Shaka Sankofa remembered

On 6th anniversary of his execution
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.