Nehanda Isoke Abiodun (born Cheri Dalton in 1950) is an American political activist and fugitive from justice, currently living in Cuba. The United States government has linked Abiodun to Assata Shakur's escape from prison, and she is also wanted for a string of robberies. Abiodun was active in the New African independence struggle in the U.S. and considered herself a citizen of the Republic of New Afrika. She lives in Cuba, and is linked to the Cuban hip-hop music scene.
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Born Cheri Dalton in New York City in 1950,[1] Abiodun began her activist work as a child. At the age of ten, she worked as a tenant organizer. Abiodun graduated from Columbia University in New York in 1969.
She later worked with the National Black Human Rights Coalition, and later to help heal addicts at the Black Acupuncture Association of North America with Dr. Mutulu Shakur.[2] She was later sued for malpractice, and a warrant was put out for her arrest.
Abiodun is among those linked by U.S. authorities to Assata Shakur's 1979 escape from prison. She is also wanted for a string of robberies, including the robbing of a Brink's truck in New York in 1983.
She has lived in Cuba since about 1990.
In her new home in Havana, she provides informal sessions about African-American history, poetry, and world politics [3] to up and coming Cuban hip-hop artists such as Yosmel Sarrias and Maigel Entenza Jaramillo who make up the group Anónimo consejo.
She states "rap music is...the voice of protest...[with which] we can educate and organize around the world. It puts a whole different light on the word globalization...Wherever you go...in the world, from New Zealand to Timbuktu, there are rappers. Wherever you go! And once you step out of the U.S., a large part of that global community of hip hoppers are progressive. Seriously, because most of it comes from the indigenous people of that particular place”.[4]