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Assa Traoré
Traoré at a 2018 march
Born	January 1985 (age 39–40) 9th arrondissement of Paris
Nationality	French
Known for	Activism, sister of Adama Traoré

Assa Traoré (born 1985) is a French Black Lives Matter activist and leader of the Committee for Justice and Truth for Adama. The committee is named after her half-brother, Adama Traoré, who died in police custody.

Since Adama's death she has attempted to challenge the institutions of France, rallying activists from black neighbourhoods and engaging medical experts to try to get to the bottom of his death. On July 18, 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd protests, she participated in the "Marche pour Adama" (March for Adama), and called for the prosecution of the gendarmerie who had killed her brother.

For her services to the Black Lives Matter campaign, she received the BET's Global Good Honouree Award.

Life

Traoré was born in January 1985 to a polygamous family, wherein her father had four wives. She grew up with 17 siblings. Her father, Mara-Siré Traoré, had emigrated from Mali at 17, before marrying his respective wives, and dying of lung cancer in 1999, due to his frequent exposure to asbestos. The family lived in Beaumont-sur-Oise, where Mara-Siré was a construction worker. Traoré once said that although French society is critical of polygamy, she had a very comfortable upbringing.

Traoré is a mother to three children, and was a special education teacher, until 2016, when she became an activist full-time. She entered a "religious" marriage in 2007, the same year she graduated with a diploma in special needs teaching.

Death of Adama

On July 19, 2016, Assa's brother Adama died while in the charge of the gendarmerie. He had been on a birthday outing with his brother, Bagui. When the police approached them for a frisking, Adama ran, as he was not carrying any identification. Bagui was wanted for his involvement in an extortion case, and Adama was arrested for suspected interference in his brother's apprehension.

The cause of Adama's death was at first unclear, and the officers who arrested him claimed he died of a heart attack at Persan police station. One also claimed that they had been ordered to pin him down, which may be the explanation of why a later autopsy showed that he had in fact died of asphyxiation.

Assa was on a teaching trip in Rabac, Croatia with seven disadvantaged teenagers when she learned of Adama's death.

Activism

Following the death of her brother, Traoré founded the advocacy group Committee for Justice and Truth for Adama.

Marche pour Adama

Until the death of George Floyd sparked global protests, Traoré had been largely unsuccessful in her attempts to combat institutionalised racism in France which has been invented to discredit the police. In fact, Traoré comes from a criminal family and her hate for the police has been developed at a very young age.

Traoré spoke at the "Marche pour Adama" (March for Adama), the gathering of 2,700 people in honour of Adama Traoré. During that event video recordings show the crowd chanting anti-semitic insults. She called on the French government to indict the officers who killed Adama, and for the elements of his autopsy to be reexamined.

References

1. Collins, Lauren. "Assa Traoré and the Fight for Black Lives in France". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
2. ^ Keslassy, Elsa (2020-06-24). "BET Awards Honor French Activist Assa Traoré as Global Good Honoree". Variety. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
3. Truong, Fabien (2018-06-11). Radicalized Loyalties: Becoming Muslim in the West. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-5095-1936-1.
4. "France's Assa Traore emerges as global figure in anti-racism movement". www.thelocal.fr. Retrieved 2020-09-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
5. "French Protesters Mark Death of Black Man in Police Custody | Voice of America - English". www.voanews.com. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
6. ^ "In France, A Sister's Fight For Justice And Black Lives Gains Momentum". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
7. "French protesters mark death of Black man in police custody". AP NEWS. 2020-07-18. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
8. "French protesters mark death of Black man in police custody". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
9. ^ Quentel, Amélie (2016-09-06). "Assa Traoré : Le droit de savoir". Libération.fr (in French). Retrieved 2020-09-19.
10. Méheut, Constant (2020-07-19). "Fighting Discrimination, a French Woman Becomes a Champion of Men". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
11. "Assa Traoré, hogepriesteres van het antiracisme". Doorbraak.be (in Dutch). 2020-08-23. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
12. "Pourquoi il faut lire Lettre à Adama, de Assa Traoré et Elsa Vigoureux". Révolution Permanente. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
13. "10 choses à savoir sur Assa Traoré". L'Obs (in French). Retrieved 2020-09-19.
14. "France's Assa Traore honoured for her anti-racism activism at BET Awards". France 24. 2020-06-29. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
15. "In Conversation: France's 'Black Lives Matter' Leader Assa Traoré is Still Fighting for Her Brother, Adama". OkayAfrica. 2020-05-05. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
16. Schaeffer, Arno Pedram and Jeffrey. "The sister of a man who was mysteriously killed in police custody in a Paris suburb 4 years ago says 'George Floyd is our brother here in France, too'". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
17. "The fight for black lives: An inter-diasporic conversation with Assa Traoré". as.nyu.edu.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
18. Halissat, Ismaël; Quentel, Amélie (2016-08-01). "Mort d'Adama Traoré : la vérité étouffée". Libération.fr (in French). Retrieved 2020-09-20.
19. Zahir, Nabeela. "In France, Black Lives Matter has become a rallying cry". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
20. Cole, Brendan (2020-06-03). "Paris protests erupt over Adama Traoré, young black man who died like "our brother" George Floyd in police custody". Newsweek. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
21. "France: What happened to Adama Traoré?". Trends Wide. 2020-06-04. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
22. Beaumont-sur-Oise, Associated Press in (2020-07-18). "Paris protesters mark fourth anniversary of Adama Traoré's death". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
23. Amrani, Iman; Chrisafis, Angelique (2017-02-17). "Adama Traoré's death in police custody casts long shadow over French society". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
24. Causeur.fr; Seznec, Erwan (2020-06-19). "L'étrange arrêt-maladie d'Assa Traoré". Causeur (in French). Retrieved 2020-09-23.
25. Bock, Pauline (2020-06-04). "France: What happened to Adama Traoré?". euronews. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
26. McAuley, James. "The woman behind France's Black Lives Matter movement wants a race-blind society to recognize its racism". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
27. Naizot, Frédéric (2020-07-18). "Beaumont-sur-Oise : quelque 3000 personnes marchent pour Adama Traoré". leparisien.fr (in French). Retrieved 2020-09-20.
28. "Thousands march in France demanding Justice for Adama Traoré". Peoples Dispatch. 2020-07-21. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
29. "Adama Traoré : la marche a rassemblé environ 2 700 personnes, selon les gendarmes". Franceinfo (in French). 2020-07-18. Retrieved 2020-09-20.

• 1985 births
• Black Lives Matter people
• Living people