IN the Black Panther series, we looked at an ex-Vietnam war veteran called Elmer Geronimo Pratt who was wrongfully imprisoned for 27 years and eventually died in Tanzania.
Geronimo Pratt was the godfather of yet another black youth who would spark fear in the hearts of white America during the post-Black Panther period of the 1990s.
This black youth was born to a woman called Alice Faye Williams who was a Black Panther beginning 1964.
Like many blacks of this era, Williams had a troubled childhood and fell victim to cocaine use at the tender age of 15.
The Black Panther movement took her rage and channelled it constructively.
She wrote articles for the Panther Post while living in New York City.
In 1968, Williams moved in with a fellow Black Panther called Lumumba Abdul Shakur.
Shakur was a founding member of the Harlem Black Panther chapter.
His father, Salahdin Aba Shakur, a close Malcolm X affiliate, adopted the name Shakur, which means ‘thanks’ in Arabic, from the black hero Shakur who fought against the European Crusaders in western Asia.
Williams changed her name to Afeni Shakur, but would separate with Shakur because he was polygamous.
Shortly after this, Afeni, along with 20 other Panthers were arrested and charged with conspiracy to bomb police stations and other public places.
She became pregnant to William Garland during her release on bail pending trial. She was imprisoned again shortly after she got pregnant and spent the greater part of her pregnancy in jail.
She stood as her own attorney and won her case after five months of trial in a case that is remembered as the Panther 21.
Afeni won her freedom in May 1971 and gave birth to a son she named Lesane Parish Crooks on June 16 1971.
Lesane would eventually be dubbed ‘Tupac Amaru Shakur’.
The name ‘Tupac Amaru’ was derived from an Inca (indigenous black American tribe) warrior’s name and meant ‘shining serpent’.
William Garland was a truck driver in New Jersey and he never returned to Afeni and his son.
Afeni then got married to an acupuncturist called Matulu Shakur; the adopted brother of Lumumba Shakur.
Lumumba was killed by the police in 1985.
Matulu conceived a daughter with Afeni called Sekyiwa and was Tupac’s father-figure even after Matulu and Shakur’s relationship ended in 1982.
Matulu was targeted by the white authorities a year later and charged with being loosely involved in a conspiracy to rob a bank.
It was a set-up meant to stop Matulu’s activism and he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Left a single mother, Afeni moved to Maryland Baltimore, but could not sustain her livelihood well because of poverty and drug abuse.
Tupac came from this rough background and even his godfather Pratt was in prison.
This rough up-bringing greatly molded Tupac’s character and although his mother was poor and addicted to cocaine, she taught her children ethics, manners and black ideology.
At 13, a priest asked Tupac what he wanted to be when he grew up and he replied: “A revolutionary.”
Tupac was an avid reader and studied every great historical figure he could find.
At 19 he was an established theatrical actor and poet.
There was a Black Panther youth group which was still functional under the name ‘New African Panthers’ and it had branches in eight cities nationwide.
Tupac became the top newspaper salesman in the group in California and created a newspaper inset called ‘Panther Power’.
Tupac also became the youngest ever elected chairman of the activist group and made many contributions.
However, the Panthers had lost their momentum and their activism was becoming more and more ceremonial as a result of constant police crackdowns and isolation through negative media.
Tupac then made a fateful decision to take up music as a way of empowering blacks.
In the late 1980s, a style of music called ‘rap’ was emerging out of the Bronx.
The music was all to do with words being delivered skillfully to a looping beat with rhyme and rhythm.
Rap was based on lyrics containing stories, plots, themes, metaphors and similes. The listener could decode the lyrics into useful information.
It was an effective tool of self-expression and Tupac wanted to use it to further his cause of black liberation.
The diction, slang and verbal skills used in rap were typically African-American and thus harder for non-blacks and particularly whites to understand.
Tupac joined a rap group called Digital Underground and worked as a rapper and a dancer until he released his solo single called ‘Trapped’ in 1991 and the album 2pacalypse Now which followed shortly after.
He quickly got the attention of the police and other white authorities because he exposed many of their crimes against blacks.
For example, in a song called ‘Words of wisdom’, Tupac sang: “I charge America with the crime of rape, murder and assault, for suppressing and punishing my people.
“I charge you with robbery for robbing me of my history.
“I charge you with false imprisonment for keeping me trapped in the projects (secluded ghettos).
“The jury finds you guilty on all counts.
“And you have to serve the consequences of your evil schemes.”
While Tupac was in San Francisco, he was stopped by the police for jay-walking.
In police custody, he was hit on the head and choked until he became unconscious. Tupac survived the attack and it is now seen as the first assassination attempt against his life because most blacks who get treated in this way usually end up dead with no one facing the consequences because it would be during an arrest.
The police simply claim that the suspect was resisting arrest, leading the officers to use excessive force.
Shortly after, Tupac was shot drive-by style while sitting in his car.
The infamous Richard Held, who was head of the local COINTEL programme which led to the death of the Black Panther Party and many of its members, was stationed in San Francisco in this same period.
This explains the source of the attacks on Tupac in this state.
The authorities had successfully divided the Panthers through false letters and rumours.
They also caused tension between blacks in the east-coast of the US and those on the west coast.
Pratt’s pregnant wife had been brutally killed and the murder falsely blamed on Huey Newton’s faction.
This made Pratt join Cleaver’s faction and since then, there was tension between the Black Panthers of New York and LA.
When Pratt was imprisoned, he got the chance to share a prison with Newton before the latter was released in 1988.
Tupac used to visit these men in prison for advice and Huey and Pratt made their peace.
Tupac’s association with these high profile targets and his role in re-uniting them may also have made him a target in San Francisco where he narrowly escaped death twice.
Newton was shot twice in the head during a botched drug deal which is suspected to have been set up by the federal authorities.
On the anniversary of Newton’s killing in August of 1992, Tupac was attacked by strangers for no reason during an album signing event.
Regardless of the pressure, Tupac remained an activist throughout his career.
He also employed former Black Panthers to be his lawyers and managers.
He started a movement called ‘Thug life’ with his imprisoned father-figure Matulu. The Thug Life Movement was aimed at stopping blacks from fighting each other. It encouraged blacks to embrace their blackness and to come together in their fight against racism and imperialism.