Trinity Essay, Research Paper
& # 8220 ; Black Gods of the Inner City & # 8221 ;
by Prince-A-Cuba
Fall 1992 / Gnosis Magazine
pp. 56-63.
Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam is a figure every bit current as
today & # 8217 ; s headlines, but the motion of which he is a nominal spokesman has a
uninterrupted history of over 60 old ages in this state. The State of Islam
( NOI ) , as it is officially known, came to the attending of the general populace
in the sixtiess as the & # 8220 ; Black Muslims. & # 8221 ; ( 1 ) It is well-known for its philosophy
that the White Man is a Satan. but what is likely less good known is another
portion of its instruction & # 8211 ; that the Black adult male is god.
Foreigners have done small in-depth research to follow the NOI & # 8217 ; s doctrinal
predecessors. The NOI itself has denied its connexions with old
motions, specifically the Moorish Science Temple of Noble Drew Ali. Ali,
who was born as Timothy Drew in North Carolina in 1886, taught, among other
things, that Blacks are descended from the antediluvian Canaanites. Legend has it
that he was the reincarnation of Muhammad, the Prophet of Orthodox Islam.
Finally relocating to Chicago, Ali built an organisation that numbered
possibly 30,000 disciples at its extremum. ( 2 )
On March 15, 1929, Ali was arrested after factional force resulted in the
decease of a rival, Sheik Claude Greene. Arrested and held in the county gaol,
Ali was finally released on bond, but died July 20, 1929, under cryptic
fortunes. ( 3 )
Master Fard Muhammad
The narrative of the NOI itself starts with a adult male diversely known as Wali Farrad,
W.D. Fard, Wallace Fard Muhammad, and Farrad Muhammad, but who is best known
as Msater Fard Muhammad. ( 4 ) Harmonizing to his sucessor, Elijah Muhammad,
He came entirely. He began learning us the cognition of ourselves, of
God and the Satan, of the measurings of the Earth, of other planets,
and the civilisations of some of the planets other than the Earth.
He measured and weighed the Earth and the H2O ; [ he gave ] the
history of the Moon ; the history of the two states that dominated the
Earth. He gave the exact birth of the white race ; the name of their
God who made them and how ; and the terminal of their clip, the opinion,
how it will get down and stop. ( 5 )
Harmonizing to the same beginning, Fard had said, & # 8220 ; My name is Mahdi ; I am God. & # 8221 ;
And harmonizing to another beginning, Fard, when asked who he was by the Detroit
constabularies, responded: & # 8220 ; I am the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. & # 8221 ; ( 6 )
Master Fard Muhammad is officially noted by the NOI as holding arrived in
Detroit on July 4, 1930, and departed on June 30, 1934. ( There is an older
tradition of an earlier arrival twenty old ages old every bit good as attending
at the University of Southern California. ) ( 7 ) In the meantime, Fard
established temples in several metropoliss and created a hierarchal organisation
composed of a work forces & # 8217 ; s military preparation unit called the Fruit of Islam ( FOI ) , a
curates & # 8217 ; corps, and a adult females & # 8217 ; s subsidiary called the Muslim Girls Training and
General Civilization Class ( MGT-GCC ) . ( 8 ) This substructure was built upon
Fard & # 8217 ; s ideological foundation known as the & # 8220 ; Secret Ritual, & # 8221 ; which, arranged in
a question-and-answer format, became better known as the & # 8220 ; Lost-Found Muslim
Lessons & # 8221 ; or merely as & # 8220 ; the lessons. & # 8221 ;
Within these lessons were the basic elements of an ancient enigma school. It
involved secretiveness from foreigners ; an esoteric ritual containing keys for
acknowledgment between fellow members ; a cohesive universe position ; and a tradition that
could be explained merely to novices. Cardinal to these instructions were the
cognition of ego and the Black adult male & # 8217 ; s godhood. ( 9 ) Harmonizing to these
instructions, the Black adult male was by nature Godhead, and in fact was the original
adult male, ascendant of the human race ( predating Louis and Mary Leakey & # 8217 ; s finds
of early homo remains in Africa by about 30 old ages. )
White people, on the other manus, were produced out of Black people by a
scientist named Yacub about six thousand old ages ago. ( 10 ) Detecting
a recessionary cistron in the Black adult male, Yacub used a system of eugenics on a
group of 60 thousand people on an island and, after six hundred old ages, was
able to make a biological mutant: the White adult male. Of class Yacub did non
unrecorded to see his creative activity, but he left behind an substructure to propogate
his system, every bit good as the ideological footing for White domination. Bleached
of the kernel of humanity, Whites were & # 8220 ; without soul. & # 8221 ; Nonetheless the race
was destined to govern for an allotted period widening to 1914 A.D, though, as
Fard & # 8217 ; s messenger Elijah Muhammad put it, & # 8220 ; a few old ages of grace have been given
to finish the Resurrection of the Black adult male, and particularly the alleged
Negroes whom Allah has chosen for this alteration ( of a new state and universe ) .
They ( alleged Negroes ) have been made so wholly mentally dead & # 8230 ; that
excess clip is allowed. & # 8221 ; ( 11 ) It was besides taught that the supreme God amongst
this mighty state of Black Gods commanded the name of Allah. ( 12 ) This rubric
was claimed by Master Fard Muhammad himself.
Fard & # 8217 ; s deification of adult male can barely be considered an aberrance in visible radiation of
historical case in points. The ancient Pharaoh of Egypt, the Aztec emperors, and
the Peruvian Incas who traced their lineage to the Sun God are well-known
illustrations. More late, there are claims of deity for emperors Hirohito
and Haile Selassie, the Dalai Lama, and Kushok Bakula. ( 13 ) And even these
should barely turn any caputs in the visible radiation of the tradition of Jesus of Nazareth
as God incarnate. The Hindu embodiment tradition would besides be right at place in
such company.
The instruction of the deity of the Black adult male specifically ( a philosophy known as
& # 8220 ; embodiment & # 8221 ; ) is said to travel back to antediluvian Egyptian enigma schools ; in fact
Khem ( and its discrepancies Cham, Ham ) , an ancient name of Egypt, means & # 8220 ; land of the
Blacks. & # 8221 ; Nor did the philosophy of incarnation start with Master Fard Muhammad
and the NOI ; harmonizing to Fard & # 8217 ; s courier and succesor, Elijah Muhammad, the
cognition of adult male as God had been long known but & # 8220 ; was maintain a secret from the
public. & # 8221 ; ( 14 )
& # 8220 ; The Lost-Found Peoples of Islam & # 8221 ;
Prior to Fard & # 8217 ; s visual aspect in 1930, Noble Drew Ali & # 8217 ; s Moresque Science Temples
of America were in diminution. After the loss of its laminitis in 1929, the motion
had fallen into three separate splits. Sheik John Givens El claimed that
Baronial Drew Ali had become reincarnated into him, Givens El, on August 7, 1929.
in Chicago. This was publically announced in Chicago & # 8217 ; s Pythian Hall on August
19 of that twelvemonth. ( 15 )
But, harmonizing to scholar Ravanna Bey, W.D. Fard, known at the clip as Abdul
Wali Farrad Muhammad, and two other Moresque Scientists, Mealy El and Charles
Kirkman Bey, contested the authorization of Givens El. The latter two went on to
set up their ain independent Moresque Science Temples, while Fard converted
a Detroit Moorish Science Temple and renamed it the Temple of the Lost-Found
Peoples of Islam ( a narrative that has been heatedly contested by NOI leading ) . ( 16 )
A wartime memo claimed W.D. Fard was one Sheik Davis El from Kansas. ( 17 )
Harmonizing to yet another beginning, Fard had declared himself the reincarnation
of Noble Drew Ali. ( 18 ) With so many narratives in circulation, confusion has
been the norm.
On November 21, 1932, Robert Karriem, a member of Fard & # 8217 ; s Detroit temple, was
arrested for the slaying of J.J. Smith, another temple member. The constabulary
arrested 30 seven members in what they characterized as a instance of & # 8220 ; human
forfeit & # 8221 ; with spiritual overtones. They labeled the incident as the & # 8220 ; Voodoo
Murder, & # 8221 ; and the media followed suit. ( 19 ) The organisation was referred to as
the & # 8220 ; Voodoo Cult, & # 8221 ; and Fard as & # 8220 ; Chief of the Voodoos & # 8221 ; by the disparagers.
Karriem, besides known as Robert Harris, was found insane and ordered to be
confined to the State Insane Asylum at Ionia, Michigan, on December 6, 1932.
Meanwhile Detroit was being turned upside down in chase of Fard, who was
turn outing to be elusive. After seven months, the constabulary eventually arrested him at
Detroit & # 8217 ; s Hotel Fraymore on May 25, 1933. Held overnight for & # 8220 ; probe, & # 8221 ;
he was photographed and fingerprinted. On the undermentioned twenty-four hours he was ordered out
of the metropolis. Traveling to Chicago, he was once more arrested. Harmonizing to Elijah
Muhammad, Fard & # 8220 ; came to Chicago in the same twelvemonth [ 1933 ] and was arrested about
instantly on his reaching and placed behind prison bars. & # 8221 ; ( 20 ) Harmonizing to
FBI beginnings, Fard was thought to hold been arrested in Chicago on September 26,
1933, without temperament, exposure, or fingerprints taken, for & # 8220 ; disorderly
behavior, & # 8221 ; a constabulary euphemism for the torment of undesirables. This is the
last official record of Fard. Unsubstantiated rumours lay his disappearing at
the door of the Chicago constabulary section ; but harmonizing to NOI tradition, Fard
continued to see Detroit sneakily into 1934.
Fard The Man
Who was Fard? Official NOI instructions province that he was born in Mecca, Arabia,
February 26, 1877. The progeny of a Black male parent and a White female parent, he was
& # 8220 ; able to travel among both black and white without being discovered or recognized. & # 8221 ;
( 21 ) His mission was to learn freedom, justness, and equality to the members of
the & # 8220 ; lost folk of Shabazz in the wilderness of North America. & # 8221 ; He had
recieved the finest instruction in readying for his mission ; & # 8220 ; he could talk
16 linguistic communications and write 10 of them. He could declaim the histories of the universe
as far back as 150,000 old ages and knew the beginning and terminal of all things. & # 8221 ; ( 22 )
However, different beginnings contribute their at odds versions of the adult male.
Fard was besides described as a & # 8220 ; Palestinian Arab who had participated in assorted
racial agitations in India, South Africa, and London before traveling on to
Detroit. & # 8221 ; He was besides thought to be the boy of an African Jamaican female parent and
a Syrian Muslim male parent. ( 23 ) Another study claimed that he was born of a
Maori female parent and a British crewman male parent in New Zealand. ( 24 ) Still another
provinces that he was a Turkish-born agent for Hitler. ( 25 ) A recent history
slightly incoherently describes Fard as a & # 8220 ; Jewish Nazi Communist, & # 8221 ; and says he
was an agent of the CIA in 1930 ( 17 old ages before that bureau came into
being ) . ( 26 ) One more recent author has constructed the tenuous
hypothesis that Fard came to Sufi mysticism by manner of Theosophy. ( 27 ) There is
even an history ( complete with transcript ) of a supposed ecncounter between
Fard and Albert Einstien at a Detroit wireless station in 1932.
While the unwritten histories of Moresque Science disciples claim Fard as one of
their ain gone astrary, NOI novices say that Fard, geting in the
& # 8220 ; wilderness of North America & # 8221 ; every bit early as 1910, taught Baronial Drew Ali, Father
Divine, Daddy Grace and Sufi Abdul-Hamid ( 28 ) the construct of Black godhood,
though all of these later went on their ain manner. There is besides a tradition
that in Egypt Fard taught Duse Muhammad Ali, the wise man of Marcus Garvey
( laminitis of the Universal Negro Improvement Association ) , every bit good as Garvey
himself, whom he met in London.
Fard was described as holding an & # 8220 ; oriental dramatis personae of visage, & # 8221 ; ( 29 ) a
description which a 1933 constabulary exposure seems to bear out. Police beginnings
describe him as five pess six inches in tallness and weighing 133 lbs. His
oculus colour is given as & # 8220 ; maroon, & # 8221 ; his hair as black, and his skin color is
described as & # 8220 ; dark & # 8221 ; or & # 8220 ; swarthy. & # 8221 ; One entry described him as looking like a
& # 8220 ; dark complected Mexican. & # 8221 ; Merely two exposures remain from Fard & # 8217 ; s three and
a half old ages in Detroit: the constabulary exposure and a & # 8220 ; glamourized & # 8221 ; ( i.e. touched-up )
portrayal of a kind popular in the late 1920s, taken at a forty-five-degree
angle by a professional lensman. The latter became the official portrayal
of Fard, and was subsequently reproduced in a painted portrayal at the Muhammad household
sign of the zodiac in Chicago.
The Departure of Fard
Other histories circulated after Fard & # 8217 ; s disappearing. Harmonizing to Elijah
Muhammad, Fard was & # 8220 ; ordered out of the state & # 8221 ; and caught a flight to Mecca.
( 30 ) It was besides reported that he sailed to Austrailia and New Zealand, and
that he was last seen & # 8220 ; aboard a ship edge for Europe. & # 8221 ; ( 31 ) A fishy beginning
claimed that Fard was interviewed in Germany but denied of all time being in the
United States. ( 32 ) A recent study in an Orthodox Muslim newspaper claimed
that Fard is alive and life in California and is now himself an orthodox
Muslim. ( 33 )
In add-on, there were rumours to the consequence that Fard & # 8220 ; met with disgusting drama at
the custodies of either the Detroit constabulary or some of his dissenter followings, & # 8221 ; or
that he was the victim of & # 8220 ; human forfeit & # 8221 ; himself, thereby accounting for
both his disappearing and his rubric of & # 8220 ; Saviour. & # 8221 ; ( 34 ) Another
uncorroborated narrative said that, afflicted with an incurable unwellness, he died
and was buried under another name, and & # 8220 ; no adult male knows of his grave to this day. & # 8221 ;
Rumors aside, there has been no dependable study of his decease. The FBI, which
initiated an probe of Fard in 1942 that was to last more than 30
old ages, could non confirm or verify his name at birth, birth day of the month, topographic point
of birth, port of entry, issue, or present whereabouts, despite thorough
enquiries. There are even indicants that organic structures were exhumed in the hunt
for Fard.
The Messenger of Allah
It was Elijah Muhammad who was about single-handedly responsible for the
deification of Fard as & # 8220 ; Allah. & # 8221 ; ( 35 ) Elijah Muhammad was born Paul Robert
Poole in 1897 on a renter farm in Sandersville, Georgia, the seventh of
12 kids ; he was given the name Elijah by his gramps. Subsequently on,
Fard would give him the name Muhammad. ( 36 ) Elijah married the former Clara
Evans and migrated to Detroit in 1923. Working at a assortment of occupations until the
Depression hit in 1929, he went on alleviation until 1931. It was in that twelvemonth that
he foremost met Fard, but says that & # 8220 ; it was non until 1933 that he [ Fard ] began
uncovering his true ego to us. & # 8221 ; ( 37 )
After Fard & # 8217 ; s disappearing, the battle for succesion commenced. Elijah & # 8217 ; s own
brother fell in the bloody internecine warfare that developed. ( 38 ) Rivals in
the Detroit temple made necessary Elijah & # 8217 ; s hegira to Chicago, which was
destined to go the central offices and power base ; but from 1935 to 1942, he
was on the tally. In 1942 he was arrested in Washington, D.C. , by the FBI on
charges of sedition. At approximately the same clip, more than 80 members of the
Chicago temple were taken in under the same charge by FBI agents working with
local constabulary. One of the arrested temple members said the officers & # 8220 ; tore the
topographic point apart seeking to happen arms hidden, since they believed we were
connected with the Japanese. & # 8221 ; ( 39 )
The sedition charge was based on the temple & # 8217 ; s anti-draft stance and was applied
for blatantly political grounds. The apprehension of
Elijah and his followings, and
their subsequent captivity until the terminal of the war, greatly enhanced their
position as sufferer for the cause.
Like other leaders jailed for their activities, Elijah brought forth inventions
for his motion when he was released. Prior to his imprisonment, the motion
was based wholly on its theological instructions and traditions. In 1946 it
numbered in the 100s, merely perchance the 1000s. But that was to alter.
Upon his release, Elijah stated, & # 8220 ; We have to demo the people something & # 8211 ; we
can non come on by talk. & # 8221 ; And so, as his boy Wallace subsequently explained, Elijah
& # 8220 ; changed from prophesying his cryptic philosophy to making something practical.
He said, & # 8216 ; We have to hold businesses. & # 8217 ; So he began to advance the gap of
concerns. He said, & # 8216 ; You have to bring forth occupations for yourself & # 8217 ; . & # 8221 ; ( 40 )
Softly turning through the 1940s and & # 8217 ; 50s, the NOI came to bask phenomenal
growing in the 1960s owing to media exposure and the magnetic gifts of its
national spokesman, Malcolm X. As Elijah & # 8217 ; s main curate, Malcolm was known
in Black inner metropoliss for his dynamic presence and speech production ability. He gained
national exposure through Mike Wallace & # 8217 ; s 1959 telecasting docudrama, & # 8220 ; The
Hate that Hate Produced. & # 8221 ; The plan shocked Middle America, while at the
same clip grim-faced FOI members met with esteem from inner-city audiences.
Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and the NOI had arrived on premier clip. Recruitment
skyrocketed.
Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925, Malcolm X had been introduced
to Elijah Muhammad through household members while in prison in Massachusetts. In
the early 1950s he converted and took his & # 8220 ; X. & # 8221 ; ( 41 ) Upon his release he joined
the organisation in Detroit and later rose to a place of leading,
finally traveling to New York City, where he was assigned Temple # 7. But in
1965 factional competition and FBI activities reaped their crop: Malcolm X was
assassinated.
After his decease Malcolm X became the sufferer of the Black nationalist motion.
But for the following 10 old ages, the assorted cabals were merely steping H2O, and
no one made any moving ridges until the decease of Elijah Muhammad in 1975.
Allah Comes To Harlem
In the interim, nevertheless, the philosophy of Black embodiment had non died, and
while W.D. Fard was still invoked in supplication in the temples of the NOI, another
rhythm in the series of Resurrections and reincarnations came approximately. The former
FOI Clarence 13X became the laminitis of the & # 8220 ; Five Percenters & # 8221 ; in New York City
around 1964.
Born Clarence Edward Smith in Danville, Virginia, in 1928, while still in his
teens he came with his household to New York City. Married and the male parent of
several kids, he served with the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict.
Honorably discharged in 1954, he remained a reservist until 1960, at which clip
he joined the NOI. He remained in the NOI until he was expelled by Malcolm Ten
under orders from the Chicago central office in 1963.
The taking rumour of the cause of Clarence & # 8217 ; s ejection was his admitted love
for playing snake eyess. Dice playing, it was claimed, was a manner of showing
the chances inherent in the nature of the existence. By contrast to
Einstien & # 8217 ; s celebrated pronouncement, & # 8220 ; God doesn & # 8217 ; t play die, & # 8221 ; the former Clarence 13X
Smith, who took on the property ( or name ) Allah, did claim, & # 8220 ; I am traveling to
shoot die until I die. & # 8221 ; ( 42 ) And he did.
& # 8220 ; Allah, & # 8221 ; as he became known, took Fard & # 8217 ; s & # 8220 ; Lost-Found Muslim Lessons & # 8221 ; out of the
temple and set them into the custodies of the young person in the streets. Fard & # 8217 ; s
induction ritual related a mathematical expression for the human society, which
was broken down into per centums. The Five Percentage were those who taught
righteousness, freedom, justness, and equality to all the human household. They
taught that the God of righteousness was non a spirit or a creep, but the Black
adult male of Asia. ( Asia was viewed as the primary continent, all the others as
subcontinents ; Continental impetus was a aspect of this instruction. )
The Eighty-five Percent, the multitudes, believed in a & # 8220 ; Mystery God & # 8221 ; and worshipped
& # 8220 ; that which did non exist. & # 8221 ; they believed in a spirit divinity instead than a
material adult male as God. They functioned on a & # 8220 ; mentally dead & # 8221 ; ( i.e. unconscious )
degree and were easy to take in the incorrect way but difficult to take in the
right.
The Ten Percent were the leechs of the hapless who taught the Eighty-five
Percentage that a Mystery God existed. They kept the multitudes asleep with myths
and prevarications, providing to their superstitious nature and life in luxury from the
net incomes of the hapless.
The Five Percent were destined to be hapless righteous instructors and to fight
successfully against the Ten Percent. Their occupation was to take the Eighty-five
Percentage to freedom, justness, and equality. At first a loose alliance of
the lumpish labor, Allah & # 8217 ; s followings numbered in the 100s, but that
shortly changed.
The Rise of the Five Percentage
Allah attracted the attending of both the constabulary and the politicians & # 8211 ; a lethal
combination. Mayor Lindsay & # 8217 ; s disposal in New York City saw in him a
agencies of maintaining the Harlem streets cool through the long, hot summers of the
riot-strewn Sixties. So Allah was put on the metropolis paysheet. Meanwhile the
New York City Police Department & # 8217 ; s Bureau of Special Services ( BOSS ) , who kept
their eyes on groups and dissenters, put him at the top of their list of
& # 8220 ; Black Militants. & # 8221 ; ( 43 )
For his portion Allah wanted something for his childs. In the short clip he
was associated with the city manager & # 8217 ; s office, he was able to open an academy with
metropolis financess. He expanded his enlisting of young person with picnic excursions and
aeroplane drives. The young person in bend sensed his love for them, and it is no
admiration that in the contempary Five Percentage he is referred to as & # 8220 ; The Father. & # 8221 ;
Allah was assassinated Friday the 13th of June, 1969 by & # 8220 ; three male negroes. & # 8221 ;
His Death was reported on the forepart of the New York Times. ( 44 ) His slaying
remains unresolved. It has been rumored within the FOI circles that his decease
was the consequence of his & # 8220 ; taking the lessons out of the temple. & # 8221 ; There is
grounds, nevertheless, that BOSS instigated the blackwash to make a war
between the NOI and the Five Percent. ( 45 ) With Allah & # 8217 ; s martyrdom, fables
once more began to proliferate, and & # 8220 ; The Father, Allah & # 8221 ; joined the pantheon of the
Black Gods of the interior metropolis along with Nobel Drew Ali and W.D. Fard.
But Allah & # 8217 ; s narrative doesn & # 8217 ; t terminal at that place. Like Jesus, he taught & # 8220 ; You are Gods, & # 8221 ;
( John 10:34 ) , attesting to the built-in deity of adult male ; nonetheless his
followings elevated him above themselves. His lifes became tinged with
myth, and a supernatural component was added to his instruction ; the & # 8220 ; Father & # 8221 ; has
been magnified in his absence, and he has become a cult personality. His
exposures adorn walls where old coevalss had kept a image of a blond-
haired, bluish eyed Jesus.
A New Era
With the decease of Elijah Muhammad in 1975, a new power battle ensued in the
house that Fard built. Wallace Delaney Muhammad, boy of Elijah, was born in
Detroit in 1933. He recieved his simple and high-school instruction at the
NOI & # 8217 ; s University of Islam in Chicago, and spent four more old ages analyzing Muslimism
and Arabic at Orthodox Muslim schools. He was long regarded as the logical
replacement to his male parent. Born and groomed for the portion, he was introduced by
Malcolm X as & # 8220 ; the 7th boy of our beloved beloved leader and Teacher who is
following in the footfalls of his father. & # 8221 ; ( 46 )
But non everything was to run so swimmingly or so merely. Wallace D. Muhammad
had in fact been expelled by his male parent for his refusal to acknowledge the
deity of Master Fard Muhammad. In add-on, Minister Louis Farrakhan, the
national spokesman for the organisation, was waiting in the wings. Farrakhan,
while likely more popular among hard-core activists, failed to rally the
ballots required from the household dominated interior circle in Chicago. So, despite
Wallace & # 8217 ; s goings from NOI orthodoxy, nepotism prevailed.
Wallace was careful, nevertheless. He did non dispute the holiness of his
namesake & # 8217 ; s coattails, to which he owed his ain legitimacy. A twelvemonth after his
accension to power, Wallace claimed ni addresss to trusters that he was in
communicating with the laminitis, stating, & # 8220 ; Master Fard Muhammad is non dead,
brothers and sisters, he is physically alive and I talk with him whenever I get
ready. I don & # 8217 ; t speak to him in any skittish manner, I go to the telephone and dial
his number. & # 8221 ; ( 47 )
Within a few old ages, though, Wallace was traveling in the way of orthodox
Islam. Taking the organisation through a figure of name alterations, he changed
his ain name to Warith ( intending & # 8220 ; heir & # 8221 ; in Arabic ) . Ultimately he sold off the
concerns that had been accumulated over the old 30 old ages and joined
the crease of Orthodox Islam.
The Farrakhan Facet
For a piece after Elijah Muhammad & # 8217 ; s decease, Louis Farrakhan toed the line.
Approximately three old ages subsequently, nevertheless, the oldline NOI diehards
regrouped. With a certain sum of encouragement from them, Farrakhan left
the employ of Warith.
Known in an earlier period as Minister Louis X of Boston & # 8217 ; s Temple No. 11,
Farrakhan had joined the NOI in the mid-1950s a former fairy-slipper vocalist, he
became a talker of some note. He recieved the name Farrakhan from Elijah
Muhammad, but neither he nor anyone else seems to cognize merely what it means.
Groomed in the shadow of Malcolm X, and sometimes hosting him in his visits to
Boston, Farrakhan was subsequently to ferociously denounce him in the pages of Muhammad
Speaks, the paper that, ironically, Malcolm himself had started in New York in
1960:
Merely those who wish to be led to hell, or to their day of reckoning, will follow
Malcolm. The dice is set and Malcolm shall non get away, particularly after
such foolish talk about his helper in seeking to rob him of the
Godhead glorification which Allah has bestowed upon him. Such a adult male as Malcolm
is worthy of decease. ( 48 )
Farrakhan subsequently admitted his divergence from the NOI way in following Wallace.
Others had refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of Wallace & # 8217 ; s succesion and had
left earlier. In clip the NOI diehards regrouped around Farrakhan.
One, the former Bernard Cushmeer ( now Jabril Muhammad ) , joined up claimed that
Elijah was non truly dead. He wrote a book to turn out it. Farrakhan, after
some vacillation, concurred ; in September 1985 he claimed to hold had a vision
in which he was taken up to the Mothership and saw Elijah. ( 49 )
But there was one certainty in the air: that a epoch had passed and a new rhythm
had been initiated in the history of the alone signifier of Islam practiced in the
wilderness of North America, complete with its ain Prophetss, Gods, Jesuss, and
couriers.
Another Cycle
After centuries of bondage, lynchings, favoritisms, miseducation, constabulary
ferociousness, and poorness, it was non hard for semiliterate Black migrators
in the Depression epoch to believe that the White adult male was a Satan. What was
hard, after coevalss of being taught in schools, text editions, and the
media that Black people were inferior and had no history of accomplishment before
captivity, was for them to see the godly nature in themselves. It was non
for Black people to rehabilitate their position of White persons, but to raise their ain
self-pride. The philosophy of Black godhood responds to this demand, and the
Black Gods of the interior metropolis are diagnostic ot this attempt.
In recent old ages the Five Percent has grown in Numberss, despite the going of
Allah. The philosophy of Black godhood is basking a reclamation among inner-city
young person of the ninetiess. They are attracted by its esoteric tradition, its Black
individuality, and the symbolism of the Five Percent & # 8217 ; s Universal Flag. Its
influence in the blame music field is evidenced by the creative persons who identify
themselves with it in their wordss: Big Daddy Kane ( King Asiatic God Allah ) ,
Poor Righteous Teachers, King Sun, Rakim, Brand Nubian, Movement Ex, and Lakim
Shabazz ( who has done a picture in Egypt with pyramids in the background ) . ( 50 )
What can you perchance think when you watch MTV and hear an attractive immature
Black adult female, & # 8220 ; cultured-down & # 8221 ; ( dressed in long skirts with here hair covered ) ,
announce: & # 8220 ; Peace, this is the goddess Isis & # 8221 ; ? There & # 8217 ; s decidedly a connexion
among godhood, Blackness, and Egypt.
However you may see the above, the following clip you hear a twenty-year-old
child like Lakim Shabazz on MTV knaping about & # 8220 ; cognition, wisdom, and
apprehension, & # 8221 ; or stating & # 8220 ; The original adult male is the Asian Black adult male, & # 8221 ; or & # 8221 ;
I & # 8217 ; m God, my figure is seven, & # 8221 ; you will acknowledge that he is declaiming parts
of a once-secret rite that is known to be more that sixty old ages old and that
hints itself back to antediluvian Egypt. With that cognition, you can be assured
that the Black Gods and goddesses of the interior metropoliss are alive and good.
[ Prince-A-Cuba, born in Havana in 1962, can be reached as W. Don Fajardo
c/o T.U.T. , P.O. Box 3243, East Orange, NJ 07017. His extroverted book is
entitled Our Mecca is Harlem: Clarence 13X ( Allah ) and the Five Percent. ]
______________________________________________________________________________
Footnotes
1. The term was coined in 1956 by C. Eric Lincoln. Cf. his Black Muslims in
America ( Boston: Beacon Press, 1961, 1973 ) , p. twelve.
2. Lincoln, pp. 53, 57.
3. E.U. Essien-Udom, Black Nationalism: A Search for Idendity ( Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1962, 1971 ) , p. 35.
4. E.D. Beynon, & # 8220 ; The Voodoo Cult among Negro Migrants in Detroit, & # 8221 ; in American
Journal of Sociology 43 ( May 1938 ) , Republished as Master Fard Muhammad:
Detroit History, Prince-A-Cuba. erectile dysfunction. ( Newport News, Va. : UB & A ; USCS, 1990 ) .
Page mentions are to the latter.
5. Elijah Muhammad, Message to the Blackman in America ( Newport News, : UB & A ;
USCS, 1965 ) , pp. 16-17.
6. Beynon, p. 6.
7. Ibid. , p.5 ; californium. Pittsburgh Courier, July 20, 1957 ; and interview with
Elijah Muhammad by R.Simmons of the California Eagle, July 28, 1963.
8. Temples were founded in Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and
Washington, D.C. The Detroit temple had a rank of 8000, harmonizing to
NOI functionaries, and 5000, harmonizing to the Detroit constabulary. Cf. Beymon, p. 7.
9. The expressions & # 8220 ; cognition of ego & # 8221 ; and & # 8220 ; cognize thyself & # 8221 ; are found throughout
the NOI instructions. Cf. George G.M. James, Stolen Lagacy ( Newport News, Va. :
UB & A ; USCS, 1954 ) , pp. 3, 88, 92 and Anonymous, Egyptian Mysteries: An History
of an Initiation ( York Beach, Me. : Samueal Weiser, 1991 ) , p. 43.
10. Muhammad, Message, pp. 110-21.
11. Elijah Muhammad, Our Savior Has Arrived ( Newport News, Va. : UB & A ; USCS,
1974 ) , p. 13.
12. Lincoln, p. 75.
13. India & # 8217 ; s embassador to Mongolia, conside
