Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1997, page 100
always trying to sneak in), and were taught that America is the most vile and wicked nation
on earth (p. 30). They were being trained to rule the world, believing that all people of color
are good, and Blacks the very best.
When Tate was 9 years old, Elijah Muhammad died his son took over the leadership of the
Nation and instituted many changes. For one, the Muslim schools closed, causing Tate to go
to public schools. For the first time, she was around White people and people of different
faiths, and for the first time, some of her ideas were being challenged. As a teenager, Tate
began to question the Nation‟s sexism and hypocrisy she began to pull away from some of
the teachings. She resented how differently her brother was treated. She began to see how
unhappy the women were and witnessed her own mother begin to question the Nation‟s
teachings and lean toward Orthodox Islam, which much of the rest of her family followed.
One of her aunts, for example, describes her time in the Nation as her “coffin years” (p.
183).
Throughout, Tate writes with the freshness of the child she was, bewildered by so many
things she had to accept as fact and truth. She looks back and examines the ideas and
people that shaped her with the perspective of an adult who has removed herself from a
controlling environment. She writes with great fondness and honesty about various family
members and their individual searches for truth and spirituality.
While the publisher classifies this book as African-American Studies, and for some people it
might describe an “interesting” time in American Black history, I find it a more important
study of one child‟s experience growing up in a high-control group. Although Tate never
says outright, “I grew up in a cult,” she certainly implies it and at one point calls the Nation
a “militant, cultlike institution” (p. 104). Yet, she never analyzes the experience in a greater
context, leaving a reader familiar with cults somewhat frustrated.
Kathy Klein
Former cult member
Berkeley, California
Make Believe: A True Story. Diana Athill. Steerforth Press, South Royalton, VT,
1993, 130 pages.
Athill writes of an American Black militant who calls himself Hakim Jamal. As a boy, he knew
Malcolm X and became a convert to Islam in his twenties after Malcolm X helped him to kick
alcohol and heroin. At one time a Black Panther, by the age of 20 Hakim was in prison for
attempted murder. His “chief credential” was his part in founding the Malcolm X Montessori
School in Los Angeles as a memorial (although he neglected to mention to people that the
school collapsed soon after it opened). Hakim was invited to London by people who thought
he was doing interesting work organizing progressive schools for ghetto children. It was
1969, and fashionable to be around young, attractive, American Black activists. Athill‟s
British publishing firm was going to publish Hakim‟s book, which was to focus on Malcolm
X‟s teachings and his impact on Hakim. (Later, Athill states that the publisher didn‟t hope to
sell more than 2,000 copies of the book in England.)
Athill became friendly with Hakim she admits she was predisposed to Black men, and that
she was fascinated by him because he came from such a different background. She, in fact,
studies him like a cultural experience. Hakim drew in women everywhere with his charm:
reportedly, he had a wife in the States, a liaison with Jean Seberg (an American movie
star), and other girlfriends. Athill finds Hakim‟s political agenda boring and rhetorical she‟s
really more interested in his autobiographical account. She paints a picture of him as a
neglected child, in love with his light-skinned mother. Hakim was the most dark-skinned
child in his family and always equated his blackness with ugliness, so that in later life, says
Athill, he was always looking for forgiveness for his blackness. Athill was drawn to the hurt
always trying to sneak in), and were taught that America is the most vile and wicked nation
on earth (p. 30). They were being trained to rule the world, believing that all people of color
are good, and Blacks the very best.
When Tate was 9 years old, Elijah Muhammad died his son took over the leadership of the
Nation and instituted many changes. For one, the Muslim schools closed, causing Tate to go
to public schools. For the first time, she was around White people and people of different
faiths, and for the first time, some of her ideas were being challenged. As a teenager, Tate
began to question the Nation‟s sexism and hypocrisy she began to pull away from some of
the teachings. She resented how differently her brother was treated. She began to see how
unhappy the women were and witnessed her own mother begin to question the Nation‟s
teachings and lean toward Orthodox Islam, which much of the rest of her family followed.
One of her aunts, for example, describes her time in the Nation as her “coffin years” (p.
183).
Throughout, Tate writes with the freshness of the child she was, bewildered by so many
things she had to accept as fact and truth. She looks back and examines the ideas and
people that shaped her with the perspective of an adult who has removed herself from a
controlling environment. She writes with great fondness and honesty about various family
members and their individual searches for truth and spirituality.
While the publisher classifies this book as African-American Studies, and for some people it
might describe an “interesting” time in American Black history, I find it a more important
study of one child‟s experience growing up in a high-control group. Although Tate never
says outright, “I grew up in a cult,” she certainly implies it and at one point calls the Nation
a “militant, cultlike institution” (p. 104). Yet, she never analyzes the experience in a greater
context, leaving a reader familiar with cults somewhat frustrated.
Kathy Klein
Former cult member
Berkeley, California
Make Believe: A True Story. Diana Athill. Steerforth Press, South Royalton, VT,
1993, 130 pages.
Athill writes of an American Black militant who calls himself Hakim Jamal. As a boy, he knew
Malcolm X and became a convert to Islam in his twenties after Malcolm X helped him to kick
alcohol and heroin. At one time a Black Panther, by the age of 20 Hakim was in prison for
attempted murder. His “chief credential” was his part in founding the Malcolm X Montessori
School in Los Angeles as a memorial (although he neglected to mention to people that the
school collapsed soon after it opened). Hakim was invited to London by people who thought
he was doing interesting work organizing progressive schools for ghetto children. It was
1969, and fashionable to be around young, attractive, American Black activists. Athill‟s
British publishing firm was going to publish Hakim‟s book, which was to focus on Malcolm
X‟s teachings and his impact on Hakim. (Later, Athill states that the publisher didn‟t hope to
sell more than 2,000 copies of the book in England.)
Athill became friendly with Hakim she admits she was predisposed to Black men, and that
she was fascinated by him because he came from such a different background. She, in fact,
studies him like a cultural experience. Hakim drew in women everywhere with his charm:
reportedly, he had a wife in the States, a liaison with Jean Seberg (an American movie
star), and other girlfriends. Athill finds Hakim‟s political agenda boring and rhetorical she‟s
really more interested in his autobiographical account. She paints a picture of him as a
neglected child, in love with his light-skinned mother. Hakim was the most dark-skinned
child in his family and always equated his blackness with ugliness, so that in later life, says
Athill, he was always looking for forgiveness for his blackness. Athill was drawn to the hurt
