In Memoriam: Safiya Bukhari

Freedom Fighter Safiya Bukhari Joins the Ancestors

Statement from the NYC Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition

 

Safiya Bukhari at a Pro-Libertad rallyIt is with great sadness and pain that we write to you about the tragic death of our beloved friend, sister, comrade, and revolutionary leader, Safiya Bukhari, the founding Co-Chair of the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition. Safiya passed in the early hours of August 24th. She was 53 years old.

The loss of Safiya is irreparable. A deep-thinking and brilliant sister, a grassroots organizer, a political strategist, and a unifier around principled positions, Safiya was and is irreplaceable, particularly in the movement to free our political prisoners.

Safiya had a long history of revolutionary struggle. Joining the Black Panther Party some time around 1969, when the State did everything it could to destroy the Party, and ultimately succeeded, she later joined the Black Liberation Army. Safiya was devastated by the loss of her comrades in the Black Panther Party and the BLA, as one after another revolutionary was murdered by the police or captured and incarcerated. Ultimately, she, too, spent close to nine years in prison. She managed to make a daring escape from prison though she was captured and locked up again.

When released from her incarceration, Safiya immediately threw herself into political prisoners support work. From the depths of her heart and soul and with her every breath, she dedicated herself to the freedom of the political prisoners, not just those from her own organizations - the BLA and the BPP – but all of the political prisoners. She felt very strongly that we could never build a movement, could never expect people to make the sacrifices that needed to be made in a revolution, if we weren't there to support each other (and each others' families) when we were caught, incarcerated, or died. She followed every appeal, every parole hearing, and all of the prisoners' health conditions.

Safiya founded the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition in NYC in 1992, and established it as a significant force in the movement to free Mumia, as well as in the overall struggle to free political prisoners. By 1998 she, along with others, founded the Jericho Movement to free all political prisoners. She was also a member of the Republic of New Afrika and, at one point, was its Vice-President. In the past decade, Safiya took on Islam as her religion and found great strength in the spirituality it embodied.

We grieve Safiya's loss beyond what we can possibly express in words, extend our profound condolences to her family, and vow to carry on her commitment and work. Rest, dear sister, it is now our job to carry the weight you shouldered for so long. Your exemplary life and spirit will be a shining light for us for decades to come!

Safiya Buhkari, presente!

From: info@freemumia.com, August 27, 2003 – Black August

More:

  • Safiya: Lioness for Liberation, by Mumia Abu-Jamal
  • Tributes from Assata Shakur, Nehanda Abiodun, Sally O'Brien, and Yuri Kochiyama
  • Reminiscence of Safiya Bukhari from the Provisional Government, Republic of New Afrika
  • Defending Kamau Sadiki, Safiya's last project
  • Interview with Safiya (1992)
  • Safiya Bukhari, "Coming of Age: A Black Revolutionary," Notes from a New Afrikan P.O.W. Journal, Book 7 (Spear & Shield Publications, 1979). Reprinted with updates in Joy James, ed., Imprisoned Intellectuals (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).

Page maintained by Jericho Amnesty Movement, SF Bay Area. Updated October 13, 2003