Heaven got a new G. Afeni Shakur Davis, mother of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur passed away at the age of 69 on May 2nd.
My heart broke when I heard the news, for once I had to wish that Tupac is actually deceased. If he is, then at least he and his mother can be reconnected again in the afterlife.
Afeni has been a staple in hip-hop culture since the early 90’s. Tupac immortalized his love for his mother and appreciation of all she went through raising him and his sibling in the 1995 smash hit “Dear Mama.”
So many of us have sung the words to this song over and over, identifying with the young single mother’s struggle to raise her children in poverty.
Through Tupac we learned about his mother, the former Black Panther, who carried him while in jail. Tupac was born shortly after her release.
After Tupac’s tragic murder in 1996, Afeni started the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation which built the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in Georgia. The organization also runs a Performing Arts Day Camp for youth. She also founded Amaru Entertainment and continued to distribute Tupac’s music. Since his death the company has put out 6 records.
In 2005 Jasmine Guy, famously known as Whitley Gilbert from A Different World, published Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary. It reads like a memoir and is a series of conversations between Guy and Shakur on topics such as love, death, race, drugs, politics, music, and her son, Tupac. The book is available on Amazon and all major bookstores.
In 2014, Shakur co-produced “Holler If Ya Hear Me,” a Broadway musical featuring music by Tupac.
A movie about her son’s life, “All Eyez on Me,” is set for release in November, 2016. Afeni served as an executive producer for the film.
Afeni Shakur Davis was born Alice Faye Williams in 1947. The actual cause of death has not been stated yet but Shakur was transported to the hospital after suffering a possible heart attack in her California home Monday night. She was pronounced dead about a hour later.
