrome. To overcome the challenges that bedeviled their predecessors and to circumvent the legal and political crises that led to the premature deaths of Garvey’s UNIA, the Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, and the seeming helplessness of Nation of Islam in the wake of continued fiscal policies that deprive African Americans of their own communities across the United States, Brother Polight designed a plan of action that seems to take historical and contemporary realities into account. This plan resuscitates historical black communalism that saw African American organizations organize to provide shelters and other basic needs for black migrants leaving the Jim Crow-infested South for Northern cities of the United States in the first quarter of the twentieth century in what is now known as the Great Migration. These individuals and organizations selflessly provided accommodations, food, employment, and other services that included coping mechanism for formally enslaved African Americans and their descendants in the urban centers of the North. The Nu-Covenant’s plan, however far-fetched, at least recognizes the imperatives of taking care of members’ immediate needs which means that they need to survive today in order to fight tomorrow. The blueprint attempts to turn African descendants’ misfortune around by seeking to provide relief and succor to victims of cataclysmic events that ravaged black communities in the United States and beyond: Hurricane Katrina, the flooding in Mississippi, and the Earthquakes in Haiti are all prime exemplifications of spontaneous cataclysmic occurrences. Unfortunately, the victims of these events have become criminals, prostitutes, homeless, diseased, or simply died on account to [sic] limited resources. When you come under the protection of the NU-covenant we guarantee the members of our tabernacle emergency housing and travel accommodations for their family inclusive of themselves in above par climate and conditions for little to nothing. Children of The Most High have always been protected by their binding contract with their creator ensuring that that they will always have a place to live. This is just one of the many perks that come with being protected by the Nu-Covenant.57

While the Nu-Covenant is new on the scene of black liberation struggle, the founder, Polight, has some impressive publications and many speeches and discussions on the internet. Like the Nuwaubian Nation, the organization’s publications articulate details of their goals and proposed methods of actualization. Also, like Malachi York, Polight writings utilize non-Western cum nonacademic format in wording, phraseology, and structure. Nevertheless, it is not clear to this researcher how far this organization has been able

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to apply these ideals in real life. Such determination is outside the scope of this research. Contrast and Ties to the Nuwaubian Nation The Nu-Covenant is similar to its predecessor, the Nuwaubian Nation, in so many ways, yet differ from the latter substantially. This difference lies primarily in approach toward the goal of black liberation. While the Nuwaubians had seemingly ignored and acted outside the laws of the United States and various states where they existed, the Nu-Covenant seems prepared to utilize the laws to effect their desired separation. It emphasizes the strength of pen—which is a cliché for intelligence—over the sword (brute force/confrontation). This is a tacit rejection of the Nuwaubian entanglement with law enforcement in Eatonton, Georgia. Although this is a change of operational approach, it is not necessarily a repudiation of Nuwaubians, but a call for a pragmatic nationalism using diplomacy instead of confrontation, hence their mantra, “the pen is mightier than the sword” in recognition of the duplicitous nature and strength of racism. Nevertheless, in the book Pen is Mightier Than the Sword, Polight came out forcefully in defense of his incarcerated mentor, Malachi York, who is serving 135 years in supermax Florence Colorado. According to him, York’s arrest, trial, and conviction were all manifestations of the American “injustice system.” The bases for the author’s cry for injustice are as follows: out of the 120 people interviewed by the FBI only four people agreed to testify; several of the alleged victims of rape were tested for STDs, yet the results were negative; the allegation that York raped the victims 11,568 times in a nine-year period at the age of fifty-six is preposterous because it meant that the accused was having sex on average four times a day consecutively for a nine-year period. He then wonders how York was able to write all the books he wrote and make presentations and public speeches he did within the period. According to Polight, the whole trial process was tainted and lends credence to the suspicion that the authorities wanted York out of the scene at all cost to dismember his organization.58 Fiscal Challenges in the Millennial Era Nu-Covenant traces blacks’ economic and financial woes to systemic injustice sustained and transferred over several generations to keep African Americans at the bottom of the socioeconomic pyramid. These problems, accordingly, are traceable to the fact that since the inception of the United States, African Americans had not been fully recognized as humans much less citizens of the nation until as late as the 1960s. Using the infamous Dred

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Scott’s ruling in which a US Supreme Court justice averred that persons of African descent are properties and not entitled to legal rights and privileges imbued to European Americans, the organization argues that the nation’s current marginalization of African Americans is traceable to this heinous claim. In Inequity or Iniquity, the author frowns that the above ruling has not been overturned, which means that it is a legal precedent that still shapes social and racial policies and programs discreetly. The implication is that the principle of equality before the law does not still apply to Africa-descended people legally and in financial dealings Civil Rights Acts notwithstanding.59 This argument is noteworthy because of the fact that American judicial and political systems invoke and use precedents as a basis for the law. While jurists and lawyers routinely cite judicial precedents, politicians use the phrase “our founding fathers” to conjure emotion and drive home their points. In an effort to educate his audience and empower them to resist and combat financial manipulations, Polight critically observes that many African Americans fall victim to the financial system because of ignorance which is traceable to the fact that public schools’ curricular do not address financial prudence and management properly to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. He observes that banks expand their profit margins on the backs of the ignorant by employing tricks and exploitative measures with the full backing of the law. He asks rhetorically, “why do you suppose that they penualize [sic] you for taking your money out prematurely? I will tell you why. The bank is using your money to make investments and granting you a lower rate of return every time. Whenever you decide to take out your money it bursts their little bubble. The bank is using other people’s money to build capital.”60 As a solution to their financial woes and chronic unemployment among blacks, Polight advocates economics of production rather than consumption. To him, production is inevitable for African people to survive as a race and take the next step of advancing socioeconomically. For “when one produces a product or event, [he or she] puts something into existence that has the potential of affecting a diverse amount of people, their immediate community, or family.” Thus, economics deals with the way people produce, consume, and transfer their wealth within their community. Linking production with spirituality and the likeness of God, Polight argues that production is divine in that God created humans and endowed them with the productive and creative potentialities. To this end, “to produce is to create and creation is the most notable attribute of God.” He contends that since humans were created in the image of their creator, African Americans need to eschew consumption and strive to produce because when one produces he is demonstrating some level of sagacity in anticipating demand and utilizing their spiritual cognitive abilities to do so.61

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Unity and Pan-Africanism As a conscious Black Nationalist organization, the Nu-Covenant calls on African descendants across the globe to unite under its banner in a united effort against all forms of racism and oppression. The group stresses that the proliferation of Black Nationalist organizations has not helped blacks so far because of lack of synergy and symbiosis. In its words, “innumerable amount of contemporary organizations, neither one identifying with the other . . . mentally separated.” Because of lack of consciousness, unity, and solidarity, African Americans, in many instances, use their money to promote and support racism they supposedly denounce.62 Thus, Polight argues in Blood is Thicker Than Water that “we need the type of unity that only being a race can generate.” The derivative from the above quotation is that Africa-descended people need to look beyond their mere geopolitical separation and unite, recognizing that the face of oppression is the same, as well its essence and nature. By so doing, he contends, the oppressed would be able to send a powerful and unified message to their oppressor via collective action rather than an apathetic attitude. Polight also emphasizes on the need for a repercussion against any injustice or crime committed. This argument is in line with Western legal conventions which utilize punitive measures such as fines, jail time, and community service to deter potential offenders from committing crimes. In light of this, Nu-Covenant advocates practical solutions to perennial problems ranging from police brutality to economic victimization of blacks. Rejecting the 1960s’ method of marching, Polight argues, “yes we march, we might go on strike, and we definitely make emotional exclamations and demand change but after all of this, why would or should anyone else take us serious.” To him, African descendants need to study and understand the social and legal systems and attempt to use them to their advantage in their quest for upliftment and the first step toward this is that “we collective[ly] organize ourselves duly.”63 In his writings and speeches, Brother Polight repeatedly and figuratively invites his audience and indeed African descendants to hold his hands—reminiscent of Human Rights era marching form and in the spirit of Pan-Africanism—in his bid to take them to the promised land of freedom. This symbolic phrase, “hold my hand,” historically signifies that Africadescended people need to unite and confront oppression with a unified stance. To create a space for his organization among the league of Black Nationalist groups, Polight is very critical of some current and former organizations dismissing their methods—not their messages—as ineffectual in this day and age. The Five Percenters and Black Hebrews, as well as the Nation of Islam, have all come under innocuous critique for not living up

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to the modern-day challenges and for not providing viable roadmap toward black liberation, especially fiscally. As a solution to oppressive rules and policies that target poor Americans and African Americans in particular one of which is gentrification policies, he advocates real communities for blacks. Polight argues that African Americans have no communities of their own because the so-called black communities are an extension of Caucasian/Jewish communities in terms of ownership of houses and businesses. According to him, to have real black communities, African Americans should unite and work together to own their homes and apartments, control their city boards of education—which should reflect in various curricular, control other institutions of authority such as police and firefighters that serve in their communities as well as businesses rather than the present situation where they are tenants in de facto white communities. To him, one cannot talk about a community or nation without a land; a piece of land is very essential in actualizing the dream of Black Nationalism.64 To Brother Polight, Africa descended people “have become our very own worse [sic] enemy.” The Nu-Covenant founder based this provocative assertion on history, albeit misinterpretation of it. His primary reference points are slavery and Jim Crow. He argues that there was African collaboration during the dehumanizing trade. On post-emancipation Jim Crow, Polight maintains a similar line of argument, contending that without blacks’ apathy and nonchalant attitude oppression would have been defeated. He avers, for instance, that African Americans are their own worst enemy by seeking to integrate with their oppressor, who does not want to share his privilege with his victim. He also chastised blacks for spending unwisely, thereby arming the same institutions of oppression they claim to fight with their wealth.65 While he makes a compelling case about blacks’ unconsciousness and apathy toward their oppression, he failed to perceive that those attitudes are equally products of oppression that have been transferred from generation to generation. His argument about Africans indulging in European trade on Africans is as unfortunate as it is patronizing to the actual capitalist beneficiaries and designers of the inhuman trade. Without perspicaciously appreciating that African masses (both the enslaved and those who lost relatives to the trade) are the victims of slave trade, Polight ended up hurting the cause he set out to defend. His naivety in this area is apparent as he did not appreciate that like imperialism European trade on Africans was hatched after the former had taken over the Western Hemisphere. Without the latter, there would not have been any need for labor. Polight ignorantly blamed himself, a victim of human trafficking, for crimes committed against him.

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NOTES 1. Fahim A. Knight-EL, “Table Talk With an Ancient Free and Accepted Mason: My Views on Dr. Malachi Z York and Black Freemasonry PART 1 (Continuation)”, last modified May 06, 2012, http:​//for​um.da​vidic​ke.co​m/arc​hive/​index​.php/​t-803​ 05.ht​ ml; Center for AnthroUfology, last modified October 2, 2011, http://www. anthroufo.info/un-nuwab.html. 2. Amunubi Rahkaptah, Bible Interpretations and Explanations, Booklet One (New York: Those Who Care, 1967), 2–11. 3. As Al Haadi Al mahdi, About the Raatib: The Book of the Mahdi (New York: Ansaaru Allah Community, 1987), 1–11. 4. Peter Holt, The Mahdist State in Sudan, 1881–1898: A Study of its Origins, Development and Overthrow (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970), 45–49. 5. Malachi York, Jesus Found in Egypt (Eatonton, G.A: The Ancient Egiptian Order, n.d.), I. 6. Richard Allen, The Concept of Self: A Study of Black Identity and Self Esteem (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001), 20. 7. As Sayyid Al Mahdi, Science of Creation (New York: Nubian Islamic Hebrew 1983), 56-57. 8. Malachi York, The Wisemen: Study Book 10 (n.p.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1989), 8, 17–19. 9. US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, last modified February 04, 2013, http:​//www​.bop.​gov/i​loc2/​Inmat​eFind​erSer​vlet?​Trans​actio​n=IDS​earch​ &need​ingMo​reLis​t=fal​se&ID​Type=​IRN&I​DNumb​er=17​911-0​54&x=​0&y=0​. 10. Amy Womack, “Nuwaubians’ Founder Malachi York Accuses FBI of Coercing Witnesses,” The Telegraph, July 15, 2009, https​://ww​w.mac​on.co​m/new​s/art​icle2​ 85684​58.ht​ml. 11. Malachi York, Exodus Introduction (Eatonton, GA: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1995), 1–8. 12. Malachi York-El, What Is Nuwaupu?: For the Lost But Found (Eatonton, GA.: The Ancient Egiptian Order, n.d.), 9–10. 13. Chancellor Williams, The Destruction of Black Civilization: Great Issues of a Race From 4500 BC to 2000AD (Chicago: Third World Press, 1987), 20–26. 14. Malachi Zodek York 33, The Right Knowledge: For the Lost But Now Found (Macon, GA.: The Ancient Egiptian Order, n.d.), 2–7. 15. York 33, The Right Knowledge, 10–16. 16. Molefi Kete Asante, “A Discourse on Black Studies: Liberating the Study of African People in the Western Academy,” Journal of Black Studies 36, no.5 (May, 2006): 648–655. 17. Although Afrocentricity, as a term, was coined by Molefi Kete Asante in the early 1980s application of Africa-centered paradigm by African descendants was popularized by Marcus Garvey in the first half of the twentieth century. 18. Malachi York, Jesus Found in Egipt (n.p.: The Ancient Egiptian Order, n.d.), 3–11. 19. James Lance Taylor, Black Nationalism in the United States: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011), 63.

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20. See, Paul Boyd, The African Origin of Christianity: A Biblical and Historical Account, Volume I (London: Karia Press, 1991) and Yosef ben–Jochannan, African Origins of Major “Western Religions”: The Black Man’s Religion Volume I (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1991). 21. Molefi Asante, “The Afrocentric Idea,” in The Afrocentric Paradigm, ed. Ama Mazama (Trenton: Africa World Press, Inc., 2003), 37. 22. Malachizodoq York-El, Is it Black Man’s Christianity or White Man’s Christianity (New York: Egipt Publishers, n.d.), 17–19. 23. Malachi York, 360 Questions to Ask a Christian, Part I (Eatonton, GA.: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994), i–ii; Malachi York, 360 Questions to Ask a Hebrew Israelite, Part II (Eatonton, GA.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1995), xiii–xiv. 24. Jerome Schiele, “Organizational Theory From an Afrocentric Perspective,” Journal of Black Studies 21, no. 2 (December 1990): 1–6. 25. Malachizodoq, The Holy Tablets (Eatonton, GA: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1996), 1643–48. 26. Ansaaru Allah Nubian Islamic Hebrews’ Official Narration of their history at “OurStory,” last modified May 12, 2012, http:​//www​.inet​mgrs.​com/o​nepeo​ples/​ Ansaa​r.htm​. 27. Susan Palmer, The Nuwaubian Nation: Black Spirituality and State Control (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2010), 45. 28. Tutor Gig, “Nuwaubian Nation,” last modified May 16, 2012, http:​//www​.tuto​ rgig.​info/​ed/Nu​waubi​anism​#_not​e-12.​ 29. Malachi York, The Mystery Clouds; Are They UFOs? (Eatonton, GA: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994); Malachi York, Man From Planet Rizq: Study Book One, Supreme Mathematics (Eatonton, GA: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1996), 10–25; Factology.com, “Predator Extraterrestrials,” last modified May 25, 2012, http://factology.com/20020223.htm. 30. Joe Johnson, “York’s Sect at it Again,” Online Athens Banner-Herald, December 20, 2009, http:​//onl​ineat​hens.​com/s​torie​s/122​009/n​ew_53​75429​88.sh​tml; Vicky Eckenrode, “Mystery Circles Georgia’s Clan Nuwaubians,” The Augusta Chronicle, February 25, 2001. 31. Eckenrode, “Mystery Circles Georgia’s Clan Nuwaubians”. 32. David Firestone, “Bail is Denied to Sect Leader Accused of Molesting Children,” The New York Times, May 15, 2002. 33. Shana Gallentine, “Sect Leader Arrested on Sex Charges: Nuwaubian Figure York, Group Have Ties to Athens,” Online Athens Banner–Herald, May 9, 2002, http:​//onl​ineat​hens.​com/s​torie​s/050​902/n​ew_20​02050​9035.​shtml​. 34. Bill Osinski, “FBI: Kids From 4–18 Abused in Sect,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 14, 2002. 35. The United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia: Macon Division, “The United States of America vs. Dwight D. York and Kathy Johnson, Defendants, Case 5: 02–CR 27 (HL). (May 9, 2002 and May 13 and 14, 2002), 136–39. 36. World Justice Organization, Prisoner Advocacy and Legal Defense Foundation, “Support Malachi Z. York as He Fights For His Freedom” (June 7, 2005).

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37. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, No. 04-12354, United States of America (Plaintiff, Appellee) VS. Dwight D. York (Defendant, Appellant, October 27, 2005; United States of America (Respondent–Plaintiff) VS. Dwight D. York (Petitioner–Defendant) “Motion to Vacate, Correct or Set Aside the Petitioner’s Sentence Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2255,” Filed on June 27, 2007. 38. Joe Johnson, “Members of Nuwaubian Sect Seek York’s Release from Prison,” Augusta Chronicle, December 20, 2009; Samuel Jackson III, “Media, Prosecutors Ignored Evidence Exonerating York,” Athens Banner–Herald, April 29, 2004. 39. Nuwaubian Totep’s Review of Bill Osinski’s Ungodly, last modified June 20, 2011, http:​//www​.nuwa​ubian​-hote​p.net​/nuwa​ubian​_hote​p_res​ponds​_to_b​ill.h​tm. 40. Gurr, “The Fall of the Nuwaubian Empire?” 41. Joe Johnson, “Nuwaubian Leader Jailed, But the Sect Carries On: Not in Athens, though, as Followers Move,” Athens Banner-Herald, January 25, 2009. 42. David Johnston, “Wesley Snipes To Go on Trial in Tax Case,” The New York Times, January 14, 2008. 43. See, Jerome Schiele, “Organizational Theory from an Afrocentric Perspective,” Journal of Black Studies 21, no. 145 (1990). 44. “How the FBI Sabotaged Black America,” last modified December 11, 2015, https​://ww​w.you​tube.​com/w​atch?​v=YH1​wn8SW​R3c. 45. Melanye Price, Dreaming Blackness: Black Nationalism and African American Public Opinion (New York: New York University Press, 2009), 10–20. 46. Nayya Malachi Zodok York-El, The Constitution of the U.N.N.M. (n.p.: The United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, 1992), 2–8. 47. York-El, The Constitution of the U.N.N.M., 7. 48. Tynetta Muhammad (Wife of Elijah Muhammad), Nation of Islam Official Website, “Nation of Islam in America: A Nation of Beauty & Peace,” last modified June 27, 2014, http://www.noi.org/noi-history/. 49. The Final Call, “Farrakhan Meets The Press,” last modified June 27, 2014, http:​//www​.fina​lcall​.com/​natio​nal/m​lf-mt​p5-13​-97.h​tml. 50. FBI, “Five Percenters Part 1 of 2,” Bufile: 157–6–34, at the National Archives and Records Administration, last modified September 19, 2012, http:​//nar​a-way​back-​ 001.u​s.arc​hive.​org/p​eth04​/2004​10181​73434​/http​://fo​ia.fb​i.gov​/5per​cent/​5perc​ent1.​pdf. 51. Nation of Gods and Earths, last modified September 19, 2012, http://www. thetalkingdrum.com/nge.html. 52. Christopher Johnson, “God, the Blackman and the Five Percenters,” NPR, last modified September 19, 2012, http:​//www​.npr.​org/t​empla​tes/s​tory/​story​.php?​story​ Id=56​14846​. 53. Johnson, “God, the Blackman and the Five Percenters, . 54. Michael Muhammad Knight, The Five Percenters: Islam, Hip Hop and the Gods of New York (Oxford: One World Publications, 2007), xii–xiii. 55. Knight, The Five Percenters. 56. Nu-Covenant Website, last modified March 27, 2015, http://www.nu-covenantplus.com/. 57. Nu-Covenant Mission Statement on their website, last modified March 27, 2015, http://www.nu-covenantplus.com/about/.

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58. Amun-Re Sen Atum-Re, The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword (Tome# 9). 59. Amun-Re Sen Atum-Re, Inequity or Iniquity: Debt, Wealth or Asset Wealth (Tome# 65). 60. Amun-Re Sen Atum-Re, Rich Mom, Poor Mom. 61. Amun-Re Sen Atum-Re, Can You Out Think Your Oppressor? 62. Amun-Re Sen Atum-Re, Did Black People Create White Supremacy? (Tome# 77). 63. Amun-Re Sen Atum-Re, Blood is Thicker Than Water: People Lie But DNA Doesn’t. (Tome# 76). 64. Amun-Re Sen Atum-Re, The Black Woman is God and the White Man is Not the Devil! (Tome# 71). 65. Amun-Re Sen Atum-Re, Did Black People Create White Supremacy?

Chapter 2

Nuwaupu as the Panacea of Emancipation

This chapter defines the crux of the Nuwaubian ideology, Nuwaupu, and presents it as the right knowledge for Africa-descended people, as Nuwaubians claimed. Nuwaupu held that there is no objectivity in the current academic system and that the arrangement of knowledge and the definition of it serves the interests of hegemonic white men as well as justifies their worldview as universal while minimizing the worth of others. To conquer the minds of African people, Nuwaubians argued, metaphorically, that Europeans have cast spells of ignorance, sleep, and amnesia on the former and that the only way the victims could get rid of the spells was to unite under their right knowledge. By so doing, the miseducated would discover their true history, their true selves, and would be inspired to attain greatness. I have devoted my mission on this planet to the resurrection of the mentally dead, which I affectionately refer to as mummies. Never did I know that the evil one had done such a great job with these people both mentally and physically as to have them hate self and kind.1

WHAT IS NUWAUPU? Nuwaupu crystallized and elucidated all Nuwaubian fundamental thoughts. The notion, by their definition, stands for the truth which is the most accurate knowledge—the ascertainable knowledge. This definition implies that knowledge and tools of deciphering it are controlled and managed by people of European descent, via their prism, and that they disseminate what is suitable to them while withholding the unfavorable ones, their veracity 49

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notwithstanding. Thus Nuwaupu, which is also Right Knowledge, worked to provide and produce an alternate paradigm by inspiring free inquiry and advancing “right wisdom,” understanding and right thinking. The ideology posited that “if information is the best, then the best knowledge is Right Knowledge.”2 Nuwaupu shared similarities with other post-human rights Black Nationalist ideologies, including that professed by the Five Percenters, in its stated goals of inspiring racial consciousness among African descendants as well as in functioning as an alternative paradigm. The Nuwaubian Right Knowledge is analogous, yet differs somewhat, from the Five Percenters’ Supreme Mathematics ideology. Both believed that the prevailing knowledge system, as managed and composed across the world, is Eurocentric and therefore misleading. Nuwaupu invited African descendants to eschew the conventional Eurocentric academic paradigm which minimizes or discredits the contributions of their ancestors in the world civilization discourse. It called on them to seek Right Knowledge and Right Wisdom through Nuwaupu. The Supreme Mathematics, for its part, is built on the principles of Self Knowledge. Like Nuwaupu, it calls on blacks to rediscover themselves—rather than perceiving themselves as the downtrodden; they should rise to take their position for they are gods.3 Evidently, both ideologies were evolved for African people as a means of social empowerment, but they also differ in their theological conception of God and human essences. Nuwaupu held that there is a Supreme Being, while under the Supreme Mathematics principle blacks are gods. Both dogmas were forged in the 1960s, at the height of the Human Rights and Black Power Movements. Thus, they have been influenced by the Pan-Africanist and Black Nationalist thoughts of Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X, who called on blacks not only to unite but also to develop black mentality in thoughts and actions.4 The Science of Nuwaupu as described by Malachi York emphasized knowledge over belief. The logic is that the former denotes to know or to capture and internalize a given concept, while the latter induces individuals to trust without proof. He asserted that “Nuwau–pu is right knowledge, right wisdom, and a right overstanding [understanding]. If one has to believe, it means he or she does not know, that is ignorance. Hence, belief is ignorance, and religious beliefs, without the facts, is ignorance.” Nuwaupu called on adherents to prioritize knowledge over faith or trust without substance by admonishing thus, “. . . so demand that anyone attempting to impose upon you their religious beliefs to produce facts.”5 In practice, however, some Nuwaubian thoughts, including the belief in extraterrestrial bodies, are based on implausible logic and unascertained facts like many religious dogmas they critiqued. Furthering this discourse, Nuwaubians contrasted the two mechanisms of imparting wisdom by emphasizing that “to believe,” as a phrase, is deceptive and mendacious. By merely believing, they insisted, one’s total core value could be

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100 percent false. Also, to believe, they stressed, is to ignore facts, intentionally or ignorantly. On the other hand, knowing, rather than believing, builds wisdom, intellect, and confidence because the latter is verifiable while the former builds blind trust and doubts. They suggested three philosophical principles of testing the veracity of knowledge: experience, evidence, and reason. The experience test, they cautioned, is not applicable in all instances because some knowledge is in the abstract, intangible, and inaccessible in the present. This can be understood as a historical phenomenon; historical events occur in the past and can neither be reinvented nor recreated but exist as evidence to be verified physically or through logic. However, the other two, evidence and reason are attainable in that if they are factual evidences or plausible judgments, then they can be traced and ascertained, demonstrated or proven via sound logic.6 By implication, this alternative knowledge route targeted African descendants across the globe and was designed to inspire pride, self-confidence, and esteem. It attempted to connect them socially and culturally to their ancestry, Africa.7 This was a major departure from the Supreme Mathematics of the Five Percenters, which did not put Africa at the center of its principle. Right Knowledge conveyed a more vigorous sense of racial and cultural consciousness. To the latter’s targeted audience, they should rise for “it’s our time to rule self.”8 The essence of this Nuwaubian epistemology was to dispel the perceived spiritual and psychological imperialism that captivated peoples of African descent that, according to Nuwaupu, has been holding blacks back from social progress. This phenomenon was captured in mysticism called the “Black Spell.” The founder and leader of the Nuwaubian Nation, York, devoted a couple of his publications to this subject of Africans’ mental and spiritual enslavement which he described interchangeably as a spell, curse, or hypnosis. In one of those, a sixty-one-page book titled, The Right Knowledge: For the Lost But Now Found, he posited that an “evil hypnotic spell of Amnesia” was cast on Nubians over 6,000 years ago after the creation of the “white magic.” White magic, he continued, is “6 ether spirit forces” that work in the spiritual realm to hypnotize and subdue the spirits of Nubians. He identified these forces as “white ghosts,” and frowned that Nubians have abandoned their spirituality to worship “white spirits,” whose manifestations are found in religion, hence the prevailing racial and spiritual blindness and ignorance among Nubians today. Thus, the result he declared is the present state of unconsciousness Nubians find themselves in globally which allows them to indulge in self-hate, a state of racial apathy, and leading to apparent lack of racial solidarity. In the author’s note, he emphasized his messianic mission on earth: I have devoted my mission on this planet to the resurrection of the mentally dead, which I affectionately refer to as mummies. Never did I know that the evil

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one had done such a great job with these people both mentally and physically as to have them hate self and kind. My greatest hindrance has been the black devil. Born amongst you, and by you, married to you, socializing with you, praying in the same sacred houses of worship as you; but secretly, they have a special pack [sic] with the devil, which makes it near[ly] impossible for them to totally surrender to Nuwaupu.

To the “true” adherents of Nuwaupu, whom he called the “few chosen,” he assured them of social and spiritual uplift.9 This author’s note is found in many of his publications where York addressed the causes of Africans’ lack of social and economic upward mobility, including in the Breaking the Spell on Blacks, a sixty-nine page booklet.10 From his argument, one can discern his clerical tone in his address of blacks’ sociocultural tribulations often disguised figuratively. The Nubians’ historic oppressors across the globe were described as the devil, not in the sense of Christian or Judaic devils or Islamic Jinn, but that of earthly oppressors. The reference to devil implies oppressive forces of slavery, imperialism, Jim Crow, and cultural and intellectual marginalization. However, without an iota of proof for this spiritual spell, he would be flouting the cardinal principle of Right Knowledge which supposedly relies on evidence and reason none of which are obtainable here. Nevertheless, York followed century-old tradition in buttressing his Black Nationalist and Pan-Africanist ideas in transcendental terms as suggested by both Moses and Turner.11 This tone is also found among South African Pan-Africanists as well, who employed it in their bid to galvanize the black population in their fight against a repressive Apartheid regime in the 1960s.12 York’s attempt to validate this logic seems to suggest that the spiritual spell equates to the enduring impacts of slavery and Jim Crow in the lives of African Americans which was never addressed in any systematic way. He argued that the spell works in the minds of Nubians by taking them out of their own mind and putting them into another person’s “mental reservoir,” thus causing mental inactivity, redundancy, and amnesia as well as self-hate and racial ennui for anything African in the present. The solution to overcoming these syndromes, he opined, is by “eliminating slave mentality, and white magic influenced religions be it “Christism, Moseism, Muhammadism.” And that elimination would lead to “right thinking, and right action for liberty and equality.”13 Again, by identifying all these mainstream religions which Nubians are amenable to as the source of black disunity and unconsciousness, York implied that his critique was not limited to Eurocentrism or the West, but included the Arabs and any other un-African force or doctrine that might have played a role in the cultural and social annexation of the Nubian minds.

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In defining the human mind, Nuwaubians asserted and thus affirmed that the brain is the master organ in the human body. In a book titled The Mind, York stated that the mind works with the brain and the nervous system. Ultimately, the mind, according to him is a special gift from ancestors rather than God. This position rejects not only the theological premise of God being the giver of life, but also the modern scientific inference on human anatomy. Yet without elements of reason and evidence, York still insisted that the human mind came from each individual’s ancestor and that these ancestors in turn were created by the Most High. The implication is that God created one set of people, who, after their demise, in turn became creators of their own future generations perhaps via reincarnation. Nevertheless, the challenge York posed to all Nubians (or Enosites) was to strive to gain control of their minds which would in turn help them think positively and work to advance their social and spiritual lives. He counseled: The challenge then, dear Enosites, is to gain control of the mind by methodically slowing down its continuous ramblings, the internal dialogue and focusing on positive and uplifting objectives; it is possible to overstand the workings of the psyche and bring about a more effective life. . . . When the Enosites searches for happiness, they invariably turn to external objects and events for satisfaction. They merely think, [in terms of] if I can have that car, or if I were just able to get that job . . . then I would be happy. They have no perception of the fact that the mind may . . . [attain temporary] peace . . . with the[se] . . . objects.14

In essence, Nuwaupu criticizes the tendency of the human mind to seek temporary satisfaction at the expense of one’s long-term goals which might be hampered by the individual’s immediate flamboyant desires. These temporary material aspirations are not end in themselves, but attributes such as wisdom and education as well as long-term career goals are. Persons living their lives in this materialistic manner, it stressed, are not the masters of their mind. Their minds are still “elusive animal[s] to tame.” Thus, even when they are able to obtain some of these lofty items, they still face other frustrations as new items become old over time. Unfortunately, their desires are remotely controlled by merchandise rather than their needs, hence they do not have total control of their minds. Another compelling analogy that helps illuminate this point is the cigarette, they posited. “A person who smokes cigarettes daily, claiming they are determined to stop ‘tomorrow.’ The Enosite [individual] truly wants to be free of the habit, but lacks the necessary control of his or her mind.”15 In an individual’s mind, who is egotistic, another symptom of mind captivity, the victim assumes unascertainable superiority over others by imposing his wills and values thereby causing disharmony and discord.16 Nuwaupu’s inference was that ego is the “most difficult part of the mind to control, for

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its nature is such that it deludes even while one is striving to overcome it.” Thus, it is the greatest threat to world peace without which there would be no need for racial/cultural stratifications that define and judge people from the cultural binary paradigms of civilized vs. uncivilized/primitive, first world vs. third world and the haves vs. the have nots.17 Building a Nation in the Minds: Derivation of Nuwaubian Ideology Turn ye now, from the filthy foods that El Yahuwa warns you are an abomination to your bodies, and causes [sic] all kinds of diseases and sicknesses. . . . Turn ye, now, from excessive alcohol, that is slowly destroying you, and burning your brain to idiocy, rendering you helpless and more common than you are already, and other forms of drugs which are doing more damage to you than alcohol. Turn ye, now, from integration, that is slowly destroying you, and helps to rob you of your remaining heritage. Integration is not freedom. Integration is slavery, disease, unholiness.18

The first step toward forging a Nuwaubian Nation occurred in the mental realm. In their writings and pronouncements, Nuwaubians made their case for a need for separatism, rather than integration, which they feared might lead to cultural assimilation—the same concern their progenitor, Garvey had in the 1920s.19 For them, integration would make African Americans lose their cohesion and the remnants of their cultural heritage since they would be integrating within a hegemonic culture on unequal footing. In attempting this step, Nuwaupu provided the foundation as well as served as a justification in their quest for an autonomous, alternate culture, and a social setting devoid of hegemonic interference or corruption and based on their African heritage and worldview. These efforts included inculcating an African-centered interpretation of various phenomena. Thus, Nuwaubians dissected and deconstructed major monotheistic religions that appeal to African people as well as African history, and invited their followers to question the basis of Western pedagogy and thoughts. Their belief was that for blacks to be independent of Western values they must learn to think independently so as to appreciate their own heritage and be able to defend those values. Nuwaubians also attempted to build a physical nation by evolving their own culture: in language and in marriage norms as well as evolving their own calendar. While most of these attempts waned after 2002 following the arrest and conviction of York, it is worth reiterating that their efforts are Black Nationalist in action and PanAfricanist in theory. And like Garvey, the Nuwaubians did not anticipate the type of opposition and hostility they encountered in Georgia following their relocation. Thus, before their nationalism could take proper shape, they have been dislodged from Tama-Re.

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Nevertheless, there is a clear correlation between Nuwaubians’ spiritual thoughts and social actions. The former certainly dictated the tone and inspired their movement to actualize their dreams of separate cultural identity. Their social actions meant that they separated themselves from mainstream America to protect their cherished culture and ensure limited interference from outsiders. This was actualized, as discussed in the previous chapter, at Camp Jazzir in New York and Tama-Re in Eatonton, Georgia. By connecting the two methods, York designed a scheme via Nuwaupu to instill racial consciousness and pride on his followers. In doing this, Nuwaupu sought to break the metaphorical “spell” cast on Nubians several millennia ago. York accused mainstream religions of being complicit in the hypnotization of Nubians by avoiding liberation theology but instead overemphasizing divinity while neglecting the earthly needs of their faithfuls. Nuwaubians held the Judeo-Christian tradition responsible for the perceived docile attitude of blacks through their doctrine of life after death. By implication, they argued, people are worth more dead than alive.20 Accordingly, Europeans used this narrative to exploit Africans by forcefully bringing and enslaving them in America—brainwashing them that their reward was in heaven if they remained good slaves, in hope of keeping them in perpetual servitude.21 Counteracting this phenomenon requires cohesion, ideology, and unity, and Nuwaubians believed that with Nuwuapu they could achieve their goals. Their hope was that Nuwaupu was adequate in this regard by working on the minds of its targeted audience to help challenge them to regain control of their persons, their essences, and to break the yoke of intergenerational mental slavery. This dogma advised devotees to strive to advance and prioritize principles over pleasure or materialism, the degree of opposition and oppression notwithstanding.22 The modus operandi of this doctrine was to rebuke, deconstruct, and criticize the dominant system which is the perceived enemy of Nubians while defending Africa, its descendants, and heritage. European cultural heritage and influences were rejected and often tied to capitalism and as coagents of exploitation. Halloween and other Western holidays were similarly resented. The period was described as a time of exploiting the unsuspecting masses. Historically, they averred, Halloween was adapted from European pagan practices of the Celts during which human sacrifices were offered to Satan. Halloween, accordingly, was linked with the Celtic’s “Samhain Lord of the Dead,” which was commemorated every November 1. Samhain, they stressed, is a synonym for Satan whom the Celts venerated. The penultimate night, the 31st, was usually very significant in that it was a night of “gathering of many evil spirits and souls. . . . To release the returning souls, the Druids sacrificed their animal and human victims.”23

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Nuwaupu not only condemned Halloween as evil in conception and in practice but also insisted that the holiday glorified evil, death, and human sacrifice. York argued that many department stores during the season exploited and tried to separate the unsuspecting public from their wealth by selling them ridiculous costumes in celebration of barbarity and at the same time encouraging a life of expense and extravagance rather than moderation.24 Nuwaubians’ rejection of Halloween on moral grounds is factual as the holiday has roots in ancient Celtic ritual festival of Samhain. Further evidence connect Halloween to the Christian holiday of All Hallows (all saints) on November 1, as well as the following day known as All Souls on November 2. This discourse highlights Nuwaubian paradigmatic consistency of critical appraisal of all accepted norms and doctrines. While rejecting European traditions he found condemnable, York embraced masonry in the 1990s, describing himself as a master mason. His defense for being a mason was that masonry was an African institution, a tradition appropriated or plagiarized from Egypt and therefore not European in origin.25 York bemoaned the fact that although the Western value system is indebted to Africa, much of the information related to this indebtedness would have remained a secret if not for the discovery of The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. In describing the book, York stressed that it is not a single volume, but a collection of sacred writings filled with short prayers, litanies, and recitations that were performed by “your Kemite ancestors on behalf of their dead relatives that passed on to a future life.” The purpose of these recitations, he continued, was to facilitate or help to secure an unhindered passage into the next world. Thus, such devotion and meditative prayers helped the deceased overcome “the opposition of the disagreeable(s).” And each prayer inscription was left at the tomb with food, jewelry, and other mundane items they deemed a necessity for their departed ones.26 Most of York’s arguments are underscored by John Romer in the Penguin Classics edition of The Egyptian Book of the Dead, including the multifaceted purpose of the prayers and the fact that it was originally a collection of diverse texts, later interpreted and bound in a single or multiple volumes.27 Regardless of the present world order which marginalizes African descendants, Nuwaupu, by design, attempted to inspire pride, courage, and resilience by striving in its ways, to dig up uncommon knowledge about Africa’s past, thereby giving black ancestors a place in history. Nuwaupu highlighted many instances of deliberate Western distortions of African history and attempts at Europeanization of African accomplishments.28 Nuwaupu held that Africans of the Nile Valley and their religion are the parents of all three major monotheistic religions. The use of supernatural forces in the physical—magic, it emphasized, is the root of Christian and Judaic miracles. These ancient Africans built temples, evolved lodges which later metamorphosed

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as churches, tabernacles, and sanctuaries in these aforementioned religions. With their superior knowledge of communication both verbal and written (hieroglyphics), the Egyptians were able to advance in science, philosophy, and arts. Thus, Nuwaupu beckoned all peoples of African descent to be inspired by their ancestors’ feats.29 Among historians and scholars dealing with ancient history, there is a continuous debate about which civilization preceded or inspired the other. Since the 1950s following the publication of Stolen Legacy by George James, Africanist classic scholars like Chancellor Williams, John Henrik Clarke, and Martin Bernal have increasingly maintained and defended the preeminence of Africa in world civilization. Opponents, on the other hand, led by Mary Leftkowitz countered that such arguments were not based on sound historical evidence. However, the latter seemed to have backed off a bit from her earlier contention in her book—that Afrocentric paradigm had become an excuse for some scholars to write fiction as history—when pressed during a debate with these scholars in 1996.30 York, reveling on the ground-breaking works of these Africanists, assured his members that he was making efforts to connect them with their ancestral land. By building ancient Egyptian style monuments in Georgia, York told Nuwaubians that their efforts were geared toward staying in touch with the spirits of their ancestors. Accordingly, Nuwaubians should not worry if some of them lacked the resources to visit Egypt to see those architectural

Figure 2.1  A giant Sphinx in Tama-Re. Credit: AP Images.

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Figure 2.2  A 40-foot pyramid at the Nuwaubian complex outside of Eatonton, GA. Credit: AP Images.

Figure 2.3  A young child looks on as Nuwaubian procession concludes on June 26, 1998. Credit: AP Images.

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works of their progenators. His reasoning was that those ancestors have been honored at Tama-Re through replication and supplication. Of course, the counsel was valid until the mid-2000s before the edifices were demolished. Figures 2.1 to 2.3 below illustrate York’s contention on supplication and replication. As Nuwaupu posited, like the ancient Egyptians, the Nuwaubians’ were privileged to connect with their god and the Anunnaqi, as well as their African progenitors effortlessly following the erection of Tama-Re. The two sets of pyramids, the classical and the contemporary (Egyptian and Tama-Re), were intended to imitate the heavenly civilizations; hence they were lined up “perfectly with the stars of Orion.” Nuwaubians also argued that the Olmec stone-heads found in various nations of the Americas were built by the same scientists who built the Egyptian pyramids—the Africans. Indeed, the Olmecs were Nubians who traversed the earth and crossed into the Americas prior to the continental drift.31 This Nuwaubian position was either an adaptation or reinforcement of Ivan van Sertima’s classic research that Africans were in the Americas long before Columbus allegedly “discovered America.” Examining various architectural, agricultural, and metallurgical evidence, Sertima submitted that there were overwhelming physical evidence, including the facial features of the stone-heads, that prove the identity of the Olmec.32 According to Malachi York, classical African civilization is not a myth for he has seen, touched, and felt it. Thus, Nubians should be glad and take credit for the endeavors of their ancestors, despite attempts by Europeans to rewrite history. In his words: Remember this, the educational system is not teaching you about the ancient Sumerian and Ancient Egyptian culture[s] and that Nubians, the Ancient Ptahites-Ethiopian-Cushites, were originally the rulers of Kemet which is falsely called Egypt today. They are not teaching you [that you] were the ones that built the Great Pyramids and Temples, that you were the ones who were doing brain surgery and eye operations thousands of years ago. These facts will never be revealed in their history books, so stop looking into these books for references to your past. The walls of the pyramids, which I’ve seen with my own eyes and touched with my own hands show in hieroglyphics [that] your ancestors are Nubians. The Europeans have tried everything possible to cover these facts; therefore certain monuments were either destroyed or badly disfigured.

York justified the essence of Nuwaupu in digging into Africa’s past to help shape its descendants’ present. He asked rhetorically in Exodus Introduction, Scroll 65: “[Are we] . . . supposed to forget many, many, thousands of years, of how we lived, what we ate, what we wore, why we respected them, and follow your culture that does not even fit in with the environment, or climate I live in?”33 He also linked this conspiracy to discredit and minimize African

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Figure 2.4  Nuwaubians gather for a moment of benediction. Credit: AP Images 

civilizations with the destruction of the Mayan and Aztec Civilizations, whereby the Europeans destroyed indigenous American’s monuments as they did to the nose of the Egyptian sphinx.34 His views were obviously an adaptation from the aforementioned pioneering Africa-centered paradigm advanced by scholars like Yosef ben-Jochannan, who cited an eyewitness to Napoleon blowing off the mouths and noses of Egyptian sphinxes to obscure the racial identity the monuments depicted.35 The Nuwaubian leader in his writings demonstrated little tolerance to those opposed to his Nuwaupu messages regardless of race. African American celebrities, like Michael Jackson, were reprimanded for embarrassing their race with skin bleaching. To him, black skin is very normal and tolerant to the sun, while white skin is not as tolerant which is why they tan their skins to try to obtain the elusive melanin abundant in the black skin, albeit discreetly.36 York also clarified that not all whites fall under the devil category, just as not all Nubians fall under the banner of the chosen few. Some Nubians are actually black devils, who act as saboteurs and sycophants to undermine Black Nationalism.37 The Nuwaubian model of nationalism epitomized the characteristics of contemporary Black Nationalism in that it is pragmatic in essence. Unlike the classical Black Nationalism, which focused on geopolitical separatism, Nuwaupu advocated actualizing separatism in the diaspora. In allowing

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Nuwaubians to stay within their national borders, it demonstrates profound pragmatism by attempting to actualize the cores of Black Nationalism within members’ various national borders. Its adherents, which were spread across the world, were neither encouraged nor discouraged from relocating to Africa; the emphasis was on economic independence, closer cultural relations with their ancestral land and deconstructing the Eurocentric history of Africa. Malachi York thought that with the ideological foundation in place his followers would be in a better position to seek their separate entity having been readied by his meticulous schooling. This assumption led him to conclude that he was the right person to lead his people toward social emancipation and spiritual salvation, and that the best way to inculcate these values was for blacks to engage with Nuwaupu. Nuwaupu and African Diasporan Children Like the forerunners of Pan-Africanist thoughts such as David Walker and Marcus Garvey, Nuwaupu, by design, engaged the minds of its adherents, especially their youngsters. Malachi York, aware that centuries of enslavement and deliberate mis-education or denial of formal education had shaped African descendants’ values and norms, designed Nuwaupu taking historical lessons from the foundations upon which Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism were laid. Walker, in his Appeal, had emphasized and lamented about the devastating effects of mental slavery on the enslaved which manifested in racial “ignorance.” To him, it is paradoxical that the supposedly “enlightened” and “Christians” of Europe have deliberately subjugated and further denied lights to Africa-descended people to further their wretchedness. Accordingly, “they have plunged them into wretchedness ten thousand times more intolerable, than if they had left them entirely to the Lord, and to add to their miseries, deep down into which they have plunged them tell them, they are an inferior and distant race of beings which they [Africans] will be glad enough to recall and swallow by and by.”38 From the above statement, one can perceive Walker’s fears and disgust in the 1820s when he wrote, which stem mainly from the fact that many enslaved Africans were accepting and naturalizing these destructive notions of African inferiority, thus accepting their imposed status as slaves as a divine mandate. Moreover, he feared the potential impacts of such indoctrination on Africans intergenerationally. As a result, his Appeal was anchored on attracting the minds of blacks to help inspire them to wake up from their slumber and fight for their freedom. The segment or chapter in which he made these assertions titled, “Our Wretchedness In Consequence of Ignorance” is illustrative of the fact that the prevailing ignorance was not hereditary nor genetic—as advanced by racists who claim the race was inferior—but deliberately imposed via

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indoctrination thereby justifying the victim’s enslavement. According to him, “Ignorance and treachery one against the other—a groveling servile and abject submission to the lash of tyrants, we see plainly, my brethren, are not the natural elements of the blacks, as Americans try to make us believe. . . .”39 By the turn of the twentieth century when Marcus Garvey assumed the torch of leadership of Pan-Africanism, the message and focus was fundamentally the same but more forceful and organized in tune with the times. He admitted that years of brainwash had adversely affected the psyche, social values, and behavioral patterns of all people of African descent regardless of nationality. Thus, he encouraged African descendants to rise and regain their consciousness admonishing those who could not change their lives for good to realize their full potential to not to worry about going back to the motherland. According to him, “We do not want all Africans [abroad] in Africa. Some are no good here, and naturally will be no good there.” To him, Africans must unite to wage a collective war against oppression and to win such a war starts with winning the battle of self, of self-reliance, the vision of self in the present and in the future. Garvey maintained that the greatest tool blacks needed in the course of these fights is confidence without which they would have been defeated twice in the race of life, but with it they would win before the battle started.40 Thus, to achieve total victory, Garvey invited Africans to liberate their minds from mental slavery which is the responsibility of the enslaved. Even the Almighty God would not pity anyone who is mentally lazy or refused to put his mind to proper use. Thus, to be Godlike, one needs to be wise, mentally alert, and allow his mind to rule his body for it is only the human mind that resembles God. Garvey authoritatively stated that a conscious and responsible mind should be a fearless mind—a mind that fears nobody else except God. Without doubt, he was encouraging blacks to defeat their fears and rise up to boldly reclaim and restore their humanity, heritage, and dignity.41 Carter G. Woodson, in the 1930s, reiterated the imperative of using education—proper education—to liberate and emancipate the minds of Africans. He frowned that control of knowledge, the definition of what is considered knowledge as well as the flow of it were outside the control of blacks. Thus, Woodson bemoaned the prevailing situation in the 1930s and before whereby the teachers of black children reinforce black inferiority as written in the textbooks they used, invariably fostering self-hate and lack of self-confidence. For Africans to be totally liberated, he advocated proper knowledge that takes African history and experience into account as well as pedagogical focus on inculcating the culture of critical thinking during the reading and teaching process instead of the prevailing method that made teaching an act of information dissemination and learning an act of memorization. The erudite

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scholar was of the opinion that education could serve as a veritable tool of community building and development. Hence, he chastised the so-called black elites for migrating away from inner-cities after acquiring a Western education and a better paying job.42 Their job and role, thus, should be to use their education to serve their communities. In essence, Woodson’s argument implies that if education makes one alienate his friends and family, there is something fundamentally wrong with that form of education. For proper education is supposed to help one fit and connect better to his/her root, rather than jettisoning it. By staying back, these educated ones would have become the leaders and protectors of their various communities as well as role models to the youngsters in their neighborhoods. In the same vein, Nuwaupu was designed to capture the minds of all ages as well as to help Nubians regain consciousness having been metaphorically under the spell of sleep, ignorance, and amnesia for several millennia. In targeting young Nubians, Nuwaupu had some specially designed educational schemes aimed at capturing their young minds. Youngsters, especially girls, were cautioned against emulating Western values of polishing their nails, wearing wigs, and applying a chemical called relaxer to their hair, all of which negate their anatomical essences. Rather, they were advised to be proud of their natural selves. Nuwaupu taught its youngsters that people that polish their nails or wear wigs do not wash their body and hair properly or at all, hence the need to cover up.43 Inner Wisdom for the Children of Nuwaubu addressed some of the literary needs of children in that the book was written as an anthology consisting of children’s short stories. These stories were carefully designed to craft their children’s worldview early. The introductory note encouraged Nuwaubian teachers to explain the themes, settings, and plots to the children.44 It also invited philanthropists to invest in such literature targeting children so that they can teach their children “our-story,” rather than “his-story.”45 “Donkey Mind Your Mother!” is the title of one of the essays which talked about a disobedient donkey at the city of Eridu. The donkey was hitherto a human but was turned into an animal because of insubordination. The story was set in Africa, ostensibly in Sudan or Mali judging by the author’s description of the scenes, including the use of donkeys, which are commonly used in the Sahara belt. Importantly, it taught Nuwaubian children that there is always a price to pay for disobedience, hence the need to respect and obey one’s parents and community elders. Obedience, which is priced above freedom at that age, was inculcated on Nubian children in the context of their relationship with their parents and community. There was also the theme of freedom embedded in the storyline as the donkey regained his freedom at last by turning back into his natural form—a little boy. By implication, this story conveyed the liberation mood of the organization to their youngsters in

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a soft, subtle way to prepare their minds for the liberation fight of the future, the essence of Nuwaupu.46 Grandma’s Words of Wisdom did not specify which age bracket it was designed for, but when one considers the content it seems to be for Middle School and High School students. The book narrated how African Americans were historically denied access to education during and after slavery. It also lamented that an alien language, English, was forced upon their ancestors after their forceful dislocation from Africa. In America, it added, they were denied the forty acres and a mule promised to them. In spite of all these adversities and obstacles Nubians had always survived, Grandma announced gleefully.47 She made a lot of virtuous suggestions to her intended audience, some of which are commonplace knowledge. Pertaining to their present and future lives, Grandma York advised her students and audience to approach knowledge with measured skepticism, to be wise and prudent with money, and that it is better to be loved than to love. Love, she insisted, should be reciprocal; thus, it is better to be an old man’s darling than a young man’s slave. The author further counseled her male students, asserting that a man that is good to his mother will be good to his wife. To all her audience she said, there are three sides to every story: “my side, your side and the truth.” And on a final note, Grandma inferred that a family that plays together stays together.48 Similar words of wisdom are found in Sons of the Green Light where the author similarly advised the readers to be gracious toward others at all time. Keeping a positive attitude, he insisted, goes a long way in smoothing interpersonal relationships. A gracious disposition, he argued, goes a long way in influencing and extracting positivity from the other party. But, “if they choose to send a signal of hate, then their hate will do no harm. If one directs hatred toward others and they respond with hatred, then the first hate will penetrate.”49 In The Holy Tabernacle Family Guide, the author, addressing African American adolescents, counseled them selectively based on their gender. To males, the book admonished traditionally that it is their role to provide for their families when they get married. In the absence of such a fatherly role in households, the wife is free to seek a divorce because the man has failed in his role as the head, the author emphasized. Men were also advised against searching for their future wives at night clubs or parties. But they should seek healthy and intelligent wives who can be loved and cherished rather than base their choice on beauty which is temporary, merely manifesting on the surface.50 Ladies, for their part, were advised to seek healthy, intelligent, and responsible husbands in marriage. Like men, they were counseled not to base their choices on the mundane and subjective criterion of beauty, which inevitably

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fades and could easily be erased by a catastrophic incident like an accident. Rather than beauty, they should base their choice on the aforementioned attributes like responsibility, health, and intelligence. The girls were advised to gear up for roles in their potentially new families and to ensure that they provide a supportive environment.51 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM AND NUWAUBIAN EXEGESIS Black Nationalism, since slavery, has been utilized and continues to serve as an ideological tool channeled toward the social and spiritual liberation of African descendants. To this end, religious Black Nationalism was founded on the belief that religion should serve not just as a spiritual purpose of redeeming the soul, but also as a social instrument of empowerment through emphasis on social justice. This Black Nationalist notion also gives equal primacy to all mainstream monotheistic religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Nuwaubians, following this trend, designed Nuwaupu as a theological, intellectual, and ideological tool flexible enough to be applicable to all spheres of knowledge. In religion, it served to critique and therefore hold the mainstream religious ideals accountable.52 This tradition is in line with Albert Cleage Jr.’s Black Christian National Movement doctrine that deconstructed the orthodox interpretation of the Bible in the 1960s and reinterpreted it to suit African Americans’ socioeconomic realities.53 Classical Black Nationalism of the nineteenth century was anchored on the Eurocentric premise that preached “civilization” via Christianity. These blacks, having been influenced by Western racist thoughts on Africa, bought into the conjecture that African religions were pagan worship and as a result they defined their missionary activities as “civilizing.” White ministers like Robert Breckinridge, a Presbyterian, helped to accentuate these negative notions about Africa. In his speech at the Maryland State Colonization Society on February 2, 1838, he argued that it would be better and more effective for free blacks to go to Africa and Christianize and therefore “redeem” Africans at home: The moment one city, one single city of free civilized Christian black is placed near the equator, on the western coast of Africa, then the mighty prize is won! From that instant, the whole problem in all its complexity and vastness as to [the] black race is solved. The slave dies, the civilization and conversion of Africa is fixed; the destiny of the race of Ham is redeemed.54

While the nineteenth-century diasporan Africans, like Catherine Zimmerman (1825–1891), continued to aspire to “civilize” the continent using

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Christianity, contemporary religious Black Nationalism of the human rights and post-human rights era differs profoundly from this tradition.55 They rejected the racist and paternalistic mission and notions bought into by their forbearers by instead incorporating African values within their Christian or Islamic doctrines. The Nation of Islam, in the second quarter of the twentieth century, emerged as an alternative to Christianity—offering an Africa-centered epistemology that Sunni Muslim leaders denounced as unIslamic. The Five Percenters, to a lesser extent, as well as the Nuwaubian Nation emerged to further that paradigm by grounding their dogma on Africa-centered ideals. This was a clear departure from the stance of their predecessors who had construed Christianity in its European form and from that standpoint perceived Africa pejoratively as the land of the heathen. However, like in the nineteenth century, religion continued to play a central role in black political leadership. Most of the “Civil Rights” leaders had religious backgrounds either as pastors or Islamic clerics. Others like Clarence 13X, for instance, worked his way through Nation of Islam and then founded the Five Percenters. He rose to prominence and played a pivotal role in helping to quell the uprisings that erupted in New York City and other major cities following the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968.56 Malachi York followed this tradition in presenting himself as an activist and community leader, not just a religious one. Mainstream African American leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, while not publicly accepting his doctrinal stance, seemed to endorse his leadership role by attending some Nuwaubian events in Eatonton.57 Wesley Snipes, an African American movie star, was also said to be associated with Nuwaubians.58 Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are both Christian ministers, yet it did not deter them from identifying with the Nuwaubians whose doctrinal stance was at odds with mainstream Christianity. Their apparent common interest, social justice, seemed to have triumphed over doctrinal or ecclesiastical differences. Black theology seeks to deconstruct the prevailing Eurocentric essences embedded in Christianity. For instance, it seeks to challenge the premise that depicts heavenly hosts—God, Jesus, and angels as white while portraying the devil and anything evil as black or red. By so doing, it hopes to dismantle the notion of white supremacy in religion. Nuwaupu reveled in this paradigm, which is observable in Nuwaubian publications; they emphasized that prominent biblical figures such as Jesus and Moses, among others were black.59 Nuwaupu further sought to enthrone communalism over Eurocentric individualism: that everyone is saved and redeemed collectively rather than individually. Unlike the Christian belief that each individual was created singularly and as such is answerable to their personal deeds, Nuwaupu countered that the community is redeemed or damned together. Thus, individualism, by

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this standard, is selfish and destructive and assumes a primitive status while African communalism is elevated in thought and through emphasis on communal living and communion, good neighborliness, and a collective fight for social and spiritual redemption.60 In the Black Nationalist creed, which served as the basis for this assumption, these aforementioned points were articulated by Albert Cleage who defined God in universal multipurpose terms that fit the social, not just spiritual needs of African descendants: I believe that human society stands under the judgment of one God, revealed to all, and known by many names. His creative power is visible in the mysteries of the universe in the revolutionary Holy Spirit which will no longer permit men to endure injustice nor to wear the shackles of bondage, in the rage of the powerless when the struggle to be free, and the violence of conflict which even threatens to level the hills and the mountains.61

Thus, the function of religious Black Nationalism is to put religion in perspective—to democratize it socioculturally and to give African descendants a sense of belonging. It interprets the scriptures, Quran and the Bible, in a social context rather than in abstract. It further places the messiah, Jesus, as black and in solidarity with their struggles—a social redeemer, a liberator: “I believe that Jesus, the Black Messiah, was a revolutionary leader, sent by God to rebuild the Black Nation, Israel, and to liberate black people from powerlessness and from the oppression, brutality, and exploitations of the white gentile world.”62 Nuwaupu’s conception of religion, as discussed in previous chapters, was dynamic in character in that during the Nuwaubian early phase, when they were identified as the Nubian Islamic Hebrews, and Ansaaru Allah Community, between 1967 and 1992, they did not reject mainstream religions. Rather than subscribe to one dogma, they gave equal primacy to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam thereby affirming and legitimizing all as co-equal and co-legitimate. This tradition has been in place within the African American communities for decades and even today African American Islamic leaders like Louis Farrakhan are welcomed to black churches and allowed to preach or lecture on issues of faith, politics, and social discourse. For example, Farrakhan visited and preached from the pulpit at the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago on March 3, 1994, and Sabina Church on February 21, 2009.63 This tradition is uncommon in the larger Christendom. The explicit and implicit message here is that these African American churches, groups, and organizations look beyond the dogmatic and historical differences among these denominations that serve to separate instead of unite. Rather than allow themselves to be embroiled in these scriptural disparities,

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they seek to take advantage where it seems possible. Since inception, Nuwaubians, under various names, have maintained that their primary objective is the liberation of the minds and peoples of Ethiopia (African descendants across the globe). In one of their earliest publications in 1971, they affirmed this position by declaring their purpose as helping to inspire the liberation of the black race via practical or intellectual means.64 No doubt, Nuwaubians became less religious as the their empire grew and by the time of their relocation to Georgia, they had become almost anti-religion. The Five Percenters, for their part, perceived their dogma as non-religious as well. They saw themselves as social scientists whose mission was to search for and disseminate the truth about life to the world, to help emancipate black people.65 In their evolution years however, especially during their Nubian Islamic Hebrews phase, their doctrine seemed eclectic—an admixture of Judaic, Islamic, and Christian religions. They appeared to agreed partly with some chapters and provisions of the Bible while rejecting or reforming others in line with their nationalist scheme. Accordingly, they challenged the book of Genesis including the creation account: the Adam and Eve story. They argued in their texts that the Bible currently in use is misleading because many of its provisions were ill translated by the Greeks because of their poor understanding of the original Aramaic language in which the Bible was written. For instance, they stressed that Adam was in the plural form in the original Bible which meant that not one man was created at a time. The same notion applied to Eve. Thus, there were many people in the world during Adam and Eve’s ejection from the Garden of Eden, which was in East Africa. The legendary eating of the forbidden fruit, they emphasized, was sexual intercourse. Adam and Eve were not permitted to have sex, which was forbidden by the Sun God they worshipped, but they did, hence their punishment of ejection.66 This critical appraisal of the Bible is in line with the basis of Nuwaupu, which is deconstructionist, radical, and revolutionary. In the 1980s, during the Ansaaru Allah phase, Nuwaupu continued to syncretize multiple religions and tempering them with African worldview, but during this phase it perceived Adam as the first prophet. The dogma added that Adam, a black African, was the first prophet and as such was the first to receive commandments from the Almighty. Adam inexcusably flouted the first of these—to eat all but one fruit in the Garden of Eden. These first creatures, Nuwaubians insisted, were Africans, made of water, carbon, and mud hence the color of African descendants.67 A year prior, in their Book of Revelation by As Sayyid Issa Al Haadi Al Mahdi (one of York’s Islamic names), they rejected the Christian premise that Jesus was the only Messiah. Their basis for this contention was that if Jesus was a Messiah, which meant anointed, then there were other anointed messengers of God who shared the messianic status with Christ. Furthermore,

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anyone who was sent by “Allah” accordingly, fits this status. This status was also accorded to Al Mahdi of Sudan and to York in line with his messianic claims.68 This concept of black messianism is found in many African American non-mainstream religions. Among the Five Percenters, their founder, Clarence 13X, was not just a messiah, he was Allah while his male followers were gods, females earths. Thus, their social status was elevated from that of descendants of the enslaved to that of god incarnate on earth. The Nation of Islam, for its part, perceives its leaders such as Elijah Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan as Allah’s messengers.69 In general, their accounts of creation of the earth, of humans, and other animate and inanimate substances followed a theological logic. They rejected Darwinism and accidental formation or evolutionism pointing out that there was a Being who initiated, oversaw, and accomplished the creation process single-handedly. Accidental or evolution by chance would have resulted in a lot of imperfections and led to natural disorders, they argued. Because the creation was instigated and managed by a Being, the first creations were given a breath of life by this Being-creator. The earliest humans were made and endowed with impeccable immaculacy and given the mandate to replenish and reproduce. Apart from beauty, humans were garnished with intelligence and given authority and rulership over all other creations.70 Toward the end of the 1980s, Nuwaubians were seemingly disenchanted with religious affiliation which they thought coerced people to believe. As a result, they began to pull away from their earlier limited alliance with the mainstream faiths. They also started launching scathing attacks on these religions and their essences. These religious establishments, they concluded, used mythology as their theological bases rather than ascertainable facts or plausible logic. They asserted that the fact that science contradicts Judaism and Christianity in so many respects including when life began on earth makes their dogmatic basis far-fetched. This criticism does not amount to a rejection of these doctrines, but a microcosm of Nuwaupu’s efforts to ensure religious accountability. Despite their scathing attacks, York quoted the Bible to underscore his points even within the same book in which he criticized religious inferences as a mythology.71 Islam was also chastised for inspiring violence ostensibly with reference to the early 1990s terrorists attack at the World Trade Center.72 This critique of Islamic proclivity for violence, perhaps, became more relevant following the September 11 attack in 2001. Some of these critiques are consistent with the thoughts of pre and posthuman rights Black Nationalist scholars like George James, Ben-Jochannan, and Paul Boyd. These authors argued that Christianity and Judaism were imitations of the Egyptian Mysteries System that extolled the virtues of God the father Osiris, the Mother, Isis, and the Son Horus. Boyd specifically

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argues that the Mystery System in which the priest was celibate was borrowed by Rome which later became part of the priest’s vow of celibacy in Catholicism.73 Ben-Jochannan in toeing this line noted that Eurocentrists do not acknowledge the primacy of Africa in these aforementioned religions. He contended that Africans have been maliciously constructed as inferior, thus incapable of evolving religions with common philosophical idealism.74 Evidently, York was influenced by the works of these scholars—who deconstructed mainstream assumptions on Africa—and built on them to feed his Nuwaubian community’s need for inspiration and consciousness. By the 1990s, the Nuwaubian doctrine had witnessed a fundamental metamorphosis—a paradigmatic shift that rejected all three major monotheistic religions and ultimately deemphasized religion as a construct itself. Nuwaubians not only denied that Nuwaupu was a religious ideology but also described themselves as non-denominational outsiders. Within this period, publications that questioned the authenticity and the dogmatic legitimacy of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam began to emerge with titles like 360 Questions to Ask a Christian.75 In the book, York criticized religion as a nomenclature, and as a general term of faith system. He also denounced religion for misleading the gullible public in its emphasis on faith rather than empiricism. Christianity in particular was chastised for basing its assumptions and declarations as well as prognostications on questionable hypotheses. He wondered why religious accounts could not provide “scientific evidence in support of their historical accounts.” The best explanation for this position is evolution. Apparently, Nuwaubian Nation evolved increasingly in the 1990s as a secular organization by deemphasizing spirituality and focusing on social justice. The method of the sermon and the entire Christian dialectical process, he argued, was designed to breed passive followers who are remotely controlled and incapable of growing their own minds or spirits. Even when these followers read the Bible, he argued, they have been trained to not read with open minds, but in the belief that the “word of God” is irrefutable and therefore no need for further research or inquiry. The preaching minister at the pulpit, he stressed, does not entertain questions during sermons and expects his/her congregants to chew and digest all his discourse without an iota of skepticism.76 In his critique of Judaism, York bemoaned the fact that most people who practiced the faith were not necessarily the descendants of Jacob recorded in the Bible. He contended that many people who claim to be Jewish, especially, the European Jews were originally from Eastern Europe and were converts rather than descendants of Israel. Many of these Ashkenazi Jews, he insisted, converted in order to lay claims to the promised land as well as masquerade as the chosen people of God. The author lamented that the hitherto oppressed Jews of Europe have now become the new oppressors in Israel, having been

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supervising the racial oppression and suppression of Jews of African origin for refusing to practice Europeanized Judaism, Halacha, and for rejecting Yiddish, a language with European origins.77 The Nuwaubian Nation and its founder/leader have defended themselves against severe criticisms from non-Nuwaubians especially for their repeated transmutations, perceived inconsistencies, their seclusion, and Africa-centered epistemology.78 In his response, York asserted that he toed the Islamic path in the early stages because the Moors (Africans) were not ready for the type of liberation message he had at that time. Also, he asserted that it was the theme that resonated with Moors in the post-human rights America. Others, he stressed, were busy worshipping the “Caucasian God,” Jesus. Thus, he reiterated his critique of Nubians worshipping and subscribing to Christianity unconsciously to the detriment of the then prevailing racial consciousness that saw so many African Americans dressing in African apparel: “Dashikis, Gelees, Afro Picks, and Ankhs . . . had proud African names.” Christianity, accordingly, is the “religion of their slavemasters,” that of their historic oppressor.79 Essentially, the Nuwaubian critique and objections to mainstream religious thoughts grew louder and thicker, especially against Christianity, which they accused of being an extension of European cultural imperialism. For instance, they highlighted the fact that all the names people ascribe and use to describe the Messiah (Jesus) would have been alien to him during his times. Specifically, Nuwaubians posited that he did not use nor know any of the following names apportioned to him: Jesus, Christ, and Lord among others. Messiah, his Hebrew given title was misleadingly Europeanized as Christ by the Greeks and Romans as Kristos, they charged. In their opinion, the significance of this lay in the fact that by changing his name, Europeans have taken away the powers therein by effectively reconstructing and altering Jesus’ identity and image. Jesus’ name in the Galilean Hebrew was Yashu’a; the Greeks altered it to Iesous meaning Isa or Essa in today’s Arabic, they stressed.80 This disfiguration and alterations which bred division, accordingly, is partly responsible for the spiritual and dogmatic segregation prevalent in Christendom today, they contended. In some respects, it is in sync with religious classism, whereby the richer congregants are treated preferentially because of their financial contributions to the church. This paradigm, they stressed, is also seen in the hierarchical composition of today’s churches which ensures that the divide between the clergy and the laity is perpetually indelible. Nuwaubians also criticized what they described as the caste system within the church where the righteous receives appraisal while the perceived sinners are damned. Yet, all these classifications have one thing in common: Christ condemned each and every form of discrimination—classism, racism, and oppression. He not only dined with sinners but also hung around them, asserting that he came for their sake and not for those self-righteous folks.81

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They blamed the disciple, St. Paul, for doctoring Christianity to suit his European cultural background. Paul, a perennial villain in Christian Black Nationalism, received a reprimand from Nuwaubians for his role in mistranslating and misinterpreting the gospel having not met Jesus personally before his crucifixion, nor been one of the original twelve apostles. Thus, Paul assumes the character of an “intruder,” “a spy,” who lied repeatedly. Saul (his original name) was also berated as a sexist who, inspired by his European patriarchal background, relegated women to the lowest strata of the church. While Jesus elevated the status of women, including allowing them to see him first on his resurrection, Paul taught that women should be silent in the church unlike men. Some of Paul’s epistles, they insisted, might not have been approved or endorsed by Jesus if he were alive.82 Nuwaubians were vehement in their rebuke of Paul for his perceived role in the trajectory of Christianity today. They declared that most Christians believe they are following Christ but end up following Paul’s wishes and thoughts. Accordingly, an example of Paul’s lies can be found in his implicit admission that it does not matter how he spread the gospel even if it meant lying and deceiving people. Thus, he was said to have wondered why he would be judged as a sinner if he did so, thereby seeking special treatment from God, yet neglecting that he was flouting an important element of the Ten Commandments. They further denounced him as a false and self-appointed apostle, whose primary concern was self-aggrandizement.83 Nuwaubians, by the 1990s, blamed mainstream religions for their roles in human despair. To justify this argument, they pointed to the fact that humans employed religious sentiments in their bid to unleash terror on their fellow humans and their properties. Some dictators like Adolph Hitler, they continued, built a nationalist religion of stateism which inspired unprecedented levels of patriotism and hatred against other people all of which led to barbarous massacres. Similar utilization of religion to justify wars and human destruction, as they pointed out, include the India vs. Pakistan skirmishes, the Bosnian Conflict, the Algerian, as well as the Waco, Texas, imbroglio.84 Following persistent crises that bedeviled the world of the 1990s, Nuwaubians released a publication Whose God is Responsible? They rhetorically asked various religions who was responsible for the conflicts and chaos that prevailed in the world during that decade. In it, they questioned the assumption by mainstream religions, especially Christianity and Judaism, that their god(s) is caring and loving as well as omnipotent and omnipresent. If their god(s) is loving, as claimed, then why would he allow all the chaos, wars, and tribulations that troubled humans including epidemics like HIV/AIDS? York asserted that their own god is a god of reality, which takes care of the present rather than waiting for the elusive after-life in paradise or heaven.85 Nuwaubians criticized those who superstitiously tied these epidemics and conflicts to divine punishment. They particularly chastised those who

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employed apocalyptic argument to explain the emergence of HIV/AIDS. Their response to such views was rhetorically sarcastic—were the children who were infected with the virus from birth promiscuous in their mothers’ wombs? These problems, thus, were human-made. Some were caused by the voracious drive by capitalists to maximize the profit on their investments, the welfare of the vulnerable ordinary citizens notwithstanding. Others were caused by heartless politicians who, with a stroke of a pen, caused wars and genocides. They questioned mainstream god and wondered why he has not intervened, yet they absolved their own god of blame.86 The conventional religions’ gods, they opined, are seemingly weak, unassertive, and regrettably do more evil and faster than they do good. Nuwaubians mocked these gods as needing human prompts or jerks to do what they were supposed to do on their own, especially when it comes to good deeds. In some cases, Nuwaubians stressed, they send proxies to do their bidding rather than do it themselves. When evil is taking place, it is apparently easier for them to turn a blind eye and let it play out. Nuwaubians analogously pointed to European enslavement of Africans, imperialism on the continent, and Jim Crow in America to underscore their argument.87 The real Nuwaubu god came to be known as Eli (in the 1990s, during the Nuwaubian era, but was identified as Allah earlier). This Eli, unlike the Christian, Judaic, and Islamic gods, is assertive and can withstand complaints and criticisms from his children. Unlike the Judaic God of the Old Testament, he would not lead Nubians astray nor allow them to wander in the wilderness for forty years. Neither would he burn down cities, allow genocides, or the marginalization of Nuwaubians by Caucasians. Eli would come personally to earth to save his children from damnation, just like the quintessential earthly fathers do for their children and families, instead of sending his only son to potential peril.88 This assessment seems to ignore the biblical description of God’s essence which is that He loves humans unconditionally, hence the gift of free will in the conduct of his/her earthly affairs. With these in place, He does not need to interfere in the decisions and daily activity of humans because if He did it will undermine godly essence. It is clear that the contrast between Eli and the other gods is drawn here. While the latter work in the spiritual realm, promise eternal life after death as a reward for righteouness, the former seems practical, physical, social, and implicitly resides with his people on earth rather than living abstractly in the heavens. Additionally, while the Christian God requires His children to live by faith, Nuwaubians argued that Eli works with proof, logic, and reason rather than blind trust which suggests that he is not a spirit.89 This evolving secularity and physicality of god from the Nuwaubian prism seems at odds with their earlier position in the 1970s, during the Ansaaru Allah Community phase in New York. At that time, each individual had a purpose on earth. The earth, therefore, assumed a temporary form while the

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definitive prize or goal was eternal life in the heavens which they described as the ultimate “structure.”90 But since their Nuwaubian era in the 1990s, they have turned 180 degrees to reject their earlier theological premise. Also, by the 1990s, Nuwaubians started alleging that Christians had adulterated the principle of “quadity” and replaced it with trinity. The belief in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they alleged, was new which replaced the original concept of God the Father, Mother, Son, and the Holy Ghost. The reason for this misconception, they said, was because of European inherent sexism which meant that women were socially constructed as subservient beings.91 Within this period, Nuwaupu also challenged the premise of monotheism deconstructing it as a derivative from Greek words; mono which means one and thehos or theos which stands for theory. Thus, combined they refer to one theory or at best one knowledge, but not one God nor one belief. Further, Nuwaupu emphasized that there was even a contradiction in that expression. While mono undoubtedly means one, theos or thehos is pluralized which means that even if it is manipulated to mean God, faith or knowledge, it definitely refers to a multiplicity of it.92 With this position, Nuwaupu not only dismissed the concept of trinity but also asserted that the notion was doctored by the West to suit the Roman Empire’s drive to unify its empire politically, ideologically, and ecclesiastically. It is noteworthy to add that the Nuwaubian definition of monotheism is misleading as it is outlandish. Theos is Greek for God and mono stands for one or single. Jesus was also presented as an African and that His salvation message had existed in the continent for several millennia in various cultures prior to His birth.93 To buttress this point, the notion of Christ in Christianity was compared with that of African ethnic groups: Yoruba have Orunmila, Igbo have Chi ukwu, and Congo have Nkanka Calala Ilunga. Importantly, York also assumed the status of a messiah akin to Christ, but unlike Christ his mission was to help resurrect African descendants from their mental state of comatose, self-hate, and ultimately to defeat the black devils, a reference to perceived “Judases” or racial saboteurs.94 This logic places Jesus and York as partly god and partly human and casts both as possessing salvation messages for their targeted audiences who needed salvation and emancipation socially and spiritually. To this end, the messiahs had both physical and spiritual forms like every human.95 As a human, they asserted that Jesus was married and had a wedding in Cana, Galilee, his hometown, while his wedding reception was held at Bethany at his house. Implicitly, the biblical record of Jesus attending a wedding where he miraculously turned water into wine seemed to be their reference point because there was no record of Jesus wedding in the Bible neither did York provide any proof to justify his claim. They argued that the Westerndominated Christianity hid these facts for several centuries starting with

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Emperor Constantine of Rome who made Christianity his empire’s official religion so as to use the same to conquer the rest of the world.96 NOTES 1. York 33, The Right Knowledge, 2. 2. Malachi York 33, Breaking the Spell on the Blacks: The End!!! (Georgia: The Ancient Egiptian Order, nd.), 19. 3. Knight, The Five Percenters, 26, 227. 4. Malcolm X’s “Ballot or Bullet Speech,” last modified February 11, 2013, http:​ //www​.yout​ube.c​om/wa​tch?v​=CRNc​iryIm​qg. 5. York-El, What Is Nuwaupu?, 9–10. 6. Ibid. 7. York, Exodus Introduction, 1–8. 8. York 33, Breaking the Spell on the Blacks, 20. 9. York 33, The Right Knowledge, 2–16. 10. Malachi York, Breaking the Spell on Blacks: The End!!! (Georgia: The Ancient Egiptian Order, nd.). 11. Wilson Jeremiah Moses, The Golden Age Of Black Nationalism, 1850–1925 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 10, Richard Turner, Islam in the African-American Experience (Second Edition), (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003), 53. 12. Jason Deparle, “South Africa's New Era; After 30 Years of Suppression, an Unquiet Black Voice Is Legal,” The New York Times, February 3, 1990. 13. York-El, What Is Nuwaupu?, 13. 14. Malachi York, The Mind (n.p.: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1995), 2–4. 15. Ibid, 5. 16. Firmin Debrabander, “Deluded Individualism” The New York Times, August 18, 2012. 17. York, The Mind, 8. 18. Rabboni Y’shua, The Lost Tribe (New Babylon: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, n.d.), 7. 19. Amy Jacques-Garvey, ed., Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (New York: Brawtley Press, 2014), 21. 20. York, Breaking the Spell on Blacks, 1. 21. York, Malachi, I Will Send You Elijah, 36–40; Y’Shua, The Lost Tribe, 110–116. 22. York, The Mind, 22–23. 23. Rabboni: Y’shua Bar Haady, Halloween: The Evil One’s Sabbat (Scroll 22) (Atlanta: The Holy Tabernacle of the Most High, n.d.), 3-10. 24. Nayya Malachizodoq York-El, Nuwaubian Istatlaat (Meditation) (Eatonton, G.A.: Ancient and Mystic Order of Melchizedek, n.d.), 1; As Sayyid Al Haadi Al Mahdi, Opening of the Seventh Seal: Secret Societies Unmasked (U.S.A: n.p., 1975), 1–6.

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25. York, Jesus Found in Egypt, I. 26. Malachi York, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead (Eatonton, G.A: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, n.d.), 1–7; York, The Wisemen, 2–8, 17–19. 27. See, E.A. Wallis Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead (New York: Penguin Books, 2008). 28. Malachi York, The Sacred Wisdom of The Grand Hierophant: Tehuti “Thoth” (Eatonton, G.A.: n.p., n.d.), 2–8. 29. Malachi York, Pa Ashutat–‘The Prayer’ (n.p.: n.p., n.d.), 1–9. 30. The debate between these scholars with opposing worldviews on the influence of African Civilization on Greek Civilization can be found on YouTube, last modified April 9, 2013, https​://ww​w.you​tube.​com/w​atch?​v=w7W​AczIN​jhg. 31. Nayya: Malachi York-El, Science of the Pyramid (Eatonton, G.A.: United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, n.d.), 21, 63. 32. Ivan van Sertima, They Came Before Columbus (New York: Random House, Inc., 1976). 33. Malachi York, Exodus Introduction, Scroll 65 (Eatonton, G.A.: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1995), ii. 34. Malachi York, Mythology, Scroll 35 (n.p.: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, n.d.), 63–65. 35. Yosef Ben-Jochannan, Africa: Mother of Western Civilization (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1988), 194–195. 36. York, Mythology; 25-34. 37. Quantum Is Reality Blog, “Excepts From ‘Are There Black Devils’ Scroll,” last modified August 19, 2009, http:​//www​.mysp​ace.c​om/ni​nurta​999/b​log/5​06354​179. 38. James Turner, David Walker’s Appeal (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1993), 39. 39. Ibid, 41. 40. Marcus Garvey, Emancipated From Mental Slavery: Selected Sayings of Marcus Garvey (Kingston, Jamaica: UNIA-ACL, 2013), 11-17. 41. Garvey, Emancipated From Mental Slavery, 21. 42. Carter G. Woodson, The Mis-Education of the Negro (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2005), 18-19; 34. 43. As Sayyid Al Haadi Al Mahdi, Ansaar’s Guide Through the Scriptures for Better Living: Purity and Neatness Book I (New York: n.p., 1988), 1-12, 21-22; Amunnubi Ruakptah, Sacred Tablets of Tama-Re (Eatonton, G.A.: n.p., n.d.), ii–5. 44. Malachi York, Inner Wisdom for the Children of Nuwaubu Once Malachi, Vol. I (n.p.: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1988), 1–8. 45. During their Tama-Re days in Eatonton, GA, Nuwaubians had schools, hospitals, and other social services administered by their members. In this video, a Nuwaubian child, Alu, displays his mastery of Nuwaubic Grammar during an informal interview with his father, last modified April 09, 2013, https​://ww​w.you​tube.​com/w​ atch?​v=KHZ​nedZ0​GCQ. 46. York, Inner Wisdom for the Children of Nuwaubu Once Malachi, 2–9. 47. Grandma York, Grandma’s Words of Wisdom (n.p.: n.p., n.d.), 1–6. 48. York, Grandma’s Words of Wisdom, 17–42. 49. Sons of Green Light: Lesson1, Study 8 (Athens, G.A.: Ancient and Mystic Order of Melchizedek, n.d.), 10–11.

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50. Malachi York, The Holy Tabernacle Family Guide (Eatonton, G.A.: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994), 98–102. 51. York, The Holy Tabernacle Family Guide, 104–110. 52. York–El, What is Nuwaupu?, 9–18. 53. Thomas Johnson, “Black Religion Seeks Own Theology; Negro Churches Seek their Own Black Theology,” The New York Times, January 30, 1971. 54. Wilson Jeremiah Moses, The Golden Age of Black Nationalism, 1850–1925 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 9–14. 55. David Killingray, “The Black Atlantic Missionary Movement and Africa, 1780s–1820s,” Journal of Religion in Africa 33, no.1 (February 2003): 3–5. 56. Knight, The Five Percenters, 107–109. 57. Many prominent African American political and human rights advocates such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton rallied in solidarity with Nuwaubians are African American political and community leaders. 58. Asad, “Dwight York and the Nuwaubians,” United Black Americans, last modified September 20, 2012, http:​//uni​tedbl​ackam​erica​.com/​black​-orga​nizat​ions-​ dwigh​t-yor​k-nuw​abian​s/. 59. Albert Cleage Jr., The Black Messiah (Trenton: Africa World Press, Inc., 1989), 3–10. 60. Malachi York, “What Was the Race of Jesus, the Messiah?: Have Archeologist Discovered the Race of Jesus?” Last modified September 20, 2012, http:​//www​.ange​ lfire​.com/​oh/An​cient​Knowl​edge/​raceo​fjesu​s.htm​l. 61. Albert Cleage, Black Christian Nationalism: New Directions for the Black Church (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1972), xv. 62. Cleage, Black Christian Nationalism. 63. Catholics in Support of Minister Farrakhan's Return to Sabina Church, last modified July 28, 2012, http:​//www​.yout​ube.c​om/wa​tch?v​=v8br​J3lfc​rQ; Farrakhan Speaks at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, last modified July 28, 2012, http:​// www​.yout​ube.c​om/wa​tch?v​=Claw​_yRLF​4M. 64. Wu Nupu Asu Nupu and Naba Nupu, The Nine Ball Count I: Liberation Information (New York: Those Who Care., 1971), 4-5. 65. Nation of Gods and Earths’ Website, “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” last modified February 11, 2013, http://www.thetalkingdrum.com/nge.html. 66. Amunubi Rahkaptah, Bible Interpretations and Explanations, Booklet One (New York: Those Who Care, 1967), 4–9. 67. Muhammad (aka Malachi York), The True Story of Cain and Abel (New York: Ansaaru Allah Community, 1980), 1–23. 68. As Sayyid Al Mahdi, The Book of Revelation: Chapter 1 Verses 1–20 (Edition# 216), (New York: n.p., 1979), 1–15. 69. Elijah Muhammad, History of Nation of Islam (Phoenix: Secretarius MEMPS Ministries, 1993), 1–5; Knight, The Five Percenters, 35–6. 70. As Al Mahdi, Science of Creation, 1, 56–57. 71. Malachi York, Mythology, Scroll# 35 (n.p.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1992), 1-11, 39–65. 72. Malachi York, Does Religion Breed Ignorance? (Eatonton, G.A.: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994), 1–3.

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73. Boyd, The African Origin of Christianity, 27–32. 74. Yosef ben-Jochannan, African Origins of Major “Western Religions”: The Black Man’s Religion Volume I (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1991), xix; Also See, George James, Stolen Legacy: The Egyptian Origins of Western Philosophy (U.S.A: Feather Trail Press, 2010). 75. Malachi York, 360 Questions to Ask a Christian, Part I (Eatonton, GA.: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994). 76. York, 360 Questions to Ask a Christian, Part I, i–ii. 77. Malachi York, 360 Questions to Ask a Hebrew Israelite, Part II (Eatonton, GA.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1995), xiii–xiv. 78. See, Bill Osinski, Ungodly: A True Story of Unprecedented Evil (Macon, GA: Indigo Publishing Group, 2007); Bilal Philips, The Ansar Cult (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Tawheed Publications, 1988). 79. Nayya: Malachizodok York-El, Ancient Egipt and Pharaoh (Eatonton, GA.: The United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, 1997), 1–3. 80. Malachizodoq York-El, Is it Black Man’s Christianity or White Man’s Christianity (New York: Egipt Publishers, n.d.), 17–19. 81. Malachi York, Is God a Wimp? (Eatonton, GA.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994), 1–2. 82. York, Is God a Wimp? 32–42. 83. Malachi York, St. Paul Disciple or Deceiver? (Eatonton, GA.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994), 1–6, 35–39. 84. Malachi York, Let’s Talk About the End (Eatonton, G.A.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, n.d.), 5–10; The reference here is about the Waco Texas Massacre on April 19, 1993, involving law enforcements and a religious sect during which seventy-four people died. 85. Malachi York, Whose God Is Responsible? (Eatonton, GA: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994), 1–7 86. York, Whose God Is Responsible? 87. York, Is God a Wimp? 33–40. 88. Ibid., 9. 89. Ibid., 39. 90. As Sayyid Al Imam Al Mahdi, From Allah to Man (New York: n.p., 1976), 7. 91. Malachi York, Jesus Found in Egipt (n.p.: The Ancient Egiptian Order, n.d.), 3–11, 200–202. 92. Malachi York, God Misinterpreted, Scroll# 85 (Eatonton, GA.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994), 3–5, 759. 93. Malachi York, Who Was Jesus Sent To? (Eatonton, GA.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994), 1–15. 94. York, Jesus Found in Egipt, 1. 95. Malachi York, Is Jesus Iesous Inoous Yashu’a Isa Yasu’a Yasue’ God? (n. p.: Egipt Publishers, n.d.), 1–34. 96. Nayya Malachizodok York-El, The Bride of Christ, Scroll# 48 (n.p.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, n.d.), 1–5.

Chapter 3

Nuwaupu on Social Discourse

This chapter examines the Nuwaubian social thoughts and worldview, especially on gender and race. To Nuwaubians, the only way to foster black emancipation and total liberation was through separation from the oppressor. This total separation contextually meant that one cannot seek to integrate with his predator. To them, separation from an oppressor is a natural reaction to perpetual marginalization and dehumanization and it is only a person whose mind is diseased that admires a person who intends to hurt him; even animals tend to flee from their predators. This separation will then allow African people to raise their families traditionally away from Eurocentric norms because a strong family is the bedrock of every community.

Viewed from any prism other than Africa-centered lenses, Nuwaupu comes across as irrational, reactionary, and revisionary. Some of these assessments have merit but should be placed in a context of social oppression and resistance. Without oppression, Black Nationalism loses its focal point and would not have existed in the diaspora. Thus, this ideology building on the tradition of resistance was designed to engage Africans at home and in diaspora in all spheres of their lives with a view to offering them an alternative social ladder and to help them reclaim their humanity. Since the emancipation proclamation by Abraham Lincoln, African Americans had voted for the Republican Party, especially during presidential elections. Undeniably, such magnanimous and unalloyed gesture to the party took racial and historical realities into consideration. At first, it was an astute decision that was premised on sound political calculation, but over time it became anachronistic. That alliance with the Republican Party became increasingly an alliance built on sentiment and emotion rather on the reality of the day as the nineteenth century wore down and continued even at the turn of the 79

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twentieth century. Blacks’ marriage with Republicans—like the current situation with the Democratic Party—unrealistically became a choice they made from lack of a better alternative because the Democratic Party, with its base in the racist South was unthinkable.1 This lack of a clear alternative political alliance was apparent since 1877, barely twelve years after full emancipation. Indeed, with the Northern and Southern whites’ reconciliation reconstruction became prematurely terminated, leaving the defenseless African Americans socially and politically vulnerable at the hands of their Southern white foes, who were still seething from the crushing defeat of their goal to have a slave nation. Thus, ushered in a period, Gyasi Foluke describes as “accommodation.” The implication was enormous, for power was fully returned and restored to the former enslavers and ex-leaders of the Confederacy under whose watch an unprecedented level of terrorism, abuse, and dehumanization of African Americans occurred. Politically, it resulted in a blatant and violent disenfranchisement of eligible black voters. It also meant that political representation at all levels of government blacks had earned following reconstruction was summarily reversed. On the economic front, it meant that blacks’ economic gains in business and other ventures were constantly harassed and institutionally obliterated. The result was the reinvention of slave-era master—slave order in the name of sharecropping which continued into the first half of the twentieth century.2 Faced with difficult choices, African Americans of the first half of the twentieth century pragmatically began to vote on interest rather than emotion. They evidently, seemed more pragmatic than the post-human rights and millennial blacks who, unlike the Hispanic voters, are inseparably aligned with the Democratic Party and their liberal agendas—agendas that relegate black social needs while accentuating that of other constituencies. The structural marginalization and dehumanization of blacks had inspired the Pan-Africanist and Black Nationalist movements, discussed in introduction, as well as the Harlem Renaissance. These intellectual movements sought to create alternative sociocultural and psychological avenues for proper emancipation of the descendants of the enslaved who were never rehabilitated nor compensated for intergenerational human trafficking and forced labor. These cultural and social movements seemed to die down with the suspicious conviction and deportation of Marcus Garvey for spurious mail fraud. By the 1950s and 1960s, black consciousness in the United States witnessed a rebirth during the Human Rights Movement, and especially, the Black Power Movement. The Black Power Movement bore some enduring fruits in helping to mainstream the desire for blacks to culturally and intellectually connect with their ancestral land. Thus, by the 1980s Afrocentrism, as a pedagogical and paradigmatic research tool, began to emerge and take center stage within and

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outside the academy helping to augment and inspire inquiry into Africa’s past and present from African perspective. NUWAUPU RACE DISCOURSE Nuwaupu’s primary and only concern since its inauguration was to help inspire social and intellectual emancipation of African descendants. Unlike the Five Percenters whose membership is open to non-blacks, Nuwaubian membership and message were purely for Nubians. Utilizing prevailing religious and social themes of the day, Nuwaubians tapped into the post-structural fervor of the Human Rights Movement to attempt to “resurrect the mentally dead” Nubians, some of whom have been “hypnotized” and were under the spell of sleep and amnesia. The ultimate aim was to help these people awaken from their slumber, regain their consciousness, fight for their freedom, and declare and assert their humanity. Critically appraising the Human Rights Movement, they inferred that passive resistance, marching, and direct actions of the movement could not have guaranteed freedom for African Americans. Their reasoning was that marching was akin to begging an oppressor to grant freedom to his victim. Even Western education, as structured, could not ensure freedom because it ends up producing “bigger fool[s].” The cure, they posited, was “proper education of self.” The reason is that “a person without the knowledge of self is like a tree without roots . . . dead civil rights won’t help us,” they declared. Nuwaubians also contended that African American politicians are unwilling to help eradicate the their constituencies’ social problems because as soon as they get into office, they develop amnesia regarding blacks’ social needs, collaborating with the establishment to advance their personal interests and that of their paymasters. Those with principles, they continued, such as Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, were swiftly taken off the scene either by deportation or assassination.3 On the question of civil or human rights, the Nuwaubian position was in sync with Malcolm X’s thoughts in the mid-1960s. The latter, criticizing Martin Luther King’s advocacy for peaceful coexistence (integration), frowned that it would lead to assimilation of the remnants of African values left in African American culture. He therefore called for separation as a means of tackling unique black socioeconomic challenges. This separatist philosophy, he contended, is imperative because it enables blacks to take their destiny into their own hands.4 Nuwaubians, similarly, took that position in the 1980s and 1990s by questioning why African Americans needed to beg for or demand for human rights from any person or entity. Like Malcolm and unlike

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Dr. King, the mission should have been defined as Human Rights Movement because one must be human first before seeking civil rights. Accordingly, the Nuwaubians maintained this line of argument mocking the notion that someone can make a law to guarantee another person’s humanity: What can be more insulting to yourself as a people than to think that another people can grant you the right to be human, or that a person can give you human rights? Obviously[,] a black leader who brings such a subject into light would be the same black leader who would say “by any means necessary,” put it on a poster, distribute it and misinform the people into thinking that it was a “Black Thang,” when in actuality that very statement was made against a black organization.5

The role of Islam as a component of Arabic cultural imperialism has also witnessed censure from Nuwaubians. They frowned that Allah’s commandments and wishes have taken a subsidiary role to Prophet Muhammad’s whims and fancies. To this end, Arabic culture takes precedence over spirituality of Muslims which meant that many nonspiritual part of that religion became critical component.6 Muhammad was an apostle of Allah, they contended, which does not place him at parity with Allah. They described mainstream Muslims who emphasized Muhammad over Allah as “Mohammedans . . . who laid aside the laws of Allah for the traditions of men.”7 The Nation of Islam and Five Percenters were implicitly reprimanded for following this line unquestionably and by having their own gods, Fard Muhammad and Clarence 13X respectively. Surprising, York sought validation from the same Arabs he chastised for diluting Islamic spirituality with Arabic culture imploring them to recognize his doctrine and his congregation as bona fide part of the Islamic world. According to him, the Arabs could solve this confusion by: Telling these American Negroes that what was being taught by As Sayyid Al Imaam Issa Al Haadi Al Mahdi, founder of the Ansaaru Allah Community in the Western World from 1970 A.D. to 1986 A.D. was indeed the truth. However, they are too involved in their found wealth, Western Christian friends, illicit and promiscuous behaviors to care about you, the so-called American Negro, and whether or not you are being misguided. Just like anyone who worships Jesus and accepts the white man’s false religion is called a Christian. . . . You’ve got Moslems of different nationalities trying to emulate the Saudi Arabian from a period of time between the year 610 A.D. and 632 A.D.8

The menace of religion was not the only issue that attracted Nuwaubians’ attention; social and economic well-being of African Americans took a prime place in their discourse as well. Emphasis on right education was posited to be the right path toward African American economic empowerment.

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Nuwaubians’ solutions toward attaining such goals follow their separatist stance—that the prevailing integrated school system does not afford African Americans the opportunity to control their schools’ curricula. Control of their local school districts, they reasoned, would enable the communities design curricula that targeted the immediate needs of African Americans such as lack of business ownership and drug epidemic. The Five Percenters were in accord with Nuwaubians on this subject. Like the Nuwaubians, they owned their schools and as a result they determined the subjects and textbook contents for their students in line with their Supreme Mathematics philosophy. Working with the then mayor of New York, John Lindsay, the Five Percenters founded their school, the Street Academy in 1966, while the Nuwaubian had theirs within their community both in New York and later in Tama-Re.9 Contrasting their system with the American public school system, Nuwaubians bemoaned what they called flaws in the system, adding that students still do not know what their career path would be even after college graduation. “If a child has talent for a particular occupation or skill, by the time he or she finishes 9th grade, it should be showing.” They emphasized that it is the parents’ and teachers’ responsibility to follow up with that child. Such collaboration could be incorporated into schools’ curricula, taught and made known to the parties concerned, they suggested.10 The Nuwaubian frustrations were also borne out of the fact that the school systems across the country do not offer credible path to financial and social independence. In conventional schools, the common advice to graduating students is always to find a “good job” and work diligently through retirement. But this is not the ideal plan for Nubians. Their best suggestion for Nubians was to be enterprising—to strive to own their own businesses and avoid working for whites, who they stressed were African Americans’ nemeses.11 Their reason was that “working for Caucasians is helping Caucasians to oppress and repress Ethiopians, because doing Caucasian work makes the white man richer and if he is richer he is stronger to oppress us.” The authors of the first Nuwaubian blueprint calling themselves “Ethiopian Scientists” expressed understanding as to why some Ethiopians might temporarily work for others rather than own businesses by stating thus: “When a person has no job of his own, he has to work for someone, but what we are saying is why work for your enemy all your active life?”12 The expected ultimate goals of these Nubian entrepreneurs and right-thinking working class would be to give back to their communities. They were expected to invest financially and humanely to help uplift the status of black communities from their present state of decadence to a “self-supporting level above the slum status.” They should be able to do so having been empowered in schools that provided them with relevant and appropriate courses geared toward social empowerment. By so doing, African Americans would be able

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to control the businesses in their neighborhoods, thereby dictating the destiny of their communities.13 Evidently, Nuwaubians disapproved of the exodus culture among black professional—the middle class, talented athletes, and the best minds—who move to white neighborhoods and institutions. These preferences, undoubtedly, has robbed the black community of material and human resources needed for community development. To achieve community and family sustenance, Nuwaubians drew from Malcolm X by emphasizing the importance of prudence in black families’ budgeting.14 They advised their members to avoid unnecessary purchases and extravagant lifestyles. By so doing, the youngsters would be able to save enough cash to enable them to invest in businesses of their choice. Nuwaubians pointed to credit cards as a scheme designed to imprison the wallets of Nubians. Credit cards, they stressed, were designed to make the naive and innocent overspend by giving the illusion of limitless purchasing power. They frowned that the credit card’s convenience also meant that people shopped frequently, spending monies they would inevitably pay back with interest. But at the point of purchase, these realities do not come to mind. Their advice on this was to “save and buy what you need on cash basis. This way we buy less, save more, and become more economical with others and more economically independent as an individual and as a race.”15 To a non-members, some of these thoughts and ideas sound pedestrian. However, these messages were designed for African Americans to address familiar everyday problems facing individuals and the community at large. The language of the message is pointedly lay meaning that both the educated and uneducated could connect with it. Past African American leaders, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X were known to communicate in everyday language which endeared them to their teeming followers. Others in the league of W. E. B Du Bois, though acknowledged in the academic circles, were not able to make as much direct impact on the lives of the people as the trio. Evidently, their education did not equip them with tools to communicate with people who do not operate at the same intellectual level. The Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, no doubt, was a communal organization that emphasized collectivism which is antithetical to western individualism and capitalism. Thus, it is not a surprise that their view of capitalism was bleak. To them, “capitalism is an economic system that breeds poverty and especially for its captives and the oppressed.”16 They stressed that it historically survived on slavery and war, the two fundamentals that forged the economic and hegemonic superstructure of America. The reason Nuwaubians alluded to the emergence of a welfare state in the country is scathing. They implied that the US government has some sinister motives in promoting such a gross dependency scheme. The grand plan, accordingly, is to “form a permanent slave state, because what is required

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for a permanent slave state is slave mind which the unintelligent have.”17 While the nation continues to be embroiled in wars, Nuwaubians maintained that the actual modern form of slavery is welfarism. It has grown to become a weapon of psychological, political, and economic control of the poor and especially African Americans, subjecting these vulnerable people to the control of the power-thirsty politicians and their corporate allies. Politicians ensure that welfare is provided abundantly while correspondingly expecting to be rewarded with reelection. A Santa Clause analogy would suffice. The United States is not Santa, who gives gifts without preconditions or expectation of payback. To Nuwaubians, chattel slavery never ended but took more sophisticated form since the twentieth century. Some other forms of enslavement they were referring to include the prison industrial complex which has emerged as a profitable business to its investors. Another similar industry is the banking sector which perpetuates different forms of predatory lending that mortgage the futures of its naive debtors, thus guaranteeing their dependence on the creditors. The naive Nubians, susceptible to these schemes and in mental captivity, spend their income, including welfare on unhealthy food items that do no good to their health but worsen it. To these victims they warned in an unusual archaic grammar that is reminiscent of the biblical diction: Turn ye now, from the filthy foods that El Yahuwa warns you are an abomination to your bodies, and causes all kinds of diseases and sicknesses. . . . Turn ye, now, from excessive alcohol, that is slowly destroying you, and burning your brain to idiocy, rendering you helpless and more common than you are already, and other forms of drugs which are doing more damage to you than alcohol. Turn ye, now, from integration, that is slowly destroying you, and helps to rob you of your remaining heritage. Integration is not freedom. Integration is slavery, disease, unholiness . . . and ignorance.18

Clearly, while the first part deals with social vices in African American communities, the second part is concerned with the essence of Nuwaupu, its nationalism, liberation, and separatism rather than integration as espoused by some other groups like the NAACP. Integration, they reasoned, would amount to assimilation because the dominant European culture upon which America was built would gobble up every other appendage culture in the alter of integration. Thus, preserving African legacy and heritage was paramount to Nuwaupu which it hoped would help Nubians in America preserve and reclaim their humanity. The Nuwaubians also believed that insofar as African Americans were still in financial captivity due to their future being mortgaged by financial institutions and corporate America, they would always lack natural freedom. Their

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concerns arose from the fact that the US government, like other governments of the world, imposes artificial mechanisms that undermine individuals’ ability to move around without restrictions. The paradox in the phrase “America, the land of freedom” received a mocking and a sarcastic rebuke: It’s like America to say, you’re free, and if you say “I want to go to live there,” you can’t go there. You’re free, “well, I want to go to Russia,” well you can’t go there. I thought I was free. I thought free meant I can go anywhere I want. You can, go here if you give me your passport. If I’m free why do I need a passport? Why do I need a pass to transport myself if I’m free? Why can’t I get up, go to Kennedy Airport, pay whoever owns the airplane, because that’s not American [government owned] that’s private industry, pay that guy get on the plane and go wherever I feel like? When I get there the guy says let me see your passport the American government approved; here is your visa, go ahead.19

The above quote underscores their libertarianism, their quest for autonomy and belief in cultural, social, and political separatism. The Russian analogy serves to mock and puncture the much-touted American fundamental principles of freedom and liberty, which they derided as elusive, albeit implicitly. This lack of freedom was what they supposedly sought to correct by evolving a nation within a nation for peoples of African descent in the Nuwaubian Nation of Moors. Nevertheless, the ultimate hindrance toward attaining Nuwaubian blueprints for Nubians, they claimed, was the “black devils.” Tama’-Hu-aat was one of the names assigned to these black devils. Accordingly, not all Caucasians were devils—among them are good people—but the good ones neither control nor run things.20 The black devils work as proxies of the enemy and are embedded in African American communities. Born to Nubian parents, this brand of devils, they argued, are hard to detect because they are in black skins. In some cases, they join progressive African American organizations or a Pan-African organization not to further their causes, but to undermine them. These devils have some special identifiable attributes: Remember the devil and the host spends every waking moment looking for flaws in Gods’ chosen, because they know the world will disregard all the good you do for the one evil that they deceived you into. When caught, they will shift the blame to anyone to clear themselves and never admit that it was they that initiated their evil schemes, that resulted in many people’s lives being destroyed. They have no regard for who they hurt on the way because they are only thinking about themselves. After they lie, backbite or slander on you, then they can turn around and laugh with you and even behind your back. They slander to get what they want but deep down in their hearts, they really hate what they are. However, as long as they are on top they will lie. They love to torture the family

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by playing with your emotions. They are quick-tempered which is an example of a murderer, because they are quick to kill; they initiate the kill because they are inventors of evil things. They are compulsive liars, they change truths of God into lies of the Devil. They are whisperers, backbiters, slanderers and boasters. They lie to you with a straight face. They can cry at the drop of a hat to win your sympathy In order to support their lies.21

Furthermore, when they join an organization, especially a conscious black organization, their motive is inherently ulterior. Their mission and purpose is illustrated below: You know the tactic: people join the organization and pretend to be devotees, work their way up under the leader, get the confidence of his people and then pervert the doctrine, change things around, cause confusion, diversion, and conflicts amongst the followers until the original teachings become all but lost in lies. So, these FBI [COINTELPRO AGENTS] can be your today's teachers, friends, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters and most of all the ones claiming to be doing things in Dr. Malachi Z York's Name or some other name that we never heard or saw in any books of Dr. Malachi Z York-EL'S.22

They bewailed the fact that because of their kinship ties with other good Nubians, the black devils rather than work to advance the cause of their communities, instead work for the enemy. In their calculation, the enemy stands for the US government, bourgeoisie Caucasians, the police, or any other perceived institution of oppression of the downtrodden. Some of the black devils, by implication, are found within various Police Departments, the FBI, and government bureaus, where they allegedly advance the cause of the enemy by thwarting Nuwaupu and its ability to have unfiltered access to Nubians. Others live in African American neighborhoods while working for law enforcement as informants. One of the ways the Nuwaubians suggested to counter these devils included developing the “third eye” or “inner eye” which stands for inner seeing or insight. These attributes were part of humans at creation but were ostensibly lost due to humans’ iniquities. Thus, at the beginning, humans were endowed with a third sense: the third eye, third ear which they used to advance their causes but lost it as crime and social vices became the new order.23 By the standard of this logic, reclaiming these aforementioned attributes goes a long way in helping individuals and communities to coexist and desist from basing interpersonal relationships, reward for labor or censure on racial prejudice. Their racial discourse, in some instances, demonstrated sympathy to some other marginalized racial groups. A microcosmic element of this is found in their defense of Indigenous Americans and in pointing out the latter’s oppression. The Nuwaubians sought to link the fates and destinies of the duo insisting

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that both are mutually oppressed by the same oppressor using the same instruments. To Nuwaubians, the Indigenous Americans have suffered the same fate met by peoples of African descent from the same oppressor in their homeland. Both have suffered irreparably from the blows of slavery, then imperialism, and neocolonialism. Nuwaubians not only challenged the premise of collectivizing these people as “Red Indians”; they deconstructed its nomenclatural significance to suggest derogation. To them, if Edom, which was Esau’s other name, meant red, “So you’re saying that American ‘Indian’ are the seed of Esau; for they are called ‘Red People,’ not the Paleman?”24 This critique is a veiled attack on using color as group identifier and names. To this end, color obscures the primary function of name which is to connect an individual to his root, history, and geoculture. To this end, African people should reject the imposed racial group name, “black” as it is as pejorative as “yellow” and “red” are for Asians and Indigenous Americans respectively. It makes one wonder why every color, except “black” and “white,” has been discarded as a legitimate racial identifier. Nuwaubians believed that Nubia or Moors would make more sense for African people rather than the misnomer “black.” By highlighting the Indigenous Americans’ historical predicament, Nuwaubians also sought to boost their nationalist argument by insisting that just like the former, the latter were also indigenous to the Americas. They contended that after all, ancient Africans were in America several millennia before Christopher Columbus and his crew landed, a fact that has been blurred by European trafficking and enslavement of the Africans.25 Thus, as indigenous people, they have or ought to have an inalienable right to live and evolve a society of their taste and desire in America. This position, they emphasized, has been boosted by the UN charter on the right to self-determination which affirms the right of indigenous peoples to freedom and independence. Through this, the people are empowered to seek to “determine their political status, and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. . . . Article III of this document repeats this right. This article is also backed by Article 31, which also gives indigenous people their independence, under ‘Autonomy or Self Government.’”26 DISCOURSE ON GENDER AND CRITIQUE OF WHITE MALE SUPREMACY Holistically, Nuwaupu was critical of white male privilege and oppression of women, which is embedded in European culture and inherited by the United States. This syndrome meant that white women until the 1920s were de-facto domestic “animals”—without any social, political, or economic rights. It is a historical fact that white women, unlike men, did not have the

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right to represent or sue their husbands in colonial and postcolonial American courts. Medically and socially, they were considered naturally inferior to men, hence their social status. Every money-earning activity as well as adventurous ventures were all considered as the spheres of men. When contrasted with other societies, such as African or Native American, white women’s pre-twentieth-century subjugation becomes more glaring. African history, which the Nuwaubians might have been familiar with, is flush with the heroics of female warriors, who, in conjunction with their male counterparts, fought in defense of their communities and dignity.27 However, within European culture of which America is an extension, this was unheard of—women began to enlist and fight in combats only in the second half of the twentieth century. The Nuwaubians organized their gender thought in recognition of the place of African women as well as to robustly contrast it with the European or Eurocentric order. Their doctrine starting with its religious postulations to social discourses was filled with this contrasting paradigm that sought to elevate women beyond where they were in the Western sociocultural pyramid. For instance, Nuwaupu, deriving from African traditional religion whereby each god usually has feminine and masculine versions, argued that Europeans altered Christianity to fit their cultural reality by removing god the mother, hence trinity instead of quadity.28 Nuwaubians’ discourse on gender is scanty, but this is not to infer that gender and the construction of it was not part of their ideological fulcrum. However, the bulk of Nuwaupu’s emphasis was on racial dynamics with less discourse on class and gender. Sometimes, dialogue on one leads to the other as exemplified by their discussions on black devils, whose peculiar forms were outlined and identified to include male and female. The female devils manifested in physical forms as freaks and whores, possess perfect body physique so as to easily attract their prey, and often deal on drugs.29 To some, this assessment is potentially misogynistic in that it largely objectified women while not holding men to the same standard. However, to Nuwaubians, this depiction suggests objectivity—that the female, like the male, come in both good and evil forms. It further implies that women are capable of matching men in all life endeavors. Thus, women with their power, the Nuwaubians stressed, have the potential to be great and are capable of dominating nations.30 The Five Percenters for their own part, seemingly, subscribed largely to the prevailing Western patriarchal family structure in most of their available discourse on gender. To them, black men are gods, the original creatures, while their women are earths. As gods, men are the creators of women, “whether she likes it or not.” According to Michael Knight, who was a member of the group, “the womb receives god’s seed and nurtures life. . . . Her duty is

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to hold the power of god, not be the power.”31 This position contrasts with Nuwaubians’ treatise on masculinity and femininity which portrays complexity, complementary, and symbiotic roles. Nuwaupu’s critique of masculine supremacy on religion not only challenged the assumption that spiritual forces such as angels (Angel Michael, Gabriel and Raphael among others) and demons are mostly masculine; it also underscored their position on “Quadity,” (Father, Mother, Son, and Holy Ghost) rather than the Christian’s Trinity of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, discussed previously. In the early stages of Christendom, they averred, this principle of “Quadity” was prevalent. The Father represented the Almighty, the Mother represented Mary, and the Son represented Jesus, while the Holy Spirit was (Angel) Gabriel, thus completing the “4 pillars that hold up the heavens which is not publicly recognized because it has been replaced by the trinity, forgetting the blessed mother who gave birth to the son of god.”32 This elimination of the Mother of god, they insisted, was the handiwork of white male chauvinism evident in European culture. It was systematically done over time so that it has become a norm and to a large extent shaped several cultural approaches and understandings of gender roles. In their words: Over time, male chauvinism and male dominated religions attempted to exclude the divinity of women even inserting quotes in the Bible such as 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 in part, “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak.” It is clear from quotes like these that the woman was sent out of authority, however, the Old Testament clearly says that the woman is the source into which men should cleave as found in Genesis 2:24 “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

They frowned that religious leaders tend to foster this misleading and deliberate marginalization of women, thus maintaining and upholding male superiority to the detriment of women. Furthermore, they resented the fact that by so doing, Eurocentrism has reduced the woman from her status of “. . . being mother of all living creatures [as found in] Genesis 3:20 . . .” as well as “. . . [removed] her from the original divine family and godhead.”33 Thus this elimination equaled and heralded gender discrimination from which white women have been subjected to from time immemorial to the 1920s. Unlike the Bible, which claims that the first creation was a man, Adam, Nuwaupu contended that it was implausible, logically and biologically. It posited, however, that a woman was the first human creation who, then gave birth to several sets of twins through the twinning process. The process stands for the culture of giving birth to twins at every pregnancy—male and female.34 Nuwaubians would find the Percenters argument that “children are the manifestations of their fathers solely” not only illogical, but outlandish.

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The tendency for black women to apply relaxer or wig to their hair, to straighten their hair so as to artificially and unconsciously imitate white hair texture was a topic that preceding Pan-African organizations had vehemently critiqued and rebuked as repulsive and repugnant. Wondering why people of African descent continued to imitate white culture and style at all levels, Nuwaupu contended that while African hair does not grow long, it has its own natural texture and curl. The latter’s form, it continued, is reminiscent of the number 9 which is the “highest in Supreme Mathematics.” The number, for example, represents the number of months a woman is pregnant. Therefore, by abandoning this natural 9 curl of African hair, Nubians lost their spiritual powers from Elohim, they posited. The influence of the media in promoting this paradigmatic shift and emulation was also rebuked. Nuwaupu held the media partly responsible for brainwashing young Nubian females; to get them to hate their essences and nature and therefore seek to appear like white celebrities and models forced down on TV viewers twenty-four hours a day. The industry, it argued, preys on African Americans by appealing to their laziness, convincing them that white hair texture “is more manageable.” In Nuwaubians’ words, “for the past 392 years of our Nubian bondage in the West . . . the televisions, all the magazines, videos and music businesses, movie stars all took part in the straight hair is beautiful and ‘nappy’ hair is ugly” campaign.35 Apparently, Nuwaubians were unhappy for the fact that black women spend billions of dollars on fake, artificial, and other humans’ hair because of internalized self-hate. Their own research, they insisted, proved that the above premise is faulty and deliberately orchestrated. They claimed to have found out that “the nappier your hair, the healthier and happier it is. . . . But we, your own brothers and sisters had to live with our hair being a joke for 392 years.” While rejecting the stereotypical depiction of African hair texture as “kinky,” Nuwaupu countered that the right description is “kingly” and not the former. On that note, Nuwaupu counseled African descendants to marry people with “kingly hair for their children’s sake.”36 It frowned that the media have misleadingly convinced Nubians that there was something wrong with their natural selves and that the standard of beauty is the European model. Nuwaubians claimed that capitalism was evolved to specifically break up Nubian families. They admonished that capitalism’s ultimate goal was to emasculate black men, weaken them socially that they become inconsequential in the lives of black women as well as children, probably through imprisonment, then empower black women with jobs or welfare. This structure, it contended, alters the balance of power within African American homes. With African American fathers, husbands or boyfriends in jail or out without jobs, they lose respect and masculine aura at home while the job provider takes the breadwinner’s place. This situation, they argued, was responsible for the breakdown of family values in African American households in particular and

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community as a whole.37 From the foregoing, Nuwaupu seemed tie capitalism with white supremacy and then critiquing both as weapons and tools of exploitation of black masculinity and femininity. The implication is that men or the male specie of every being is the defender, provider, and pillar of that community or pride. In the case of blacks, it is devastating as the culture of matriarchy and matrilineal households becomes the order in the absence of black men. Nuwaubians use images such as Figure 3.1 below to reinforce their logic of exploitative interplay between capitalism and the attendant dysfunctionality. Accordingly, while black men are hunted like “bucks”, the women are seemingly provided with crumbs and sexually exploited by the oppressive system. Thus, they advised the Nubian women to be hesitant and skeptical of the US government, that the former’s primary responsibility is to join their partners in raising their children and that if there was a choice between working and raising children, they should choose the latter. Working at all cost, in the same vein, does not help the long-term future of black communities. Menial jobs like being “handmaids” to other races, they suggested, should be eschewed. Nuwaupu argued that Black women are very industrious, and it would amount to a waste of time, of energy, and talent to be doing such menial jobs which gives those employers time to create more wealth. Collectively, Nuwaupu emphasized that the real prize, the ultimate prize was liberty and freedom of peoples of African descent and that blacks should relentlessly aspire to attain such virtues.38

Figure 3.1  A white man, presumably a slaveholder, kisses an enslaved woman. In the parallel scene, a white man canes an enslaved black man in a painting titled “Virginian Luxeries.” Credit: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

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Figure 3.2  A Nuwaubian family strolls leisurely, June 26, 1998. Credit: AP Images.

NOTES 1. Ira Katznelson, When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold Story of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005), 25–26. 2. Gyasi Foluke, The Real-Holocaust: A Wholistic Analysis of African American Experience Since 1441–1994 (Bloomington: AuthorHouse, 2007), 91–92. 3. Rabboni Y’shua, Our True Roots (New Babylon: Holy Tabernacle of the Most High, n.d.), 1–3. 4. Malcolm X, “Address to a Meeting in New York,” (1964) in Documentary History of the Civil Rights Movement, ed. Peter Levy (New York: Greenwood Press, 1992), 174–76. 5. Malcolm X, “Address to a Meeting in New York,” (1964), 4. 6. Malachi York, Does Dr. Malachi York Try to Hide the Fact that He Was Imaam Issa? Scroll# 153, 21. 7. Y’shua, Our True Roots, 68–71. 8. Ibid. 9. Knight, The Five Percenters, 95–98. 10. Wu Nupu Asu Nupu and Naba Nupu, The Nine Ball Count III: Liberation Information (New York: Those Who Care, 1971), 10. 11. York, The Right Knowledge, 10. 12. Ibid. 13. Wu Nupu and Nupu, The Nine Ball Count III, 11.

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14. Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” (1964), Digital History, last modified April 5, 2013, http:​//www​.digi​talhi​story​.uh.e​du/di​sp_te​xtboo​k.cfm​?smti​d=3&p​sid=3​ 624. 15. Wu Nupu and Nupu, The Nine Ball Count III, 11–15. 16. Ibid. 17. Ibid., 12. 18. Y’shua, The Lost Tribe, 7. 19. York, Is God a Wimp? 61–62. 20. Y’shua, The Lost Tribe, 4. 21. Quantum Is Reality Blog, “Excepts From ‘Are There Black Devils’ Scroll,” last modified August 19, 2009, http:​//www​.mysp​ace.c​om/ni​nurta​999/b​log/5​06354​ 179. 22. Nuwaubianfacts, last modified August 02, 2012, http:​//www​.nuwa​ubian​facts​ .org/​excer​ptfro​mbook​.htm.​ 23. Al Mahdi, From Allah to Man, 24. 24. Rabboni Y’shua Bar El Haady, First Language (New Babylon: The Holy Tabernacle of the Most High, n.d.), 14–15. 25. Malachi York, Let’s Set the Record Straight (New York: The Nuwaupian International Grand Lodge, Inc. of Freemasonry, n.d.), 28; York–El, Ancient Egypt and Pharaoh, 39–40; See, Ivan Van Sertima, They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America (New York: Radom House, Inc., 1976). 26. York, Let’s Set the Record Straight, 391–394. 27. See, Sampson Jerry, Benin History, Dahomey and Women Warriors: Life before Colonization, People and Tradition (Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016); Stanley Alpern, Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women Warriors of Dahomey, (New York: NYU Press, 2011). 28. See, Sabine Jell-Bahlsen, The Water Goddess in Igbo Cosmology: Ogbuide of Oguta Lake (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2008). 29. York, Is Jesus Iesous Inoous, 331–333. 30. Nayya Malachizodok York-El, The Women Who Changed the Course of History (n.p.: The United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, n.d.), 1–10. 31. Knight, The Five Percenters, 210–11. 32. York, Jesus Found in Egipt, 2–9. 33. Ibid, 3–6. 34. Muhammad, The True Story of Cain and Abel, 12–16. 35. Bar El Haady, First Language, 34–37. 36. Ibid. 37. Wu Nupu and Nupu, The Nine Ball Count III, 11–13. 38. York, What Is Nuwaupu, 98–100.

Chapter 4

Nuwaubian Cultural Nationalism

To forge Nuwaupu, York modeled and adapted it after Pan-African values with a view to giving his congregation and his sympathetic audience a sense of identity in the diaspora. Thus, Nuwaupu evolved Africa-centered cultural norms in pursuit of a dream of total separation from Euro-American cultural influence. Such traditions can be seen in their marriage ceremony, which like most African mores, involved the paying of the dowry. In addition, it had a unique calendar that was distinct from the Western one universally in use. Above all, Nuwaupu had its own language called Nuwaubic Grammar. Although the specific cultures and nations where these ideals were adapted from are not clear, they are consistent with African cultural traditions.

In several of my publications, I have put my names and the reasons why I used these titles over and over again. Now, once again in 1996 AD, I am explaining myself again for those of you who are curious, simply don't know, or those who just wish to cue in on something as minute as a name because you can’t find fault in What I Am Teaching You.1

Every culture is unique and rich within its own context and therefore serves the social needs of the society that evolved it. Most elements of African culture and tradition were synergistically forged to serve the social and political needs of the residents and people of that ethnicity as is the case in other regions of the world. To appreciate this reality, the following example will suffice. In Igbo culture of Southeastern Nigeria, for instance, culture is not tied to class, cultural values are collectively owned and shared as a mark of group identity. On the other hand, in traditional England, there was always a dichotomy between the language of the poor, derisively perceived as inferior, substandard, and vernacular and that of the wealthy cum educated class that was accepted as the 95

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standard, formal, and superior. On the other hand, in most traditional African societies, differences in social status are not ascertainable via language or colloquial. The way a poor person speaks a particular language is the same way an affluent person speaks it. Thus, there is a sociocultural democracy that is observable in these societies. The only observable difference that is perceivable in language is that of figurative and proverbial usage. These literary terms also are owned by the whole society and utilized more frequently by the elderly as a mark of sagacity, as well as those who have mastered the art of oratory.2 This sort of social democracy is visible in the residential setting as well. In precolonial Igbo society, for example, there is no classism in living and residency, although colonialism and its attendant Westernization have now reversed this norm in the urban areas. In traditional settings, adult males of approximately twenty to twenty-five years are granted a piece of land each by their kindred. These lands are received in the form of capital grants so that each recipient could start his life residentially and commercially.3 In this case, the difference between the rich and poor is not wealth inheritance, nor connections to a higher authority, but through hard work, perseverance, and effective usage of the allocated resources. Additionally, this setting means that residences and neighborhoods are not dichotomized along class, religion, or any other socially stratifying criterion, but are inherited or obtained on merit.4 This type of traditional African value was what appealed to the Nuwaubians, hence their efforts to reinvent and replicate traditional and precolonial African values in diaspora. Marriage is a fundamental part of African culture which means that every “able-bodied” man is expected to get married at some point in his life. In patriarchal and patrilineal African societies, like Igbo, marriage fosters family longevity and ensures that each lineage is maintained and sustained. As Celestine Obi aptly puts it, “parents long for this and the father of the family requests this every morning in his kolanut prayer. The mother begs for it while giving cult to her chi during annual festival. In other words, if you ask the ordinary Igbo man or woman why he desires to marry, the spontaneous answer will be: ‘I want to marry in order to beget my own children, to get a family like my parents.”5 Thus, procreation is one of the most important reasons for marriage in Igbo culture to date. For this reason, parents and family members of each of the prospective couple conduct a thorough background check on both sides to verify their physical and mental health history, moral values, and resourcefulness as well as ascertain the family’s fertility history. Another crucial factor that reinforces procreation as an essential element in marriage is in naming. Names like Nwakaego, Nwamaka, and Nwabundu among others literally mean child is wealth, child is beauty, and child is life respectively.6 Single men and women are perpetually teased and made fun of by their peers and society at large. They are generally considered irresponsible or immature for their inability to take that decisive step toward “adulthood.”

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In most parts of Africa, a prospective groom is required to pay a bride price. In the precolonial era, it was usually in form of valued material items like cattle and goats depending on the specific values of a given society. According to Okwy Apai, among the Sudanese and other African societies along the Nile basin, “a man must pay his wife’s family in sheep or cattle for the loss of their daughter’s labor.”7 This assertion is misleading for trivializing and materializing the value of women. The expected loss of a family member in marriage means a lot more than a mere loss of labor because while family members are happy about their sister and daughter’s marriage, they feel nostalgic about the fact that her marriage would somewhat break the bond she shared with them and the immediate community. Thus, materializing the loss is simplistic and objectifies African women as well as downplays or even undermines their humanity.8 The Nuwaubian embrace and adaptation of various African norms was an attempt at answering the calls made by Marcus Garvey for Africans at home and in diaspora to unite, return to their homeland, and help develop the continent. The Black Power Movement answered that call by inspiring racial consciousness which saw many African Americans freely embracing African values—clothes, names, and worldview—and at the same time demanding real democracy, citizenship, and racial equality for African Americans.9 This spirit helped to galvanize the latter in the tumultuous 1960s when many protested the assissination of the first independent Congo prime minister, Patrice Lumumba.10 Although vestiges of African cultural tradition abound in Nuwaubian thoughts and material culture, it is hard to pinpoint the exact ethnic groups where Malachi York extracted some of the practices that formed the nucleus of Nuwaubian culture. As is the case with the Nuwaubic Grammar and their marriage ceremony among others, this ethos seemed to have been eclectically forged rather than from one particular African ethnicity. The Nuwaubian Nation emerged from the Black Power tradition of boldly accepting African values in the diaspora by advocating an Africa-centered worldview in their literature and daily living. Thus, they normalized pride in African garb, African names, and Africa-centered worldview in an effort to assert their identity. To cement their nationalistic quest, they went beyond the superficial level of separation to evolve their own language, developed their own marriage ceremony, and a calendar in furtherance of their separation from the Western value system. An in-depth examination of these mores reveals that they are closer to African value systems than they are to other cultures as the Nuwaubians sought to bring African Americans closer to Africa and Africa culturally to America with a view to restoring black humanity and dignity. Nuwaubians furthered this Black Power Movement influenced cultural and intellectual dialectics into the 1990s and 2000s, York’s imprisonment

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notwithstanding. They chastised Europeans for their bastardizing roles in Africa and their efforts to paint the continent in a bad light to perpetuate the cynical and gloomy perception of Africa, especially by Africans in the diaspora. In a letter supposedly written by York from prison on July 24, 2007, he affirmed and reiterated to Nuwaubians his pride in his ancestry—the citadel and cradle of life and civilization. York bemoaned the fact that some Nuwaubians, in his absence, were falling apart, while others have gone back to “sleep.” He then urged them to unite and sustain the communality of Nuwaupu: Well, all has [sic] agree[d] that life as they know it did not start in China, No! Nor India No! Nor in America No! Nor in Alaska No! Nor in Europe No! but in fact all life on this planet had it[s] roots out of Africa which they called it to mean Divide/Separate, they knew back then. As you see today with the name game. Separate us, and we fall apart. Look at our own Nuwaupian family, it worked on us. We put TAMA-RE aside, we took off our dress, put down our books, became other then [sic] self. Look at us clowns. Replace Black book for Robert's rules took off black fez for top hat, Closed Mir's became houses, new bible names or shrines under cover Ansar Muslims, separated us. Who came to save us. AD-BASSA of Libera [sic] that's who. Who is working on my freedom Libera [sic]. Well son as you can see, my hand and my eyes hurt so I will end this walk with you and all the family at this point.11

A closer examination of some of the Nuwaubian traditions reveals their continuous efforts, before the incarceration of their leader, to bring Africa to Africans in diaspora culturally. Since the Nuwaubians felt that contemporary Africa is too Europeanized, their search for true African values meant that they went further in time to attempt to exhume African values that have not been diluted by Westernization or Arabization. LANGUAGE: NUWAUBIC GRAMMAR Nuwaupu carved out its own language, known as Nuwaubic Grammar which was distinct from the English language, but bore some similarity with the latter. Within Nuwaubic’s morphological context, the English language was revised and restructured. For example, their spelling, pronunciation, and interpretation of certain English words and phrases were distinct. The following words have Nuwaubic reversion and interpretation: understand was written as overstand; information was outformation; exact was eggs-act; history was ourstory; Egypt was spelled as Egipt; Africa as Afrika; and America as Amerikka or Amerika.12 Organized religions were interpreted and renamed after their founders to indicate the trajectory of the religion. Islam, for instance, was critiqued for

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increasingly fostering the exaltation of the founder Muhammad instead of Allah who is the Supreme Being. Hence they described Islam as Muhammadism, Judaism as Mosesim, and Christianity as Christism.13 From the above, one can deduce the character of the Nuwuabian approach to the English language—that of reaction, resistance, and deconstruction. These are demonstrable in the spelling of these words or their outright re-interpretations. “Overstanding,” following this line, substituted the conventional word, understanding. The latter, they inferred, connotes comprehending an issue from the position of weakness or subordination. The former emphasizes capturing the entire notion being discussed from the position of equality, power, and authority. In the same vein, “outformation” challenges “information” emphasizing the outward flow of data dissemination rather than inward. To this end, facts cannot and should not be withheld or concealed, they are meant to be disseminated, shared, and transferred from one generation to the other so that the mentally dead could be resuscitated. Another reinterpreted word worthy of note is “his-story,” history. Nuwaupu taught by implication that history, as a term, microcosmically sums up the character of the Western attitude toward education and knowledge. They supposed, it was by design, forged to cater to the intellectual needs of people of European descent. Specifically, they charged that history phonologically serves and advances the interests of Caucasian males, especially the bourgeoisie. The implication is that history, by Western standards, studies the deeds of the strongest, the wealthiest, and the dominant who are usually white men, while peripheralizing the accomplishments, deeds, and actions of females, the lower class, and other constituencies who do not fit into the above category. Thus, in correcting that paradigm, Nuwaupu posited “our-story”14 or “whole-story”15 as a step toward challenging this Eurocentrism that advances male chauvinism, classism, and racial intolerance. “Whole-story,” it believed, strives to correct misinterpreted history of Africa by Europeans by involving peoples of African descent in the course of interpretation of their past. Accordingly, efforts by some Europeans and Americans in the past to interpret African history have led to misjudgments and outright biases in their inferences due to these aforementioned fundamental hindrances. Nuwaubians, evidently, were familiar with the writings and thoughts of Chancellor Williams and George James by echoing their words. The pair, and numerous others, had in their publications made similar inferences about Western attitudes toward African history.16 Interpreting Nuwaubian grammar and philology, critics like Susan Palmer ridicules the Nuwaubian efforts at language independence and their search for grammatical autonomy within their larger Black Nationalist agenda. She opines that in their attempt to “deconstruct the language of their European oppressors . . . they did this with word play, erroneous semantic links or made up definitions. Nuwaubian teachers . . . disregard the Latin and Anglo-Saxon

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roots, preferring to rely on accidental phonetics or spontaneous flights of fancy. . . . I soon realized they were not scientific philologists, but rather poets.”17 Apart from working as a deconstruction tool, Nuwaubic seemed to serve the Nuwaubian needs in other areas. In defense of the language’s origin and function, they argued that it was derived from classical Egyptian and Sumerian languages. Nuwaubic is also called Meroitic and the language, argues Hotep, a Nuwaubian blogger, was spoken by Nuwbuns (ancient Africans) by the eighth century BC. In defense of its authenticity and legitimacy, Hotep submits: The term Nuwaubic is used exclusively by Nuwaubians but that doesn't invalidate the word. In the Ancient Egiptian Order Magazine Edition 1, Volume 1 on page 10, in the article entitled “In search of an ancient past: Who were the Nuwbuns?” The Master Teacher indicates that Nuwbuns had their own spoken language called Meroitic [Nuwaubic]. So, you see, Nuwaubic is actually the same as saying Meroitic, the difference here is that word Meroitic roots lay in reference to the land Meroe, Nubia and [the] word Nuwaubic owes its roots to the people Nuwbuns. Now let’s look at the word in Meroitic used in form [sic]. “Under Napata and Meroë, a syncretistic architectural style developed. From the 8th century the Nubians utilized Egyptian hieroglyphics. It is not until 170 B.C.E. that the native language, Meroitic, was written. Meroitic has not yet been deciphered, and its relation to other African languages is unknown.” So, the term Meroitic is applied when referring to Meroe Nubia and/or its ancient language, and more importantly the Western World has been unable to properly decipher this ancient language.

Further reiterating why attempts to corroborate or validate their language cum culture using Eurocentric cultural praxis is an effort in futility, Hotep contends, in apparent response to critics like Palmer, that their language should not be measured nor understood through European or Western lenses. He argues that they do not need validation from Western establishments to authenticate their language: In conclusion: You will not be able to cross-reference all the science that originates from the Nuwaubian community with Eurocentric standards that are not completely in-line with our ancient and holiest of culture. This doesn't necessarily under value the Nuwaubic Doctrine. Foreigners cannot dictate our science, titles and way of life and the evaluation of their works (Ex: the MIR “Giza” was build [sic] with ramps and not levitation.) would indicate that nor do they truly comprehend or accept our greatness. Today Nuwaubians have the tools, access and education to research and reclaim our Ancient and sacred way of life without the need to gain acceptance and approval from outsiders. Remember, it is they (Tamahu) who were taught by us, yet today it is they who teach us.

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So, a serious paradox of redundant translative properties exist and the quotient for error is undoubtedly quite high. But the Spell Kingu (First Language Scroll #27) is being broken and the Nuwaubic light of truth shall one day shine brightly again! I somewhat overstand anyone's dilemma in their quest to validate this holiest of factology, but truth always starts from within ones inner-being, not books. “I do not see nor touch air, and yet I breathe [it], and it is a good thing.”18

The Nuwaubic Grammar consisted of six vowel sounds which they insisted was designed to conform to the bodily vibrations and stimuli of African descendants. To this end, it also worked spiritually when one intends to call on his or her ancestors for help or support which is impossible through

Figure 4.1  A pictoral illustration of Nuwaubian Alphabet. Credit: Nuwaupu Inc.

Figure 4.2  Nuwaubian vowels and phonetics. Credit: Nuwaupu Inc.

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Figure 4.3  Nuwaubian Grammar. Credit: Nuwaupu Inc.

an imperially imposed language like English. Certainly, this was a call for Nuwaubians and sympathizers to eschew European languages and embrace Nuwaubic Grammar. Figure 4.1 illustrates the Nuwaubian alphabet in their right order. As Nuwaubians asserted, the Nuwaubic alphabet’s “sounds are more about feelings of movement in your mouth by your tongue.”19 This goes back to their earlier point that this language was evented for African descendants’ phonetic and linguistic anatomy, which by design not only helped them connect with their ancestors directly without any intercessor but establish their lost identity. To Nuwaubians, having their own language that has its roots in Africa is paramount in their quest to reclaim their humanity stripped away since slavery. Other Nuwaubian critics dismiss Nuwaubic Grammar as a mere “substitution cipher.” In their words: In its crudest form, Nuwaubic is a simple substitution cipher Nuwaubic (sometimes ‘Nubic,’ ‘Meroitic,’ ‘Nuwaupic,’ ‘Nuwaupik,’ or ‘Napata’), is a constructed language and alphabet used by the Nuwaubian students of Dwight York. It seems to mix various elements such as Arabic and Hebrew (see the “M,” (‫“ )מ‬F,” (‫ )ف‬and “T” (‫ )ﻄ‬letters substituted in the small print of the above

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book cover, Man from Planet Rizq). One can also note the similarities between the H and U in the key to the right and the Arabic letters Ha (‫هـ‬‎) and Waw (‫)و‬. York has also claimed that there are revealing etymologies of English words, often at odds with scholarly consensus.20 Sifu = 0; Wahu = 1; Athu = 2; Thalu = 3; Rabu = 4; Khamu = 5; Satu = 6; Sabu = 7; Tamu = 8; Tasu = 9; Ashu = 10 The next set of numbers is [sic] the TEENS. These numbers are formulated by adding one of the Cardinal Numbers between Wahu = One and Tasu = Nine to the number Ashu = Ten. The form is a bit reversed though. For example, when you want to say ELEVEN, in nuwaupic you'll literally be saying ONE and TEN.21

Above are Nuwaubian numerals compared to their Arabic equivalents. The reason and justification for a Nuwaubic Grammar was anchored in their philosophy regarding the role of language in a culture. To them, language, like other elements of culture, is a representation of people. This intangible representation manifests in the cultural mores and values of any society from where experiences are shared and transferred from one generation to the next. Accordingly, the difference between humans and animals lies in culture and language, values which were stripped African people during the course of slavery. Without these, Europeans reduced Africans in America to animals which was codified in the constitution, through the three-fifth clause. They contended that language and experience, which is history, are inextricably related. Thus, linguistic independence is essential in Nuwaupu and that it helped them counteract false translations of the Bible, undo the marginalization of Africa in world history, and ultimately helps to inspire the liberation of “our people who are under the spell of ignorance.”22 To this end, Nuwaupu prioritized inculcating the Nuwaubic language on Nuwaubian youngsters.23

MARRIAGE RITES The Nuwaubian marriage rites and practices seemed to have been eclectically built from different cultures—from various African ethnic groups as well as from Western cultures. Some of its components such as the dowry requirement, although prevalent in many cultures of the world, appears like a direct reenactment of African tradition.24 Another seemingly imbibed African tradition is the imperative of background checks before marriage. In the Igbo tradition of Nigeria, each prospective couple is subjected to reciprocal family and personal background checks without their knowledge by each party’s

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parents or family head. This is necessary to ascertain work ethic, check for any history of mental disease, suicide, robbery, or epilepsy all or any of which could put an end to the proposed marriage. The rationale is that such traits or health conditions are genetically transferable, hence the need avoid them in the lives of future offspring.25 These steps are necessary to ensure compatibility and thereby minimize the chances of divorce. Although Nuwaupu explicitly espoused that all sexes are and should be equal, in their description of marriage roles for couples, they assigned males the headship roles of their families while females were assigned domestic roles of nurturing the children, cooking, and performing other domestic chores. Equality in this context implies symbiosis, reciprocity, and compliment rather than intersection or overlap of domestic functions. Nuwaupu taught, however, that a man should leave his family and join his wife or bride which aligns with the Christian doctrine and the tradition of matriarchal African societies than the injunction of patriarchal societies in Africa or in the West. Marriage, it conceived, is not just a couple’s union, but the union of two families in a communal sense, whereby everyone in the extended family is responsible for the upkeep of the children that results from the marriage. A thorough family and individual background check was recommended for prospective couples to ascertain their health status. Any identified genetic disease is enough to cause the cancellation of the proposed marriage. When the above was ascertained, the next step was a meeting between the two families and the paying of dowry. Dowries usually came in the form of valuables such as land and cows among other treasures. It is not clear whether paper money substituted for some of these items especially for those who resided in urban centers where the above items are harder to obtain. On the wedding day, the following processes were undertaken in preparation: 1. Wash and Iron clothes; 2. Put Henna on feet and hand; 3. Remove hair from legs and arm and underarms; 4. Serve them lite (light) meals; 5. Help them with smoke baths: undress, wrap sheet around, stand up over charcoal with incense and frankincense, myrrh, sandalwood for about 10 minutes; 6. Polish their nails; 7. Do their hair.26 On the marriage day, only ordained members of the Holy Tabernacle Ministries were allowed to perform marriage ceremonies. The ceremonial prayer offered by the priest was:

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O responder, O El Eloh, O Yielder, O Most Merciful, O Everliving, O Clement, O Mighty, O Light of the Light, Oh Who nothing would exist if He (Elo Eloh) didn’t create it, upon Him I really. He is the Sustainer of the Supreme Throne, all gratitude is due to El Eloh, the Bestower. Glory to El Eloh, the Illustrious, Glory be to El Eloh the Patient, Glory to El Eloh the Seer.27

The above was part of the Nuwaubian Wedding ritual which included wedding vows and the signing of a marriage contract. This was followed by a pleading to the new couple to remain together. The wedding vows and signing of marriage contract appear to be borrowed from the Western conventions. After the marriage, Nuwaupu advised couples to love one another and avoid divorce at all cost. Divorce should be utilized only as a last option rather than the first. Trivial marital problems should be addressed by the couple themselves or they were advised to seek help when the need arises rather than resort to divorce. THE NUWAUPU CALENDAR Two years ago, before the Nuwaubu Ball, I had a vision of what appeared to be a gold pyramid floating in a circular pool of water. I saw people of different races coming from all different directions and they were dressed in white seamless gowns, I heard chanting as people encircled this pyramid . . . I told everyone about it and I even wrote a small pamphlet about it. By June 26, 1997 A.D., it was there. A reality for all eyes to behold. Now it has happened again with our Calendar.28

These were the words York used to introduce the Nuwaubian Calendar in 1998. With these words, he declared the calendar divinely inspired and a replica of the ancient Egyptian version. And to justify the essence of evolving the calendar, York deconstructed, dissected, and dismissed the present time system upon which the conventional calendar is built calling it “Luciferian time.” It is not clear why York described the conventional time in those terms as he did not justify the charge. Perhaps, it stems from the fact that the weekdays and months’ names all have roots in Roman pagan culture. The grounds of York’s critique includes the fact that the present time system apparently omits the “firsts” and starts with “seconds” (i.e., one-sixtieth of a minute). This, accordingly, creates a gross vacuum in the time system which affects, profoundly, the lives and activities of humans who subscribe to the system. Thus, the conventional time has missing hours, minutes, and seconds which explains the anachronism in the prevailing timekeeping. Pointing out the practical result of this flaw, York asserted that “they judge their time by 24 hours, and yet it’s not a full 24 hours.” In reality, “it’s 23 hours, 56 minutes and 6 seconds.”

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His second line of attack focused on the sequence and trajectory of timing. Criticizing the dichotomization of clock direction between clockwise and anticlockwise, the leader insisted that there is nothing as such. York’s argument seems to rest on the premise that, unlike the conventional timing, events do not move in series—from one incident or scene to the other like in a movie. Events happen spontaneously and not premeditatedly in chain or in a chronological order. Time, he asserted, is expanding outwardly “and yesterday, today, and tomorrow is still out there and that’s why tomorrow never comes, because today is a flow from yesterday.” He counseled his audience to align themselves with his alternate time system which he called, “natural, true, or infinite time.”29 Nuwaubian critique and attempt at developing a distinct time system seem to align with the position of some Africanists. As Joseph Mbiti observed, the European linear notion of time is alien and irreconcilable with Africa’s. While the former is progressive and futuristically optimistic, the latter believes that time lies only in the present and past. To Africans, the past and present are accountable and are measurable in time while the future is not. Thus, while African timing alternates between past and present, European calendar and time is progressive.30 Defining the infinite time, York proclaimed the system as embodying perpetuity, limitlessness, and being continuous without “gaps or missing days, hours, minutes, or seconds.” He painted a vivid picture of how time works in the following terms: One way you can lock in on natural or infinite time, is by putting a hole of the same exact size into the bottom of three cups. . . . Place the cups the same exact space between each other vertically. At the bottom, of the three cups place and open jar. Fill the first cup with water, and the water will drip through each cup to the jar. As one minute passes, put a line on the jar, and do this until you get to 30 minutes. When all the water has dripped from the top cup into the last cup, then you start all over again. That is natural or infinite time. This will give you accurate time which is necessary for the coming of the end of the World Circle.31

From the foregoing, it is clear that the Nuwuapu time was apocalyptic and ecclesiastical in nature in that it was seemingly tied to the biblical prognostication of the end of the world. York quoted Mark 13: 32 to strengthen this clerical premise—a passage he said, confirmed that no one knows when the world will end. But with this infinite time, Nuwaubians would be able to acquaint themselves with nature thereby circumventing this prophecy by implication. The Nuwaubian Calendar, for its part, consisted of nineteen months of nineteen days each. The months had exactly four weeks unlike the inconsistent Western months. While the first three weeks of the month consisted of

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five days, the last, however, had four. Explaining the symbolical and spiritual significance of the number nineteen in Nuwaupu, the author averred that the number is numerically indivisible. Not just because it is a prime number, but it also replicated the Nuwaubian nineteen planets in the galaxy. Their god, also, has nineteen names and in supreme mathematics, the number is the most significant in their numerological calculus.32 NOTES 1. “Does Dr.Malachi Z.York Try To Hide The Fact That He Was Imaam Issa,” last modified October 20, 2012, http:​//www​.nuwa​ubian​facts​.com/​doesm​alach​ihide​ thefa​ct.ht​ml. 2. Fidelis Onwudufor, Mmanu E ji Eri Okwu: (Igbo Proverbs) Vol. 1 (Nigeria: Rex Charles and Patrick Ltd, 2015). 3. Osita Ifediora, “An Analysis of Igbo Traditional Land Tenure System in Amawbia (Amobia), Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State,” International Journal of Engineering Science Invention 3, no. 1 (2014). 4. For further discussion on land ownership and acquisition in Igboland, see: Azuka A. Dike, “Land Tenure System in Igboland,” Anthropos (1983); 853-871; Ifediora, “An Analysis of Igbo Traditional Land Tenure System in Amawbia (Amobia), Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State,” 2319–6726. 5. Celestine Obi, “Marriage Among the Igbo of Nigeria,” African Traditional Religion, http:​//www​.afri​kawor​ld.ne​t/afr​el/ig​bo-ma​rriag​e.htm​ (accessed, March 02, 2015). 6. Obi, “Marriage Among the Igbo of Nigeria”. 7. Okwy Apai, Love, Courtship and Marriage in African Traditional Heritage (Kindle Digital Book, 2012). 8. For detailed discussions on African culture and marriage, see; Daniel W Kasomo, Customary Marriage in African Culture and Religion (Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010); Barbara Cooper, Marriage in Maradi: Gender and Culture in a Hausa Society in Niger, 1900–1989 (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1997); Tshilemalema Mukenge, Culture and Customs of the Congo (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001). 9. Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America (New York: Vintage Books, 1967), vii. 10. Amiri Bakara, Mae Mallory and Maya Angelou were all prominent African American civil rights leaders of the 1960s; Peniel Joseph, “The Black Power Movement: A State of the Field,” Journal of American History (December, 2009): 752–753. 11. “Letter From Dr. Malachi York on July 24, 2007,” Nuwaubian BlogSpot, last modified September 20, 2012, http:​//nuw​aubia​n.blo​gspot​.com/​2010/​06/le​tter-​from-​ dr-ma​lachi​-z-yo​rk-on​-july​.html​. 12. York 33, Breaking the Spell on the Blacks, 20.

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13. York-El, What Is Nuwaupu?, 13. 14. Ansaaru Allah Nubian Islamic Hebrews, “OurStory!” last modified August 18, 2012, http:​//www​.inet​mgrs.​com/o​nepeo​ples/​Ansaa​r.htm​. 15. York-El, Ancient Egypt and Pharaoh, 1. 16. Williams, The Destruction of Black Civilization; Ben-Jochannan, African Origins of Major “Western Religions”. 17. Palmer, The Nuwaubian Nation, xxv. 18. Nuwaubian Hotep, “The Authenticity of Nuwaubic,” last modified March 27, 2012, http:​//www​.nuwa​ubian​-hote​p.net​/docs​/nuwa​ubik.​htm. 19. Paa Munzul Nazdur, “The Nuwaupian World Wide Multi-Versity,” 1–2. 20. “The Holy Tablets,” The Mists of Avalon, last modified March 27, 2012, http:​ //www​.them​istso​faval​on.ne​t/t28​67-th​e-hol​y-tab​lets.​ 21. Nuwaubian Printable Lessons, last modified August 18, 2012, http:​//nuw​aupic​ onlin​e.com​/prin​table​-less​ons. 22. El Haady, First Language, 1–5. 23. In this video titled “A Nuwaubian Child,” a Nuwaubian child and an adult are heard conversing in Nuwaubic language, last modified, December 8, 2015, https​://ww​ w.you​tube.​com/w​atch?​v=KHZ​nedZ0​GCQ. 24. “Bride Price: An Insult to Women, a Burden to Men?” BBC NEWS, last modified August 30, 2004, http:​//new​s.bbc​.co.u​k/2/h​i/afr​ica/3​60489​2.stm​. 25. Gerald Wanjohi, “African Marriage, Past and Present,” Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, last modified April 10, 2013, http:​//www​.crvp​.org/​book/​ Serie​s02/I​I-10/​chapt​er-5.​htm; Ada Ehi, “Essential Pre-Marriage Tests: The NigerianAmerican Edition | Featured: Ada Ehi,” The Relentless Builders, Last modified May 12, 2012, http:​//www​.ther​elent​lessb​uilde​r.com​/2012​/05/e​ssent​ial-p​re-ma​rriag​e-tes​ ts-ni​geria​n.htm​l. 26. Malachi York, Marriage Ceremony (Eatonton, GA: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, n.d.), 36–51. 27. York, Marriage Ceremony, 65–66. 28. Nayya Malachizodok York-El, Nuwaubian Calendar: A Daily Word From Maku (n.p.: n.p., 1998), 1. 29. York-El, Nuwaubian Calendar, 2. 30. Joseph Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1969), 16–17. 31. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy, 3. 32. Ibid., 8–11.

Chapter 5

The Nuwaubian Cause and the Big Picture An Assessment

This chapter attempts to put the factors that gave rise to black resistance and separatism, in the forms of nationalism and Pan-Africanism, into context. To this end, it delves into the history of black separatism contending that the former represents a response to an existing oppressive order. Also, the chapter exposes the present social status of black people, which puts them at the tailend of America’s socioeconomic pyramid; on the other hand, they top the negative charts including the incarceration graph. Thus, this gloomy picture raises a critical question: was integration a miscalculation by African Americans? SOCIAL CONDITIONS The Nuwaubian cry of systemic oppression and dehumanization of Africadescended people in the United States and around the world is backed by available data. First, if slavery was a crime against humanity, then Western governments and corporations who partook in it and still reap its benefits need to respond to the calls by various Black Nationalist organizations to rehabilitate and offer some forms of restitution to the descendants of the enslaved. The only way to escape this would be to prove that slavery was not a crime against humanity. By arguing so, one will have to legitimize the immoral slave laws and institutions that took away the humanity of the enslaved, labeling them properties for the benefit of the capitalist plantation system and owners. If war veterans and indeed individuals that have been through traumatic situations need some kind of therapy and rehabilitation, why not the descendants of the enslaved who underwent intergenerational traumatic abuses codified in law? Some may argue that slavery was over more than a century and a half ago. That is true, but the descendants are still living through the ordeal. Some 109

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of these have been inadvertently transferred and sustained from generation to generation as culture, as tradition, as a natural life pattern in the present. In conjunction with remedying the evils of the past, succeeding oppressive national laws, policies, and attitudes that had been in place or are still in place need to be abrogated and summarily denounced. Jim Crow laws which succeeded slave codes meant that African Americans remained unofficially enslaved with the illusion of freedom. In South Africa, similar laws known as Apartheid prevailed there which essentially dehumanized and rendered the indigenous Africans second class citizens or sub-humans in their own ancestral land. Like their brothers and sisters across the Atlantic, they were subjected to relentless attacks by white mobs and terror organizations, denied access to quality social amenities and employment, and stereotyped and ridiculed perpetually in the media. Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali’s classic poem, “Nightfall in Soweto” captures the scenery vividly: Man has ceased to be man Man has become beast Man has become prey.

Above all, one of the greatest legacies of slavery on the enslaved seems to be the inability to function adequately in a Western society within a Western capitalist system. This inadequacy or near mental incapacitation meant that the traumatized victims and descendants of the enslaved are unable to control their own financial, cultural, and political destinies. They have been socially constructed to depend rather than fend for themselves by successive regimes of oppression. Even when they strived to assert their social freedom, oppressive forces of Apartheid and Jim Crow held them back. Like a horse tied to a plastic chair, they are used to being held back that even if when they could move, they stayed back waiting for permission because of conditioning. This instance can be gleaned in African Americans inabilityto control any sector of American social fiber, even sports and the music industry where they excel. During the slavery era and after its abolition, racist views and archetypical construction of persons of African descent was used to justify the latter’s lack of social mobility. Thus, the argument was that African descendants were inherently inferior to Caucasians, lacked moral judgment, prone to crime, and lacked self-restraint. Although, these sort of views are no longer in the mainstream of Western scholarship and media, how can one account for the disproportionate number of blacks in the US prison system? It is either that the earlier stereotypes are indeed factual, or that the institutions of government deliberately still oppress a racial group because of their alleged “inferiority,” or because there is economic benefit attached to oppression. As they say, one man’s loss is another man’s gain. According to the US Federal Bureau of Prisons figures, by the summer of 2011 US prisons both federal and local had a total of 735,601 inmates.

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A breakdown of this figure indicates that of these inmates, 642,300 were male representing 87.3 percent, while 93,300 (12.7%) were female. A racial breakdown further shows that of the 735,601 male inmates, 329,300 were Caucasian representing 44.8 percent, while 276,400 were African American representing 37.6 percent. Hispanic inmates totaled 113,900 (15.5%).1 The above gloomy picture underscores the need for action. It illuminates the vexing reality that in spite of the black population in the country accounting for about 15 percent, their male population in prison is, alarmingly more than double that figure. Nuwaubians frowned that rather than these black males assuming their traditional responsibilities as the breadwinners in their homes and defenders of their communities, a disquieting proportion of them are languishing in jails, thus ensuring that African American families are hopelessly matriarchal. Also disturbing is the fact that half of black inmates totaling 122,300 in 2009 were nonviolent offenders while 30.4 percent of whites were.2 From the Black Nationalist perspective, a man’s position in the family is indispensable. He is the provider, the defender, and the pillar of the home and the community. His wife functions to complement not to substitute. And like a car which requires four wheels to drive, the family requires a father and a mother living together to raise and protect a family. As discussed in previous chapters, Nuwaubians specifically blamed capitalism for breeding the prevailing prison industrial complex which they claimed was designed to remove black males from their natural habitat—the workplace and their homes—and artificially place them in detention facilities where they become modern-day slaves. With that in place, their female counterparts are left with few options than to pledge unconscious loyalty to their employers and bureaucratic agents who provide jobs or dispense welfare. The system, according to Nuwaubians, takes away the aura of masculinity from African American males.3 Since they are susceptible to going to jail, cannot be allowed home lest their wives or girlfriends lose their welfare, and because they are not-employable as a result of criminal records, their only option remains to indulge in criminal activities that ultimately lead them back to prison. Their male children, without a father around to guide them, to teach them how to be men, are accordingly likely to fall into the capitalist prison trap. The Nuwaubian solution thus became separation from Western sociopolitical and cultural influence. The language of the Thirteenth Amendment supports the Nuwaubian view about the United States maintaining a modern-day slavery system. According to the amendment, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”4 This amendment clearly made an exception while pretending to illegalize slavery. The implication is that whoever is convicted of a crime becomes a property of

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the state, thus losing his humanity, his independence, and is potentially subjected to forced labor while in prison. While the law, as written, is race-neutral the application of it is not. The ongoing Black Lives Matters campaign highlights age-long police brutality within African American communities across the United States. The crux of the movement is to call for an overhaul of the prison system and the institution of government that has made African Americans targets of police brutality, the war on drugs, and the illegal harassments that often leads to imprisonment, criminal records, and deaths. While it is clear that African Americans are overrepresented in the commercialized prison system of the United States, in sports the same trend can be seen. Black overrepresentation in sports is only discernible in the playing category rather than in all other sectors such as team ownership, coaching, refereeing, sports administration, and sports journalism. Racial disparity in the above category is staggering according to the data provided by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports of the University of Central Florida. According to them, in the 2010—2011 season, 78 percent of the playing staff of NBA is black, while only about eighteen percent is white. The trend reverses sharply when it comes to management and other non-playing parts of the NBA. For example, during the 2010—2011 season, the thirty-team NBA had only six black CEOs/presidents representing just eleven percent. Out of these thirty teams, only nine had black head coaches, while one had an Asian. In the team ownership department, it is even gloomier for blacks as only one team had a black majority shareholder—the Bobcats.5 This unfortunate scenario of lack of economic power and control is the norm even in the business sector. According to the US News and World Report, most of America’s businesses are owned and run by white men. Yet, the US Census Bureau shows that as at 2014 the country had an estimated 5.4 million businesses with paid employees. Only 17.5 percent of this is owned by non-whites.6 The reason for this gloomy outlook for blacks is explained by the Aspen Institute in a February 2017 article. It contends that while white and Asian Americans hold one-third of their assets in business and financial assets, blacks and Hispanics hold only 8 and 15 percent respectively in this regard.7 According to Black Demographics’ study, from 2007 to 2012, whiteowned businesses created 55.9 million jobs with an annual revenue of $12.9 trillion. Asian American-owned businesses created a total of 3.8 million jobs in the period with annual revenues of $793.5 billion. Hispanic-owned businesses created 2.5 million jobs with annual revenues of $473.6 billion. Lastly, the black-owned businesses created the least jobs—1 million in the period with the least annual revenues of $187.6 billion.8 From the foregoing, African Americans are doing poorly in every category especially when compared to other racial groups. However, they are overrepresented in sports—in the field, not at the management, administrative, or

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officiating offices, which means they do not control the areas they dominate. This racial powerlessness is easily noticeable in both the NBA and NFL. In both sports, African Americans are outstandingly overrepresented in the playing field, but are underrepresented in every other decision-making category. This unbalanced representation, perhaps explains the rules disparity between NFL, NBA, and NHL. While punishable actions in the first two include taunting and over celebration, in NHL players are allowed limitless room to even engage in fisticuffs without any significant punishment or consequences. The NHL’s administration, unlike the other two, is racially proportional to the race of the players. Perhaps, that demographic balance explains rules relaxation. Thus, the Black Nationalists’ argument and call for separation become more relevant following the above reality. Certainly, no one knows what would have been the fate of the defunct Negro Baseball League. The league, which offered African American athletes the opportunity to display their talents and prowess, thrived until the 1950s and began an eventual decline. One thing is however certain—if the league had survived integration, African American athletes would not have to complain about racism, hostile rules, and inability to use their playing positions to protest persistent police brutality as is the case in the NBA and NFL. SEPARATISM IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT Separatism is steeped in diasporan Africans’ historical experiences. It has, since the slavery era, always been embedded in their tradition of resistance. Separatism is synonymous with resistance and thus separatism equals Africans’ natural response to oppression. Asking why these victims of oppressive regimes resorted to separatism would amount to questioning their humanity for every human and even animal when threatened instinctively strives to defend herself as well as her offspring. In doing so, the human or animal seeks to defend herself by either fighting back or through separation from the threatening situation or predator. The absence of this natural instinct and desire in any human or an animal specie indicates a profound abnormality biologically or psychologically. During slavery, many enslaved Africans managed to escape from the clutches of their oppressors by running to remote parts of the Americas to set up independent communities, known pejoratively as Maroon communities. Although Jamaica is noted for having one of the largest Maroon communities in the Western Hemisphere, there were many in the United States as well. One of the notable ones included Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, located few miles from St. Augustine in Spanish Florida. This community thrived between 1739 and 1763. There were other enslaved Africans

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who escaped slavery to settle with the Seminoles of Florida, rather than live a perpetual life of servitude. There, they forged alliances with the Seminoles against the imperialist European Americans in the wars of 1812 and 1835.9 Although separatism and resistance are as old as slavery, it was not until the nineteenth century that African American intellectuals like David Walker and Martin Delaney began to articulate the ideals that gave Black Nationalism its foundational shape10 to help bolster the ideals of sociocultural separatism. As Essien-Udom succinctly argued in his seminal study of the Nation of Islam, nationalism can be seen as a belief by a group that it possesses some common values and heritage such as a recognizable familiar history, language, culture, ethnicity, and religion and that those commonalities are distinct from others. As a result of these similarities, the group seeks or thinks it ought to possess and exercise sociocultural control of its own community so as to steer the ship of their collective destiny. Thus, as chapters one to four illustrates, the Nuwaubian Nation’s doctrinal and practical stance places them as a Black Nationalist group, first and foremost. They also demonstrated ideological traits of Pan-Africanism by consciously building their community to reflect their ancestral identity, thereby reconnecting the cultural bridge burned down by oppression. Nearly all aspects of the Nuwaubian story epitomize the contemporary history of people of African descent, especially the angles that are fraught with themes of downfall and redemption, denial and agency, exclusion and inclusion, and ultimately of oppression and resistance. Malachi York’s biography, when written, would compare favorably with that of other black nationalists: Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, and Clarence 13X among many others. The common denominators among them are glaring. Their thoughts inspired racial consciousness, social responsibility, and racial uplift of a demography that has been systematically oppressed from generation to generation. At different times in the lives of these individuals, they served prison times. While Marcus Garvey’s prison time was necessitated by a bogus charge of mail fraud, others’ were different. The rest went to jail legitimately and redeemed themselves through religion and heuristics. They all yearned to drive home the substantive message of their tribulations and redemption to their enthused audiences in the hope of inspiring a sustained and collective spiritual and social emancipation of the downtrodden. A major substance in the Nuwaubian cause is their disillusionment with the social status quo which confined their race to the bottom of the socioeconomic pyramid. Thus, rather than accept the anomaly, they devised a dogma anchored on Nuwaupu to chart an alternative path toward emancipation. To this end, Nuwaubians answered the call by Pan-Africanists for African descendants to unite in their fight against a common enemy. Their answer to this call is deductive—they sought spiritual and cultural unification with

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their ancestral land as a way of salvaging what was left of their cultural heritage lost through oppression. In doing this, they implicitly imbibed Molefi Asante’s call for blacks to unite and cultivate African values, the African worldview, and African mentality. Thus, within this metaphorical plot, African themes and characters dominate as subjects rather than objects. Africa is, thus, placed at the center of African descendants’ existential reality.11 To critics, the Nuwaubian story is an eccentric and amorphous one considering their exegesis and nonconformity to the prevailing ideological and social orders. To Nuwaubian devotees and sympathizers, Nuwaupu represents a viable and plausible alternative to mainstreamism: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, on the one hand, and a pedagogical alternative to Eurocentricity on the other. Nuwaupu, to the devotees, thus functioned to create a sense of belonging and apportioned agency to African descendants who have been conveniently left out or whose deeds were left unacknowledged by Western historians. Although critics like Susan Palmer, Bilal Philips, and the Southern Poverty Law Center have charged York with plagiarism, their primary sources in this allegation remain estranged members’ testimonies rather than factual or corroborative references from texts. However, it has to be said that York does not document all his sources or support some of his positions. However, this is expected of most nonacademic and non-conventional publications. Nuwaubians, utilizing an Afrocentric paradigm that embraced an Africacentered worldview, sought to place African descendants at the center of their discussions on history, religion, and culture. York, the inspiration behind their dogmatic propositions, led this charge in his hundreds of publications and speeches some of which abound on YouTube in his bid to even the cultural sphere in America. A plausible lesson derivable from the Nuwaubian story is that Africans in diaspora need to value and cherish their ancestral heritage. Without a discernible heritage shared and appreciated by their descendants, African Americans would be a tree without a tap root and a ship without a captain floating aimlessly in the waters of monocultural America—monocultural because it celebrates and accentuates almost exclusively European values and culture, a segment of its population, in national holidays, language, and social structure. NOTES 1. Minton, Todd D, “Jail Inmates at Midyear 2011 – Statistical Tables” (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics), NCJ237961, April 2012, p. 6, Table 6, and p. 7, Table 7. 2. Paul Guerino, et al., “Prisoners in 2010,” Bureau of Justice Statistics (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, December 2011), NCJ 236096, last modified November 30, 2012, http:​//bjs​.ojp.​usdoj​.gov/​conte​nt/pu​b/pdf​/p10.​pdf.

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3. Wu Nupu and Nupu, The Nine Ball Count III, 11–13. 4. The Library of Congress, “13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” last modified December 11, 2015, http:​//www​.loc.​gov/r​r/pro​gram/​bib/o​urdoc​s/13t​hamen​ dment​.html​. 5. Richard Lapchick, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, “The 2011 Racial and Gender Report Card: National Basketball Association.” 6. Andrew Soergel, “Most of America’s Businesses Run by White Men.” US News and World Report, September, 2016. 7. The Aspen Institute, “The Racial Gap in Business Ownership Explained in Four Charts,” February 2017. 8. Black Demographics, “Black Owned Businesses,” last modified April 13, 2016, https​://bl​ackde​mogra​phics​.com/​econo​mics/​black​-owne​d-bus​iness​es/. 9. PBS, “Africans in America Part 2,” last modified April 13, 2016, https​://ww​ w.pbs​.org/​wgbh/​aia/p​art2/​2h14.​html.​ 10. Zenitha Prince, “Martin Delany, An Unknown But Extraordinary 19th Century Black Man,” The Afro, April 2012. 11. See, Molefi Kete Asante, Afrocentricity (Trenton: Africa World Press, Inc. 1988).

Conclusion

The Nuwaubian intellectual history serves as a step toward understanding the ideals of Pan-Africanism and Black Nationalist groups. While some Black Nationalist groups are less concerned with Pan-Africanism, Nuwaubian Nation was not only interested in going back to Africa, it went and brought Africa to the diaspora. Other scholars, as discussed, have attempted to explore their evolution and exegesis differently, all combining to provide a broad and varied account of the group. Inevitably, there are some gaps in this study, most of which were occasioned by factors beyond my control. One of the major limitations includes my inability to be granted access to Malachi York who is serving his 135-year prison sentence at ADX Florence, Colorado. Following my written requests for an interview with York, the prison authorities, in their response, denied my request, stating that their policy does not allow public access to such inmates. They contended that only the media and its personnel could be given direct access to high profile inmates. They however allowed a written interview, but such conversations are always subject to inspection. A vetted written interview, I thought, with York would have defeated the objective of a historical research. Since my questions and his responses would have been subjected to scrutiny, I felt that condition might compromise the outcome and essence. A high profile interview with York would have helped to throw light into several questions: What inspired him to found the Ansaar Pure Sufi in 1967? How did he manage to write hundreds of books over the decades with limited Western or “formal” education? What were his experiences with minors whom he was accused of molesting? Why did he plead guilty initially to those charges? Was he tortured or coerced as was claimed by his followers? What was his general experience in custody surrounded by the most notorious convicted violent criminals and terrorists? 117

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Conclusion

Nevertheless, one of the most compelling Nuwaubian approaches toward solving African American phenomena is found in their cultural nationalism. Although largely undefined as such, this represents Nuwaubians’ best effort at evolving a distinct culture as a way of rebuilding the cultural bridge to Africa destroyed by slavery, imperialism, and subsequently Jim Crow. Although it seems infeasible to some extent, Nuwaubians managed to evolve their own language, their own religion, constitution, and their own rituals. These cultural practices, with their African foundations, were geared toward uniting Africans in the diaspora, to give them a sense of peoplehood, which had been denied to them and their ancestors, as well as to honor the latter. Via this cultural renaissance, the Nuwaubians envisioned an African diaspora united under the banner of Nuwaupu ideologically and culturally—to keep blacks culturally homogenous. From the evidence presented, it is clear that Nuwaubians’ quest for freedom paradoxically contributed to their de facto demise. The decision to move to Georgia, where they were prejudged and vehemently resisted by the locals and law enforcement, proved disastrous. Also, since the incarceration of their leader, the membership of the Nuwaubian Nation of Moors has precipitously dropped. It is noteworthy that like their predecessor Black Nationalist groups such as the Black Panthers, the Nuwaubian Nation of Moors were under heavy FBI surveillance. History points to the fact that with such level of suspicion and interest by the authorities, the Nuwaubians almost stood no chance of survival. Whether Nuwaubians are right or wrong in alleging federal conspiracy to bring down their leader, and indeed their organization, one striking thing is that in similar cases, targets were convicted of issues unrelated to the actual grudges against them. This was the fate that befell Marcus Garvey in the 1920s, who was accused of mail-fraud, convicted, imprisoned, and later deported to Jamaica. Although Nuwaubian neighbors wanted Nuwaubians out of their town, the authorities pursued this interest methodically via other alternatives like permit denials and ultimately charges of racketeering, tax fraud, and child molestation. Within a few months of the arrest of Malachi York, the Georgian authorities seized Tama-Re—the Egypt of the West—and demolished it. The final and the most decisive factor in the dismemberment of the Nuwaubian Nation lay in its structure. Since inception, the group was structurally centralized. York evolved and forged the group around himself, making most things revolve around him. This meant that the group was run like a personal entity of the founder. Thus, with York out of the scene, thousands of his followers lacked direction. York had been their inspiration, their role model, and the director and motivator of the Nation. Without a chosen successor, Nuwaubians fell. Individuals who had grown up attached to him had nowhere to go.

Conclusion

119

Without his aura and charisma and without his incessant publications Nuwaubians fell apart, fragmented, and appear irrecoverably disjointed today. From the foregoing, the Nuwaubian undoing appears to be their decision to move to the South unlike the Nation of Islam or the Five Percenters. That movement precipitated in their ultimate downfall as they met Southern whites who were less tolerant of what they considered un-American cultural values, norms, and worldview. Such cultural clash led to various accusations preferred against the Nuwaubians which in turn led to the arrest and imprisonment of Malachi York. Like the UNIA in the 1920s and the Five Percenters in 1965, the Nuwaubians fell apart without a core figure to steer their organization and without a viable succession path. However, posterity would judge them as one of the most enduring Black Nationalist groups that survived since the 1960s. Their successes cannot only be measured by longevity or ability to attain their set objectives. Using such standards to assess Black Nationalist groups would ignore the peculiar adversities they faced. These range from funding, public trust, and challenge from the establishment, whose goals are usually to silence dissenting groups that threaten the prevailing social order. In this case, the Nuwaubian success can objectively depend on survival and perseverance—how long they managed to endure against the odds as well as the validity or otherwise of their doctrine of Nuwaupu as the panacea for African liberation. Overwhelming evidence supports the Black Nationalists’ complaints of systemic marginalization of African people in America and around the world. These can be seen in housing, education, transportation, business ownership, and homeownership. Disproportionate law enforcement incarceration, harassment, and shooting of African Americans add to the list of calamities. If these problems are not socially constructed by the racist bureaucratic system, what can rightly explain why black people are at the bottom of every social metric? Is it genetic? Absolutely no! A form of separation, such as the Chinese American model, would enable African Americans to have total control of their communities, socially, culturally, and financially. With integration, African people’s identity and values are gradually eroded and melted into the pot of America.

Appendix 1 Essay on Sources

This research utilizes both primary and secondary sources that demonstrate the place of Nuwaubian Nation of Moors in both Pan-Africanist and Black Nationalist discourse. These sources come mostly in the form of books, some in the form of pamphlets, and others in the form of online data. Most of the primary sources are Nuwaubian publications published and authored by the founder, Malachi Z. York. The bulk of it came from Library of Congress’s (LOC) Social Sciences and Humanities’ Division. Others came from the Nuwaubian bookstore, Nuwaupu Inc. The LOC collections located at the Madison Building of the institution form the bedrock of this research. The staff of the Humanities and Social Sciences Division of LOC were immensely helpful to me during the early stages of this study as they facilitated my access to the documents even when the Nuwaubian Collections has not been made available to the general public. They recognized the fact that I processed the it as an unpaid intern and rewarded me abundantly through this early access. This collections include the original writings of Malachi Z. York, the founder of the group and some other works by his confidants. Published books, pamphlets, bulletins, and magazines constitute this collections. Many of the publications in the LOC’s possession do not have publication dates, but those that do range from 1992 to 1996. This collections contains Nuwaubian publications from their Eatonton, Georgia base. The publications deal with issues of Nuwaubian identity and mostly contrast Nuwaubian dogmatic underpinning with that of major monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These contrasts are reflected in various titles and themes that deal with the definition of God and His nature, the race of Israelites, salvation, and the end time. Unfortunately, the only means of obtaining these books from the LOC was through photocopy or by scanning them directly to my phone. The former 121

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Appendix 1

was not cost-efficient because of the sheer size of the books in question, most of which ranged from 80 to 600 pages. However, the Holy Tablets is over 1,600 page long. At the point of my initial research, between 2011 and 2013, these sources were not available online from LOC’s site since they have not been digitized. The only available option for researchers utilizing these records was to physically duplicate—make copies, take pictures, or scan the documents electronically. In the same vein, the Nuwaupu Inc. bookstore, which operates online selling both hard copies and eBooks, was resourceful to me as it provided a platform to purchase early writings of York from 1967 to the late 1990s. Their collections provided me with the needed background data on the group’s founding stage and meanings and essences of Nuwaupu – the Right Knowledge. These books, collectively, aided my understanding of the group’s metamorphosis. As a researcher, buying these books and pamphlets was expensive without any grant or funding of any sort, but all the materials from Nuwaupu Inc were of better quality. While the LOC resource was cheaper, some of the documents have missing pages. However, the online materials came in pdf and were well-titled and chronologically and thematically arranged in their original series. Books in the Nuwaupu Inc. collections include those that define the groups’ essence, their philosophy, and how they evolved ideologically over time. For example, the first few publications of Malachi York, such as Bible Interpretations and Explanations, What is Nuwaupu, The Book of Mahdi and the Nuwaubian Calendar among numerous others, were all available and accessible. Another set of sources utilized in this research include newspaper and online articles. These sources were used to illustrate and highlight the group’s historic evolution, travails, and dealings with the outside world which are invisible or indiscernible from their own publications. One of the areas these were applied was in discussing the Nuwaubian various struggles with law enforcement that ultimately terminated in the arrest of their leader and the bulldozing of their sacred ground, Tama-Re. These articles detail public reception/rejection of the group and media depiction of the group as black supremacists or occultic, as well as Nuwaubians’ allegation of grand conspiracy by the US government to silence them.

Appendix 2 Nuwaubian Publication History

Nuwaubian publications are roughly categorized into sixteen series which reflect the main themes the literature cover. However, there is no indication as to when they started categorizing these books and pamphlets. This is complicated by the fact that some of these publications bear no publication dates, place, or publisher names. Although some series like the Classic and Ansaar are older than others, not all books within a series were published within the same period. The contents also stray from one item or theme to the other. While Bible Interpretations Books I and II were published in 1967, About the Raatib: The Book of Mahdi was published in mid-1987. Yet, both belong to the same series. Those published under Holy Tabernacle Ministries (HTM) and United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors (UNNM) series were seemingly published between 1993 and 2000. Most of their publications from 2000 to York’s incarceration were published under the name, Egiptian Church of Karast. These series found below were titled based on their scope and reach. For example, the 360 Questions series deals with some of the rhetorical questions Nuwaubians posed to mainstream religions. The Ansaar series comprised of books written during the Ansaar phase; other later publication that belong to this category also addressed issues relating to their Ansaar phase. Ceremonial series describes various Nuwaubian distinct ceremonies such as baptism and marriage ceremonies. These books and pamphlets vary in volume and tend to overlap on issues. The Series generally reflect or give a glimpse of the dominant issues within a given era. York’s ability, with limited Western education, to write these books amazes. More surprising is how within a year of his release from jail, he inaugurated a group in his home called Ansaar Pure Sufi, a group that grew and mutated into various dogmatic forms, and which thrived until its leader was arrested and imprisoned again. 123

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Appendix 2

360 QUESTIONS SERIES 1. 360 Questions to ask Hebrew Israelite part 1 2. 360 Questions to ask Hebrew Israelite part 2 3. 360 Questions To Ask A Christian ANSAAR SERIES 4. About the Raatib the Book of Mahdi 5. From Allah to Man (Nubian Islamic Hebrew) 6. Halloween the Evil Ones’ Sabbat First Edition 7. Is Valentine’s Day a Christian Holiday 8. Juz Three Al Qur’aan 9. Message From Imam Isa 10. Purity and Neatness 11. Science of Creation 12. Secret Societies Unmasked 13. The Book of Revelation Ch. 11 Verses 1-19 14. The Book of Revelation Ch. 13 Verses 1-18 15. The Book of Revelation Ch. 8 Verses 1-13 16. The Book of the Mahdi 17. The Paleman 18. The Revelation of Jesus the Messiah to the World 19. The Sex Life of a Muslim 20. The Significance of a Lie 21. The True Story of Cain and Abel 22. The True Story of Noah CEREMONIAL SERIES 23. Baptism Ceremony 24. Marriage Ceremony 25. The Birth Ceremony CHRIST SERIES 2 6. Be Prepared for the Anti-Christ 27. Is Haile Selassie the Christ 28. Is Jesus God

Appendix 2

2 9. Is Jesus Iesous Yahu’a Isa Yasu’a Yasue God 30. Jesus as Tammuz and Horus in History 31. Jesus Found in Egipt 32. St. Paul Disciple or Deceiver? 33. The Bride of Christ 34. The Glory of Jesus the Messiah 35. The Real Jesus 36. The Real Messiah 37. The Real Trinity 38. The Resurrection 39. Was Jesus Really Crucified 40. What is Speaking in Tongues 41. What Laws Did Y’ashua Follow 42. What Race Was Jesus 43. Who Rolled the Stone 44. Who was Jesus Father 45. Who was Jesus Sent to CLASSIC SERIES 4 6. Bible Interpretations and Explanations Book 1 47. Bible Interpretations and Explanations Book 2 48. El Katub Shil Mawut (The Book of the Dead) 49. Enoshite the Key of Life and the Covenant 50. First Language: First Edition 51. Holy Tablets 52. Let’s Set the Record Straight 53. Man From Planet Rizq 54. Mission Earth and the Extraterrestrial Involvement 55. Mythology 56. Our True Roots: First Edition 57. People of the Sun 58. Purity and Neatness 59. Purity and Neatness Scroll 18 60. Sacred Records of Atum-Re (The Black Book) 61. Sacred Records of Atum-Re (The Black Book) Part II 62. Sacred Wisdom of Tehuti 63. Science of Creation 64. Science of Pyramid 65. Secret Societies Unmasked 66. Shaikh Daoud vs W. D. Fard

125

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Appendix 2

6 7. The Book of Light 68. The Book of Revelation Ch. 11 Verses 1-19 69. The Book of Revelation Ch. 13 Verses 1-18 70. The Book of Revelation Ch. 8 Verses 1-13 71. The Conflict Between the Gods (Supreme Mathematics) 72. The Degree of Christ-ism 73. The Degree of Muhammad-ism 74. The Lost Tribe (First Edition) 75. The Melanin-lte Children 76. The Mind 77. The Revelation of Jesus the Messiah to the World 78. The Sex Life of a Muslim 79. The Significance of a Lie 80. The Wisemen (Supreme Mathematics) 81. What is Nuwaupu? 82. Who was Jesus Father 83. Your Potential DEBATE SERIES 8 4. Debates with Christians Book 9 85. Debates with Muslims Book 11 86. Debates with Muslim Book 3 EGIPT CHURCH KARASAT 8 7. 666 Leviathan Pt. 1 88. 666 Leviathan Pt. 2 89. Is it Black Man’s or White Man’s Christianity 90. Is Jesus Iesous Yahu’a Isa Yasu'a Yasue God 91. Is There Eternal Life After Death 92. Jesus Found in Egypt 93. Pa Ashutat 94. Sacred Wisdom of Tehuti 95. The Beginning 96. The Book of Light 97. The Degree of Christ-ism 98. The Degree if Muhammad-ism 99. The Luciferan Conspiracy

Appendix 2

1 00. Was Adam Black or White 101. What and Where is Hell GOD SERIES 02. 1 103. 104. 105. 106. 107. 108. 109. 110. 111. 112. 113. 114. 115. 116. 117. 118. 119. 120. 121.

Be Prepared for the Anti-Christ Does God and the Devil Exist Does God Help His Own Does God Need Love Does God Need Religion Does Religion Breed Ignorance Fake Gods False Christ God Gave the Sign to Jonah God Misinterpreted Is God a Wimp Is Jesus God Is Jesus Iesous Isa Yashu’a Yasue God Let’s Talk About the End Mysteries of God Revealed Sodom Misinterpreted What is God Doing For You What is God’s Language Where is the Devil Today Who is God Whose God is Responsible HTM SERIES

1 22. 123. 124. 125. 126. 127. 128. 129. 130. 131. 132.

Ancient Egypt and Pharaohs Are there UFOs in your Midst Did God Create the Devil Does the New Testament Contradict the KoranScroll #88 HTM Enoshites the Key of Life and Covenant Is God an Extra-Terra-Astral Is there Life After Death Is Valentine Day a Christian Holiday Jesus as Tammuz and Horus in History Let’s Set the Record Straight Mystery Clouds are they UFOs

127

128

1 33. 134. 135. 136. 137. 138. 139. 140. 141. 142. 143. 144. 145. 146. 147.

Appendix 2

Nuwaubian Istaglat (Meditation) Once Malachi Vol. 1 Once Malachi Vol. iv Question Series Book 4 Question Series Book 5 Question Series Book 6 Question Series Book 7 Science of the Pyramids Story Time: My Children Sumerian Stories The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead The Dog The Women Who Changed the Course of History Urim and Thummim What is Soul or Spirit Who Was Jesus Father NUWAUPIC LANGUAGE

1 48. 149. 150. 151. 152. 153.

Learn Nuwaupic Grammer Nuwaupic Language Made Simple Nuwaupic at a Glance Nuwaupic Made Easy For You: Lessons 2-30 Nuwaupic Simplified Teacher’s Guide to the Nuwaubian Language RIGHT KNOWLEDGE SERIES

1 54. 155. 156. 157. 158. 159. 160. 161. 162. 163. 164. 165. 166.

Bible Interpretations and Explanations Book 1 Bible Interpretations and Explanations Book 2 Breaking the Spell (First Edition) Breaking the Spell on the Blacks First language First Language (First Edition) Garden of Eden Mythology Nibiru &Annunaqi: Fact or Fiction Our True Roots (First Edition) Our True Roots (Right Knowledge Series) The Lost Tribe (First Edition) The Nine Ball (Count I)

Appendix 2

1 67. 168. 169. 170. 171.

The Nine Ball (Count II) The Nine Ball (Count III) The Nine Ball (Count IV) The Right Knowledge What is Nuwaupu? SCRIPTURE SERIES

1 72. 173. 174. 175. 176. 177. 178. 179. 180. 181. 182. 183. 184.

El Katub Shil Mawut (The Book of the Dead) El’s Holy Injiyl El’s Holy Qur’aan El’s Holy Tehillim (Psalms) El’s Torah Holy Tablets Juz Three Al Qur’aan Sacred Records of Atum-Re (The Black Book) Scroll of Malachi The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead The Boo of Light The Mind Your Potential SUPREME MATHEMATICS

85. 1 186. 187. 188. 189. 190. 191. 192. 193. 194. 195. 196. 197. 198. 199. 200.

Are there Black Devils Dr. York Vs. the Computer Extra-terrestrial and Creation Great Balls of Fire Cast a the Earth Humans Were Created From Man From Planet Rizq Mission Earth and the Extraterrestrial Involvement People of the Sun Purity and Neatness Scroll Science of Healing Shamballah and Agharta: Supreme Mathematics The Conflict Between the Gods The Melanin-Ite Children The Science of Creation The Wisemen Who Lived Before Adam and Eve

129

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Appendix 2

UNNM SERIES 2 01. 202. 203. 204.

Is God an Extra-Terra-Astral Nuwaubian Calendar People of the Sun Shaikh Daoud vs. W.D. Fard UN-HOLY DAY SERIES

2 05. Halloween: The Evil One’s Sabbat 206. Is Valentine a Christian Holiday 207. The Fallacy of Easter WORDS OF WISDOM SERIES 2 08. 209. 210. 211. 212.

Grandma’s Words of Wisdom Malachi I will Send You Elijah Message From Imam Isa Sacred Wisdom of Tehuti Sayings of Malachi Z. York Scroll# 114

Bibliography

PRIMARY SOURCES Nuwaubian Publications Al Mahdi, As Al Haadi. About the Raatib: The Book of the Mahdi. New York: Ansaaru Allah Community, 1987. Al Mahdi, As Sayyid Al Haadi. Ansaar’s Guide Through the Scriptures for Better Living: Purity and Neatness Book I. New York: n.p., 1988. Al Mahdi, As Sayyid Al Haadi. Opening of the Seventh Seal: Secret Societies Unmasked. U.S.A: n.p., 1975. Al Mahdi, As Sayyid Al Haadi. The Paleman. New York: n.p., 1975. Al Mahdi, As Sayyid Al Imam. From Allah to Man. New York: n.p., 1976. Al Mahdi, As Sayyid. Science of Creation. New York: Nubian Islamic Hebrew, 1983. Al Mahdi, As Sayyid Isa. The Book of Revelation. New York: n.p., 1979. El Haady, Rabboni: Y’shua Bar. First Language. New Babylon: The Holy Tabernacle of the Most High, n.d. El Haady, Rabboni: Y’shua Bar. Halloween: the Evil One’s Sabbat (Scroll 22). Atlanta: The Holy Tabernacle of the Most High, n.d. Isa, Imam. “Message From Imam Isa.” Malachizodoq. The Holy Tablets. Eatonton, GA: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1996. Muhammad. The True Story of Cain and Abel. New York: Ansaaru Allah Community, 1980. Nupu Asu Nupu and Naba Nupu. The Nine Ball Count IV. New York: n.p., 1972. Rabboni: Y’shua. The Lost Tribe. New Babylon: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, n.d. Rahkaptah, Amunubi. Bible Interpretations and Explanations, Booklet One. New York: Those Who Care, 1967. Ruakptah, Amunnubi. Sacred Tablets of Tama-Re. Eatonton, G.A.: n.p., n.d. Sons of Green Light: Lesson1, Study 8. Athens, G.A.: Ancient and Mystic Order of Melchizedek, n.d. 131

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World Justice Organization, Prisoner Advocacy and Legal Defense Foundation, “Support Malachi Z. York as He Fights For His Freedom” (June 7, 2005). Wu Nupu Asu and Naba Nupu. The Nine Ball Count I: Liberation Information. New York: n.p., 1971. Wu Nupu Asu Nupu and Naba Nupu. The Nine Ball Count II. New York: n.p., 1971. Wu Nupu Asu Nupu and Naba Nupu. The Nine Ball Count III. New York: n.p., 1971. York, Grandma. Grandma’s Words of Wisdom. n.p.: n.p., n.d.York, Malachi. 360 Questions to Ask a Christian, Part I. Eatonton, GA.: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994. York, Malachi. 360 Questions to Ask a Hebrew Israelite, Part II. Eatonton, GA.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1995. York, Malachi. Does Dr. Malachi York Try to Hide the Fact that He Was Imaam Issa? Scroll 153, n.p.:n.p., 1996. York, Malachi. Does Religion Breed Ignorance? Eatonton, GA: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994. York, Malachi. Exodus Introduction. Eatonton, GA: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1995. York, Malachi. God Misinterpreted, Scroll# 85. Eatonton, GA: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994. York, Malachi. Inner Wisdom for the Children of Nuwaubu Once Malachi, Vol. I. n.p.: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1988. York, Malachi. Is God a Wimp? Eatonton, GA.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994. York, Malachi. Is Jesus Iesous Inoous Yashu’a Isa Yasu’a Yasue’ God? n. p.: Egipt Publishers, n.d. York, Malachi. Jesus Found in Egipt. n.p.: The Ancient Egiptian Order, n.d. York, Malachi. Let’s Set the Record Straight. New York: The Nuwaupian International Grand Lodge, Inc. of Freemasonry, n.d. York, Malachi. Let’s Talk About the End. Eatonton, G.A.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, n.d. York, Malachi. Malachi, I Will Send You Elijah: By the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Part I. n.p.: Ancient and Mystic Order of Malachizodok, n.d. York, Malachi. Man From Planet Rizq: Study Book One, Supreme Mathematics. Eatonton, GA: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1996. York, Malachi. Marriage Ceremony. Eatonton, GA: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, n.d. York, Malachi. Mythology, Scroll# 35. n.p.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1992. York, Malachi. Pa Ashutat – ‘The Prayer.’ n.p.: n.p., n.d. York, Malachi. Shaikh Daoud 1891–1980 A.D. vs. W.D. Fard, n.p.: Ancient and Mystic Order of Malachizodok, Holy Tabernacle Ministries, n.d. York, Malachi. St. Paul Disciple or Deceiver? Eatonton, GA.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994. York, Malachi. The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. Eatonton, GA: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, n.d. York, Malachi. The Holy Tabernacle Family Guide. Eatonton, GA: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994.

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York, Malachi. The Mind. n.p.: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1995. York, Malachi. The Mystery Clouds; Are They UFOs? Eatonton, GA: Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994. York, Malachi. The Sacred Wisdom of The Grand Hierophant: Tehuti “Thoth,” Eatonton, GA: n.p., n.d. York, Malachi. The Wisemen: Study Book 10, n.p.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1989. York, Malachi. Who Was Jesus Sent To? Eatonton, GA: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994. York, Malachi. Whose God Is Responsible? Eatonton, GA: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, 1994. York 33, Malachi. Breaking the Spell on the Blacks: The End!!!. Georgia: The Ancient Egiptian Order, nd. York 33, Malachi Zodek. The Right Knowledge: For the Lost But Now Found. Macon, GA: The Ancient Egiptian Order, n.d. York-El, Malachi. What is Nuwaupu?: For the Lost But Found. Eatonton, GA: The Ancient Egiptian Order, n.d. York-El, Malachizodoq. Is it Black Man’s Christianity or White Man’s Christianity. New York: Egipt Publishers, n.d. York-El, Nayya Malachi. Science of the Pyramid. Eatonton, G.A.: United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, n.d. York-El, Nayya Malachi Zodok. The Constitution of the U.N.N.M. The United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, 1992. York-El, Nayya Malachizodok. Ancient Egipt and Pharaoh. Eatonton, GA.: The United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, 1997. York-El, Nayya Malachizodok. Nuwaubian Calendar: A Daily Word From Maku, (n.p.:n.p., 1998. York-El, Nayya Malachizodoq. Nuwaubian Istatlaat (Meditation). Eatonton, G.A.: Ancient and Mystic Order of Melchizedek, n.d. York-El, Nayya Malachizodok. The Bride of Christ, Scroll# 48. n.p.: The Holy Tabernacle Ministries, n.d. York-El, Nayya Malachizodok. The Women Who Changed the Course of History. n.p.: The United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, n.d.

Newspapers Eckenrode, Vicky. “Mystery Circles Georgia’s Clan Nuwaubians.” The Augusta Chronicle, February 25, 2001. Gallentine, Shana. “Sect Leader Arrested on Sex Charges: Nuwaubian Figure York, Group Have Ties to Athens.” Online Athens Banner–Herald, May 9, 2002, http:​// onl​ineat​hens.​com/s​torie​s/050​902/n​ew_20​02050​9035.​shtml​. Jackson III, Samuel. “Media, Prosecutors Ignored Evidence Exonerating York.” Athens Banner–Herald, April 29, 2004. Johnson, Joe. “Members of Nuwaubian Sect Seek York’s Release from Prison.” Augusta Chronicle, December 20, 2009.

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Index

1960s, 2, 8, 9, 12–15, 17, 19, 21, 32, 34, 36, 40, 42, 50, 52, 65, 80, 81, 97, 107, 119, 138 abolitionists, 8 Adam and Eve, 68, 130 Asante, Molefi, 22, 45, 115 African hair, 91 Afrocentric, 8, 14, 17, 21, 22, 31, 45, 46, 57, 115, 139, 140 American Colonization Society, 12 amnesia, 20, 21, 49, 52, 63, 81 Amun Nebu-Re, 18 Amunnnubi, 23 Amunubi, 14, 18, 44, 77, 132 Anglo-Saxon, 99 Ansaar, 17, 18, 23, 45, 76, 108, 117, 124, 132, 137 Ansaaru Allah Community, 14, 18, 44, 73, 77, 82, 132, 139 Ansar, 11, 13, 18, 36, 78, 98, 140 Apartheid, 52, 110 Arab, 19 Arabic, 19, 71, 82, 102, 103 Arabization, 98 Ashkenazi Jews, 70 background checks, 103 Back-to-Africa, 7, 10–12, 15 Bailey, Julius, 11, 13

ben-Jochannan, Yosef, 22, 60, 78 Bernal, Martin, 57 Bible, 14, 23, 44, 65, 67–70, 74, 77, 90, 103, 123, 124, 126, 129, 132 black devils, 60, 74, 86, 87, 89 Black Panthers, 31, 118 Black Power Movement, 3, 8, 9, 13, 80, 97, 107, 139 black separatism, 12, 109 Blyden, Edward Wilmot, 7 Bright, Angela Lorraine, 27 Brooks, Tyrone, 25, 26 Brown, John, 8 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, 30 Camp Jazzir Abba, 24 capitalism, 6, 55, 84, 91, 92, 111 caste system, 71 Catholicism, 70 Catskills Mountains, 24 Celts, 55 Chinatowns, 5, 32 Chinese, 4, 32, 119 Chi ukwu, 74 Christianity, 17, 19, 21–23, 30, 45, 65– 67, 69–72, 74, 75, 78, 89, 99, 115, 122, 127, 134, 138 Christism, 52, 99 civil rights, 2–4, 15, 81, 82, 107 141

142

Index

Civil Rights Movement, 2, 12, 15, 93, 139 Clarence 13X, 35 Clarke, John Henrik, 57 Classical Black Nationalism, 33, 65, 139 Cleage Jr., Albert, 65, 77 clock, 106 COINTELPRO, 87 Columbus, Christopher, 88 Cone, James, 4, 13 Confederacy, 80 Constantine, Emperor, 75 Cuffe, Paul, 6, 8, 12 cult, 10, 11, 96 Dark Continent, 20 Darwinism, 69 Dashikis, 71 Delaney, Martin 8, 12, 114 Delany, Martin, 8, 13, 116, 140 Democratic Party, 80 disenfranchisement, 80 divorce, 105 Dossett, Kate, 8, 14 Douglass, Frederick, 8, 12, 140 Druids, 55 Du Bois, W. E. B., 7, 22 Eatonton, Georgia, 12, 19, 24, 31, 40, 122 economic spirituality, 38 Edom, 88 Egiptian, 24, 100, 123 Egypt, 19, 20, 22, 24, 44, 56, 57, 59, 76, 94, 98, 108, 118, 127, 128, 138 Egyptian Mysteries System, 69 Eli, 73 El Yahuwa, 7, 54, 85 emasculate black men, 91 England, 20, 24, 95 Enosites, 53 enslavement, 4, 6–7, 8, 12, 38, 43, 51, 61, 62, 69, 73, 80, 85, 88, 109, 110 Eridu, 63 Esau, 88 ether spirit, 51 Ethiopia, 9, 11, 20, 23, 68 Ethiopianism, 9

Euro-America, 10 Euro-American, 4, 7, 31, 33, 34, 95 Eurocentric, 9, 10, 17, 20, 50, 61, 65, 66, 79, 89, 100 Eurocentrism, 11, 21, 52, 90, 99 European trade, 19, 43 extraterrestrial, 50 Farrakhan, Louis, 34, 67, 69 FBI, 25, 26, 31, 32, 35, 40, 44–46, 87, 118, 135, 136 Five Percenters, 5, 34–36, 42, 46, 50, 51, 66, 68, 69, 75, 77, 81–83, 89, 93, 94, 119, 135, 136, 139 Florence, Colorado, 12, 19, 27 Foluke, Gyasi, 4, 14, 80, 93 Garden of Eden, 68, 129 Garland, Edward T., 26, 27 Garveyist, 3 Garvey, Marcus, 5, 7, 12, 14, 15, 20, 21, 34, 37, 44, 50, 61, 62, 75, 76, 80, 81, 84, 97, 114, 118, 138, 139 Ghana, 2, 3, 8 “Ghost of Thomas Jefferson,” 4 gradualism, 4 Great Migration, 39 Haiti, 39, 140 Halloween, 55, 56, 75, 125, 131, 132 Hannibal, 7 Harlem Renaissance, 9, 80 hieroglyphics, 57, 59, 100 HIV/AIDS, 72, 73 Horus, 69, 126, 128 Hotep, 29, 30, 100, 108, 137 human rights, 2, 3, 8, 9, 37, 50, 66, 69, 71, 77, 80–82 Human Rights Movement, 2, 3, 8, 9, 80–82 Hurricane Katrina, 39 Igbo, 74, 94–96, 103, 107, 138, 139 ignorance, 30, 35, 41, 49–51, 61, 63, 85, 103 Indigenous Americans, 87, 88 Inequity or Iniquity, 41, 47

Index

integration, 3, 4, 7, 9, 12, 18, 32, 54, 81, 85, 109, 113, 119 Isis, 69 Islamic, 11, 13, 17, 18, 34, 44, 45, 52, 66–69, 71, 73, 82, 108, 125, 132, 135, 137, 139 Issa, Imam, 18 Jackson, Jesse, 26, 30, 66, 77 Jackson, Michael, 60 Jamaica, 14, 20, 76, 113, 118 Jews, 70, 71, 138, 140 Jim Crow, 3, 4, 7–8, 10, 15, 37, 39, 43, 52, 73, 110, 118, 139 Jinn, 52 Johnson, Kathy, 25–27, 36, 45, 46, 77, 134–36 Judaic, 52, 56, 68, 73 Judaism, 19, 22, 23, 65, 67, 69–72, 99, 115, 122, 136, 139 Kemet, 59 Kemite, 56 King Jr., Martin Luther, 9 kinky hair, 91 Koch, Mayor Ed., 24 kolanut, 96 Kossy, Donna, 11, 13 Lawson, Judge, 27 Leftkowitz, Mary, 57 Leviathan, 30, 127 Liberia, 6, 8, 12 Lincoln, Abraham, 79 Lumumba, Patrice, 97 Mahdi, Al, 10, 11, 14, 18, 44, 68, 69, 75–78, 82, 94, 132 Malcolm X, 3, 4, 19, 35, 37, 44, 50, 75, 81, 84, 93, 94, 114, 137, 139, 140 marginalization, 41, 52, 73, 79, 80, 90, 119 marriage, 96, 104, 107, 108, 125, 133, 136, 137 matriarchal, 104, 111 mental slavery, 61, 62 Meroitic, 100, 102

143

messiah, 31, 67, 69, 74 Messiah (Jesus), 67, 68, 71, 77, 125–27, 137, 138 messianism, 69 mis-education, 9, 61 monocultural, 115 Moseism, 52 Mtshali, Oswald Mbuyiseni, 110 Muhammad, Elijah, 14, 34, 35, 46, 69, 77 Muhammadism, 52, 99 Muhammad, Prophet, 82 NAACP, 30, 85 Nation of Gods and Earths, 35, 46, 77 Nation of Islam, 5, 17, 23, 31, 32, 34–36, 38, 39, 42, 46, 66, 69, 77, 82, 114, 119, 137, 139 Native American, 89 NBA, 112, 113 New Testaments, 22 NFL, 113 NHL, 113 Nigeria, 8, 95, 103, 107, 139 “Nightfall in Soweto,” 110, 137 Nkrumah, Kwame, 2, 13 Nubia, 10, 19, 20, 88, 100 Nubian children, 63 Nubuns, 11 Nu-Covenant, 37–40, 42, 43, 46, 137 Nuwaubian calendar, 12, 105, 106, 108, 123, 131, 134 Nuwaubian Constitution, 32, 33 Nuwaubic, 12, 76, 95, 97, 98, 100–103, 108, 137 Nuwaupu, 5, 9, 11–13, 20, 21, 44, 49– 57, 59–61, 63–71, 73–75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87–95, 98, 99, 101–5, 107, 108, 114, 115, 118, 119, 122, 123, 127, 130, 134 NYPD, 24 O’Connor, Kathleen, 11, 13 Old Testament, 73, 90 Olmec, 59 Orion, 59 Osinski, Bill, 10, 13, 29, 30, 45, 46, 78, 137

144

Index

Osiris, 8, 69 our-story, 63, 99 outformation, 98, 99 overstanding, 99 Palmer, Susan, 11, 13, 24, 45, 99, 115 Pan-African, 14, 15, 18, 86, 91, 95 Pan-Africanist, 3, 6–9, 13, 17, 37, 50, 52, 61, 80, 122 patriarchal, 12, 72, 89, 96, 104 patrilineal, 96 Perry, Darthard, 32 Planet Rizq, 45, 103, 126, 130, 133 police brutality, 42, 112, 113 Polight, Brother, 37, 39–43 Price, Melanye, 32, 46 primitives, 20 Putman County, 24–27 pyramid, 9, 11, 15, 25, 31, 40, 58, 89, 105, 109, 114 pyramids, 24, 31, 59 quadity, 21, 22, 74, 89, 90 Quran, 22, 67 Raahubat, 30 Red People, 88 Republican Party, 79 Right Knowledge, 9, 20, 31, 44, 50, 52, 75, 93, 129, 130, 134 Samhain, 55, 56 Santa Clause, 85 Separatism, 113 sharecropping, 80 Sharpton, Al, 66, 77 Sierra Leone, 8 skin bleaching, 60 slave mind, 85 slaves, 6, 7, 55, 61, 111 slave state, 84, 85 Snipes, Wesley, 30, 46, 66 South Africa, 8, 75, 110 Southern Poverty Law Center, 115

spells, 21, 49, 51, 52, 75, 101, 107, 129, 134 sphinx, 24, 60 St. Paul, 72, 78, 126, 133 Sudan, 10, 11, 18, 19, 44, 63, 69, 138 Sudanese, 10, 18, 97 Sumerian, 100 Sunni, 23, 36, 66 Supreme Court, 28, 41 Supreme Mathematics, 36, 45, 50, 51, 83, 91, 127, 130, 133 terrorists, 17, 69, 117 thehos, 74 theos, 74 Thirteenth Amendment, 111 Trinidad and Tobago, 24, 30 Trinity, 12, 21, 90, 126 twinning process, 90 UNIA, 8, 12, 14, 31, 34, 39, 76, 119 United Nations, 9 United Negro Improvement Association, 8, 31 US Census Bureau, 112 Walker, David, 6, 14, 61, 76, 114 Wallace, Muhammad, 34 Washington, Booker T., 8 Washington, Habiba Abigail, 27 West Africa, 30 Westernization, 96, 98 white ghosts, 51 William, Henry Sylvester, 6 Williams, Chancellor, 20, 44, 57, 99 Woodson, Carter G., 62, 76 Yamassee tribe, 33 Yashu’a, 71, 78, 128, 133 Yiddish, 71 York, Dwight, 7, 17, 18, 27, 77, 102, 117, 135 Yoruba, 74

About the Author

Emeka Anaedozie is assistant professor, history. He has taught at Virginia State University and Grambling State University. His teaching and research interests are in the subfields of African American and African Diasporan intellectual and cultural history, as well as oppression and resistance. He is the author of “The American Media and the Nigerian Civil War, 1967–1970,” by OFO: Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 2016. His upcoming book is titled, Africans at Home and in the Diaspora: One People, One Problem, One Destiny.

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