Trinity Essay, Research Paper

three & # 8221 ; Black Gods of the Inner City & # 8221 ; Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam is a figure as current astoday & # 8217 ; s headlines, but the motion of which he is a nominal spokesman has acontinuous 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 publicin the 1960s as the & # 8220 ; Black Muslims. & # 8221 ; ( 1 ) It is well-known for its doctrinethat the White Man is a Satan. but what is likely less good known is anotherpart of its instruction & # 8211 ; that the Black adult male is god. Foreigners have done small in-depth research to follow the NOI & # 8217 ; s doctrinalpredecessors. The NOI itself has denied its connexions with previousmovements, specifically the Moorish Science Temple of Noble Drew Ali. Ali, who was born as Timothy Drew in North Carolina in 1886, taught, among otherthings, that Blacks are descended from the antediluvian Canaanites. Legend has itthat he was the reincarnation of Muhammad, the Prophet of Orthodox Islam. Finally relocating to Chicago, Ali built an organisation that numberedperhaps 30,000 disciples at its extremum. ( 2 ) On March 15, 1929, Ali was arrested after factional force resulted in thedeath 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 mysteriouscircumstances. ( 3 ) Master Fard MuhammadThe 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 knownas Msater Fard Muhammad. ( 4 ) Harmonizing to his sucessor, Elijah Muhammad, He came entirely. He began learning us the cognition of ourselves, ofGod 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 ] thehistory of the Moon ; the history of the two states that dominated theearth. He gave the exact birth of the white race ; the name of theirGod 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 Detroitpolice, responded: & # 8220 ; I am the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. & # 8221 ; ( 6 ) Master Fard Muhammad is officially noted by the NOI as holding arrived inDetroit on July 4, 1930, and departed on June 30, 1934. ( There is an oldertradition of an earlier arrival twenty old ages old every bit good as attendanceat the University of Southern California. ) ( 7 ) In the meantime, Fardestablished temples in several metropoliss and created a hierarchal organizationcomposed of a work forces & # 8217 ; s military preparation unit called the Fruit of Islam ( FOI ) , aministers & # 8217 ; corps, and a adult females & # 8217 ; s subsidiary called the Muslim Girls Training andGeneral Civilization Class ( MGT-GCC ) . ( 8 ) This substructure was built uponFard & # 8217 ; s ideological foundation known as the & # 8220 ; Secret Ritual, & # 8221 ; which, arranged ina question-and-answer format, became better known as the & # 8220 ; Lost-Found MuslimLessons & # 8221 ; or merely as & # 8220 ; the lessons. & # 8221 ; Within these lessons were the basic elements of an ancient enigma school. Itinvolved secretiveness from foreigners ; an esoteric ritual incorporating keys forrecognition between fellow members ; a cohesive universe position ; and a tradition thatcould be explained merely to novices. Cardinal to these instructions were theknowledge of ego and the Black adult male & # 8217 ; s godhood. ( 9 ) Harmonizing to theseteachings, the Black adult male was by nature Godhead, and in fact was the originalman, ascendant of the human race ( predating Louis and Mary Leakey & # 8217 ; s discoveriesof early homo remains in Africa by about 30 old ages. ) White people, on the other manus, were produced out of Black people by ascientist named Yacub about six thousand old ages ago. ( 10 ) Discoveringa recessionary cistron in the Black adult male, Yacub used a system of eugenics on agroup of 60 thousand people on an island and, after six hundred old ages, wasable to make a biological mutant: the White adult male. Of class Yacub did notlive to see his creative activity, but he left behind an substructure to propogatehis system, every bit good as the ideological footing for White domination. Bleachedof the kernel of humanity, Whites were & # 8220 ; without soul. & # 8221 ; Nonetheless the racewas destined to govern for an allotted period widening to 1914 A.D, though, asFard & # 8217 ; s messenger Elijah Muhammad put it, & # 8220 ; a few old ages of grace have been givento complete the Resurrection of the Black adult male, and particularly the so-calledNegroes whom Allah has chosen for this alteration ( of a new state and universe ) . They ( alleged Negroes ) have been made so wholly mentally dead & # 8230 ; thatextra clip is allowed. & # 8221 ; ( 11 ) It was besides taught that the supreme God amongstthis mighty state of Black Gods commanded the name of Allah. ( 12 ) This titlewas claimed by Master Fard Muhammad himself. Fard & # 8217 ; s deification of adult male can barely be considered an aberrance in light ofhistorical case in points. The ancient Pharaoh of Egypt, the Aztec emperors, andthe Peruvian Incas who traced their lineage to the Sun God are well-knownexamples. More late, there are claims of deity for emperors Hirohitoand Haile Selassie, the Dalai Lama, and Kushok Bakula. ( 13 ) And even theseshould barely turn any caputs in the visible radiation of the tradition of Jesus of Nazarethas God incarnate. The Hindu embodiment tradition would besides be right at place insuch company. The instruction of the deity of the Black adult male specifically ( a philosophy known as & # 8221 ; embodiment & # 8221 ; ) is said to travel back to antediluvian Egyptian enigma schools ; in factKhem ( and its discrepancies Cham, Ham ) , an ancient name of Egypt, means & # 8220 ; land of theBlacks. & # 8221 ; Nor did the philosophy of incarnation start with Master Fard Muhammadand the NOI ; harmonizing to Fard & # 8217 ; s courier and succesor, Elijah Muhammad, theknowledge of adult male as God had been long known but & # 8220 ; was maintain a secret from thepublic. & # 8221 ; ( 14 ) & # 8221 ; The Lost-Found Peoples of Islam & # 8221 ; Prior to Fard & # 8217 ; s visual aspect in 1930, Noble Drew Ali & # 8217 ; s Moresque Science Templesof America were in diminution. After the loss of its laminitis in 1929, the movementhad fallen into three separate splits. Sheik John Givens El claimed thatNoble 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 August19 of that twelvemonth. ( 15 ) But, harmonizing to scholar Ravanna Bey, W.D. Fard, known at the clip as AbdulWali Farrad Muhammad, and two other Moresque Scientists, Mealy El and CharlesKirkman Bey, contested the authorization of Givens El. The latter two went on toestablish their ain independent Moresque Science Temples, while Fard converteda Detroit Moorish Science Temple and renamed it the Temple of the Lost-FoundPeople 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 reincarnationof Noble Drew Ali. ( 18 ) With so many narratives in circulation, confusion hasbeen the norm. On November 21, 1932, Robert Karriem, a member of Fard & # 8217 ; s Detroit temple, wasarrested for the slaying of J.J. Smith, another temple member. The policearrested 30 seven members in what they characterized as a instance of & # 8220 ; humansacrifice & # 8221 ; with spiritual overtones. They labeled the incident as the & # 8220 ; VoodooMurder, & # 8221 ; and the media followed suit. ( 19 ) The organisation was referred to asthe & # 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 beconfined to the State Insane Asylum at Ionia, Michigan, on December 6, 1932. Meanwhile Detroit was being turned upside down in chase of Fard, who wasproving to be elusive. After seven months, the constabulary eventually arrested him atDetroit & # 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 outof the metropolis. Traveling to Chicago, he was once more arrested. Harmonizing to ElijahMuhammad, Fard & # 8220 ; came to Chicago in the same twelvemonth [ 1933 ] and was arrested almostimmediately on his reaching and placed behind prison bars. & # 8221 ; ( 20 ) Harmonizing toFBI beginnings, Fard was thought to hold been arrested in Chicago on September 26,1933, without temperament, exposure, or fingerprints taken, for & # 8220 ; disorderlyconduct, & # 8221 ; a constabulary euphemism for the torment of undesirables. This is thelast official record of Fard. Unsubstantiated rumours lay his disappearing atthe door of the Chicago constabulary section ; but harmonizing to NOI tradition, Fardcontinued to see Detroit sneakily into 1934. Fard The ManWho 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 & # 8221 ; 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 ofthe & # 8220 ; lost folk of Shabazz in the wilderness of North America. & # 8221 ; He hadrecieved the finest instruction in readying for his mission ; & # 8220 ; he could speak16 linguistic communications and write 10 of them. He could declaim the histories of the worldas 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 variousracial agitations in India, South Africa, and London before traveling on toDetroit. & # 8221 ; He was besides thought to be the boy of an African Jamaican female parent anda Syrian Muslim male parent. ( 23 ) Another study claimed that he was born of aMaori female parent and a British crewman male parent in New Zealand. ( 24 ) Still anotherstates that he was a Turkish-born agent for Hitler. ( 25 ) A recent accountsomewhat incoherently describes Fard as a & # 8220 ; Jewish Nazi Communist, & # 8221 ; and says hewas an agent of the CIA in 1930 ( 17 old ages before that bureau came intoexistence ) . ( 26 ) One more recent author has constructed the tenuoushypothesis that Fard came to Sufi mysticism by manner of Theosophy. ( 27 ) There iseven an history ( complete with transcript ) of a supposed ecncounter betweenFard and Albert Einstien at a Detroit wireless station in 1932. While the unwritten histories of Moresque Science disciples claim Fard as one oftheir ain gone astrary, NOI novices say that Fard, geting in the & # 8221 ; wilderness of North America & # 8221 ; every bit early as 1910, taught Baronial Drew Ali, FatherDivine, 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 traditionthat in Egypt Fard taught Duse Muhammad Ali, the wise man of Marcus Garvey ( laminitis of the Universal Negro Improvement Association ) , every bit good as Garveyhimself, whom he met in London. Fard was described as holding an & # 8220 ; oriental dramatis personae of visage, & # 8221 ; ( 29 ) adescription which a 1933 constabulary exposure seems to bear out. Police sourcesdescribe him as five pess six inches in tallness and weighing 133 lbs. Hiseye colour is given as & # 8220 ; maroon, & # 8221 ; his hair as black, and his skin color isdescribed as & # 8220 ; dark & # 8221 ; or & # 8220 ; swarthy. & # 8221 ; One entry described him as looking like a & # 8221 ; dark complected Mexican. & # 8221 ; Merely two exposures remain from Fard & # 8217 ; s three anda 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-degreeangle by a professional lensman. The latter became the official portraitof Fard, and was subsequently reproduced in a painted portrayal at the Muhammad familymansion in Chicago. The Departure of FardOther histories circulated after Fard & # 8217 ; s disappearing. Harmonizing to ElijahMuhammad, 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, andthat he was last seen & # 8220 ; aboard a ship edge for Europe. & # 8221 ; ( 31 ) A suspect sourceclaimed that Fard was interviewed in Germany but denied of all time being in theUnited States. ( 32 ) A recent study in an Orthodox Muslim newspaper claimedthat Fard is alive and life in California and is now himself an orthodoxMuslim. ( 33 ) In add-on, there were rumours to the consequence that Fard & # 8220 ; met with disgusting drama atthe custodies of either the Detroit constabulary or some of his dissenter followings, & # 8221 ; orthat he was the victim of & # 8220 ; human forfeit & # 8221 ; himself, thereby accounting forboth his disappearing and his rubric of & # 8220 ; Saviour. & # 8221 ; ( 34 ) Anotherunsubstantiated narrative said that, afflicted with an incurable unwellness, he diedand 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, whichinitiated an probe of Fard in 1942 that was to last more than thirtyyears, could non confirm or verify his name at birth, birth day of the month, placeof birth, port of entry, issue, or present whereabouts, despite exhaustiveinquiries. There are even indicants that organic structures were exhumed in the searchfor Fard. The Messenger of AllahIt was Elijah Muhammad who was about single-handedly responsible for thedeification of Fard as & # 8220 ; Allah. & # 8221 ; ( 35 ) Elijah Muhammad was born Paul RobertPoole in 1897 on a renter farm in Sandersville, Georgia, the 7th oftwelve kids ; he was given the name Elijah by his gramps. Subsequently on, Fard would give him the name Muhammad. ( 36 ) Elijah married the former ClaraEvans and migrated to Detroit in 1923. Working at a assortment of occupations until theDepression hit in 1929, he went on alleviation until 1931. It was in that twelvemonth thathe first met Fard, but says that & # 8220 ; it was non until 1933 that he [ Fard ] beganrevealing his true ego to us. & # 8221 ; ( 37 ) After Fard & # 8217 ; s disappearing, the battle for succesion commenced. Elijah & # 8217 ; s ownbrother fell in the bloody internecine warfare that developed. ( 38 ) Rivals inthe Detroit temple made necessary Elijah & # 8217 ; s hegira to Chicago, which wasdestined to go the central offices and power base ; but from 1935 to 1942, hewas on the tally. In 1942 he was arrested in Washington, D.C. , by the FBI oncharges 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 withlocal constabulary. One of the arrested temple members said the officers & # 8220 ; tore theplace apart seeking to happen arms hidden, since they believed we wereconnected with the Japanese. & # 8221 ; ( 39 ) The sedition charge was based on the temple & # 8217 ; s anti-draft stance and was appliedfor blatantly political reas

ons. The arrest of Elijah and his followers, andtheir subsequent incarceration until the end of the war, greatly enhanced theirstatus as martyrs for the cause. Like other leaders jailed for their activities, Elijah brought forth innovationsfor his movement when he was released. Prior to his imprisonment, the movementwas based entirely on its theological teachings and traditions. In 1946 itnumbered in the hundreds, just possibly the thousands. But that was to change. Upon his release, Elijah stated, “We have to show the people something – wecannot progress by talk.” And so, as his son Wallace later explained, Elijah”changed from preaching his mysterious doctrine to doing something practical. He said, ‘We have to have businesses.’ So he began to promote the opening ofbusinesses. He said, ‘You have to produce jobs for yourself’.” (40)Quietly growing through the 1940s and ’50s, the NOI came to enjoy phenomenalgrowth in the 1960s owing to media exposure and the charismatic gifts of itsnational spokesman, Malcolm X. As Elijah’s chief minister, Malcolm was knownin Black inner cities for his dynamic presence and speaking ability. He gainednational exposure through Mike Wallace’s 1959 television documentary, “TheHate that Hate Produced.” The program shocked Middle America, while at thesame time grim-faced FOI members met with admiration from inner-city audiences. Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and the NOI had arrived on prime time. Recruitmentskyrocketed. Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925, Malcolm X had been introducedto Elijah Muhammad through family members while in prison in Massachusetts. Inthe early 1950s he converted and took his “X.” (41) Upon his release he joinedthe organization in Detroit and subsequently rose to a position of leadership,eventually moving to New York City, where he was assigned Temple #7. But in1965 factional rivalry and FBI activities reaped their harvest: Malcolm X wasassassinated. After his death Malcolm X became the martyr of the Black nationalist movement. But for the next ten years, the various factions were just treading water, andno one made any waves until the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975. Allah Comes To HarlemIn the meantime, however, the doctrine of Black incarnation had not died, andwhile W.D. Fard was still invoked in prayer in the temples of the NOI, anothercycle in the series of resurrections and reincarnations came about. The formerFOI Clarence 13X became the founder of the “Five Percenters” in New York Cityaround 1964. Born Clarence Edward Smith in Danville, Virginia, in 1928, while still in histeens he came with his family to New York City. Married and the father ofseveral children, he served with the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict. Honorably discharged in 1954, he remained a reservist until 1960, at which timehe joined the NOI. He remained in the NOI until he was expelled by Malcolm Xunder orders from the Chicago headquarters in 1963. The leading rumor of the cause of Clarence’s expulsion was his admitted lovefor playing craps. Dice playing, it was claimed, was a way of demonstratingthe probabilities inherent in the nature of the universe. By contrast toEinstien’s famous dictum, “God doesn’t play dice,” the former Clarence 13XSmith, who took on the attribute (or name) Allah, did claim, “I am going toshoot dice until I die.” (42) And he did. “Allah,” as he became known, took Fard’s “Lost-Found Muslim Lessons” out of thetemple and put them into the hands of the youth in the streets. Fard’sinitiation ritual related a mathematical formula for the human society, whichwas broken down into percentages. The Five Percent were those who taughtrighteousness, freedom, justice, and equality to all the human family. Theytaught that the god of righteousness was not a spirit or a spook, but the Blackman of Asia. (Asia was viewed as the primary continent, all the others assubcontinents; continental drift was a facet of this teaching.)The Eighty-Five Percent, the masses, believed in a “Mystery God” and worshipped”that which did not exist.” they believed in a spirit deity rather than amaterial man as god. They functioned on a “mentally dead” (i.e. unconscious)level and were easy to lead in the wrong direction but hard to lead in theright. The Ten Percent were the bloodsuckers of the poor who taught the Eighty-FivePercent that a Mystery God existed. They kept the masses asleep with mythsand lies, catering to their superstitious nature and living in luxury from theearnings of the poor. The Five Percent were destined to be poor righteous teachers and to strugglesuccessfully against the Ten Percent. Their job was to lead the Eighty-FivePercent to freedom, justice, and equality. At first a loose confederation ofthe lumpen proletariat, Allah’s followers numbered in the hundreds, but thatsoon changed. The Rise of the Five PercentAllah attracted the attention of both the police and the politicians – a lethalcombination. Mayor Lindsay’s administration in New York City saw in him ameans of keeping the Harlem streets cool through the long, hot summers of theriot-strewn Sixties. So Allah was put on the city payroll. Meanwhile theNew York City Police Department’s Bureau of Special Services (BOSS), who kepttheir eyes on radicals and dissidents, put him at the top of their list of”Black Militants.” (43)For his part Allah wanted something for his youngsters. In the short time hewas associated with the mayor’s office, he was able to open an academy withcity funds. He expanded his recruitment of youth with picnic outings andairplane rides. The youth in turn sensed his love for them, and it is nowonder that in the contempary Five Percent he is referred to as “The Father.”Allah was assassinated Friday the 13th of June, 1969 by “three male negroes.”His Death was reported on the front of the New York Times. (44) His murderremains unsolved. It has been rumored within the FOI circles that his deathwas the result of his “taking the lessons out of the temple.” There isevidence, however, that BOSS instigated the assassination to create a warbetween the NOI and the Five Percent. (45) With Allah’s martyrdom, legendsagain began to proliferate, and “The Father, Allah” joined the pantheon of theBlack gods of the inner city along with Nobel Drew Ali and W.D. Fard. But Allah’s story doesn’t end there. Like Jesus, he taught “You are gods,”(John 10:34), testifying to the inherent divinity of man; nonetheless hisfollowers elevated him above themselves. His biographies became tinged withmyth, and a supernatural element was added to his teaching; the “Father” hasbeen magnified in his absence, and he has become a cult personality. Hisphotos adorn walls where previous generations had kept a picture of a blond-haired, blue eyed Jesus. A New EraWith the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975, a new power struggle ensued in thehouse that Fard built. Wallace Delaney Muhammad, son of Elijah, was born inDetroit in 1933. He recieved his elementary and high-school education at theNOI’s University of Islam in Chicago, and spent four more years studying Islamand Arabic at orthodox Muslim schools. He was long regarded as the logicalsuccessor to his father. Born and groomed for the part, he was introduced byMalcolm X as “the seventh son of our dear beloved leader and Teacher who isfollowing in the footsteps of his father.” (46)But not everything was to run so smoothly or so simply. Wallace D. Muhammadhad in fact been expelled by his father for his refusal to recognize thedivinity of Master Fard Muhammad. In addition, Minister Louis Farrakhan, thenational spokesman for the organization, was waiting in the wings. Farrakhan,while probably more popular among hard-core militants, failed to muster thevotes required from the family dominated inner circle in Chicago. So, despiteWallace’s departures from NOI orthodoxy, nepotism prevailed. Wallace was careful, however. He did not challenge the sanctity of hisnamesake’s coattails, to which he owed his own legitimacy. A year after hisaccension to power, Wallace claimed ni speeches to believers that he was incommunication with the founder, saying, “Master Fard Muhammad is not dead,brothers and sisters, he is physically alive and I talk with him whenever I getready. I don’t talk to him in any spooky way, I go to the telephone and dialhis number.” (47)Within a few years, though, Wallace was moving in the direction of orthodoxIslam. Taking the organization through a number of name changes, he changedhis own name to Warith (meaning “heir” in Arabic). Ultimately he sold off thebusinesses that had been accumulated over the previous thirty years and joinedthe fold of orthodox Islam. The Farrakhan FacetFor a while after Elijah Muhammad’s death, Louis Farrakhan toed the line. Approximately three years later, however, the old-line NOI traditionalistsregrouped. With a certain amount of encouragement from them, Farrakhan leftthe employ of Warith. Known in an earlier period as Minister Louis X of Boston’s Temple No. 11,Farrakhan had joined the NOI in the mid-1950s a former calypso singer, hebecame a speaker of some note. He recieved the name Farrakhan from ElijahMuhammad, but neither he nor anyone else seems to know just what it means. Groomed in the shadow of Malcolm X, and sometimes hosting him in his visits toBoston, Farrakhan was later to fiercely denounce him in the pages of MuhammadSpeaks, the paper that, ironically, Malcolm himself had started in New York in1960:Only those who wish to be led to hell, or to their doom, will followMalcolm. The die is set and Malcolm shall not escape, especially aftersuch foolish talk about his benefactor in trying to rob him of thedivine glory which Allah has bestowed upon him. Such a man as Malcolmis worthy of death. (48)Farrakhan later admitted his deviation from the NOI path in following Wallace. Others had refused to recognize the legitimacy of Wallace’s succesion and hadleft earlier. In time the NOI traditionalists regrouped around Farrakhan. One, the former Bernard Cushmeer (now Jabril Muhammad), joined up claimed thatElijah was not really dead. He wrote a book to prove it. Farrakhan, aftersome hesitation, concurred; in September 1985 he claimed to have had a visionin which he was taken up to the Mothership and saw Elijah. (49)But there was one certainty in the air: that a era had passed and a new cyclehad been initiated in the history of the unique form of Islam practiced in thewilderness of North America, complete with its own prophets, gods, saviors, andmessengers. Another CycleAfter centuries of slavery, lynchings, discriminations, miseducation, policebrutality, and poverty, it was not difficult for semiliterate Black migrantsin the Depression era to believe that the White man was a devil. What wasdifficult, after generations of being taught in schools, textbooks, and themedia that Black people were inferior and had no history of achievement beforeenslavement, was for them to see the divine nature in themselves. It was notfor Black people to rehabilitate their view of Whites, but to raise their ownself-esteem. The doctrine of Black godhood responds to this need, and theBlack gods of the inner city are symptomatic ot this effort. In recent years the Five Percent has grown in numbers, despite the departure ofAllah. The doctrine of Black godhood is enjoying a renewal among inner-cityyouth of the 1990s. They are attracted by its esoteric tradition, its Blackidentity, and the symbolism of the Five Percent’s Universal Flag. Itsinfluence in the rap music field is evidenced by the artists who identifythemselves with it in their lyrics: Big Daddy Kane (King Asiatic God Allah),Poor Righteous Teachers, King Sun, Rakim, Brand Nubian, Movement Ex, and LakimShabazz (who has done a video in Egypt with pyramids in the background). (50)What can you possibly think when you watch MTV and hear an attractive youngBlack woman, “cultured-down” (dressed in long skirts with here hair covered),announce: “Peace, this is the goddess Isis”? There’s definitely a connectionamong godhood, Blackness, and Egypt. However you may view the above, the next time you hear a twenty-year-oldyoungster like Lakim Shabazz on MTV rapping about “knowledge, wisdom, andunderstanding,” or saying “The original man is the Asiatic Black man,” or “I’m God, my number is seven,” you will recognize that he is reciting portionsof a once-secret ritual that is known to be more that sixty years old and thattraces itself back to ancient Egypt. With that knowledge, you can be assuredthat the Black gods and goddesses of the inner cities are alive and well. [ Prince-A-Cuba, born in Havana in 1962, can be reached as W. Don Fajardoc/o T.U.T., P.O. Box 3243, East Orange, NJ 07017. His forthcoming book isentitled Our Mecca is Harlem: Clarence 13X (Allah) and the Five Percent. ]______________________________________________________________________________Footnotes1. The term was coined in 1956 by C. Eric Lincoln. Cf. his Black Muslims inAmerica (Boston: Beacon Press, 1961, 1973),p. xii. 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, “The Voodoo Cult among Negro Migrants in Detroit,” in AmericanJournal of Sociology 43 (May 1938), Republished as Master Fard Muhammad:Detroit History, Prince-A-Cuba. ed. (Newport News, Va.: UB & USCS, 1990).Page references are to the latter. 5. Elijah Muhammad, Message to the Blackman in America (Newport News,: UB &USCS, 1965), pp. 16-17. 6. Beynon, p. 6. 7. Ibid., p.5; cf. Pittsburgh Courier, July 20, 1957; and interview withElijah Muhammad by R.Simmons of the California Eagle, July 28, 1963. 8. Temples were founded in Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, andWashington, D.C. The Detroit temple had a membership of 8000, according toNOI officials, and 5000, according to the Detroit police. Cf. Beymon, p. 7. 9. The expressions “knowledge of self” and “know thyself” are found throughoutthe NOI teachings. Cf. George G.M. James, Stolen Lagacy (Newport News, Va.:UB &USCS, 1954), pp. 3, 88, 92 and Anonymous, Egyptian Mysteries: An Accountof 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 & USCS,1974), p. 13. 12. Lincoln, p. 75. 13. India’s ambassador to Mongolia, conside