What People Believe: Nuwaubian Nation
10th August 2012
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Nuwaubianism might not be as widely known (and ridiculed) as Scientology or as infamous as the Manson family, but in the grand scheme of belief systems, it's a pretty strange one.
Although now virtually extinct, when it was active the Nuwaubian movement was one of the most bizarre personality cults around.
Founded by black supremacist Malachi (Dwight) York, the group described themselves as a fraternity, although they draw heavily on various religions and philosophies. York was an enigmatic leader who in 2004 was convicted for child molestation on a grand scale.
Inconsistent and ever-changing in its central beliefs, the first incarnation of the Nuwaubian movement was a black-muslim organisation, with York at its helm. In a matter of years the quasi-muslim movement which had also incorporated elements of Freemasonry and several other niche religious dogmas had re-invented itself as part of the Black Hebrews movement.
Claiming to be the only authentic descendents of the Hebrews, the Nuwaubians also dabbled in the other branches of abrahamic religion, Christianity and Islam.
In the mid 90s the group moved away from traditional established religious beliefs and began to bring more Native American, New Age and Ancient Egyptian strands into their organisation. Their eccentric beliefs have changed at a rapid rate since the group's inception, with leader Dwight Yorke publishing over 450 'scrolls' or booklets about the various tacks it has taken under several pen-names.
The group, whose followers numbered up to 3,000 in the 1970s, decided in the 1990s to build their own headquarters. 'Tama-Re' was a complex in Georgia and changing their narrative once more, the group styled themselves as Native Americans, using cod-science to explain the existence of black people in the USA "before contnental drift."
Although now virtually extinct, when it was active the Nuwaubian movement was one of the most bizarre personality cults around.
Founded by black supremacist Malachi (Dwight) York, the group described themselves as a fraternity, although they draw heavily on various religions and philosophies. York was an enigmatic leader who in 2004 was convicted for child molestation on a grand scale.
Inconsistent and ever-changing in its central beliefs, the first incarnation of the Nuwaubian movement was a black-muslim organisation, with York at its helm. In a matter of years the quasi-muslim movement which had also incorporated elements of Freemasonry and several other niche religious dogmas had re-invented itself as part of the Black Hebrews movement.
Claiming to be the only authentic descendents of the Hebrews, the Nuwaubians also dabbled in the other branches of abrahamic religion, Christianity and Islam.
In the mid 90s the group moved away from traditional established religious beliefs and began to bring more Native American, New Age and Ancient Egyptian strands into their organisation. Their eccentric beliefs have changed at a rapid rate since the group's inception, with leader Dwight Yorke publishing over 450 'scrolls' or booklets about the various tacks it has taken under several pen-names.
The group, whose followers numbered up to 3,000 in the 1970s, decided in the 1990s to build their own headquarters. 'Tama-Re' was a complex in Georgia and changing their narrative once more, the group styled themselves as Native Americans, using cod-science to explain the existence of black people in the USA "before contnental drift."
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