Political activist Sekou Odinga passed away on Friday, 12th January.
The community was notified by his wife, Dequi Kioni Sadiki, educator and WBAI radio host and producer of “Where We Live.”
The Queens-raised husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather was 79 years old.
At 8 am on Sunday, 14th January 2024, bracing bone-chilling winds and icy temperatures, folk traveled from as far as Ghana to Philadelphia for the Bed Stuy Janazah (funeral service), at Masjid al-Taqwa, on the corner of Bedford Avenue and Fulton Street.

Within two days of his transition, people came out to the masjid and traveled to Ferncliff Cemetery to honor the internationally known radical, grassroots advocate. Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid presided over the services. The repast was held at Dequi and Sekou’s Fort Greene home. Packed with family, decades-long friends, comrades, and fellow activists, it was an emotional celebration of life. Journeying from Accra, Ghana, Dhoruba bin Wahad joined the likes of Philadelphia’s Pam Africa and Razakhan Shaheed and NYC locals Jamal Joseph, Sundiata Acoli, Inez Barron, Collete Pean, and City Councilman Yusef Salaam.

A member of Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity, a founding member of the Harlem/Bronx chapter of the Black Panther Party, and the Black Liberation Army, and a member of the New York Panther 21; Sekou Odinga was arrested in 1981. After 33 years of incarceration on RICO charges, and a continuous grassroots campaign to free the “political prisoner,” he was released in November 2014. Upon his return, he founded the Northeast Political Prisoners Coalition, and worked to help release Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Jalil Muntaqim, Sundiata, and Acoli Herman Bell.