In the midst of the fervor bubbling within the school by the faithful, I like most were blinded by the feet of them that were showing us the light, I would never have thought that dealings of iniquity or wrong doing could ever have taken place among these men with whom I had held in great esteem.
Before one could become a reader in camp for any of the experienced teachers though, one had to be proficient in knowing the book through and through as to where each book of the bible was, so that when called upon the teacher didn't lose his flow or train of thought upon the podium.
Each camp built their own stands/podiums, versions of the original soapbox oratories. It was through the constant study of scriptures that The Most High opened my eyes to the book of Ecclesiastes. Now none of us were perfect, and as each man has a flaw somewhere or other we all knew that.
We also took pride that the vast majority of our members were men from the other side of the tracks, most were not goody two shoes, but knew of police oppression, some did time, some went jail, in fact some brothers often got locked up from fisticuffs happening at the camp and with the police when they came to snatch our speaking equipment and generators. If you've ever been incarcerated by the devil, you know the damned bread taste's like it was baked in 1914. Again, some brothers sought to be super righteous to the point of almost being fanatical that Ya-I-Qab brought out the scripture in Ecclesiastes chap 7:16-17.
"Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: Why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy Time?" Thus he made it clear that while we cannot help but break a commandment here or there, one should not beat up one's self but attempt to keep a balance.
Then I discovered chapter 3: 16 of the same book. "And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgement, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness that iniquity was there". I was about to put a brake on my unbridled enthusiasm and take stock of my surroundings.
In the year and a half which I served in Ah-Ba-Ya Ma-Lak's camp we had moved from the front of Mickey D's to the next block in front of the state building. After he broke out from the school's leadership he formed his own camp taking some other brothers with him. After building a size-able following, he had his men equipped with axe handles, which made them formidable looking.
He then moved his camp to be about thirty yards away from the book-school (Ba-yath Sa-par) and began making antagonistic remarks aimed at Ah-Ra-Yah and the school in general whenever any of the brothers walked by.
He had always had the nasty habit of shifting from whatever he was teaching to screaming at whoever walked by him displaying something that offended him. This constant badgering got on Ah-Ra-Yah's nerve one day and just before the camps went out after Sabbath service Ah-Ra-Yah stepped to Ah-Ba-Ya Ma-Lak, by himself. Word spread through the school like a quick wildfire that Ahrayah was throwing down with Ahbaya Malak and brothers swarmed like bees out the school to Abaya Malak's camp.
As regular people began to melt away in fear thinking they were abut to witness some great upheaval the top brothers in our school held most of the rank and file of us lower ranked brothers back. As for me myself being ticked off at Ah-Ba-Ya Ma-Lak for what he did with Ya-Dai-Ya Ah-La I picked up one of them bricks from around the trees and was about to hurl it at Ah-Ba-Ya Ma-Lak when a brother called Ash (Fire) grabbed my hand stopping me, shook his head in a no don't do that brother nod and before you knew it the scuffle was over and everybody went back to the school.
Ahbaya Malak's camp never did any more of their antagonistic remark throwing ways after that. It was shortly after that that I ran into Horace, a brother that attended Kingston College with me back home and we had both hanged out also in McGregor Gully. he asked me what was I doing in that alms house and I looked at him strangely, as I as far as I knew was doing the right thing, as these brothers were doing the right thing.
In one council meeting Ah-Ra-Yah was getting on brothers to branch out in getting the word out to the nation of Israel. He was berating some brothers most of who were in council were officers and when he suggested that some of us were timid in going forth to open new zones I stood and said why not send me or give me the opportunity.
It must have taken him aback as he didn't expect that, even though he agreed. It was shortly after that that I got promoted to the rank of General (one shield). Cats like Ya-ha-Nah and Ya-Shar-Wan were like 5 shield Generals.
In the midst of this I must now refer to another man of the tribe of Benjamin, the first Ma-Ya-Ka Ah-La. This dude was the ultimate con artist. There was a new brother that had come into the school by the name of Ma-Lak -Ya Ram (High or exalted king). Mike soon found out the dude had an excellent credit rating and supplanting the dude, bought a new Lincoln Continental town car off of the dude, claimed he was going to Jamaica to open a business, when in fact all he did was to go there, palaver for a few weeks, and come back claiming the business went bust, putting the dude in world of debt.
Then one day Ya-I Qab announced to the school that a branch of the Illuminati, the Rosicrucian's, had stopped by the school in an attempt to buy out brothers, but that he had sent them packing. Most of us had felt good about that, but here was the kick me in the ass sign that I did not pick upon, Qa-I -Qab had mentioned that at the time it was just he and Ya-SHai-Ya that were in the building when it happened.
Now there were rumors, I had no personal knowledge of it, but the self styled high Priest was selling get high with some other cats, some of whom had a fish selling eatery on Amsterdam Ave and they had disappeared. Still in a humble daze, alarm bells still didn't ring when after an incident on Ya-Shai-Ya's block both Ta-Har and Ban-Ah-Yah got shot, non- fatally. Ya-Shai-Ya had lived on 130th St, Shar lived on 126th St around the corner and Ah-Ra-Yah lived with his father Qa-I Qab around the corner from the school on 5th Ave. During this time La-Hab had also asked me to write about Rastafarians as I was from that world. I agreed to and wrote a booklet size pamphlet
Brothers sold it everywhere at their camps, and needless to say I never got a dime from the proceeds, not that I was monetary minded at the time. As I said before most brothers has had some form of criminal back ground but we were all striving for or towards being righteous in Yah's eyes. Hebrews chap 5:1-2, "For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; For that he himself also is compassed with infirmity".
Though we were all studying to become High Priests, let's not get this twisted, this was not talking about Ya-Shai-Ya, as arrogant and money hungry and compassion-less as he was. Ya-Shai-Ya was now driving the latest Infinity when the car first burst on the scene, first a green one and then a new white one.
He also brought a gangster dude from the streets with him called Cephas, it was rumored the dude used to move with or had ties to the black murder incorporated. During this tumultuous time Ya-Shar-Wan had pimped enough funds from the Brooklyn crew that he brought a brand new jeep Cherokee, and Ya-Shai-Ya had the nerve to tell the congregation that Ya-Shar-Wan was worthy of it.
This dude used to say that even drug dealers would be up in the chariots when the chariots came. to pick up those of Israel that The Most High was coming to save. Thermo-Nuclear war is inevitable and nobody on the planet might survive once all the nations with these devices let them loose. The only hope mankind has is divine intervention by the black holy angelic forces of Yah.
Ya-Ha-Nah too began to pimp out the men in his camp. He in fact was responsible for half the men in his camp leaving the nation and work of the Lord in disgust, for his not doing right by his men, milking every last dollar from out of their hands instead of sharing the wealth.
He's now his own force in Philly and still got his nose stuck up the chief high thief Ya-lie-ya's behind. Then there is another dude named Ha-Ra Gad-Ya, he got so many brothers in chicanry his name got changed to How I got ya.
It was during these times that suddenly monies began to come into the school from an unknown source, I should have known that Ya-Shai-Ya had went behind Ya-I-Qab's back and like Gehazi servant of Elisha took the Illuminatti's money to break up the school, as we were showing too much growth and unity back then.
Unlike most other officers like Ta-za-Pa-Wan (Mr North) and Ah-Ra-Yah Lab that were sucking up to Ya-Shai-Ya and La-Hab, I was aloof. I had bugged Ahrayah for about a month to set me free to open my own camp, and I was already promoted. Before I forget, while I was in Ya-Ha-Nah's 34th St camp, I also used to get on his nerves even before my promotion.
One Sabbath he had given me instructions on the workings of the camp's camera, and I think I didn't quit follow his instructions to the letter, he calmly came over and told me he hoped that when and if I ever had my own camp that all the members would be like me, then I would see what headaches I gave to to him and others, hmm, ha ha ha, I laugh now but he was so prophetic in saying so.
When I got the green light to open my own camp I was given Sha-Ka-Ya and Chaa-kam as my two top men and officers in the camp. Chaa-kam was a Ya-Shai-Ya wannabe, and I guess he was disgruntled that I had become a general before him.
Even when I was a reader at the 44th st Camp, I was not as loud as 'Boom Box" who fell off, but I read as loud and clearly as I possible could and a lot of brothers liked when they had me to read for them as I was not slouchy in getting the scriptures for them, even when they changed topic in midstream and requested different scriptures from the original they'd ask for, in fact some times I had the scripture they wanted from the moment they began a topic.
Often when I was reading for a brother and Ya-Shai-ya came up to teach, after reading one or two scriptures for him Chaa-Kam would bogart his way up by taking the bible from me to read for Shai-ya. He outranked me with seniority back then, so shrugging that off, hey, let him have his way.
It must have really burned him that I was the camp leader and that he was under me because this dude made sure that he would always come to camp late and just refused to try to work with me. I had opened up the camp at Fordham Road and the corner of Decatur Ave, and we were not far from the sears building at the corner of Webster Ave.
I personally paid out of my own pockets the fees to the P.D. for speaking permits and the right to operate a sound device. By this time the membership of my camp was beginning to grow. I was always sociable with all brothers irregardless of their ranks, and as I had told Shar in a personal conversation every man put his pants on one leg at a time, and no man has six balls to the next man's two.
Plus I was never snotty to any brother, if I did, I can honestly say that I don't recall that. It was also around this time that when the mysterious monies started to roll in, and I mean plastic garbage bags filled with cash, that La-Hab began to soup me up, and even had me counting up some of the loot. he soon began to get disgruntled with me as I never got affrighted and tried to ask for any of it or sucked up to him in expectation of any like some other brothers did.
Pretty soon the dude was fighting against me by saying musical chairs were coming down the pike when he set up a central committee. Needless to say him being one of the heads there was no way I could prevent him or any of the others from doing their nefarious deeds. There was a Black sister that used to attend La-Hab's class by the name of Judith {Ya-Ha-Wa-Dath} and often he would take umbrage at anything she said in his class. Soon she was walking around bugged out of her mind, and I was still yet see the evils done in the place of righteousness.
One day during service while standing on the podium with Ya-Shar-Wan, Ah-Ra-Yah, La-Hab and another leader, we were saying the Lords Prayer in Hebrew [Matt 6;9] when I felt like another voice than mine was beginning to enter into me and I quickly stopped, regrouped myself and wondered if I was attacked spiritually by one of these men. At my home I had some silver coins and the spirit of Yah told me to lay them out in the formation of the six pointed shield of David.
To be Continued.
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