Nuwaubian Nation
The Nuwaubian Nation, Nuwaubian movement, or United Nuwaubian Nation is an American religious organisation founded by Dwight York circa 1967. Since that point the group has repeatedly changed its name, teachings and practices. Scholars of religion have characterised it as a new religious movement and a black nationalist group.
Drawing on a wide range of sources, Nuwaubian beliefs are eclectic and have changed over time. York—who promoted his teachings through writings called "scrolls"—initially claimed to be the grandson of Muhammad Ahmad, the 19th-century Sudanese Mahdi. He later claimed to be an extraterrestrial named Yaanuwn. Although it has promoted references to "Allah" and "God", its teachings are materialistic, dismissing the existence of a spiritual realm. Race is a key part of its black nationalist worldview, which focuses on African Americans especially. White people are regarded as having a fundamentally separate origin. The group is millenarian, with York prophesying that an apocalypse in the 2000s would see the righteous 144,000 be saved. Many of the movement's teachings revolve around the use of Nubic, a language which York developed.
York had a background in Sunni Islam but established his own group, initially called the Ansaar Pure Sufi, in Brooklyn, New York City around 1967. By 1969 the group had been renamed the Nubian Islamic Hebrew Mission in America and in 1973 it became the Ansaaru Allah Community. Establishing a Brooklyn commune with its own security force, the group presented itself as being Islamic but faced much opposition from other Muslim organisations in the city. Over coming years it integrated ideas from New Age and UFO religions, with York announcing that he was an extraterrestrial. In 1992 York transformed his movement into the Holy Tabernacle Ministries, increasingly foregrounding Jewish themes. The following year, it became the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors and relocated to Georgia, where it began claiming to be a Native American nation and established Tama-Re, an Ancient Egypt-themed compound and tourist attraction. The movement also incorporated sovereign citizen concepts. In 2004, York was convicted of child molestation, racketeering, and financial reporting violations, and sentenced to 135 years in federal prison. Although Tama Re was demolished and group membership declined, the movement has survived as the United Sabaeans Worldwide.
Over the course of its history, the Nuwaubian movement has attracted thousands of followers, with estimates suggesting that core support has peaked at around 500 members in any given period. It has also exerted an influence on a number of African-American musicians. The movement has faced much criticism from U.S. law enforcement, journalists, the anti-cult movement, Muslim organisations, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which have varyingly accused it of being a black supremacist hate group, cult, and criminal enterprise.
Definition
Over the course of their history, the Nuwaubians have operated under various different names, with the sociologist of religion Susan Palmer referring to this phenomenon, in its various institutional forms, as "the Nuwaubian movement". Similarly changing have been its use of symbols and the clothing worn by its members. Another sociologist of religion, David V. Barrett, noted that the group's development was "complex and muddled". The Nuwaubian movement draws influence from the New Testament, the Hebrew Bible, and the Quran, in addition to elements from Blackosophy, UFO beliefs, Black Freemasonry, the writings of Edgar Cayce, and US Patriot movement conspiracy theories.Palmer believed that the movement's teachings became more eclectic in their influences as it aged.
Although the various changes that the movement has undergone throughout its history mean that the Nuwaubian Nation defies easy categorisation, scholars of religion have classified it as a new religious movement. The movement emerged within the context of American black nationalism, with the scholar of religion Kathleen Malone O'Connor arguing that it was best understood in "the black prophetic, millennial, and messianic traditions of the Moorish Science Temple, the Nation of Islam and the Five Percent Nation of Gods and Earths". Palmer also described it as part of a broader "Black cultic milieu", through which it interacted with Rastafari, the Nation of Islam, and the Black Hebrew Israelites. From the late 1960s through to the late 1980s, the movement presented itself as a Muslim group—although its interpretation of Islam would be considered heretical by mainstream Muslims—while in the early 1990s it was often characterised as going through a Jewish phase. The organization also amalgamated ideas from the sovereign citizen movement and was classified as a Moorish sovereign citizen group. Members of the movement used typical sovereign citizen tactics, such as refusing to produce driver's licenses when arrested for traffic violations. By the 2000s, various scholars of religion were describing it as a UFO religion. During the 1990s, York spoke retroactively about the various phases as representing different "schools" through which he and his followers had progressed.
History
Dwight York and the Ansaar Pure Sufi
Dwight York claimed to have been born in Sudan on June 26, 1945. A Federal Bureau of Investigation report accepts this birthdate but maintains that York was born in Maryland. The Muslim heresiologist Bilal Philips believed that York was actually born in 1935, but later claimed to be younger so that his birth might fit a particular Muslim prophecy about the Mahdi. In early life, he was exposed to religions claiming an Islamic identity; according to one claim, the young York was involved in the Moorish Science Temple, a black-oriented American new religion. During part of his teens and early twenties, York was also involved with the State Street Mosque, a Sunni Muslim establishment in Brooklyn run by Daoud Ahmed Faisal. York has claimed he started attending Friday prayers at that mosque in 1957, when he was 12; there are also reports that York's mother was involved with that mosque.York later noted that as a teenager he was involved in New York's gangs. In June 1964, he was charged with statutory rape and in October 1964 with possession of a dangerous weapon and the assault of a police officer. In January 1965 he was convicted and received a three-year prison sentence, being paroled in October 1967. He then began working as a street trader, selling body oils, perfumes, and incense in Harlem and Brooklyn, meanwhile developing his own ideas.
At some point between 1967 and 1969 he established a group called Ansaar Pure Sufi and an associated bookstore. He then adopted the title of Isa Abdullah for himself. A centre for the group was established at 25 Bedford Avenue. Early members began wearing green and black tunics and adopting a symbol of an intertwined crescent, Star of David, and ankh. They called themselves "Moors" and wore fez hats, reflecting an influence from the Moorish Science Temple. York rejected existing translations of the Quran and instead promoted his own.
The Nubian Islamic Hebrew Mission in America
By 1969, York had changed the name of his group to the Nubian Islamic Hebrew Mission in America. In 1971 he established its headquarters at 452 Rockaway Avenue in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The group also changed their typical appearance, its men beginning to dress in dashikis and fez hats, accompanied by nose rings and small bones piercing the ear. NIHMA women wore face veils.York began referring to himself as Isa Abd Allah bin Abu Bakr Muhammad, or just "Imam Isa" – Isa being the Arabic name for Jesus. He subsequently clarified that he did not see himself as the rebirth of Jesus, but did draw comparisons between them; for York, John the Baptist heralded the coming of Jesus just as Elijah Muhammad, former leader of the Nation of Islam, heralded the coming of York himself.
In 1973 York traveled to the Middle East and Africa, undertaking the umrah pilgrimage to Mecca. He also visited Sudan, where he claimed that he was initiated into the Order of Al-Khidr and joined the Sufi Order of Khawatiyya. He also maintained that at the junction of two Niles, he experienced a vision of Khidr, a legendary figure in Islamic lore, alongside the Twenty-Four Elders featured in the Book of Revelation. On his return to New York, York proclaimed himself the grandson of Muhammad Ahmad, a 19th-century Sudanese political leader who deemed himself the Mahdi, and alleged that he had been born exactly a hundred years after this grandfather; he also began using the term "Mahdi" for himself.
The Ansaaru Allah Community
In 1973, York's group again changed its name, this time to the Ansaaru Allah Community. The term Ansaaru Allah means "helper of Allah", and may have appealed to York because it affirmed a link with the Sudanese Ansar movement. This name change did not entail a rejection of their "Nubian Islamic Hebrew" identity; the group's literature continued referring to both the AAC and the Nubian Islamic Hebrews throughout much of the 1980s. Imitating common Sudanese clothing styles, members began wearing white jalabeeyah robes, with white turbans for men and face veils for women. On moving to Bushwick Avenue, the group also established its own security force, the Swords of Islam, modelled on the Fruit of Islam used by the NOI. The Swords were used to crack down on drug dealing in the area, something that earned public praise from city mayor Ed Koch and from the Brooklyn police.AAC members began to live communally and spent much of their day at the group's mosque. Contact with prior friends and family was discouraged as these people were labelled kaafirs. Any money and furniture a newcomer had would be turned over to the community, while mothers and pregnant women were encouraged to claim public welfare, funds then given to the AAC. Members were assigned to single-sex quarters. Children were separated from their parents and raised communally, brought up to speak Arabic, Hebrew, and York's invented language of Nubic.
Men sent out as street missionaries and fundraisers were called "propagators"; they were given a quota to meet, and those who failed in this were chastised or in some cases beaten. Men were rewarded with access to their female "mate" in the group's Green Room.
An FBI investigation suggested that, at its peak, around 500 people were living at the AAC's commune.
The AAC also expanded its property ownership across New York City, obtaining around thirty buildings including apartment blocks, two recording studios, restaurants, a grocery store and a laundromat. The AAC sent missionaries to other parts of the United States and also established groups in Montreal, Toronto, Port of Spain, Brixton, and in Jamaica.
York began maintaining that he was the only path to salvation, and in his publication The Truth: What Do People Say I Am? he included pictures of twenty prominent black leaders alongside his own descriptions of their apparent failures.
Although referring to itself as Muslim, some of York's publications in this period drew far more on the New Testament than either the Quran or the Hebrew Bible. From the late 1970s and into the 1980s the AAC also began making increasing use of themes regarding the alleged esoteric wisdom and advanced technologies of ancient Egypt, New Age ideas such as chakras, and extraterrestrial civilisations. From 1983, York was talking about Yanaan or Yaanuwn, an intergalactic sheikh who sometimes occupied York's body. In the late 1980s, Yaanuwn was given greater prominence and increasingly identified with York himself. In 1988, he told his followers: "I am an extraterrestrial incarnated."
In addition to the group's commune, York also had a personal property at West 29th Street on Coney Island. He managed the AAC with his inner circle, which comprised his ministers, his "wives" or concubines, and his personal security force, the mujahid. In 1979, he founded a music group, Dr York and the Passion, which began performing at New York nightclubs. York also had a music studio, Passion, attached to his living quarters; attractive young women joining the AAC would often be assigned to work there, thus becoming another of his concubines. In 1983, York purchased 80 acres of land in the Catskills, on which the AAC established a summer retreat called Camp Jazzir Abba; the name was a reference to Aba Island in Sudan. The following year, York formed a Sufi order within his broader movement, the Sons of the Green Light. Between 1987 and 1991 the AAC also began referring to itself as the Original Tents of Kedar. In 1988, York retired as the imam of the AAC's Brooklyn mosque and hence spent more time at Camp Jazzir Abba.