An Egyptian-UFO Cult in Brooklyn
July 17, 2018 10:09 PM   Subscribe

Nuwaubian group wound up labeled as a hate group by the SPLC. Not long ago in Georgia, black and gold pyramids stood proudly on the 476-acre compound of Tama-Rey. It was the holy “Land of the Sun,” a place where the self-declared God, Dr. Malachi Z. York, manipulated thousands of nationwide followers in the “Nuwaubian Nation of Moors” to believe they were cosmic purveyors of an extraterrestrial truth.
posted by MovableBookLady (27 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
I met a bunch of these guys and gals in 2004, when they were still in federal court, I think.

They were very friendly, desperately so, but were also very quick to end conversations, in a way that the end of this article reminded me of.

I have those Malachi York dvds floating around someplace, I m sure they are up on YouTube by now
posted by eustatic at 10:58 PM on July 17, 2018


Anyway, as your hate groups go, not your worst humans, even if they were talking about your momma being a dog or lizard behind ur back. Not a lot of weird gun stuff that I could see, unlike some other groups
posted by eustatic at 11:10 PM on July 17, 2018


Anyway, as your hate groups go, not your worst humans

Of course not. Those are the bagel-scoopers.
posted by rokusan at 11:52 PM on July 17, 2018 [18 favorites]


The store’s inventory includes a baffling amount of booklets by York, with titles like “Extra-Terrestrials and Creation”, or “Dr. York Versus the Computer”.

Dr. Yorke Versus the Computer would be a sweet title for a Thom Yorke biography.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 12:13 AM on July 18, 2018 [14 favorites]


Not a lot of weird gun stuff that I could see

SPLC says they had a stockpile of 30 guns when the Georgia compound was raided.

(On the other hand, 100 people lived at the compound and Georgia's gun ownership rate is 31.6%, so maybe it's normal?)
posted by ryanrs at 12:39 AM on July 18, 2018 [8 favorites]




This is some very 20th C. weirdness.
posted by Glomar response at 3:08 AM on July 18, 2018


Of course they would end up in Brooklyn. Of course.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:19 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


end up in Brooklyn

To be clear, the Nuwaubians started in Brooklyn, and moved to GA in the 90s.
posted by zamboni at 5:11 AM on July 18, 2018 [5 favorites]


Aha! I knew before I even clicked on the link what their headquarters in BKJLN was going to be.
I've driven past that black and gold building on Bushwick Ave. many times and wondered what it was about, I guess now I know...thanks for the interesting post.
posted by newpotato at 5:13 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]




> Dr. Yorke Versus the Computer would be a sweet title for a Thom Yorke biography.

OK.
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 5:29 AM on July 18, 2018 [11 favorites]


The article makes the group look like they're just a bunch of people with fun and/or goofy beliefs. It doesn't address any of the sinister stuff. From the SPLC:

They didn't know that his well-armed cult, replete with mosques and other properties throughout the Northeast and Southeast, had been investigated by the FBI, under the rubric of domestic terrorism, for crimes including murder, bank robbery, arson, counterfeiting, extortion, illegal weapons, and terrorizing former members.

They're also a branch of the loosely-knit sovereign citizens movement, whose adherents proclaim they're not actually citizens of the United States and are thus not subject to its laws and jurisdiction. (In short: SovCit is the philosophical justification for criminal activity.) Like other sovereign citizens, this means they drive without licenses, registration, or insurance, commit real estate and other sorts of fraud, and when arrested, deny the charges and the court's jurisdiction.

It's all fun and games until you come home from a trip and find the locks changed on your house and that sovereign citizens have claimed it as their own.
posted by Lunaloon at 6:03 AM on July 18, 2018 [24 favorites]


The podcast Cults has a two-parter about these guys: Part 1; Part 2. (I don't love the tone or format of the podcast – it's a smidge more dramatic than I'd prefer – but it seems to be reasonably fact-based.)
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:43 AM on July 18, 2018 [4 favorites]


It's all fun and games until you come home from a trip and find the locks changed on your house and that sovereign citizens have claimed it as their own.

Or when you discover that someone's filed false liens on your property that ruins your credit and takes time and money to dispute.
posted by octobersurprise at 7:43 AM on July 18, 2018 [7 favorites]


Hey, wow! I could have sworn I did an FPP about these guys many years ago, but maybe not... anyways it is sad to hear things have turned south (or maybe things were always icky, just kept hidden).

I am a white dude so not really my place to be speaking. But... ( yeah, there is always that but, right?)

When I look at stuff like Sun Ra, the glittery futuristic funkadellic stuff coming out of the 70s, the Black Power movement... it was initially coming from such a place of optimism and positivity. It really makes me sad that it has come to this. Not surprising, just sad. The hate seems like a natural defense reflex against what the Man and the greater society has been continually dishing out.

I want to be somewhere where I can love all of my sisters and brothers, and we don't need to other one another.
posted by Meatbomb at 7:48 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


I have more than a passing interest in fringe religious groups, and actually researched these guys a bit in the late 90's and early 2000's, and the vibe I got was... not friendly. I've since moved to Georgia (not related, of course) and gotten some first-hand stories about the community, and it appears my off-the cuff opinion was, if anything, too gentle. There are still some adherents hanging around, and I do my best to give them a wide berth. If you're interested in a slightly darker take on these guys, this article jibes pretty well with what I've seen and heard.

I look back on my time researching these kinds of fringe groups with some horror and regret these days. I (somewhat condescendingly) saw them as goofy weirdos. And there is that aspect to them, but just as often there are a lot a dark shadowy truths that adherents will gloss over or just plain ignore, and I feel that "light takes" like this article or the documentary "Wild, Wild Country" do a real diservice to the experiences and memories of those victimised by the worst of these characters.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 7:57 AM on July 18, 2018 [5 favorites]


Oh yeah these guys. Are they related to those costumed shouting Afro Arabian racist characters you see in Times Square occasionally and in Downtown Brooklyn?
It's like Funkadelic gone really wrong.
posted by Liquidwolf at 8:40 AM on July 18, 2018


Is there any relation between this group and the Nwaubani who wrote the slave-trader article three posts up? As in, where the name comes from?
posted by Grither at 9:37 AM on July 18, 2018


I remember this guy primarily from Lost Children of Babylon (the hip-hop group), but apart from that brief blip it fell of my radar. Wonder what Lost Children think about all that.
posted by symbioid at 12:07 PM on July 18, 2018




...the self-declared God

Is there any other kind ?
posted by y2karl at 12:36 PM on July 18, 2018 [2 favorites]


Eh, if you're omnipotent, I'm willing to say you're a god by definition.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:56 PM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]



...the self-declared God


If someone asks if you're a god you say "yes"!
posted by howfar at 3:34 PM on July 18, 2018 [5 favorites]


I see that @Chrysostom is ready to be godded - i declare them a god.
Omnipotence notwithstanding.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 6:41 PM on July 19, 2018


Great, because I have some serious changes I've been wanting to make to this planet for a while now.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:55 PM on July 19, 2018


First, everyone becomes a stable genius.
posted by y2karl at 4:03 PM on July 20, 2018


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