Assata & The Urgency of Political Education

Political education in itself is not enough. One of the many profound reflections of Assata Shakur, a former member of the infamous Black Panther Party, and liberationist who embodied the spirit of marronage.

She was not a terrorist. Terrorism is the centuries long, unaliving of Black life and collective freedoms.

Governments and states are not neutral entities. 

“I believe in living 

I believe in birth 

I believe in the sweat of love 

and in the fire of truth”

- Assata. 

Assata Shakur born 16th July 1947 - 25th September 2025, was a radical activist who out-maneuvered and outlived the USA’s attempt to deem her ‘The Most Wanted Woman’ on the FBI’s Terrorist List and withhold her as a political prisoner. She was imprisoned in 1977, escaped in 1979 and remained in Cuba as a fugitive till her recent passing. 

Her story to me and many others, while complex, remains as one of hope and defiance, grounded in the balance of intellectual and practical application. The cost of radical belief is the opposite of freedom, lest we forget that in order to make a new possibility, parts of the old have to go. In her lifetime, she penned an autobiography - Assata. The book depicts her early life and the events that led up to her fleeing the US, cementing herself and the movement in Black authorship, narrative ownership and the tradition of re-writing dominant distortions of the truth. 

When I first came into her work, I was a twenty (20) year old university student, thirsty for more knowledge around the apparatus of 21st century oppression. Black radical thought and stories written by people of African descent filled my evenings. On concluding her autobiography, the pages were strewn with my reflections in the column, sticky notes and underlines on points that she had made which caught my attention. As my interest in representing students of African descent and student activism grew - in spaces that were so called ‘radical’ but not producing any hope, I was in search of an anchor - one that was unapologetic and critical. 

Political education in any liberation movement is vital. A political education for its members that can sustain and grow the work is even more crucial - it is an investment in the people. As Paolo Freire reminds us, education is a means to critical consciousness and the education of context is more important than the presentation of mere facts. As it was in the BPP, all members united under one goal, and the framework of the BPP’S Ten (10) Point Programme allowed for different outcomes to be achieved. In order for outcomes to resonate internally, a system of ideologies and value systems are required to underpin them - for this is the true marker of the movements strength. For the BPP (Black Panther Party), Assata was convinced this was one of the areas that needed more work - sustained education had no base and relied on stronger members of the party, who had the most responsibility to external things. 

It is something I see a lot in movements where they become fractured, values are attached to individuals, not a vision or a value system, and this becomes a vacuum that dilutes the work over time. Movements are sustained by systems, and systems by the inputting of education. One cannot simply belong to an idea if it doesn't hinge on something larger and identifiable. In my early days of vision setting for The Black Curriculum - a Pan Africanist educational movement - having a clear vision, set of principles and a core focus were the three tenets my advisors kept reinforcing. In hindsight, I appreciated her being candid about the weaknesses of radical movement building because in this work, Black educators and movement builders don't always come into opportunities to have intergenerational and cross-national discussions on what failed and why, and to strengthen our heritage. The more she observed, the more critical she became of the political education program in the party. Confronting this observation is necessary in political spaces, one I contend with in our work and see in adjacent radical spaces - propagating the shiny veneer of radicalism, without the background of working with the next generation, continuous reflection on the use of language, and tightening systems - quickly empties a movement of its contents. 

In a world where politics is co-opted by neoliberal mechanisms, politics softened to slogans and strict word limits for social media, amidst displays of ostentatious self righteous slogans - what are we truly identifying with, when struggles fail to intersect or where the context is sorely missing?

Political education needs to be met with a grounding force. Simply this force, is the context of political history alongside a system that sustains it. Educators we must educate! Movements must employ systems of education and have regular reviews of the education provided - including re-framing language!   

Beyond ideas on re-framing political education, Assata resonates with many of us for leaving behind - for dust, a system that capitalizes on silencing and imprisoning political and critical voices, not only through mass incarceration and tactics of war but through censorship. In context of anti-Black state violence, her spatial embodiment of freedom, softly reminiscent of Maroons across the Black world, situates movement as part of our liberation. If the chance to remove ourselves from heightened surveillance and restrictions pops up, we must take it in line with our heritage- we do not have to remain.

One of my favourite quotes from her autobiography:

‘It has got to be one of the most basic principles of living: always decide who your enemies are for yourself, and never let your enemies choose your enemies for you’. Pg 216.