Assata Shakur, exiled black liberation activist in Cuba dies at 78

Assata Shakur, an activist of the black liberation army exiled in Cuba for four decades, died in Havana, at the age of 78.

Shakur, also known as Joanne CHESIMARD, died on Thursday of unpertified health conditions and “advanced age”, the Cuba Foreign Ministry of the Foreign Affairs said on Friday.

She was on the list of the most sought after terrorists in the FBI for years after having escaped in 1979 from a feminine prison in New Jersey, where she was serving a perpetuity sentence after her condemnation for murder during a shooting who killed a soldier of the New Jersey State and another activist.

Shakur maintained her innocence and reappeared in Cuba in 1984 where she obtained asylum by former president Fidel Castro.

Shakur was born Joanne Deborah Byron in July 1947 in New York and was raised between the city and Wilmington, in North Carolina. She was there and the godmother of the late rapper Tupac Shakur.

She got involved in political activism for black Americans during her stay in college, first with the Black Panther Party, a group that favored radical resistance to racism in the United States and developed schools and other social services for blacks.

The movement was strongly monitored by the FBI, which considered it a threat to the United States. Shakur also joined the most radical black liberation army whose members consisted of former black panthers.

Shakur traveled with other activists in 1973 when their car was arrested by New Jersey officers. A shooting followed who killed the state soldier Werner Foerster and his other activist Zayd Malik Shakur. Assata Shakur was also injured during the shooting.

She was arrested and tried for the death of Foerster, but she denied having shot her and said that her trial before a completely white jury was unfair.

She told NBC News in an interview from 1998 filmed in Havana that she had escaped because she was afraid for her life and that she “would never receive justice” in the United States.

His exile in Cuba was among the many thorny problems between the island led by the Communists and the United States.

Shakur was the first woman to be added to the FBI’s most sought -after terrorists. The agency and the New Jersey each offered a reward of $ 1 million for information leading to its arrest.

She was celebrated in music with her name presented in songs including the 1998 song “Rebel without break” by the public enemy hip hop group and “A song for Assata“By the common rapper.

Shakur is survived by his daughter Kakuya Shakur, who wrote on Facebook: “Words cannot describe the depth of the loss that I feel right now.”