Malik Sekou

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Malik Sekou is a United States Virgin Islands academic and former political candidate. He is a professor and chair of the history, social science, and political science departments at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI). He was Kenneth Mapp’s running mate for lieutenant governor in the 2010 election.

Biography

Early life
Malik Sekou was born on January 8, 1964, in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. He grew up with his family in foster care in Saint Thomas. He has one older brother, Tony Wally Whitehead, and three younger siblings who were raised in Brooklyn and New York. He attended Kirwan Terrace Elementary School and Wayne Aspinall Junior High (now Addelitta Cancryn Junior High), and he graduated from Charlotte Amalie High School in 1981.

Military and early work
Sekou joined the United States Navy in 1981 and served as an operations specialist on the USS Voge before leaving the Navy in 1984. After leaving the Navy, he returned to the Virgin Islands, started a bachelor’s degree at UVI, and joined the Virgin Islands Fire Service.

Education
He earned a bachelor’s degree in social science from UVI in 1989. He later earned both a master’s degree and a doctorate in political science from the University of Delaware.

Personal life
Malik Sekou is married to Sheree Bryant, and they have a daughter named Aisha Sekou.

Career
Sekou has worked as a professor at UVI for about twelve years (as of 2010). He has written widely about the Virgin Islands and the Caribbean, focusing on topics such as law enforcement, cost of living, immigration, and Cuba. He has also worked as a researcher and analyst for the Virgin Islands Legislature and is known as a political consultant.

Politics
Sekou was elected to the Virgin Islands Board of Education. He ran for the Legislature of the Virgin Islands twice, but was not elected. In July 2010, he was chosen by gubernatorial candidate Kenneth Mapp as his running mate for lieutenant governor in the 2010 election.