Assata Shakur: The revolutionary is gone, but the struggle lives on

Assata Shakur, the world’s most famous Black fugitive revolutionary, passed away this past week in Cuba. Shakur, perhaps more than even the Black Panthers, was through her life able to keep the collective Black imagination alive and hopeful for the future, even under increasingly oppressive conditions. Her death in Cuba as a free woman stands testament to the fact that with a little grit and determination, and a whole lot of solidarity, we all might be able to outwit the system that is out to crush us.

Even so, it was not all roses with the life of Assata, and her struggles several decades ago speak to current struggles globally. Like so many today, Assata was branded a terrorist and most wanted fugitive for daring to defend herself, and later on daring to escape the shackles of oppression. By allegedly shooting a State trooper, after a series of bank robberies, Shakur became an enemy of the State, even though multiple trials would find her not guilty of the crimes she was accused of.

However, it was her repeated disobedience of the law that made her a target, a fact that she did not deny. Shakur, like Martin Luther King Jr, understood that in circumstances where the law brings no peace, and so many unjust laws are passed, disobedience of the law is justified, and she went on to practice this belief for several years. Ultimately, she used this belief to break out of prison when she was finally convicted of a crime, and ran away to Cuba where she lived peacefully for the rest of her days.

In a world that is filled with respectability and unquestioning obedience in the face of power, the revolutionary actions of Assata can be seen by many as going too far; being too disobedient. Indeed, allegedly shooting an officer of the State, even in a clear case of self-defence, is read as violent disobedience of the law, perhaps even punishable by imprisonment. And yet, our blind disobedience does not lead us to ask too many questions when the State ruthlessly uses its forces to murder. This is seen as being justifiable, and done for the greater good.

This same type of thinking extends to discussions on terrorism. The State will terrorise its people daily, stealing from them, denying them social services, and murdering them through unemployment, lack of education, and starvation. And yet, it is this same State that will brand individuals who dare to speak up against this oppression as terrorists. Kenya has been subject to this over the past few months, with youth standing against bad governance and being murdered.

However, Gaza remains our starkest example in the present. At last week’s High-Level Assembly on the Question of Palestine at the United Nations offices in New York, delegates showed their anger by boycotting President Netanyahu’s address en masse.

Meanwhile, in Occupied Gaza, terrorised Gazans had their phones remotely hijacked and the President’s address forcefully broadcast, obliging these oppressed peoples to have to listen to their greatest oppressor as he spoke untruths on their conditions. Should these oppressed peoples speak up for themselves, as they have done for decades and now continue to do so under the auspices of Hamas, they are branded violent terrorists for refusing to obey unjust laws, just as was done to Assata. It is hard for us to understand these situations as antagonistic and build solidarities across them, even as we are able to lionise Assata and learn from her.

Perhaps the problem of revolutionary solidarity is the trap of nostalgia. Revolutionaries are not made in the present but in the past, often after they are long dead. In fact, if a revolutionary dares to live too long, he ends up becoming the villain to the people he worked so tirelessly for. Several examples exist of this phenomenon, but a juxtaposition of the widespread worship of Che Guevara and the demonisation of his lifelong friend Fidel Castro paints this picture clearest. Guevara, through his short life, was made a public hero for travelling across the Americas, spreading the good news of liberation. Meanwhile, Castro, who stayed in Cuba and did the difficult work of enforcing liberation for decades, became known as one of the worst leaders alive for wanting the best for his people.

Ms Gitahi is an international lawyer