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Afeni
Shakur: Evolution
of a Revolutionary
By Jasmine Guy
Reviewed by Isidra Person-Lynn
The book was emblazoned with white letters on
the stark black cover “Afeni Shakur” followed by smaller
gold letters “Evolution of a Revolutionary.” But it
was the author’s name below that caused a double take:
“Jasmine Guy.”
Jasmine Guy? Whitley? Why would
Whitley of “Different World” comedic TV fame be writing
about Tupac’s famed mother—a former Black Panther?
Curiosity moved this reviewer to pick it up and satisfaction
moved the story throughout until the triumphant ending.
It turns out, this biography/autobiography
(Atria Books 2004 ISBN 0-7434-7053-2) wasn’t watered down by
“Whitley” at all. It was written by Jasmine Guy, the
woman, the dancer, the actress, the writer, and the contemporary
of Tupac who hung with him and Jada Pinkett Smith during his
life causing them to be there in a big way during both shootings
and his death. Jasmine formed a bond with Pac’s “Dear
Mama,” Afeni Shakur, and over the next 10 years culled
Afeni’s story, building a sisterhood in the process.
It is a first book for both of them and while
there is much more to be said about both, there is enough there
to hopefully jumpstart Generation X to read more and learn about
the names and people mentioned within. It brings the
Panther Party’s importance into the light, the police
infiltration into reality and the crack craze into perspective.
There were reasons for all of the above and this book explains
all that. The only thing it doesn’t explain--or even
touch upon-- adequately was why when Tupac died on Friday Sept.
13 was he cremated on Saturday, Sept. 14?
Internet photos affirm there was an autopsy, but this sudden
disposal by Afeni has led to the “Tupac is not dead” mantra
of some of our youth, The Tupac Machiavelli syndrome and Tupac:
Resurrection. (In a way, the Tupac Resurrection was real.
In that movie, his life—and death—was told in his own
words.)
Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary
opens the door to the young mother’s pain and shows the
parallels between Pac’s life and his mother’s. Both young
revolutionaries took to the national stage when they were much
too young. His story has been well documented, but her story
explains how you go from being a Panther revolutionary, to a
crack head, and back again. There were reasons. Today she
heads the empire that Pac built.
This book is a must read for all struggling
with addictions. It speaks of the work Afeni did, the
steps that need to be taken to free oneself from the drug of
choice. Applaud Jasmine Guy for stepping out of her
privileged personae to take on such a meaty subject and perhaps
being the one unsuspecting soul who can bring Afeni’s life to
our young countrymen who need to hear it.
Isidra Person-Lynn is a writer and mother of five sons living in Los
Angeles. For comments: Isidra@prperson.com
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Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy."
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1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus
Created
By Charles C. Mann
I’m
a big fan of Charles Mann’s previous
book
1491:
New Revelations of the Americas Before
Columbus, in which he
provides a sweeping and provocative
examination of North and South America
prior to the arrival of Christopher
Columbus. It’s exhaustively researched
but so wonderfully written that it’s
anything but exhausting to read. With
his follow-up,
1493, Mann has taken it to a
new, truly global level. Building on the
groundbreaking work of Alfred Crosby
(author of
The Columbian Exchange and, I’m
proud to say, a fellow Nantucketer),
Mann has written nothing less than the
story of our world: how a planet of what
were once several autonomous continents
is quickly becoming a single,
“globalized” entity.
Mann not only talked to countless
scientists and researchers; he visited
the places he writes about, and as a
consequence, the book has a marvelously
wide-ranging yet personal feel as we
follow Mann from one far-flung corner of
the world to the next. And always, the
prose is masterful. In telling the
improbable story of how Spanish and
Chinese cultures collided in the
Philippines in the sixteenth century, he
takes us to the island of Mindoro whose
“southern coast consists of a number of
small bays, one next to another like
tooth marks in an apple.” We learn how
the spread of malaria, the potato,
tobacco, guano, rubber plants, and sugar
cane have disrupted and convulsed the
planet and will continue to do so until
we are finally living on one integrated
or at least close-to-integrated Earth.
Whether or not the human instigators of
all this remarkable change will survive
the process they helped to initiate more
than five hundred years ago remains,
Mann suggests in this monumental and
revelatory book, an open question. |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
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1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 30 December
2011
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