As if her precious life and freedom were a game of poker, the FBI upped the ante or bounty on [Assata Shakur] to $1 million two weeks ago. In a television address last Tuesday, Cuban leader Fidel Castro rejected calls to hand over Shakur, stating that she was not a terrorist but a victim of racial persecution. "They wanted to portray her as a terrorist, something that was an injustice, a brutality, an infamous lie," Castro said in his televised speech, while never mentioning Shakur's name. "They have always been hunting her, searching for her because of the fact that there was an accident in which a policeman died."
Ever since [Assata Shakur] (nee Joanne Chesimard) became a member of the Black Panther Party and subsequently a member of the Black Liberation Army, she has been involved in revolutionary activities to change the racist policies of America. She found herself in the crosshairs of the criminal justice system in the early 1970s after she and her comrades were stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike by New Jersey State Troopers. Assata was traveling with Zayd Shakur and Sundiata Acoli in May 1973 when they were stopped, the troopers said, because of a faulty tail light on their car. Shortly after the stop, a shootout occurred. "There were lights and sirens," Shakur recalled in her autobiography. "Zayd was dead. My mind knew that Zayd was dead. The air was like cold glass, my mouth tasted like blood and dirt. Suddenly the [car] door flew open and I felt myself being dragged out onto the pavement. Pushed and punched, a foot upside my head, a kick in the stomach. Police were everywhere. One had a gun to my head," she wrote.
The political awareness of Afro Cubans remains exclusively tied to the Revolution. "And [Fidel Castro] is the one sustaining the Revolution: the reason Cuba is so strong is because of Fidel," said a prominent U.S.-based Afro Latino journalist who preferred not to be named. "After Fidel, the Cubans in Miami will simply pounce on the island," this journalist contends. "They have connections in Cuba; they have their people in place in Cuba already. When they take over they're going to be opening up the political arena to the U.S. again. Cuba has ostensibly been "independent" since Dec. 10, 1898, following decades of fighting between the nation's independence army, the Cuba Libre, and Spain. By 1898, the war was between Spain and the United States, but Cubans had declared their independence as early as Oct. 10, 1868. At that time, they'd also called for the island to end its enslavement of Black people, but emancipation from slavery was not made law until Oct. 7, 1886.
"As the largest umbrella organization for Black communities throughout Central America and the Caribbean, ONECA has brought people together," said Arthur Samuels, the Costa Rican-based ONECA secretary of education. "We're organized so that we can have more force in each of our countries." The Guatemalan-born Mario Gerardo Ellington, ONECA's legal representative, said that the one thing Black Central Americans have come to realize is that identifying themselves by the nations they reside in can be pointless. "We didn't seek out these different nations to live in," he pointed out. "We only live in these places because this is where, eventually, our cultures were able to settle."
In his farewell address as outgoing Caucus chair, U.S. Representative Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to serve as chairman during the 108th Congress and praised [Melvin L. Watt]'s intellect, skill, and balanced approach to solving today's public policy challenges. The new officers of the CBC for the 109th Congress are: Watt, chair; U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, 1st vice chair; U.S. Rep. Carolyn C. Kilpatrick, 2nd vice chair; U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis, secretary; and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, whip. "We have to have dialogue, and we're trying to create opportunities for that dialogue to take place," said Watt, who admitted that it's hard sometimes for the CBC to take aggressive positions in the areas of trade because of differing views among its own constituents. "We have not been aggressive in the area of trade, advocating one trade policy over another, as we have on some of the more core issues."
The fundraiser night titled "Brazil Comes to Harlem" will feature "live performances from NYC's hottest Afro-Brazilian dancers, musicians and capoeristas!" [Lorelei Williams] said. "It should be a lot of fun and interesting as well." The New York-born Williams, who has a twin sister, admitted that her humongous task of founding and helping to coordinate POMPA activities across the sea and here has been exhausting but very rewarding. "We launched POMPA in 2004."
