Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1997, page 99
differences between the two sexes are acknowledged, along with the concept of equality.
Such groups often have a dual or androgynous godhead. Sex unity entails the notion of
letting go of sex identification to release power and reach infinite potential. In this category
are groups that often devalue the body and believe in a sort of rebirthing or even gender
change. These three categories at times seemed overlapping, but are perhaps a useful
means of trying to make sense out of some unusual practices. As a woman and former cult
member, I couldn‟t help but wonder about a fourth category: that is, sexual exploitation and
abuse. But in reading this book it became evident that what many of us (women, feminists,
former cult members, or cult-watchers) might regard as a sexist and exploitative milieu
kept in place by social and psychosexual control mechanisms, Palmer regards as exciting
new concepts of gender and sexuality that allow women to redefine their traditional social
roles through “playful and gratifying” reinterpretations of their sexual roles. As far as I‟m
concerned, no, thank you.
Palmer proposes that some women‟s involvement in NRMs and spiritual groups is merely a
creative approach to “facilitate the difficult metamorphosis from girlhood to womanhood.”
While in these groups, women can experiment, find empowerment and clear-cut roles, and
get away from either the confines or mixed messages of the dominant culture. Eventually,
most members reject the authority of the group, Palmer tells us, and they interpret the
experience as one of intensive self-reconstruction. She reassures us that these former
devotees are not “cult escapees” who “warrant the pity and attentions of „exit counselors.‟”
Yet, apparently without realizing it, throughout the book, Palmer describes group
requirements, rituals, and patterns of learned behavior that some might consider quite
startling in their suppression and repression of the individual female member. Ultimately, I
suppose we can thank Palmer for giving us more ammunition in the academic (and
sociocultural) battle between those of us who believe that such groups are potentially
harmful (both to women and to men) and those who line up with the cult apologists. Moon
Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers is a fast-paced, well-written, and nerve-wracking
book with a wealth of information and a particular point of view --I recommend it.
Janja Lalich
Community Resources on Influence &Control
Alameda, California
Little X: Growing Up in the Nation of Islam. Sonsyrea Tate. Harper San
Francisco, San Francisco, 1997, 230 pages.
Sonsyrea Tate, an award-winning journalist, chronicles her childhood growing up in the
Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam was very active in the 1960s and 1970s in America and
brought us such familiar figures as Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali. Although Tate doesn‟t
seem to be in the circuit of informed ex-cult members, she nonetheless details the various
aspects of the group in her narration, where one can quite easily identify Robert Lifton‟s
eight criteria for thought reform.
Tate‟s account begins in 1969, when she is 3 years old and already at school, mouthing
words she doesn‟t understand. She describes the separate schools the children attended,
and the indoctrination techniques. School was all memorization, where no questions were
allowed the teachers ruled by fear and were strict disciplinarians. Followers were taught
that lack of discipline was one of the problems with their downtrodden race. (From Tate‟s
description, they had no idea of the gains that Black Americans were making during the
same era.)
Tate‟s book also becomes an interesting account of reverse racism. Elijah Muhammad, the
Nation‟s self-appointed prophet, taught that White men are the enemy and the devil.
Followers had to submit to body searches before Temple services (because the devil was

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