Nma Shaba By Ndagi Abdullahi Nupe Short Story #3 From ‘The Landzun Master Story-Teller’ Series I was born in Bronx and bred a full-blooded New Yorker. My mother is of Irish-Dutch genealogy. Her ancestors came aboard the Mayflower. My father was a Nigerian. He was a Nupe man from Gulu-Vatsa. I was born on the 21st of February, 1965 – the night Malcolm X was killed. So, I was named Malcolm Little. And I did grew up a replica of Malcolm X: half-caste, tall and Afrocentrist. I was known as ‘Detroit Red’. Everything about my life was centred on Malcolm X. Until the day my father died. In my father’s last will he stated that I must visit KinNupe, my homeland. Though I was 43 years old, I have never been to Africa. I became busy contacting Nigerian Nupe people resident within the D.C., New York and Philadelphia general areas. But I found that they knew little about their Nupe heritage. I then researched into Nupe on my own. My discoveries on Nupe were startling. Nupe was the greatest empire of West Africa. Tsudi, Founder of Nupe, was the greatest leader ever to appear in sub-Saharan Africa. I eventually came to Nigeria. KinNupe is a great place to be. I visited Gulu-Vatsa where, though I identified my father’s family, all the elderly who knew him were long dead. Soon I was in Bida busily engaged in researching into Nupe sociology. But the more I researched into Nupe the more I am told of a half-caste American who has earlier predated me. Everywhere I go in KinNupe I heard so much stories about this strange American popularly known as Nma Shaba. They said he lives at the village of Nku here in KinNupe. The stories of Nma Shaba distracted me so much that at last I decided to go and meet him in person. I did met Nma Shaba at Nku. He is truly a half-caste and an American. He said he has been in KinNupe since the 21st of February, 1965 – the day I was born. The day Malcolm X died. It is an extraordinary set of coincidences I couldn’t fathom. Nma Shaba was a strange man I must confess. Otherwise I don’t see how someone from Boston, Massachusetts, would deliberately end up living in a remote village. And Nma Shaba is not interested in going back to America at all. He has been in KinNupe for some forty-four years. He was now a typical Nupe man. The strange old man has even etched out real Nupe tribal marks on his face! My greatest amazement, however, is that Nma Shaba looked too much like the late Malcolm X. Though the old man Nma Shaba is far older than the Malcolm I know. But they could have been age-mates if Malcolm X were still alive. I couldn’t hide my astonishment at Nma Shaba’s striking resemblance to Malcolm X. He said he is aware of his twin-like resemblance to the late Malcolm X. He said he was actually referred to as Malcolm X’s twin brother back in the USA. I became very close to Nma Shaba. I shuttled weekly between Bida and the village of Nku. Over the months the old man Nma Shaba told me about his life in the USA. He said he was with the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad in the days of Malcolm X’s fiery prominence. Nma Shaba said he was originally from Lansing, Michigan, but was attracted to the Harlem branch mosque of the Nation of Islam, when people told him everywhere he goes that he look too much like Malcolm X. That was how he joined the Black Muslims and became very close to Malcolm X. Old man Nma Shaba said Malcolm X eventually told him so many devastating secrets about the Nation of Islam movement. As the months rolled by I became so engrossed in old man Nma Shaba’s first hand and secret stories about Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. Nma Shaba said contrary to popular media and FBI propaganda the clash between Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X was not borne out of rivalry. Instead it was because Malcolm X ultimately discovered something so secretive about the origins of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X discovered that the true founder of the Nation of Islam movement, Wallace D. Fard Muhammad, was a Nupe man! Now I see why the true identity of Wallace D. Fard has remained such a guarded secret that, even today, Louis Farrakhan doesn’t know the true Wallace D. Fard Muhammad. Around this time my sessions with Nma Shaba were interrupted by the visit of a close friend of Nma Shaba, a white American simply called Frank, who works with the American embassy at Abuja. Frank is one mischievous looking Texan whom I didn’t like right from the beginning. Frank came and spent a week with Nma Shaba in that remote village of Nku. Frank was following Nma Shaba around as if he was from the KGB and not from the US embassy. Why would Frank leave the posh offices of the American embassy to come and spend a week of policing in this stifling village with Nma Shaba? I just couldn’t fathom this whole Nma Shaba affair. When Frank left Nma Shaba resumed his Malcolm X stories. Nma Shaba said Wallace D. Fard Muhammad was originally a Nupe man, known as Wali Ndafaranda Muhammadu, from the village of Sakpe here in KinNupe. Wali Ndafaranda Muhammadu was a Tijanniya Tariqa scholar of Sufism who went to perform Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca in the 1910s. Wali Ndafaranda never came back to KinNupe. From Mecca Wali Ndafaranda travelled round the Middle East and discovered, to his greatest shock, that Sufism was originally a Nupe form of spiritualism that was exported from KinNupe to Basra in southern Iraq from the days of Caliph Umar right through the 9th century to latter times. It was Hassan al-Basri and Imam Ghazali, both of Nupe descents, who syncretised Sufism, a Nupe spiritualism, into Islam. I didn’t know whether to believe old man Nma Shaba or not. Nma Shaba said the globetrotting Wali Ndafaranda eventually found himself in the USA and dabbled into Freemasonry when he discovered that Freemasonry was also originally a form of an ancient Nupe religion. Wali Ndafaranda, then known as Wallace D. Fard, decided to fuse Sufism and Freemasonry into one because both originated from Nupe. The result was the eccentric Islam of the Nation of Islam. Before his disappearance in 1934 Wallace D. Fard Muhammad appointed Elijah Muhammad as his successor and that was the birth of the Black Muslim movement in the USA. It was Malcolm X’s discovery of these vital secrets that led to the clash between Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. In any case Malcolm X was killed on the 21st of February, 1965. And that very night, Nma Shaba, left America for KinNupe. Nma Shaba said he has come down to KinNupe to discover that original Nupe spiritualism that gave birth to Sufism, Freemasonry and the Nation of Islam or Black Muslim Movement in the USA. He said when he came down to KinNupe he discovered that it was this ancient Nupe spiritualism that also gave birth to Nupe witchcraft. He is discovering now, Nma Shaba told me, that Nupe witchcraft might as well be the greatest and ultimate power in the world – the same that the Freemasons, the Illuminati, the Priory of Scion, the Rosicrucians, the Opus Dei, the Bilderberg Group, the Knights Templar, and many others are looking for. Nma Shaba said Professor Leo Frobenius discovered long ago that Nupe witchcraft was the ultimate power the White man has been looking for. Nma Shaba Professor Leo Frobenius actually got himself initiated into Nupe witchcraft in 1911 here in KinNupe. He said he has a greater secret to tell me. But Frank came back with his policing demeanour. This time he didn’t hide his disgust for me. He suspected Nma Shaba had told me something he shouldn’t tell me. They had a serious fight. I overheard Frank threatening to report Nma Shaba to the CIA. That was when I became convinced that both Frank and Nma Shaba were CIA agents. I ran away and never went back to Nku. Nma Shaba kept on calling me for his final ‘Great Secret’ but I didn’t go back. I don’t want anything to do with the CIA. It was around that time, in November 2008, that Barack Obama became the President of the USA. Then I heard of the sudden death of Nma Shaba. I was truly devastated. I went for the funerals at Nku but was surprised to discover that the small village of Nku have been overtaken by a battalion of US embassy staffs and Nigerian security operatives from Abuja. They said a high dignitary was coming from America to pay his last respect to Nma Shaba. But the security mounted at Nku by the Americans was more than what is obtainable at Guantanamo Bay. In the dead of the night the high American dignitary did came in a USA Marine One presidential helicopter, accompanied by Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I was stunned. Only the President of the USA can be transported by Marine One. So, who is Nma Shaba? Then to my shock I was called inside to meet the high dignitary who was none other than President Barack Obama himself. Obama looked at me with tears and said: “Come and pay your last respect to your closest friend. Come and pay your last respects to the greatest Black American ever. Come and pay your last respect to Malcolm X” “Malcolm X did not die on the 21st of February 1965,” Frank whispered into my ears, “he was simply banished by the CIA to KinNupe.”
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 06:21:39 +0000
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