As Israel’s genocide in Gaza continues, pro-Palestinian activism is being ramped up. Last year, encampments across campuses in some of the most esteemed universities in the US were a major centre of this activism, unleashing new momentum into the global outrage against Israel’s genocidal military actions in the enclave. As 2025 marks the centenary of Malcolm X’s birth, I caught up with activist Momodou Taal again to reflect on his activism and his recent forced departure from the US.

It almost seems like poetic justice that I speak to Taal from the UK during the centenary birthday month of this activist’s hero, Malcolm X. However, much has happened to him since, in light of the tumultuous politics that have gripped the US since Trump became president for the second time. Around this time,  one hundred days of Trump’s second presidential tenure had just passed, with far-ranging negative implications for the global order, as well as at home in the US. Few expected that a fresh wave of pro-Palestinian student activism in the new academic year would be reignited with greater intensity and met with greater violence from law enforcement. But in the wake of the presidential election campaigns, it was clear that the issue of Gaza, and Palestine as a whole, was simply not going to go away. Taal was thrust into worldwide media attention as a result.

The last time that we spoke for the piece ‘From Cairo to Cornell’, he was a student at Cornell University, on a PhD programme in Africana studies. Today, he is finishing off his degree programme from the UK, which he was happy to disclose, after often repeating in many previous interviews that he couldn’t tell people where he was located. I ask him to reveal in one word, the experiences of the last twelve months. He says, ‘unreal.’

Weirdly, people would be mistaken that I look for trouble. I like peace. I say this half-jokingly, but it’s not like I am a virtuous person. Allah has shaped my heart in a particular way so that certain things move me. But if it were up to me, I would be reading my books, eating my good food, and travelling, but I can’t help myself. Because when you are going through something like that, and I haven’t said this to anybody, when I self-deported, I went through the border to Canada, but I remember tweeting because I was safe across the border. I found it was one of the top stories [on Twitter], which was an unreal experience, and everyone was messaging me. I was in hiding for two-and-a-half weeks. It was so surreal because I haven’t changed as a person, but the world’s reaction to me has changed.

The first pro‑Palestine student encampment at Cornell was established on April 25, 2024, when the university’s Coalition for Mutual Liberation (CML) created a “Liberated Zone” of tents. The demonstration occurred a week after the majority of student voters approved a ceasefire and divestment referendum, according to The Cornell Daily Sun. It followed the establishment of encampments at several other institutions, including Harvard and Columbia Universities. In the aftermath of this,  Cornell temporarily suspended Taal.

I left Cairo for the new semester thinking that I was going to go back to Cornell, teach my class, prepare for my exams and get on with my PhD and progress. If you look at the chain of events, you can take it back to October 7. The catalyst for this most recent embattled antagonism with the [US] government was the September 18 protests, when I got suspended.

The September 18 protests Taal is referring to are the disruptions of a career fair by more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters at Cornell University. According to The Ithaca Voice, they were demanding that the university cut trade and professional ties with weapons manufacturers, two of which were represented at the fair at the Statler Hotel on the premises. Taal and three other students were suspended and were made persona non grata for three years.

I was at the protest for five minutes, and I wasn’t violent or did anything like that. And from then on, Cornell was going to be the first university to deport a student effectively. From that moment, the quality of my university experience significantly decreased, because I was banned from campus. It’s a strange irony in that I am protesting apartheid and was subjected to forms of apartheid. They drew up where I could be on campus.

Despite the pressure during this time, his love for teaching hadn’t waned. At this point in the conversation, he oscillates to how his hero, Malcolm X, shaped how he approached his lectures, which made him a standout academic at the university. He says Malcolm was able to break down complex ideas in an accessible way. One class that he brings up is a writing development seminar for freshmen students, called “What is Blackness?”, which expands myopic readings of Blackness to a global lens. Until today, he has had students reach out to him about the impact that class had on them, with some citing that he was their only Black teacher. This sense of transformation is what inspired them to write to the university in his defence.

More than 10,000 people petitioned to demand Taal’s reinstatement following the September 18 protests. The petition was released by the Cornell Collective for Justice in Palestine.

They leveraged my enrollment and my visa against the encampment. Then they had me under some conditions, and I awaited an investigation that never happened. They had said this was my third violation, the first was holding a megaphone, the second one was being involved in the encampments, and the third one was me at the Statler Hotel.  I think Cornell put a target on my back…And when Trump said on the campaign trail that he would find [what he described as] ‘Hamas’ supporters and deport them, I knew my time in the US was coming to an end. I knew if they were coming after international students, I was going to be on the list. But up until the decision I decided to leave, I never put myself first. Hand on heart.

Taal tells me that he was not living at his house in January this year and went “underground” to evade arrest and deportation. This was before Trump entered the White House. But he explains that he felt he faced one of two options: be taken by ICE agents or challenge detention and deportation through preemption. He decided to do the latter, filing a lawsuit in March to prevent the deportation of protesters. It was denied by a judge.

Alhamdulillah, I was not locked up. I don’t think I am too good to be locked up. It was a conversation that I had with my lawyer. I had videos prepared in the event I was locked up. I was expecting a long-drawn battle to end up in the Supreme Court. I didn’t think they would send the FBI and ICE and cancel my visa. And this is before I’ve seen the judge. I didn’t think they would get me for supporting material terrorism,  and that’s not what we anticipated. We thought it was going to be an immigration or freedom of speech case. And they fight so dirty. They attempted to subpoena my social media accounts, which I won against in a lower court.

When we read or learn about the latter part of Malcolm X’s life, we see that he stayed the course, despite the pressures he faced from the Nation of Islam, in particular. I wanted to know what helped Taal to do the same in light of his embattlement with the US government. The experience took a toll on him mentally and physically, but his Islamic faith carried him through.

Malcolm teaches us that your life is not for you. I remember listening to the Quran and Malcolm’s speeches, and the stories of Jonah and the Whale, and I am having conversations with Allah to make it easy for me and to make a way out for me.” People and activists were telling me to leave, even after days of hiding. They’re telling me: “What are you still doing here? What do you have to prove?”

On April 1, Taal posted on X to say that he decided to leave on his own terms, and that he “lost faith that I could walk the streets without being abducted.” CNN reported that US government officials said that his student visa was revoked due to his involvement in “disruptive protests,” disregarding his university’s policies and creating a hostile environment for Jewish students.

Taal says something to me that he hasn’t told any media outlets yet: he abruptly left the US and travelled to Cuba. “Yeah, no one knows that part,” he laughs. “You can publish that. It was dope. I met with activists out there. I met an Afro-Cuban who fought in the Angolan liberation struggle, who told me, ‘Momodou, you are safe out here.’”

He tells me that this was a full-circle moment:

Being in Cuba, it felt so fitting and poetic, because being in America, you never doubt or waver, but sometimes you can ask, “Am I doing the right thing?” But here (in Cuba), you are reminded that there is a global struggle against oppression, and this is the epicentre of it. I met a guy out here who said Palestine is not even a question (of support), and that though Cubans struggle because of the US-led blockade, at least we are free.

Cuba was one of only two non-Muslim countries that voted against the 1947 partition plan for Palestine, while the majority of Latin American countries followed the US position.

In conclusion, I ask Taal about the launch of his book, The Malcolm Effect Revisited;

It feels like divine providence. I’ve made Malcolm my muse, my north star, and there are so many lessons that may become manifest in my life. They say to be careful what you supplicate for. I’ve asked Allah to have the same maqam (station) as Malcolm, and maybe this is why I’m going through what I’m going through.