Tupac Shakur's mother--Afeni Shakur--Acitivist--Black
Panther--Poet--Actress--NY 21 Prisoner--Addict--Addicted to freedom and
liberation--The Black Panther Party--Drugs--Men--Life--Addicted to the
assessment of America's idea of her: ugly helpless Black woman without a
clue to what life is/was about. Being born Black in the 1960's-1970's
was a struggle for dignity and power. A time to challenge prejudice and
edicts. Institutions. Monsters and Men! sexism and rapings. Corporate
and institutionalized deahts. And her language is fierce and
loving--Hard and Soft--And her words are lullabies and martial songs.
Her words, so untold--Full of secrets waiting to reveal themselves.
Tupac and Afeni are two miracles! Two individuals daring
to live and create and love. Both cross color, class and gender. Afeni
is indeed the miracle woman wonder.
Afeni comes from a very closed world, from Lumberton,
North Carolina. She moved to New York when she was in the sixth grade.
She was 11 and lived in the Bronx. She went to the Performing Arts High
School in Manhattan. She wanted to be an actress. When she was in her
late teens she would go to Manny's Bar on 169th St. in the Bronx. This
guy use to come in there named Shaheed. At the time i was a greasy short
haired little colored girl, skinny, with no breasts and never had no
butt. She wasnt the one men would look at but she was smart and had a
nice smile. Shaheed introduced her to the lessons given by the Nation of
Islam. As she listened to Brother Shaheed, she began to like herself,
because of what she was, this little Black girl with short hair. He
introduced her into Malcom X.
At 19 she got a job working at the post office. She met
a brother there, and they became lovers. She was with him when she first
saw the Black Panther Party. They found their Blackness together. She
had gone to the Black Power Conference in Philadelphia and that singular
event affected her like no other even in her life.
She had seen the pictures of the Black Panthers in
Sacramento. What a wonderful sight that was to her. A black woman who
was unapologetic, told her if she wanted to be a revolutionary she didnt
have to do anything but walk throught the supermarket with a razor blade
and run her hands across the flour and the sugar--An act of Resistance--
She saw Elderige Cleaver, you have to have heard him to
know how wonderful and beautiful he was and what a motivator he was for
those of us who didnt go to college or who were dropouts from college,
she explains. His words became like food, hope and dreams in her brain.
Her name Afeni was given to her by the brother who built
the Yoruba village in South Carolina. Afeni means "dear one"
or "lover of the people".
Harlem Time--It was the first time Afeni heard the Ten
Point Program of the Black Panther Party and she was truly hooked. She
heard Bobby Seale recite the Ten Point Program. He could recruit a town
full of Black people just by saying it. Meetings for the Black Panther
Party, were held at L.I.U. on Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Afeni was there
every Saturday. At the same time school opened. She went to school, the
school that was to be closed in her neighborhood. The Panthers got
involved in the school strike. She was now part of the Black Panthers
Party and Lumumba Shakur's wife. Lumumba later got arrested and one
other member was beaten up, two were killed in L.A. And the trigger was
pulled by members of the US Organization.
There was a rally the next morning. At 5:00a.m. there
was banging at Afeni's apartment door. Lumumba ran to the door and
looked out the peak hole, there was a fire and a whole bunch of people
yelling. He opened the door and police came in with shotguns at his
head, one at his stomach and one on my stomach. Brother Lumumba was a
polygamist. Sister Sayeeda was his first wife. Afeni at first
disrespected her. She thought Sayeeda wasnt bad enough to be the wife of
this revolutionary brother. Afeni now felt cruel and horrible and
insensitive human beint, but didnt understand that then. But she
accepted Afeni into her home. All I did was make her life miserable and
i was with her husband, which we were sharing.
Earlier the police took Lumumba and Afeni in a caravan,
to the D.A.'s office. There she saw everybody in the party. Her sister
and her sisters husband scraped together all the money they could to
bail me out of jail. They raised 100 dollars. But when they go into the
courtroom the first name they call is Lumumba Abdul Shakur. They
announce his bail at 100,000 dollars, they got to my name and said the
same. She thought they were mistaken. They didnt misspell her new name.
So she went to jail and there she sat for eleven months while George
Jackson, Jonathan Jackson and Fred Hampton were killed. While in jail
She was about organizing the jail, anybody and anything she could.
Finally woman from the church raised her bail--The Dickersons(Charlotte
and Angela) and their friends. Black and White women raised 64,000
dollars in cash and then the church put up 36,000 dollars in church
property. They werent even party members! Young and older woman, Black
and White--Leftist lawyers--Church going mommas. She was amazed by that.
I named him Tupac Amaru Shakur (Shining, Serpent,
Blessed One). I wanted him to have the name of revolutionary, indigenous
people in the world. I wanted him to know he was part of a world culture
and not just from a neighborhood...When he was two years old and did
something wrong, I would say to him, 'an independent Black man wouldn't
do that'. He was always an independent Black man!
"I wasnt by myself when my son Tupac died: a lot of
mommas have lost their sons to this country's violence. I AM NOT ALONE.
I am all other women. So dont try to isolate me. Us. Mommas. If you do,
it will relieve ordinary people of assuming their important roles. We
all have important roles to assume before we leave this planet."
