From the most recent issue of Oxford American magazine:
In Putnam County, Georgia, a religious sect known as the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors operated for years while repeatedly defying local authorities. Ultimately, their property was seized. Soon after the raid, photographer A. Scott gained access to the compound to document its eerie and fascinating iconography.
Link to the Oxford American “web extras” page, which contains an audio slideshow narrated by the photographer, A. Scott. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be an easy direct link (grrrrr), so you may have to scroll down when this post becomes dated. Here’s a direct link to the transcript of Scott’s narrative: Link. Snip:
You saw the two pyramids as you rounded the bend in the highway. They were several stories high, rising above the Georgia pines. One was black and one was golden. If your car windows were rolled down, you could hear an ummmmm coming from unseen speakers.
As the road made another bend, the entire complex came into view: the sphinx, the temple of the bull-god, the groves of fake palm trees, the thirty-foot-high golden ankhs, the rows of statues of animal-headed Egyptian deities, and–in some ways strangest of all, given the setting–a billboard that read JOHN 3:16. This was Tama-Re, the compound of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors. These photographs were taken shortly before the place was bulldozed. The Nuwaubians are an offshoot of the Nation of Islam. Dwight “Malachi Z.” York founded the group and led its members. (…)
York was convicted of child molestation and racketeering in 2004. He is currently serving 135 years. The federal government seized Tama-Re.
Try blasting some Sun Ra through your laptop while you’re cruising the slideshow. (Thanks, Roger)
Reader comment: Mutant Rob corrects the original title of this BB post:
Nuwaubian Nation of Moors is not a sect of Nation of Islam, but of the Moorise Orthodox Church (from which Nation of Islam branched off).
Julien says,
Forget Sun Ra – the Lost Children of Babylon are the real faithful of Dr. Malachi Z York, of the Nuwaubian faith. Link.