Assata Shakur, godmother to rapper Tupac Shakur, has died in Cuba at the age of 78 💔🕊️
That’s very sad news. The reports say:
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Assata Shakur died on September 25, 2025, in Havana, Cuba, at age 78. Wikipedia+5Reuters+5AP News+5
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The Cuban Foreign Ministry attributed her death to health conditions and advanced age. Wikipedia+3AP News+3The Guardian+3
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She was born JoAnne Deborah Byron (later also known as Joanne Chesimard) on July 16, 1947. The Washington Post+3Wikipedia+3The Guardian+3
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She had been living in exile in Cuba since her escape from a U.S. prison in 1979, and was granted political asylum there in 1984. BlackPast.org+3AP News+3The Washington Post+3
Her life was deeply controversial and symbolic: some saw her as a freedom fighter and icon of Black resistance, others as a fugitive convicted of serious crimes. Her decades-long asylum in Cuba and her place on the FBI’s Most Wanted list made her case one of the most politically charged of the last half-century. EL PAÍS English+5Reuters+5AP News+5
If you like, I can share more about her legacy, what people are saying in reaction, or how her passing could impact U.S.–Cuba relations.
