The Five-Percent Nation, sometimes referred to as the Nation of Gods and Earths (NGE/NOGE) or the Five Percenters, is a Black nationalist movement influenced by Islam that was founded in 1964 in the Harlem section of the borough of Manhattan, New York City, by Allah the Father, who was previously known as Clarence 13X and, before that, Clarence Edward Smith.
Members of the group call themselves Allah's Five Percenters, which reflects the concept that ten percent of the people in the world are elites and their agents, who know the truth of existence and opt to keep eighty-five percent of the world in ignorance and under their controlling thumb; the remaining five percent are those who know the truth and are determined to enlighten the eighty-five percent.
The Nation of Gods and Earths teaches the belief that Black people are the original people of the planet Earth and are therefore the fathers ("Gods") and mothers ("Earths") of civilization. The Nation teaches that Supreme Mathematics and Supreme Alphabet, a set of principles created by Allah the Father, is the key to understanding humankind's relationship to the universe. The Nation teaches that the black man (insofar as the Nation defines this race) is himself God, with the black race thus being a race of actual gods.
History
Founding
The Nation of Gods and Earths was founded by Clarence 13X after he left the Nation of Islam's Temple Number Seven in Harlem, New York, the same temple where Malcolm X was a minister from 1960 to 1963. Multiple stories exist as to why Clarence and the NOI parted ways: Some state he refused to give up gambling; others state he questioned the unique divinity of Wallace Fard Muhammad, whom the NOI deified as the true and living God in person; or that he questioned Fard's godhood due to the fact that Fard was born of a white mother. One story states that he was disciplined by the NOI and excommunicated in 1963, but another version of events says that he left of his own free will.
After leaving the NOI, he renamed himself "Allah the Father". He was joined by Abu Shahid (formerly John 37X), who agreed with Allah's questioning of Wallace Fard Muhammad. Allah the Father and Shahid were nicknamed "High Scientists" due to their intense study of lessons. Allah was also joined by Justice (formerly James 109X, and before that, James Howell) who would become one of Allah's closest associates until his death.
Allah proselytized the streets of Harlem to teach others his views based on his interpretation of NOI teachings. After failing to reach elder adults whom he saw as already set in their ways, he found success with street youth. On October 10, 1964, this young group formed the First Nine Born of what became known as the Five-Percent Nation, or later the Nation of Gods and Earths.
Allah taught his Black male students that they were Gods, just as he was. He taught them that the astral twin of the Black man is the Sun. In Supreme Mathematics, the Black man is symbolized as "Knowledge." The Black women who came into Father Allah's growing movement to study along with the males were taught they were symbolic of the planet Earth because women produce and sustain human existence as does the Earth. Female Five Percenters are also referred to as "Wisdom." The Nation of Gods and Earths' Supreme Wisdom states: "Wisdom is the Original Woman because life is continued through her cipher (womb)." The NGE does not consider itself a religion; its position is that it makes no sense to be religious or to worship or deify anyone or anything outside of oneself because adherents, themselves, are the highest power in the known universe, both collectively and individually. Allah the Father developed a curriculum of eight lessons that included the Supreme Alphabets and Mathematics, which he devised, as well as lessons developed by the Nation of Islam's Elijah Muhammad and Wallace Fard Muhammad. The eight lessons were taught in this order, which follows below:
Supreme Mathematics (1–10) Supreme Alphabets (1–26) Student Enrollment (1–10) English Lesson C-1 (1–36) Lost-Found Muslim Lesson No. 1 (1–14) Lost-Found Muslim Lesson No. 2 (1–40) Actual Facts (13) Solar Facts (9)
Each Five Percenter was required to fully "master" each lesson and was expected to be able to "think and reason by forming profound relationships between the lessons and significant experiences within life." Five Percenters were also required to share what they had learned with others, and thereby recruit new members.