We of the Re-Build Collective would like to express our sincere condolences to the family, friends, and comrads of Comrad Sanyika Shakur.
The news of your passing sent shockwaves of sorrow and grief through and beyond the New Afrikan Nationalist community.
Comrad Sanyika became a member of the Spear and Shield collective in the 1980s after being introduced to the writings of New Afrikan Communist and theorist Atiba Shanna (Comrad Yaki).
As a member of the Spear and Shield Collective, Comrad Sanyika contributed significantly to the development and propagation of New Afrikan Communist thought, both inside and outside of the enemy’s prison camps. Though best known outside of the movement for his best selling autobiography, Sanyika was also a contributing writer to Crossroad: A New Afrikan Captured Combatant Newsletter, which was put out by Spear and Shield Publications and was a forerunner to the New Afrikan Nationalist periodical Re-Build!
Over the decades since becoming an active participant in the movement, he carried on correspondence with New Afrikan Nationalist activists and organizations throughout the empire, and fiercely defended the New Afrikan Independence Movement, against the slanders and the opportunism of those who, while coopting New Afrikan nationalist language, advanced arguments that would liquidate the struggle for land and independence.
He was never afraid of exposing ideological contradictions and confronting incorrect ideas head on. He was a champion of the pursuit of ideological clarity and the advancement of the correct political line. And though he could sometimes be more antagonistic in presenting an argument than We sometimes felt was necessary, the substance of his argument was always solid.
We encourage those who have become familiar with our Comrad from his autobiography, but are unfamiliar with his New Afrikan Independence Movement writings to take the time to get to know Sanyika Shakur the New Afrikan Communist. It is as a New Afrikan Communist that he made his greatest contribution to our Nation and it is as a New Afrikan Communist and Soldier that he would most like to be remembered.
The tragic passing of Comrad Sanyika reminds us of the urgency of taking the steps necessary to create a movement with the capacity to fulfill the mandate bequeathed to us by the founders of New Afrikan Independence Movement in 1968. We must Free the Land. We must liquidate american rule over our nation, before american rule liquidates us.
Though you are no longer walking among us, long shall your memory live on within us, long shall your writings continue to inspire, and long may those of us who you leave behind persist in the struggle to liberate our Nation from the grip of the Americans.
In your memory, We rededicate ourselves to the call put forward by Comrad Atiba Shanna to Re-Build to Win!
The Struggle is still for land and Independence and will remain so until freedom is achieved.
Free the Land! By any Means Necessary