Khalil Amani
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Khalil Amani, S.A. (b. 1960- nee Lloyd Rodney Clark, African-American, author, essayist, poet, cultural critic, Spiritual Advisor to the Hip Hop Nation, Gay Rights Advocate). Khalil Amani was raised in Miami, Florida, where he graduated from Miami Carol City Senior High School (1978). At the age of nineteen (1980), he became a member of the Nation of Yahweh, a black religious cult that taught that white people were devils, blacks were the original Jews, that his teacher, Yahweh ben Yahweh was the promised messiah, white Jews were impostors and that all preachers were "dumb dogs." His given name, Lloyd R. Clark was changed to Yehudah Israel. As one of Yahweh Ben Yahweh's first followers, Yehudah rose through the ranks to become an Elder and headed the Newark, New Jersey temple (1983-1984). Yehudah and his wife had two children that were born in the sect. For five years Yehudah was a loyal follower of the cult leader, taking part in and having knowledge about heinous crimes committed by the organization. In 1985, Yehudah renounced his cult ties, took back his legal name (Lloyd Clark) and led a rather tumultous life as an exotic dancer, a womanizer and a drug dealer.
In 1986, while attending Miami-Dade Community College, as a member of the New View Dance Theatre, he met a white woman named Kristina Buffaloe, whom he would eventually marry. By 1987 Lloyd had become a "Confidential Informant" for the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) as a result of the harassment he would receive as an ex-member of the cult and the guilt and shame of his participation in criminality. In 1988 Lloyd was featured on the nationally televised talkshow, "West 57th Street" (CBS) about his involvement in the cult. He was dubbed in the media as the "unofficial spokesman" for ex-members in hiding. In 1991 Lloyd was featured in the Miami Herald (Living Section) where he detailed his story about the Yahweh cult. Lloyd lived a relatively quiet life in San Diego while attending Concorde Career College where he received his certification in Phlebotomy and Electrocardiography. He went on to earn an Associate of Arts Degree in English at San Diego Mesa College (1994).
Eventually, Lloyd became the first of 160+ witnesses to testify against Yahweh Ben Yahweh and others. For is testimony, Lloyd Clark entered the Federal Witness Security Program aka "Witsec" where his name was first changed to "Khalil Ashanti" and after his divorce from his wife Kristina, "Khalil Amani."
While in the Federal Witness Protection Program Khalil attended the University of Nebraska at Omaha where he majored in Black Studies and minored in Religion.
Pulitzer Prize winner, Sydney Freedberg details some of Lloyd's story in her book, "Brother Love: murder, money and a messiah" (Pantheon 1994).
Today, Khalil Amani is no longer in the Witness Protection Program and has gone on to author several books, including "Ghetto Religiosity 2000: Third Millennium Liberation," "Ghetto Religiosity II: Uncovering the Naked Truth," "Ghetto Religiosity III: If You Don't Know, Now You Know!" and "Hip-Hop-perations: surgical essays and poems for the ghetto mind." www.iuniverse.com.
