As a general note, it appears from Nanya’s latest Scribd uploads that he is staying at the “Hope Mission” in the Herb Jamieson Centre (
http://www.scribd.com/doc/166858492/Mes ... onton-docx). This facility offers housing and food “to men with little or no resources.”
I think that surprises nobody.
Is this also a basis for a common perspective?
There's a lot of anti-semitism among black supremacist groups but I don't think there's a lot of it with Nanya and the groups he cross polinated with.
Do you think Nanya is trying to take on a leadership role in the remnants of York cult?
Odds of that are zero. Yorks organization was never that large to begin with even though it tried to create the impression it was global and gigantic. In Canada if there are more than 100 adherents I'd be surprised, I do know there's a York affiliated bookstore in Toronto I think, could probably get a sense of how popular it is by seeing how much traffic they get.
Are there remnants to be scavenged up?
Nanya doesn't seem to be targetting York remnants based on what he is selling. The question of succession is really murky because like I said, they didn't think York would be arrested and he never set up a designated #2 man. The notable post York figures are Doosua, who appears to have made a good amount of money on the "donate money to us to help free Dr. York" scheme. Brother Polight who went into "conscious community", a very vague term for natural herbal remedies, sovereign citizen tactics, adverse possession of homes, making money off books and lectures. There's also the semi-official post York church Wu-Nuwaupu.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7uzlGwHaKk
They appear to consist of former members, some family members of York (which is a complex issue given rumors that York fathered hundreds of children), etc. They seem to hold question and answer sessions in the style of York, (their version of church service), and claim to be the ones selling Yorks current doctrine which he disseminates out of Prison through letters. I haven't been able to verify if he is indeed writing the new holy books but the writing style etc is certainly consistent. BTW, there's some followers who deny York is in jail but that's a tangent.
I notice some of what appear to be Nanya's followers refer to him as "Maku", which I take is a leadership title in that community?
Yep, the Yamassee Native American term and Maku term are both taken from York but it seems to be limited to his particular tribe, which as we've noted, consists only of himself, his wife and maybe his mother.
Is he just a lone nut in a tiny pond, a subject of bemusement even for his peers?
That's my professional opinion. I think he was low on the rung back in Georgia while York was not in jail. When York went to jail, Nanya was still a pawn following the people who were orchestrating the paper terrorism and false diplomatic paper schemes and paid the price for it. He used his mothers internet access and mortgage situation to try and get some notoriety etc in Canada but even then he was probably subordinate to Belanger and probably paid him for his services.
Are we seeing genuine religious/philosophical belief or is this simply opportunism
Genuinely believes the shit he says and opportunism simply doesn't apply here. He was always a follower, he clearly never benefited from these schemes, the lien on his mother was, I think, not a way for himself to become personally enriched but a way to prevent a foreclosure.
It sounds like York had quite the hold on his followers. Is Nanya still under that spell?
York doesn't appear to be loyal to York anymore but he believes the stuff York said during the Yamasee Moor period (York later moved past that and is now solidly into UFOlogy). He's still under the effects of the typical zero lack of critical thinking etc that cult members fall into. The fact that he's still loyal to his wife even though it was an arranged marriage and long distance right now kinda shows how messed he still is.
is Nanya coming from a subculture where infringement is a reason to ‘fight back’?
I think within the post York community he was apparently involved with it depends. York framed his in carceration in racial terms, that the reason he was jailed was not for child abuse or racketeering reasons, but rather because he was an African American that was trying to help his fellow man. It was a huge injustice in their eyes in racial terms and on a personal level given that many of them had housing from York on his compound. You can look up the sort of stuff they did during and after the trial, witness tampering, infiltrating jails, threatening to lock up officials, paper terrorism, etc.
The way Nanya seems to be framing this is as part of hundreds of years of white Canadian government oppressing and raping native people like himself. If the question is, is Nanya simply using SC tactics as a way of fighting back rather than simply using SC because he is a true believer, then I think it's more true believer than retribution style activity.
Nanya has engaged in no small amount of ‘paper terrorism’, along the classic Sovereign Citizen lines. But does this go further – has he spent many years in not merely a counter-state but militant community?
I think in general no. He honestly believes his father was killed as part of some larger conspiracy, a delusion clearly related to the mental health issues discussed here. Any militancy he engaged in was in a subordinate / follower position.
Let's use another example to sort of make a better point. I was watching the recent Dean Clifford videos. Now you can clearly tell Clifford speaks with lucidity, in a leadership role, he's doing the influencing not being influenced. As you can see in the "freeloader" video he makes, he has a clearly stated tax avoidance ideology. He adopts a SC position due to a sort of "Ayn Randian" self sufficiency, taxes are theft belief structure.
Nanya is different if you get the point I'm trying to make. He isn't mentally lucid. His SC arguments are a lot more incoherent and fanciful and not backed by a Clifford style financial self interest. It's more of a religious belief for Nanya as opposed to a political position for Clifford.
Should he be viewed as potentially dangerous? Probably not but I'm not qualified to argue either way, seeing the video of his arrest at his home, I think the cops there did it perfectly, the idea of having his picture on the warrant was a good idea and they weren't overly aggressive. I would understand the need for caution however given how easily he becomes angry, particularly on some of the phone calls he uploaded when the person on the phone wasn't open to his sovereign nation thing.
I honestly feel bad for the guy. Your update that he is in fact homeless right now confirms what I suspected. I don't think this is a person who is able to take care of himself. If it were possible to find some rehabilitation program to help him integrate into society, help him find work and housing so he can be self sufficient, I think he would be able to do that with some help and medication. Whether or not programs like that exist in Canada, I don't know.
If I could influence the judge, I would really opt for that venue rather than jail time. There's one particular moment in the video with him and Belanger where he pulls out the fake documents he has and points to a ribbon he had attached to it, and he acts all proud of how pretty the ribbon is. It sort of reminded me of an elementary school kid who was proud of some arts and crafts project he had just completed.