On 6th anniversary of his execution
Shaka Sankofa remembered
By
Gloria Rubac
Houston
Published Jun 30, 2006 6:43 AM
The Houston chapter of the
National Black United Front held its annual Shaka and Assata Community Work-In
on June 22, to commemorate the life and contributions of Shaka Sankofa and to
remember the dozens and dozens of political prisoners locked away in prisons
around the United States.
The Houston chair of NBUF, Brother Kofi Taharka,
began the work-in by reading the last words of Sankofa, an innocent Black man
who was executed by the state of Texas on June 22, 2000, after a long struggle
to win his freedom.
“I’m an innocent Black man that is being
murdered. This is a lynching that is happening in America tonight…. Keep
moving forward, my brothers. Slavery couldn’t stop us. The lynching
couldn’t stop us in the South. This lynching will not stop us tonight. We
will go forward.
“Our destiny in this country is freedom and
liberation. We will gain our freedom and liberation by any means necessary. By
any means necessary, we keep marching forward,” said Sankofa as he lay
strapped to the gurney awaiting his murder.
Taharka also read a moving
tribute to Sankofa by death row prison activist Howard Guidry. Guidry, another
innocent Black man, recently had his death sentence overturned by the federal
courts and is in the county jail in Houston awaiting a retrial on July
17.
Njeri Shakur, organizer for the Texas Death Penalty Abolition
Movement, spoke of Sankofa’s courage and leadership on death row. She
encouraged everyone to remember his words: “The odds and dangers we face
in the struggle are great, but even greater is the power of the
people.”
Prince Imari Obadele, a former New Afrikan Independence
Movement political prisoner, also spoke. From firsthand experience, he told of
the hardships faced by political prisoners in the United States, of the
loneliness of being locked away for decades and hoping that those in the
struggle have not forgotten you. He spoke of his father, a founder of the
Republic of New Africa, and of members of the RNA, the Black Liberation Army and
the Black Panthers whom he grew up knowing. Obadele reminded the crowd of the
impor tance of writing to and supporting the political prisoners in the United
States.
Around 50 letters to various political prisoners were circulated
and signed, including ones to Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier. A special
focus of the letter writing was on political prisoner Jalil Muntaqim, aka
Anthony Bottoms, who the NBUF corresponds with. Muntaqim is up for parole in
July
See www.thejerichomovement.com for more information.
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