Havana, September 27
Assata Shakur, a Black American liberation activist who was given political asylum in Cuba, has died at the age of 78 after more than 40 years in exile, her family and Cuban officials said.
Assata, whose slave name was Joanne Deborah Chesimard, died on Thursday “due to health conditions and advanced age,” according to a statement issued by the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday.
Her daughter, Kakuya Shakur, also confirmed her death in a Facebook post. “Words cannot describe the depth of loss that I am feeling at this time,” she wrote.
The former Black Liberation Army (BLA) member, who was a symbol of resistance for many activists in the United States and around the world, escaped from a U.S. prison in 1979. She went to Cuba in 1984 and was granted political asylum.
Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro was offered millions of dollars for her return to the U.S., but Fidel stood up to Washington and insisted that she would always have Cuba’s protection.
In her autobiography titled “Assata,” published in 1988, she wrote:
It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.
After her death was announced on Friday, Black Lives Matter Grassroots Inc, a group of U.S. racial justice activists, paid tribute to her in a statement on Instagram. “May our work be righteous and brave as we fight in her honor and memory.”
[SOURCE: VARIOUS NEWS AGENCIES]
