Sekou Odinga Has Joined the Ancestors

Baba Sekou Transitioned on January 12, 2024

Janazah at 8 a.m. on Sunday, January 14, 2024

Masjid At Taqwa, 1266 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11216

Burial at Ferncliff Cemetery, 280 Secor Road, Hartsdale, NY 10530

Sekou Odinga was a globally recognized Black liberation activist, member of Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity, founding member of both the New York City chapter and the International Section of the Black Panther Party, and former US political prisoner who survived 33 years of state captivity before his release in 2014.

Prosecuted as one of the “Panther 21” in New York City, Odinga was a prominent historical figure, having been featured on Democracy Now! and in numerous documentaries, concerts, mass public events, and major news outlets.

In addition to being featured in the widely circulated social movement texts Can’t Jail the Spirit (2002) and Hauling Up the Morning: Writings & Art by Political Prisoners & Prisoners of War in the U.S. (1990), Odinga published his writing in Look for Me in the Whirlwind: From the Panther 21 to 21st-Century Revolutions (PM Press, 2017) and Black Power Afterlives: The Enduring Significance of the Black Panther Party (Haymarket Books, 2020).

A survivor of state torture and the FBI’s notorious Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), Sekou Odinga is both celebrated and admired by freedom and justice movements worldwide, exemplifying persistence, courage, and principled adherence to freedom struggle under the most repressive circumstances imaginable.

Following are two video links:

Interview with Sekou Odinga on Political Prisoners, Police Brutality and the historic and present day genocide of Black, Brown, and Indigenous People: https://vimeo.com/591307099

FRED Talks | Sekou Odinga on Political Prisoners of the United States and Why We Must Free Them: https://youtu.be/yLsZFLnJDr0?si=zcTx024_oQrs5XTC