Journal of the American Academy of Religion Advance Access originally published online on April 12, 2006
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2006 74(2):302-323; doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfj085
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The Final Frontier: Secrecy, Identity, and the Media in the Rise and Fall of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors
Dr. Julius H. Bailey is at the Religious Studies Department of the University of Redlands, 1200 E. Colton Avenue, Redlands, CA 92373.
In 1993, having purchased 476 acres approximately ten miles outside of the town of Eatonton, the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors (UNNM) moved from Brooklyn to Georgia. Since their arrival, the predominantly African-American community has been embroiled in controversy and tensions with the local authorities over zoning regulations. Through their defense of their beliefs and practices, the Nuwaubians sought at once public acceptance and protection of their sacred knowledge. Secrecy, although seemingly crucial to connecting and maintaining bonds within the fledgling tradition, raised the suspicions of the white residents of Eatonton. This article examines the history of the UNNM as one new religious movement (NRM) that has mediated its public perception in the press, while continually reworking its own "secret" and evolving communal identity. Although employing the survival strategies used by previous NRMs, in the information age of the twenty-first century, the ability to maintain secrecy was never completely under the control of the UNNM.