Excited to learn that Barry Gottehrer was still alive, it proved to be fleeting as I learned only seconds later that he had just recently passed last month.Barry played a major role in interacting with the 5% Nation of Gods & Earths, their founder Clarence 13X Allah and NYC Mayor Lindsay. The intricacies of this triad are found well documented in a highly recommended book by the young author Michael. M. Knight who has made a name for himself in his personal and professional investigation into Islam in America. The study of the subcultures of ideals and teachings that function under the banner of Islam but bare no resemblance to the same is the primary classification of any ethnographic or anthropologic study of the 5% Nation. Knight's book is the first credible documentation in book form (something that goes beyond the length and restriction of a technical article in an academic journal) that exposes all of the facts and immerses the reader in the subcultures that produce the subculture of the 5% in Harlem.
On the surface, much of the doctrine of this break-off of the NOI (which broke off from the Moorish Science Temple...itself an amalgamation of Levi dowling's Aquarian Gospels, Eastern Mysticism & Prince Hall Masonry) is perhaps shocking...depending on upon one's frame of reference. GOD is taught in 5% circles to mean simply, Gomer Oz Dubar...a Hebrew anagram for the attributes of man...or specifically the black man, Maker & Ruler of the Planet Earth. The legacy of this organization is scarred with violence, hate in response to oppression and veiled in allegory much like the Masons whom 5%ers refer to as Ma-Son or 'my son' or sons of Maat even. Knight's book is steeped in first hand documentation, observation and knowledge (having himself received the transmission of the 120 from Azrael of Guttenberg, NJ) & the result is a thoroughly enjoyable compilation of events that will blur the line between the brilliance of the writer and the fascinating complexity of the figures, events and happenings that compose this movement still based out of the corner of Frederick Douglass Boulevard and 126th St. in Manhattan.
Knight shows how the government and specifically the State Courts in NY interpreted Clarence 13X calling himself GOD in the most exoteric way in order to enable the Cointelpro elements to have him sent to Bellevue and other institutions. In describing what it means to "build" or "add on" (speculative building) with a 5%er, Knight eruditely explains that...
"I saw the Supreme Mathematics and Alphabets as teaching tools, ways to get people to wrap their heads around things and develop their analytical skills. In the Supreme Mathematics, each number has its own attribute, and you built by assessing the relationships between them. For example, 1 is “Knowledge,” 4 is “Culture,” and 5 is “Power.” So the number 14 would be “Knowledge Culture.” Since 1+4=5, you could talk about how having Knowledge of your Culture brings you Power. That’s a real simplebreakdown, but some of these Gods who have spent years building with the Supreme Mathematics give the system an incredible depth. The Supreme Alphabets do the same thing with letters. If my name is Mike and M=Master, then I might take Master for my righteous name and build on the meaning of that in my own life and personality.
Giving numbers and letters these meanings also has an influence on language within the Five Percenter community; 7 = God, so if you’re on 7th Avenue you might call it “God Avenue,” and then you’re actually living in a culture of initiation because not everybody gets that. To use the terms in such a way completely reimagines the landscape and your place in it. Warith Deen Mohammed said that Master Fard used “shock language” to stimulate people’s brains, and I think the Five Percenters have really mastered that art. At first it just sounds like gibberish, but shock language jars your consciousness into activity, and you start diving into what these words mean and it becomes genuinely transformative."
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