Assata: An Autobiography

by Assata Shakur

"I love you," my grandmother said. "We don't want you to get used to that place, do you hear? Don't you let yourself get used to it. "

  "No, grandmommy, I won’t."

  Every day out in the street now, i remind myself that Black people in amerika are oppressed. It's necessary that I do that. People get used to anything. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. After a while, people just think oppression is the normal state of things. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.

  THE TRADITION

  Carry it on now.

  Carry it on.

  Carry it on now.

  Carry it on.

  Carry on the tradition.

  There were Black People since the childhood of time

  who carried it on.

  In Ghana and Mali and Timbuktu

  we carried it on.

  Carried on the tradition.

  We hid in the bush

  when the slavemasters came

  holding spears.

  And when the moment was ripe,

  leaped out and lanced the lifeblood

  of would-be masters.

  We carried it on.

  On slave ships,

  hurling ourselves into oceans.

  Slitting the throats of our captors.

  We took their whips.

  And their ships.

  Blood flowed in the Atlantic

  and it wasn't all ours.

  We carried it on.

  Fed Missy arsenic apple pies.

  Stole the axes from the shed.

  Went and chopped off master's head.

  We ran. We fought.

  We organized a railroad.

  An underground.

  We carried it on.

  In newspapers. In meetings.

  In arguments and streetfights.

  We carried it on.

  In tales told to children.

  In chants and cantatas.

  In poems and blues songs

  and saxophone screams,

  We carried it on.

  In classrooms. In churches.

  In courtrooms. In prisons.

  We carried it on.

  On soapboxes and picket lines.

  Welfare lines, unemployment lines.

  Our lives on the line,

  We carried it on.

  In sit-ins and pray-ins

  And march-ins and die-ins,

  We carried it on.

  On cold Missouri midnights

  Pitting shotguns against lynch mobs.

  On burning Brooklyn streets.

  Pitting rocks against rifles,

  We carried it on.

  Against water hoses and bulldogs.

  Against nightsticks and bullets.

  Against tanks and tear gas.

  Needles and nooses.

  Bombs and birth control.

  We carried it on.

  In Selma and San Juan.

  Mozambique. Mississippi.

  In Brazil and in Boston,

  We carried it on.

  Through the lies and the sell-outs.

  The mistakes and the madness.

  Through pain and hunger and frustration,

  We carried it on.

  Carried on the tradition.

  Carried a strong tradition.

  Carried a proud tradition.

  Carried a Black tradition.

  Carry it on.

  Pass it down to the children.

  Pass it down.

  Carry it on.

  Carry it on now.

  Carry it on

  TO FREEDOM!

  Postscript

  Freedom. I couldn't believe that it had really happened, that the nightmare was over, that finally the dream had come true. I was elated. Ecstatic. But i was completely disoriented. Everything was the same, yet everything was different. All of my reactions were super-intense. I submerged myself in patterns and textures, sucking in smells and sounds as if each day was my last. I felt like a voyeur. I forced myself not to stare at the people whose conversations i strained to over hear.

  Suddenly, i was flooded with the horrors of prison and every disgusting experience that somehow i had been able to minimize while inside. I had developed the ability to be patient, calculating, and completely self-controlled. For the most part, i had been incapable of crying. I felt rigid, as though chunks of steel and concrete had worked themselves into my body. I was cold. I strained to touch my softness. I was afraid that prison had made me ugly.

  My comrades helped a lot. They were so beautiful, natural, and healthy. I loved them for their kind ness to me. It had been years since i had communicated with anyone intensely, and i talked to them almost compulsively. They were like medicine, helping me to ease back into myself again.

  But i had changed, and in so many ways. I was no longer the wide-eyed, romantic young revolutionary who believed the revolution was just around the corner. I still appreciated energetic idealism, but i had long ago become convinced that revolution was a science. Generalities were no longer enough for me. Like my comrades, I believed that a higher level of political sophistication was necessary and that unity in the Black community had to become a priority. We could never afford to forget the lessons we had learned from COINTELPRO. As far as i was concerned, building a sense of national consciousness was one of the most important tasks that lay ahead of us. I couldn't see how we could seriously struggle without having a strong sense of collectivity, without being responsible for each other and to each other.

  It was also clear to me that without a truly internationalist component nationalism was reactionary. There was nothing revolutionary about nationalism by itself-Hitler and Mussolini were nationalists. Any community seriously concerned with its own freedom has to be concerned about other peoples' freedom as well. The victory of oppressed people anywhere in the world is a victory for Black people. Each time one of imperialism's tentacles is cut off we are closer to liberation. The struggle in South Africa is the most important battle of the century for Black people. The defeat of apartheid in South Africa will bring Africans all over the planet closer to liberation. Imperialism is an international system of exploitation, and, we, as revolutionaries, need to be internationalists to defeat it.

  Havana. Lazy sun against blue-green ocean. A beautiful city of narrow, spider-web streets on one side of town and broad, tree-lined avenues on the other. Houses with peeling paint and vintage u.s. cars from the 40s and 50s.

  It's a busy place, full of buses, people hurrying, kids in wine or gold-colored uniforms walking leisurely down the streets swing ing book bags. The first thing that hit me were the open doors. Everywhere you go doors are open wide. You see people inside their homes talking, working, or watching television. I was amazed to find that you could actually walk down the streets at night alone.

  Old people strolling slowly, carrying shopping bags, stop to ask, "Que hay? Que hay en la mercada?" "What are they selling in the market?" Without a moment's hesitation they yell at kids to get out of the street. They stand with their hands on their hips, acting like they own the place. I guess they do. They're not afraid.

  "Es mentira." my neighbors exclaim. "It's a lie." Que mentirosa tu eres." "What a liar you are." My neighbors ask me what the u.s. is like, and they accuse me of lying when i tell them about the hunger and cold and people sleeping in the streets. They refuse to believe me. How can that be in such a rich country? I tell them about drug addicts and child prostitutes, about crime in the streets. They accuse me of exaggerating: "We know capitalism is not a good system, but you don't have to exaggerate. Are there really twelve-year-old drug addicts?"

  Even though they know about racism and the ku klux klan, about unemployment, such things are unreal to them. Cuba is a country of hope. Their reality is so different. I'm amazed at how much Cubans have accomplished in so short a time since the Revolution. There are new buildings everywhere-schools, apart ment houses, clinics, hospitals, and day care centers. They
are not like the skyscrapers going up in midtown Manhattan. There are no exclusive condominiums or luxury office buildings. The new buildings are for the people.

  Medical care, dental care, and hospital visits are free. Schools at all educational levels are free. Rent is no more than about ten percent of salaries. There are no taxes-no income, city, federal, or state taxes. It is so strange to pay the price actually listed on products without any tax added. Movies, plays, concerts, and sports events all cost one or two pesos at the most. Museums are free.

  On Saturdays and Sundays the streets are packed with people dressed up and ready to hang out. I was amazed to discover that such a small island has such a rich cultural life and is so lively, particularly when the u.s. press gives just the opposite picture.

  I'm being introduced at a party. The hostess tells me that the man is from El Salvador. I hold out my hand to shake his. A few seconds too late, i realize he is missing an arm. He asks me what country i come from. I'm so upset and ashamed i'm almost shaking. "Yo soy de los estados unidos, pero no soy yankee," i tell him. A friend of mine had taught me that phrase. Every time someone asked me where i was from i cringed. I hated to tell people i was from the u.s. I would have preferred to say i was New Afrikan, except that hardly anyone would have understood what that meant. When i read about death squads in El Salvador or the bombing of hospitals in Nicaragua, i felt like screaming.

  Too many people in the u.s. support death and destruction without being aware of it. They indirectly support the killing of people without ever having to look at the corpses. But in Cuba i could see the results of u.s. foreign policy: torture victims on crutches who came from other countries to Cuba for treatment, including Namibian children who had survived massacres, and evidence of the vicious aggression the u.s. government had committed against Cuba, including sabotage, and numerous assassination attempts against Fidel. I wondered how all those people in the states who tried to sound tough, saying that the u.s. should go in here, bomb there, take over this, attack that, would feel if they knew that they were indirectly responsible for babies being burned to death. I wondered how they would feel if they were forced to take moral responsibility for that. It sometimes seems that people in the states are so accustomed to watching death on "Eyewitness News," watching people starve to death in Africa, being tortured to death in Latin America or shot down on Asian streets, that, somehow, for them, people across the ocean-people "up there" or "down there" or "over there"-are not real.

  One of the first questions on the minds of Blacks from the states when they come to Cuba is whether or not racism exists. I was certainly no exception. I had read a little about the history of Black people in Cuba and knew that it was very different from the history of Black people in the states. Cuban racism had not been as violent or as institutionalized as u.s. racism, and the tradition of the two races, Blacks and whites, fighting together for liberation first from colonization and later from dictatorship-was much stronger in Cuba. Cuba's first war for independence began in 1868 when Carlos Manuel De-Cespedes freed his slaves and encouraged them to join the army in the fight against Spain. One of the most important figures in that war was Antonio Maceo, a Black man, who was the chief military strategist. Blacks played a crucial role in Cuba's labor movement in the 1950s. Jesus Menendez and Lazaro Peiia led two key unions. And i knew that Blacks like Juan Almeda, now Commandante of the Revolution, had played a significant role in the revolutionary struggle to overthrow Batista. But i was most interested in learning what had happened to Blacks after the triumph of the Revolution.

  I spent my first weeks in Havana walking and watching. No where did I find a segregated neighborhood, but several people told me that where i was living had been all white before the Revolution. Just from casual observation it was obvious that race relations in Cuba were different from what they were in the u.s. Blacks and whites could be seen together everywhere-in cars, walking down streets. Kids of all races played together. It was definitely different. Whenever i met someone who spoke English i asked their opinion about the race situation.

  "Racism is illegal in Cuba," i was told. Many shook their heads and said, "Aqui no hay racismo." "There is no racism here." Although i heard the same response from everyone i remained skeptical and suspicious. I couldn't believe it was possible to eliminate hundreds of years of racism just like that, in twenty-five years or so. To me, revolutions were not magical, and no magic wand could be waved to create changes overnight. I'd come to see revolution as a process. I eventually became convinced that the Cuban government was completely committed to eliminating all forms of racism. There were no racist institutions, structures, or organizations, and i understood how the Cuban economic system under mined rather than fed racism.

  I had assumed that Blacks would be working within the Revolution to implement the changes and to insure the continuation of the nonracist policies that Fidel and the revolutionary leaders had instituted in every aspect of Cuban life. A Black Cuban friend helped me have a better understanding. He told me that Cubans took their African heritage for granted. That for hundreds of years Cubans had danced to African rhythms, performed traditional rituals, and worshipped Gods like Shango and Ogun. He told me that Fidel, in a speech, had told the people, "We are all Afro Cubans, from the very lightest to the very darkest."

  I told him that i thought it was the duty of Africans everywhere on this planet to struggle to reverse the historical patterns created by slavery and imperialism. Although he agreed with me, he quickly informed me that he didn't think of himself as an African. "Yo soy Cubano." "I am Cuban." And it was obvious he was very proud of being Cuban. He told me a story about a white Cuban who had volunteered twice to fight in Angola. He had received awards for heroism. "His case is not at all common in Cuba, but there are some who have problems adjusting to change."

  "What was his problem?" I asked. "When the guy came home he caused a big scandal with his family. His daughter wanted to marry a Black man and he opposed the marriage. He said he wanted his grandchildren to look like him. It was a big argument, and his whole family got into it. This guy was so mixed up he went crazy when his daughter called him a racist. He wanted to fight everybody. He was out in the street, crying and kicking lamp posts. He didn't know what to do. All the time he was in Angola fighting against racism, he never thought about his own racism."

  I agreed with him that whites fighting against racism had to fight on two levels, against institutionalized racism and against their own racist ideas. "What happened to the man?" i asked.

  "Well, his daughter got married anyway, and his family convinced him to go to the wedding. Now, he baby-sits for his grand children, and he says he's crazy about them, but the guy is still not right in the head. Every time I see him, he's apologetic. I told him I don't want his apologies. Let him apologize to his daughter and her husband. As long as he supports the Revolution, I don't care what he thinks. I care more about what he does. If he really supports the Revolution, then he's gonna change. And, even if he never changes, his kids are going to change And his grandchildren will change even more. That's what I care about."

  The whole race question in Cuba was even more confusing to me because all the categories of race were different. In the first place, most white Cubans wouldn't even be considered white in the u.s. They'd be considered Latinos. I was shocked to learn that a lot of Cubans who looked Black to me didn't consider themselves Black. They called themselves mulattoes, colorados, jabaos, and a whole bunch of other names. It seemed to me that anyone who wasn't jet black was considered a mulatto. The first time someone called me a "mulatta," i was so insulted that if i had been able to express myself in Spanish, we would have had a heated argument right there on the spot.

  "Yo no soy una mulatta. Yo soy una mujer negra, y orgullosa soy una mujer negra," i would tell people as soon as I learned a little Spanish. "I'm not a mulatto, but a Black woman, and I'm proud to be Black." Some people understood where i was coming from, but others thought i was too hung u
p on the race question. To them, "mulatto" was just a color, like red, green, or blue. But, to me, it represented a historical relationship. All of my associations with the word "mulatto" were negative. it represented slavery, slave owners raping Black women. It represented a privileged caste, educated in European values and culture. In some Caribbean countries, it represented the middle level of a hierarchical, three-caste system-the caste that acted as a buffer class between the white rulers and the Black masses.

  I found it impossible to separate the word from its history. It reminded me of a saying i had heard repeatedly since childhood: "If you're white, you'r right. If you're brown, stick around. And, if you're black, get back." I realized that in order to really understand the situation i had to study Cuban history thoroughly. But, some how, i felt that the mulatto thing hindered Cubans from dealing with some of the negative ideas left over from slavery.

  The Black pride movement had been very important in helping Black people in the u.s. and in other English-speaking countries to view their African heritage in a positive light. I had never heard of any equivalent movement around mulatto pride and i couldn't imagine what the basis for it would be. To me, it was extremely important for all the descendants of Africans everywhere on this planet to struggle to reverse the political, economic, psychological, and social patterns created by slavery and imperialism.

  The problem of racism takes on so many forms and displays so many subtleties. It is a complicated problem that will require much analysis and much struggle to resolve. Although, in some ways, Cubans and I approached the problem from different angles, i felt we shared the same goal: the abolition of racism all over the world. I respected the Cuban government, not only for adopting nonracist principles, but for struggling to put those principles into practice.

  I held my breath as i waited for my aunt to pick up the phone. It had been five years since i had last spoken to her. Five years since i had been able to contact my family. Hopefully, she hadn't changed her number. A click. And then, at last, i heard her voice. I was so happy.

  "Anty," i almost shouted. "It's me. Assata."

  “Who?"