Qwusu Yaki Yakubu (aka James Sayles) was an extraordinary human
being and a committed revolutionary. He was born on May 29, 1947, and went to dance with theancestors on March 28, 2008, at age 60. He spent almost 40 years, on and off,in prison. James Sayles went in as a brilliant but uneducated youth. Yakiemerged in 2004 as one of the leading revolutionary thinkers in the U.S.
When prisoners rebelled in 1978 against the barbaric conditions at Pontiac Prison incentral Illinois, Yaki was in Stateville Prison. About 50 prisoners at Pontiacwere indicted for participating in the rebellion and 17 of them, all Black,were charged with murder and thus faced the death penalty.
The case became one of the largest death penalty cases in the history of the U.S. Yakibecame the strategic leader of the effort to defend the Pontiac Brothers,working from inside his cell at Stateville prison. The trial went on for yearsand became a cause that was picked up around the country and the world.
A major victory was achieved when the jury did not find even one of the PontiacBrothers guilty of the death penalty charge. After spending millions ofdollars, the state could not get even one conviction. The “not guilty” verdictswere stimulated in large part by the Black people on the jury.
Yaki was a C-number prisoner. These are people whowere convicted of crimes many, many years ago, at a time when there weredraconian sentencing laws. They grow old and die in prison regardless of theiractivities or behavior inside. The parole board then decides whether or not torelease that individual.
For years and years, almost no C-number prisoners werereleased – only about 1 percent a year – while others who had been convicted ofthe same crimes in later years were set free. Yaki, along with David Saxner andothers on the outside, launched a campaign to free all C-number prisoners.
Yaki himself was finally released on April 1, 2004. Uponhis release he continued to struggle as part of the Committee to Free C-NumberPrisoners. Indeed, the rate at which they were released did accelerate althoughthere are still too many who remain incarcerated.
Yaki also held a full time position at the John HowardAssociation, a Chicago-based prison watch dog organization. He alsoparticipated in the campaign to free Indiana death row political prisoner ZoloAzania.
Yaki was the founding editor of several journals: Vita Wa Watu: A New AfrikanTheoretical Journal; Crossroad: A New Afrikan Captured Combatants Newsletter;and Notes from a New Afrikan POW Journal, oftenwriting under the pen name Atiba Shanna. He himself drew widely frominternational freedom struggles, particularly those in Algeria, Vietnam, LatinAmerica and most definitively Africa.
In particular, Yaki was influenced by the writings of the African revolutionaryFranz Fanon which dealt with the colonial mentality. He wrote about therelevance of Fanon’s work to the New Afrikan freedom struggle. Yaki studied atgreat length the writings of many revolutionaries. Yaki was fond of quotingAmilcar Cabral, the African revolutionary. One of Cabral’s best-known quoteswas “Tell no lies, claim no easy victories.”
Yaki believed that the freedom of Black people in the U.S. (New Afrikans) could onlycome about by a revolution. He was not at all opposed to small steps that mightbe seen as only reforms but he believed that a revolution was needed to freeBlack people. He hated the condition of Black people in the U.S.
One of Yaki’s favorite quotes was the one by Malcolm X: “Don’t be shocked when Isay I was in prison. You’re still in prison. That’s what America means, prison.”Yaki also believed that if violence was necessary to end the horror of the massincarceration and destruction of Black people by the U.S., then so be it.
Yaki was a nationalist in the spirit of Malcolm X. He stated, “The stand of Malcolm,the stand that We must take up and creatively develop, is the stand of thenation for its independence and of the working class for social revolution.”
Yaki was also an internationalist. He felt connected to all oppressed peoples whostruggled to control their own land and more equitably distribute their ownresources. A quick review of the journals he edited reveals articles reflectingthe struggles in South Africa, Namibia, Cuba, Brazil, Vietnam, Puerto Rico,Haiti, Italy and more.
Yaki, from within his prison cell, removed from the direct influence of women,struggled to understand the condition of women, and particularly Black women inthe U.S. The publications printed articles such as “Notes on the Link BetweenOppression of New Afrikan Women and the New Afrikan National LiberationRevolution” and advertised Black women’s organizations around the US.
Yaki sought out and printed articles by Margaret Burroughs, Assata Shakur, SafiyaBukhari, Aminata Umoja and others. He did not want to repeat the practice ofother movements where, “once in power, they failed to fulfill the promises madeto women in the course of struggle” (Vita Wa Watu, Book 9, Page 3). At a timewhen many nationalists were resistant to accepting gay liberation, Yakiunderstood that homophobia needed to be defeated as part of the struggle of thehuman family.
The journals reflect a myriad of struggles that were taking place across thecountry around police brutality, control unit prisons, grand juries, policespying. Often there were articles about the fight to free political prisoners,many of whom were given voice through the journals – Sundiata Acoli, Assata Shakur,Jalil Abdul Muntaqim, Mutulu Shakur and many others. The journal kept theplight of Ruchell Magee alive. Yaki had the greatest respect for, and waschagrined by, the continued imprisonment of Marilyn Buck, who has spent most ofher life behind bars, punished by the government for her close association withthe Black liberation movement.
In Yaki’s final months he was lovingly cared for by his wife, Acreeba Mohammad. Amemorial service was held on April 4 and produced an outpouring of love,admiration and respect from a broad range of people who love Yaki. Stepping upto the open mike were a number of ex-prisoners, some who came from far awaybecause Yaki had been so important to them.
Some described how their lives had been turned around by encountering Yaki in prisonand participating in the study groups that Yaki initiated. Others were PontiacBrothers whose lives were saved through the effort to free the PontiacBrothers. Still others were C-number prisoners who had gained their releasefrom prison due in no small part to the efforts of Yaki.
Acreeba said he was her knight in shining armor. She described how when she was youngand had difficulty herself with the law, Yaki took care of her kids, changedtheir diapers and fed them until she could be there again.
Among many others who spoke that day were representatives from the Puerto RicanIndependence Movement, including Jose Lopez from the Puerto Rican CulturalCenter, who spoke about Yaki’s internationalism and reiterated that Yakiunderstood that nationalism and internationalism must go hand in hand. Alsopresent were ex-political prisoners Alicia Rodriguez and Luis Rosa.
As one speaker said towards the end: “We love you, Yaki. We love you for being ahusband, a father, a friend and a great human being with a smile that we sawfar too rarely. And we love you for being a revolutionary.” His passing leavesa Yaki-sized hole in the universe.
Nancy Kurshan can be reached at
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