Nuwaubian Nation
The Nuwaubian Nation, Nuwaubian movement, or United Nuwaubian Nation
In the late 1980s, he abandoned the black Muslim theology of his movement in favor of Kemetism and UFO religion.[1] In 1991, he took his community to settle in Upstate New York, and then near to Eatonton, the county seat of Putnam County in Georgia.[1][3] His followers built an ancient Egypt-themed compound called "Tama-Re" and changed their name to the "United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors."[1][3][4]
By 2000, the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors had some 500 adherents.[5] They drew thousands of visitors for "Savior's Day" ceremonies. Adherence declined steeply after York was convicted of numerous counts of child molestation, racketeering, and financial reporting violations, and sentenced to 135 years in federal prison in April 2004.[3] The Tama-Re compound was sold under government forfeiture and demolished.[6]: 156 The Southern Poverty Law Center described York as a "black supremacist cult leader",[7] and designated the Nuwaubian Nation as a hate group.[3]
The group has taken numerous names throughout its history, including "Ansaru Allah Community", "Holy Tabernacle Ministries", "United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors" (after the move to Georgia), "Yamassee Native American Moors of the Creek Nation" (also used in Georgia when York claimed indigenous ancestry via Egyptian migration and intermarriage with the ancient
Founder
The Nuwaubian Nation was centered exclusively on the person of its founder, Malachi (Dwight) York, who legally changed his name several times, and has used dozens of aliases.
York was born on June 26, 1935 (also reported as 1945).[7][8][9] He began his ministry in the late 1960s, from 1967 preaching to a group he called the Pan-African "Nubians" (African Americans) in Brooklyn, New York City, New York.
York founded numerous esoteric or quasi-religious fraternal orders under various names during the 1970s and 1980s, at first along pseudo-Islamic lines, later moving to a loosely Afrocentric ancient Egypt theme, eclectically mixing ideas taken from black nationalism, cryptozoology, UFO religions, and popular conspiracy theories. During the 1980s, he was also active as a musician as "Dr. York", recording for Passion Records.
York published some 450 booklets (dubbed "scrolls") under numerous pseudonyms. During the late 1990s, he styled himself a messianic founder-prophet of his movement, sometimes claiming divine status or extraterrestrial origin when appearing on his Savior's Day celebrations at Tama-Re.
York was arrested in May 2002, and in 2003 he pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse after being indicted on 197 counts of child molestation, including charges of sex trafficking of minors across state lines. These minors were as young as eight years old.[10] He was imprisoned.[11] In 2004, he was convicted and given a 135-year sentence for transporting minors across state lines in the course of sexually molesting them, racketeering, and financial reporting charges. His convictions were upheld on appeal.[12] York's case was reported as the largest prosecution for child molestation ever directed at a single person in the history of the United States, both in terms of number of victims and number of incidents. The case was described in the book Ungodly: A True Story of Unprecedented Evil (2007) by Bill Osinski, a reporter who had covered the Nuwaubians in Georgia during the late 1990s.
As of 2010[update] some factions of the
History
During the 1970s, the group set up bookstores and chapters in Trinidad; Baltimore, Maryland; and Washington, D.C. According to former follower Saadik Redd, York had between 2,000 and 3,000 followers during the 1970s. The group's headquarters was in Bushwick, Brooklyn, until 1983. A portion of the community moved to Sullivan County, New York, to a site they called Camp Jazzir Abba.[13][6] More people stayed in Brooklyn until about 1991.
A Muslim cleric, Bilal Philips, published The Ansar Cult in America in 1988, denouncing the movement as un-Islamic. Phillips relied heavily on testimonies of former adherents in describing the group's beliefs and practices.[6]: xv–xvi
In the late 1980s, York borrowed from numerous religious and esoteric traditions beyond Islam, creating the "Nuwaubian" movement. York styled his movement with a mixture of Ancient Egypt and
Former follower Robert J. Rohan had a critical view of York's changes:
Malachi York came up with the idea to move down South... because he was under FBI investigation.... He provided us as his followers the bogus rationale that we were moving down South to meet our spiritual parents. (He) always was quick to forget that he gave more than one reason for many changes that he introduced throughout the organization.[15]
After moving to Georgia, York and his followers claimed affiliation with Masons and with the Jewish, Christian, and Egyptian[clarification needed] faiths. "Once he started changing religious ideas, the older followers became skeptical and left the group," Rohan said. "That was what happened to me."[15]
The Nuwaubians borrowed a claim to indigenous ancestry, perhaps from the
Current Activity
As of 2024, the original Bushwick, Brooklyn compound continues to function as both a bookstore and a place of religious service under the group "United Sabaeans Worldwide," with their bookstores now spread across the globe.[18] They still carry the designation of a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center under the new name.[19]
On their website they refer to York as “The Master Teacher Dr. Malachi Z. K. York.” They state he was illegally arrested on May 8, 2002, serving a 135 year sentence for crimes that "he did not commit."[20] They still follow York's and others "Nuwaubian" writings and scriptures, referencing UFO and extraterrestrial theology, “actual fact,” and revelations of the "Nuwaupians.” [21]
Reception
Political influence in Georgia
Initially the Nuwaubians were considered[by whom?] eccentric but tolerable. Tensions increased locally when the group distributed leaflets attacking whites and claiming racial persecution in a zoning conflict (they had set up a nightclub in a warehouse on their property). They alienated many residents of the area, both black and white.[7] In 1998, the county sought an injunction against construction and uses that violated zoning. At the same time, the Nuwaubian community increased its leafletting of Eatonton and surrounding areas, charging white officials with racial discrimination and striving to increase opposition to them. Threats mounted and an eviscerated dog carcass was left at the home of the county attorney.[7]
Within Putnam County, the Nuwaubians lost black support, in part by trying to take over the NAACP chapter. Nuwaubians then appealed to national activists, claiming to be racially persecuted in the county. In 1999, Al Sharpton visited Tama-Re to express his support for the Nuwaubians.[7] During this period, the group maintained Holy Tabernacle stores "in more than a dozen cities in the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Trinidad," and continued to gain revenues from them.[7] York purchased a $557,000 mansion for his own use in Athens, Georgia, about 60 miles away.[7]
In 2001, the group put up candidates, associated with the Republican Party, for public office, including sheriff.[22] Their candidates were defeated.
In conjunction with a Nuwaubian Nation parade held in Augusta, Georgia, in February 2001, the office of Augusta mayor Bob Young (1999–2005) published a proclamation written by the Nuwaubian organization, stating the group's beliefs. Quotes include "the Nuwbuns were the dark, brown-to-black-skin, wooly-hair original Eygyptians." "[T]he Black race's greatness has been accepted in America and many books as people of Timbuktu Africa or the Olmecians from Uganda, Africa, who migrated and walked here to North and South America to set up colonies way before the continental drift."[23]
In an interview with a reporter from The Augusta Chronicle, Mayor Young said he had not read the statement prior to its release. He explained that his office customarily releases proclamations drafted and submitted for publication by civic groups without subjecting them to substantial content review.[23] He suggested that such proclamations do not constitute official positions of the mayor's office or statements of the mayor's views.[23]
On May 8, 2002, Tama-Re was raided by a joint force of
York and his wife were arrested outside of the property on the same day, on federal charges of child molestation and racketeering, including transport of minors for sexual use. He was convicted in 2004 by a jury in federal court and sentenced to 135 years in federal prison. His appeal failed, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the last appeal. Tama-Re was sold in asset forfeiture under the verdict, and the new owners demolished the structures. With the revelations of York's conduct, most followers abandoned the group, although some factions of the Nuwaubian Nation still exist.
York is currently incarcerated in ADX Florence, a maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colorado. He will be eligible for parole in 2122.
In 2004, seven officers of the Macon, Georgia, police department resigned from their jobs in protest against the prosecution of York. Five of those officers were later hired by the Clarke County, Georgia, jail as guards. Four of them were fired in 2006 (the fifth resigned) in the wake of charges that they were smuggling Nuwaubianist literature into the jail, corresponding with the prisoner York, encouraging inmates to rebel against white guards, and showing favoritism to Nuwaubian prisoners. The jail commander was fired after he began an investigation of Nuwaubianist influence at the jail. He has said he believes that he was fired because he undertook this investigation.[24][10]
Influence upon hip-hop
As "Dr. York," the movement's leader was a vocalist and
In his article on York's cult, Heimlich reviewed some of the leader's published works. He wrote that York had borrowed from a variety of sources for his ideas:
A partial list, from my notes, of places I'd encountered Nuwaubian notions before includes
theosophy and Blavatsky, Leonard Jeffries and other Afrocentrics, Cayce, LaRouche, alternative medicine, self-help lit, Satanism, the Atkins diet, numerology and yoga. Many of these York mentions by name. There are also extensive discourses on the Torah, Gospels and Koran, as well as on Rastafarianism, the Nation of Islam and the Five-Percent Nation.[25]
In indie hip hop, there are Nuwaubians who perform what they call Nu-wop, such as Daddi Kuwsh, Twinity, Nefu Amun Hotep, 9thScientist, Scienz of Life, Ntelek, Jedi Mind Tricks, Aslaam Mahdi, 720 Pure Sufi, Tos El Bashir and The Lost Children of Babylon.[26]
In an article for Honor Nation, A. L. JakeAl Reum speculated that the controversial
Beliefs
In 1994 Ghazi Y. Khankan, director of the New York office of the Council on American–Islamic Relations, commented about York and his group based on their history in Brooklyn. He said, "It's a cult, in my opinion, and in Islam there are no cults. They consider their leader a prophet, which means they have deviated from the Islamic way."[29] The superficial similarity of York's beliefs to those of the Heaven's Gate cult led to some worried newspaper articles after that group's mass suicide during the appearance of Comet Hale–Bopp in 1997, in which the cult was reported to have said that a spacecraft was following the comet.[30]
Pseudo-language
York taught a number of "revealing" pseudo-etymologies of English words, for instance:
- believe
- be-lie-eve: to lie to Eve's children.
- Caucasian
- from "Carcass-Asian" meaning "degenerated Asian".[citation needed]
- dyslexia
- from the Greek "dys" (hard, difficult or against) and the Latin "lexia" (law), meaning "to go against the law".[31]
- god
- from the Hebrew letters Gomar, Oz and Dubar, which signify "wisdom – strength – beauty";[32] alternately, this word comes from reversing the letters of "dog". (Note: Hebrew does not have the equivalent of the letter O, and the names for the equivalent letters of G and D are Gimel and Dalet, respectively. When reversed, the letters form the Hebrew word for "fish" (דג).) [33]
- Jesus
- a combination of the words "Jah" and "Zeus".[34]
- USA
- from the Egyptian word "usa" meaning "eye".[25]
See also
References
- ^ S2CID 236767801.
- ^ ISSN 1874-6691.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Nuwaubian Nation of Moors". SPLCenter.org. Montgomery, Alabama: Southern Poverty Law Center. 2022 [September 2015]. Archived from the original on September 8, 2015. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
- ^ "Black Supremacists: Nuwaubians arrested in common-law scam". SPLCenter.org. Montgomery, Alabama: Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 2003. Archived from the original on February 9, 2005. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
- ^ "membership and geography data for 4,300+ religions, churches, tribes, etc". Adherents.com. 1999. Archived from the original on August 24, 2006. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link), citing Copeland, Larry (September 18, 1999). "Race, Religion, Rhetoric Simmer in Georgia Town". The Salt Lake Tribune. USA Today., reports an estimated 550 adherents - ^ ISBN 9780754662556.
- ^ a b c d e f g Moser, Bob (September 20, 2002). "United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors Meets Its Match in Georgia". Intelligence Report (107). Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on March 1, 2005. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
- ^ Philips, Abu Ameenah Bilal (1988). The Ansar Cult in America. Tawheed Publications. Philips shows that in 1975, York's publications changed his declared birth year from 1935 to 1945, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Muhammad Ahmad (the Mahdi), who is popularly believed to have been born in 1845.
- ^ "York's birth certificate". nuwaubian-hotep.net.
- ^ a b Johnson, Joe (June 22, 2007). "Fired jailer sues sheriff: Probe of cult influence at issue". Athens Banner-Herald.
- ^ "Black Supremacist 'Savior' Guilty of Mass Molestation". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Spring 2003.
- ^ "U.S. v. Dwight D. York, a.k.a. Malakai Z. York, etc." (PDF). 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, D.C. Docket No. 02-00027-CR-CAR-5-1. October 27, 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 3, 2005. Retrieved October 28, 2005.
- ^ Peecher, Rob (September 1, 2002). "York's accusers describe years of sexual abuse: Nuwaubian leader promised 'ritual' would ensure eternal life, teen says". Macon Telegraph. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
- ^ According to a scan of a court document presented at nuwaubianfacts.com
- ^ The Macon Telegraph. Retrieved May 26, 2016 – via NewAgeFraud.org.
- ^ Pinzur, Matthew I. (May 15, 2000). "Nuwaubians, Who Are These People?". The Macon Telegraph.
- ISBN 978-0-313-32807-7– via Google Books.
- ^ "Global Bookstores". United Sabaeans Worldwide. Archived from the original on April 8, 2024. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
- ^ "General Hate". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
- ^ "Free Dr. York". United Sabaeans Worldwide. Archived from the original on April 1, 2024. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
- ^ "Books". United Sabaeans Worldwide. Archived from the original on April 8, 2024. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
- ^ Palmer, Susan (Summer 2006). "Cult Fighting in Middle Georgia". Religion in the News. 9 (1). Hartford, Connecticut: Trinity College. Retrieved August 19, 2020 – via trincoll.edu.
In 2001, the Nuwaubians put up their own (Republican) candidates for public office [in Putnam County, Georgia] – including sheriff. Prior to the primary, the county Board of Registrars declared 196 Nuwaubians ineligible to vote because they had not established residence in the county.
- ^ a b c Eckenrode, Vicky (February 25, 2001). "Mystery circles Georgia's clan of Nuwaubians". The Augusta Chronicle.
- ^ "4 deputies fired after jail probe". Athens Banner-Herald. November 23, 2006. Archived from the original on May 27, 2012. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
- ^ a b c Heimlich, Adam. "Black Egypt: A Visit to Tama-Re," New York Press, 8 November 2000 "New York Press". Archived from the original on November 9, 2005. Retrieved July 23, 2005.
- ^ Imarisha, Walidah (February 8, 2001). "Right Rhyming: Philly's Lost Children of Babylon spread the Nuwaubu word". Philadelphia City Paper. Archived from the original on September 5, 2005 – via citypaper.net.
- ^ JakeAl Reum, A.L. (2004). "American Indian Identity: Tea Parties and Outkast". Honor Nation. Archived from the original on March 6, 2005. Retrieved August 19, 2005.
- ^ "Nuwaubian Nation of Moors". splcenter.org. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
- ^ Hevesi, Dennis (April 24, 1994). "Muslims Leave Bushwick; The Neighbors Ask Why". The New York Times. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
- ^ Lasseter, Tom (June 29, 1999). "Tensions Simmer Around a Black Sect in Georgia". The New York Times. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
- ^ York, Malachi Z. "GOD, God, god — What Is The Difference?" – via factology.com.
- ^ York, Malachi Z. "Who Lived Before The Adam and Eve Story?" – via factology.com.
- ^ Muhammad, Isa (York, M. Z.). "The Paleman". Archived from the original on July 1, 2005 – via pacifier.com.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ York, Malachi Z. "Jesus Found in Egipt" – via factology.com.
Further reading
- Palmer, Susan (2010). The Nuwaubian Nation: Black Spirituality and State Control. Ashgate New Religions. ISBN 9780754662556.
- Philips, Abu Ameenah Bilal (1988). The Ansar Cult in America. Tawheed Publications. p. 1. reprint: Islamic Book Service (2003), ISBN 9788172314163.
External links
- Official website
- Nuwaubian Nightmare Washington Times by Robert Stacy McCain, June 2, 2002