Freedom fighter Assata Olugbala Shakur (JoAnne Chesimard) died this past Thursday afternoon, Sept. 25, in Havana, Cuba, where she spent the last four decades of her life in exile. Despite FBI manhunts, massive bounties, and numerous Black Panther site raids, Shakur evaded authorities and resurfaced in Cuba in 1984, where Pres. The encounter left fellow revolutionary Zayd Malik Shakur and state trooper Werner Foerster dead. Assata Shakur: An open letter to the media (1998) My name is Assata Shakur, and I am a 20th century escaped slave. Her close confidant and stepfather to her godson (the icon Tupac Shakur), Mulutu Shakur, faced a conviction stemming charges including orchestrating her escape and was also released as an elder in 2023 shortly before his passing.