You Are Appreciated

There’s something about full-circle moments. After watching the masterful docu-series on FX titled “Dear Mama” , I had to write about the amazing piece of work the legendary Allen Hughes from the legendary Hughes brothers brought to television. For the first time, the stories of Afeni and Tupac Shakur are told parallel to each other and we see just how powerful the connection exists between mother and son.

The song “Dear Mama” is of my top 5 favorite songs of all time, and the way Tupac lays bare how he feels about his mom is only a glimpse into how much their stories are intertwined. Tupac adored and revered his mom and Afeni did the same with her baby. I learned so much about them as individuals and their lives together that I deemed Afeni as one of my new heroes.

Tupac seems like a mountain of a person to emulate and honor but this docu-series balanced his stardom and talent with his manhood and personality. When it was all said and done I feel like I know Tupac the man a lot more intimately. It is a beautiful revelation. Afeni was afforded the same effort and admiration. I appreciate her story getting the love and attention and it deserves.

Afeni was a warrior. Tupac was conceived at a crossroads where her life and freedom where on the line and she put on her brave face and fought harder than I’d ever known to stay out of prison and help move forward the Black Panther movement and our people in the process. It was mentioned in one of the later episodes by Afeni’s older sister Glo that Tupac felt a way about how she gave so much of herself to others while she lived in squalor. She was woman who lived a life of service and be it involuntarily or voluntarily, she rose to the occasion and ascended into the stratosphere.

Tupac was funny, charming, intelligent, curious, creative, and at the same time sad, angry, determined traumatized, stressed, a target, and felt unprotected. This is a mirror to the way people described Afeni. She led a movement and her son did the same. Tupac was not immune to being a knucklehead and stubborn but he was never not empowered to aspire to be bigger than your own being. Afeni did that.

Afeni inspired him to use words to convey his messages, to be calculated and to be well-read and able to comprehend. But Afeni struggled and turned to drugs and had to move her kids around to keep them out of harm’s way and because Tupac already viewed his mom as more than just his mother, but also a Black giant, he saw a woman doing the best she could and never held that against her. That’s what makes the song Dear Mama so profound. He had a clear gift of hindsight. Tupac saw his mom’s journey of motherhood and not just a recipient of it. He wanted to give her the world.

He wanted his mom to live near him, advise him, cook for him, and be his safe place. Just as he was starting to make that dream more permanent, his life was taken. Afeni used her grief to make something so beautiful as a result. The docu-series notes that she found so many songs of his and used them to fund the land he always envisioned for himself. She started the Tupac Amaru Shakur foundation, worked with Jasmine Guy to write a book, and fought to her last breath to keep his life alive.

Afeni Shakur is a Black woman who was strong because she had to be and spent her whole life in pain. She deserved earthly rest before her eternal rest but still lent her life to help others. Afeni fought a federal case by herself, carried a baby during the trial, and even on her worst day still managed to put others above herself. Black women deserve to be honored while they are here. They deserve an opportunity to laugh and be able to fade into the background if they need to do so. Afeni deserved to watch her baby continue to make her proud and make good use of the life she once grew in her womb.

After all she’d already been through she GAVE us Tupac, and after everything she already did, that was the ultimate gift. Everything we know about him came from her and this docu-series spell that out perfectly. This is the only media you need to consume about Tupac, and it’s because you learn about about Afeni too. Afeni, thank you for EVERYTHING.

You are appreciated.

Rest in Power and eternal peace, Afeni Shakur and Tupac Shakur.

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