Moorish American Awareness Month: From Public Recognition to National Responsibility
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By Peter Duncan-Bey, Blanche Hines-Bey, Alex Asihene-El
For the original peoples of North America, Noble Drew Ali taught three truths: first, that identity is not found in the brand names: Negro, Black, Colored, or Ethiopian; second, that declaring one's free and national name protects against all sorts of unlawful deprivations and abuses; and third, that through restoration of identity and nationality, our people may exit what Ali described as a condition of sin and reenter the constitutional fold of government and the family of free nations. These universal truths formed an awareness of self-knowledge and national consciousness: before a people can assert their rights, they must know and declare who they are.
The Prophet declared, "Come all ye Asiatics, and hear the truth about your Nationality and birthrights, because you are not Negroes, black or colored. Learn of your forefathers' ancient and divine Creed. That you will learn to love instead of hate." This challenged unscientific, racial misclassifications imposed under color of law.[1] "Through sin and disobedience, every nation has suffered slavery, due to the fact that they honored not the creed and principles of their forefathers; that is why the Nationality of the Moors was taken from them in 1774 and the words negro, black, and colored were given to the Asiatics of America who were of Moorish descent." (Holy Koran of The Moorish Science Temple of America, Chapter 47: 16-17) Knowledge of self becomes the starting point for understanding one's place in society.
Noble Drew Ali placed extraordinary importance upon proclaiming nationality. In A Divine Warning by the Prophet for the Nations, he taught that citizens of a free national government constitute “one family bearing one free national name,” warning that those who fail to recognize that name become subject to “inferior names and abuses and mistreatments.” His point was both national and constitutional: the free national name identifies the individual with a people and political body whose rights, duties, and protections are recognized under law. Conversely, when a people surrender their national identity and accept classifications imposed upon them by others, they risk being treated according to the inferior status historically attached to those classifications. Thus, within Ali’s teaching, declaring nationality is not merely cosmetic—it is restorative. Moorish Americans express this reclamation of ancestral connection by proclaiming their Moorish American nationality. Traditionally, this at the very least means affixing the aboriginal titles: El, Bey, or Ali to their family names.[2]
Restoration is where the first two principles—knowledge of one’s true heredity and declaration of one’s free national name—converge, returning a people to the constitutional fold of government and the family of free nations. According to Noble Drew Ali, loss of nationality resulted from “sin and disobedience,” leading to racial misclassification and, ultimately, slavery under color of law. Restoration, then, required more than rejecting the brand names Negro, Black, and Colored. Ali taught that “Negro” alludes to the degrading term “nigger,” while “colored” denotes that which is painted, varnished, or dyed—labels he maintained were incompatible with the identity of a free people. Restoration therefore signifies resurrection: the Moorish American rising from the legal and social condition of chattel property, reclaiming nationality, and returning to the standing of a free national people.
This Moorish American Awareness Month[3], the three teachings come full circle. Discover knowledge of self by rejecting the brand names Negro, Black, Colored, and Ethiopian and learning the truth of nationality and birthrights. Declare the free national name, rather than accepting inferior names and the abuses and mistreatments attached to them. And embrace restoration, where knowledge of true identity and declaration of the free national name converge—rising from racial misclassification and the condition Noble Drew Ali described as “sin and disobedience,” and returning to the constitutional fold of government and the family of free nations.
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