Five Percenters

The Nation of Gods and Earths is a movement founded in Harlem in 1964 by Allah (Clarence 13X), who had studied with the Nation of Islam before parting from it. Members, called Five Percenters, teach that the Black man is god and the Black woman is the Earth, and they emphasize self-knowledge, community education, and mastery of a set of core lessons. Many adherents consider it a culture and a way of life rather than an organized religion, and there is no single central clergy governing all who identify with it.

The tradition centers on three bodies of material that the U-God library lists: the Supreme Mathematics, the Supreme Alphabet, and the 120 Lessons (sometimes called the 120 Degrees). The Supreme Mathematics and Supreme Alphabet assign meanings to numbers and letters used to interpret reality, while the 120 Lessons are a catechism-style question-and-answer set adapted from earlier Nation of Islam lesson material. These sources are studied, memorized, and discussed rather than treated as a single printed scripture, and the materials can be explored in the U-God library.

The name comes from a teaching, drawn from Nation of Islam lesson material, that divides humanity into three groups: eighty-five percent described as the uninformed masses, ten percent described as those who know the truth but use it to mislead, and five percent described as the poor righteous teachers who know the truth and work to free and educate others. Members identify with that five percent and see teaching self-knowledge as central to their purpose. The label is a shorthand that members and outsiders both use, alongside the fuller name Nation of Gods and Earths.

The founder, Allah (Clarence 13X), was a member of the Nation of Islam's Temple Number Seven in Harlem before he left and began teaching independently in the early 1960s. Because of that origin, the two share vocabulary, some lesson material, and certain concepts, but the Nation of Gods and Earths developed distinct teachings, is not organized around the same institutions, and does not regard itself as a branch under Nation of Islam leadership. Scholars generally describe it as an offshoot influenced by the Nation of Islam rather than a part of it.

Views differ, including among members. Many Five Percenters describe the tradition as a culture, science, or way of life built on self-knowledge rather than as a religion in the conventional sense, while outside observers and some scholars classify it within the study of new religious movements. There is no single governing authority, so interpretation of the lessons and practice varies from person to person and from community to community. The movement has also had a notable influence on hip-hop culture, which is one way many people first encounter its terminology.