Assata Shakur, the former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army activist who lived in Cuba for decades after escaping a US prison in 1979, has died, according to her daughter and Cuban officials.
The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Shakur, born Joanne Deborah Chesimard, passed away in Havana on Thursday from “health conditions and advanced age.” Her daughter, Kakuya Shakur, also announced her mother’s death in a Facebook post. She was 78.
Shakur’s case symbolised decades of friction between Washington and Havana. Convicted in New Jersey in 1977 of murdering state trooper Werner Foerster during a traffic stop in 1973, she was given a life sentence. She insisted she had not fired a weapon and that she had her hands raised when shot, reports AP/UNB.
Her imprisonment ended abruptly when Black Liberation Army members staged a dramatic prison break at the Clinton Correctional Facility in November 1979, freeing her by holding two guards hostage and commandeering a van. She resurfaced in Cuba in 1984, where Fidel Castro granted her political asylum.
For US authorities, including President Donald Trump during his first term, Shakur’s presence in Cuba was a long-standing point of contention. The FBI placed her on its “most wanted terrorists” list, while her supporters argued she had been unfairly targeted and prosecuted.
Shakur faced additional charges over robberies and shootings of police, though many were dismissed or ended in acquittal.
Her writings and activism, however, grew more prominent during her years in exile. Lines from her 1988 memoir Assata: An Autobiography became rallying cries decades later: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win,” and “We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
Not everyone mourned her death. New Jersey State Assemblyman Michael Inganamort, who had recently pressed Cuba for her extradition, said “justice was never served” in Foerster’s killing. The state’s police union likewise condemned her, calling her remembered legacy one of “crime and cowardice.”
Shakur remained a divisive figure until her death, hailed by some as a symbol of resistance and denounced by others as a fugitive who evaded accountability.
Shakur was famously close to the family of late rapper Tupac Shakur, who had considered her a godmother. She was celebrated by Black Lives Matter Grassroots, which pledged to “fight in her honour and memory.”
