Edward Louis “E.L.” Moore

A Black experimental musician, composer, vocalist, and leader of Mansa, a 13-person psychedelic funk-soul band based out of Oakland.

E.L. Moore is affiliated with the Black Panther Party, though less closely in 1973 than he was back in 1968-1969, during which time he was a protégé to Raymond Hewitt. COINTELPRO twice approached Moore in an attempt to cultivate him as a confidential informant. Both times they were rebuffed.

Moore began an informal collaboration with the German-born artist Sebastian Keiner in 1972; the latter designed the album art for Mansa’s third album, Mirrored Sky, as well as for Ikenga, their most recent album, which was released in March 1973. Whether through Keiner or some other source, Moore became dimly aware that History A is fungible, commenting in at least one interview that he considers “this history” to be “a lie.”

URIEL eventually learned that much of Moore's life had been engineered by an Illuminated agent of History B named Zeb who taught Moore how to play music and inspired him to think radically about alternatives to the stultifying kyriarchy of History A. Had that plan come to fruition, Moore’s Ikenga block party would have led to violence, sparking an irruption and the manifestation of the Oakland kusarikku.

URIEL managed to neuter Moore through a combination of memes designed by Archie, psychological manipulation by Roger, the abduction and “re-education” of Zeb, and physical sabotage of the Mansa block party in Oakland. Moore is now on the rise to mainstream prominence, but mostly as a solo act. He is held largely in disdain by the Black community as a sellout. His magic seems to be gone.