28 Facts About Kuwasi Balagoon

Kuwasi Balagoon, born Donald Weems, was an American political activist, anarchist and member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army.

Kuwasi Balagoon was initially part of the Panther 21 case, in which 21 Black Panthers were accused of planning to bomb several locations in New York City.

In 1981 Kuwasi Balagoon was amongst the several BLA, May 19 Communist Organization and Weather Underground members involved in the 1981 Brink's robbery, which resulted in the deaths of two police officers and one security guard.

Kuwasi Balagoon was born Donald Weems in the majority Black community of Lakeland in Prince George's County, Maryland on December 22,1946.

Kuwasi Balagoon returned home to the United States and settled in New York City where his sister Dianne now lived.

Amalgamating all these influences, Kuwasi Balagoon came to believe that the only means to achieve "Black Liberation" was through "protracted guerilla warfare".

Kuwasi Balagoon had first become aware of the BPP following the arrest of Huey Newton following a shoot out with local police in Oakland, California in October 1967.

Kuwasi Balagoon quickly joined the chapter, citing the Panthers' adoption of Maoism as a motivating factor.

Kuwasi Balagoon was arrested in New Jersey in February 1969 and charged with bank robbery.

Kuwasi Balagoon was indicted on 2 April 1969, along with 20 other Panther leaders and organizers, on conspiracy charges; the 21 defendants became known as the Panther 21.

Kuwasi Balagoon was being held in Queens with Lumumba Shakur and fellow Panther 21 defendant Kwando Kinshasa where, during the rioting, seven hostages were taken.

However, Kuwasi Balagoon ultimately felt that the prisoners allowed the Black Panthers to make the decisions, and began disengaging from meetings.

The prisons were later retaken, and while Kuwasi Balagoon was disappointed with the outcome, he was evidently pleased with the experience, expressing the belief that the riots demonstrated ordinary people could overcome the power of the state.

Meanwhile, in October 1971, Kuwasi Balagoon pled guilty to the charge that he attempted to shoot police officers during the Jersey robbery and he was sentenced to a term of between 23 and 29 years.

Kuwasi Balagoon was particularly disappointed by the expulsion from the party of former Army ranger Geronimo Pratt, who was thrown out of the party after his arrest in December 1970 for the 1968 murder of Caroline Olsen.

Kuwasi Balagoon came to believe the Black Panther Party had stopped being a party concerned with the daily struggle of Black people in America and instead one totally focused on defending its membership in court trials against the state.

On September 27,1973, Kuwasi Balagoon escaped imprisonment and went "underground" himself.

Kuwasi Balagoon remained so for approximately eight months until he was re-arrested following an attempt by Balagoon to take Richard Harris on the run as Harris was on temporary leave from prison to attend a funeral.

Kuwasi Balagoon began to affiliate with the Republic of New Afrika, a group that advocated African-Americans identifying as "New Afrikans" and seeking a Black nation-state within North America.

From this point onwards Kuwasi Balagoon identified as a "New Afrikan Anarchist".

Kuwasi Balagoon escaped from Rahway State Prison in New Jersey and went underground on May 27,1978, this time going on the run with the Black Liberation Army.

Kuwasi Balagoon was joined by the likes of Sekou Odinga who had returned from Africa.

On November 2,1979, Kuwasi Balagoon was amongst members of the BLA, with assistance from the May 19 Communist Organization, who broke Assata Shakur out of Clinton Correctional Facility for Women.

In January 1982, Kuwasi Balagoon was captured and charged with participating, along with other members of the BLA, M19CO, and the Weather Underground, in the October 20,1981 robbery of a Brink's armored truck in West Nyack, New York.

In July 1983, Kuwasi Balagoon was placed on trial alongside David Gilbert and Judith Alice Clark, white accomplices who had helped during the robbery.

Kuwasi Balagoon was convicted of murder and other charges and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Kuwasi Balagoon died in prison of pneumocystis pneumonia, an AIDS-related illness, on December 13,1986, aged 39.

Kuwasi Balagoon authored several texts while in prison, writings that have become influential among Black and other anarchists since first being published and distributed by anarchist prisoner support networks in the 1980s and 1990s.