Tupac Amaru Shakur & Fela Anikulapo Kuti – Revolutionaries Or Martyrs

By Wale Owoeye

TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR & FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI - REVOLUTIONARIES OR MARTYRS is a monograph of honour raised in the memory of late Muhiyideen D'Baha Moye of Black Lives Matter movement. The book compares and contrasts the two legendary figures of blackism, Tupac and Fela, drawing inferences and interconnections about the activism of the two artists whose life and art epitomized the struggle of the black race for true freedom. 

The book is written by the foremost Neo-Negritudian, Wale Sasamura Owoeye, author of SIXTY-SIX SONGS

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oyster Press
• Release date: Feb 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393817222

Wale Owoeye

Wale Sasamura-Owoeye is a lawyer, poet, author, mystic, publisher, teacher and Renaissance Man. A Neo-Negritudian with the mission to make modern literary masterpieces for world audience, Wale Sasamura lives and practices law in Lagos, Nigeria

Book preview

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Wale Owoeye

Published by Oysters Press. Deluxe Edition.

© Copyright 2020 Wale Owoeye.

Wale Owoeye has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work under applicable Copyright Laws. All rights reserved. Not to be resold or stolen.

Every effort has been made to clear relevant copyright permissions.

Kindly contact the publishers for any queries or corrections.

Dedicated to the memory of late Muhiyiden d’Baha Moye

of Black Lives Matter and all comrades who continue to believe in and fight for Rights of the Black Race and Minorities all over the world.

We shall overcome

_____

The book is also dedicated with love and respect:

To the memory of late Funmilayo Ransome Kuti

To the memory of late Afeni Shakur

To the memory of my mother, late Monisola Adunni Owoeye

And other mothers in the struggle for the total emancipation of the black race...

Rest In Power, Mothers

/AUTHOR’S NOTE

I have always wanted to write a book about Tupac and Fela, but the inspiration never came. I met Tupac Shakur in the ‘90s, through my late brother who introduced hip hop music to me, and he became an enduring friend and mentor to me because his music, movies and poetry resonated with me as an aspiring black artist and conscientious human being. His untimely death in 1996 through assassination would leave a deep cut in my psyche and I still mourn him, decades after his demise.

Fela Anikulapo Kuti, on the other hand, is an abstractive father figure to me whose music and lifestyle of activism have long been my frame of reference, in art and scholarship.  His uncommon gravitas and lion-spirit allured him to many and his indefatigable voice for justice and equity remains unmatched in Africa and beyond. His death in 1997 would quake the black continent and the world and his voice as a prophet is still resonant and relevant today.

For long I wished to reflect on the life and sacrifices of these two legends and sought for the light until I learnt of the killing of my brother in the diaspora, late Muhiyiden de Baha Moye of Black Lives Matter, who was waylaid and shot to death by unprovoked assailants in Charleston on the morning of 6 February, 2018. Even though we never met, to me Muhiyiden was both Tupac and Fela reincarnated and it became fitting and imperative that his story and name becomes immortalised in this very book that reflects on the struggle and travails of black activism. I believe fervently that his valiant memories live on.

As a lawyer-writer, the monograph is my own thesis as a Critical Race Theorist and also as a Neo-Negritudian, my testimony of blackism humbly added to the august repertoire of scholarship by esteemed forbears who wrote before me. Read, reflect on and critique the monograph that is modest contributions to the pool of knowledge abound about Tupac A. Shakur and Fela A. Kuti.

Kindly note that submissions made in the book are formed based on the author's opinion, extracts of articles and books read or previewed online, interviews with respondents and intelligent surmises and should not be taken out of context.

Wale Owoeye Esq. 

June, 2019

Lagos, Nigeria

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AUTHOR’S NOTE

PART A

TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR

^ His Birth & Formative Years

^ His Emergence As An Artist

^ His Black Epiphany As An Activist

^Legacies Of His Art and Legend (Thematic Concerns)

PART B

FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI

^ His Birth & Pedigree

^ His Emergence As An Artist

^ His Black Epiphany As An Activist

^ Legacies Of His Art and Activism (Thematic Concerns)

PART C

REVOLUTIONARIES OR MARTYRS

^ Revolutionaries

^ Martyrs

^ Afterword

^Sources

^Recommended Further Readings

^ End Notes

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

BOOKS IN THE TRILOGY OF AVES

MORE BOOKS BY OYSTERS PRESS

"There's gonna be some stuff you gonna see

That’s gonna make it hard to smile in the future.

But through whatever you see,

Through all the rain and the pain,

You gotta keep your sense of humor.

You gotta be able to smile through all this bullshit.

Remember that."

-TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR

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TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR

Poet, Rapper, Actor, Activist

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HIS BIRTH & FORMATIVE YEARS

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TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR WAS BORN ON June 29, 1970 in New York State and christened at birth Lesane Parish Crooks. He was later renamed by his mother after his uncle who took on the name of the 18th century Peruvian revolutionary, Tupac Amaru II.

In hindsight, it is fair to claim that Tupac’s legendary life was foreshadowed by the circumstances of his birth. This is because his mother, Afeni Shakur, was at the time of his conception a Black Rights activist constantly at variance with the state for her political beliefs. A valiant woman, Afeni Shakur was heavily pregnant with Tupac in 1970 when she had to defend herself in court against a criminal charge of conspiracy to commit acts of terror in New York City with 21 other members of the Black Panther Party. 

After putting up a good fight in court, she was eventually acquitted of all charges and freed. Her firstborn, Tupac, was born a month after and together they began a new life in Harlem, New York City.

Thus, it was in activism that Tupac was conceived and birthed and this streak of rebellion taken from his mother would later reflect in the prodigy as he grew up in the racially discriminating America. Same is the artistry in music that found its source in the Harlem Movement of New York City, later transported all over America and which became the fountainhead of hip hop music.

The life of Tupac Shakur was also shaped by the environment he grew up in with his mother and the experiences that came with it. Born black in America shortly after the era of Civil Rights Activism of the 1960’s meant that their lives were marked by endemic poverty that affected much of black communities, still struggling for economic and well as social emancipation from a racist America. 

The ghettos of New York City where blacks lived were not exempted from this harsh reality and Tupac’s upbringing was sorely affected by the blight of crime, want, drug addiction, violence and other malaise that devalued black communities and made it a nursery of criminals and vice. It was in this accursed society that activism for rights of minorities were first founded in Tupac as well as a sense of filial responsibility for his family and the black society at large. These traits and experiences would recur constantly in his music and verses all through his life and would serve as a testament to the collective aspiration of the black race in America.

As much as Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, tried to get the best life possible for her children in pursuit of the great American Dream, without the support of a husband, the stifling atmosphere and economy of America for blacks aspiring to the good life made this onerous for her. Because of these circumstances, she had to constantly be in earnest search of greener pastures, buoyed by her passion for life and the will to survive against all odds.  The inadequacies of the period prompted Afeni Shakur and her son (and later a daughter) to constantly be on the move, relocating from one squalor in the black ghetto to another until she decided, for expedient reasons, to leave Bronx, New York City in 1985 and settle in Baltimore.

It was in Baltimore, a historic black community in America, that Tupac’s mother finally had the opportunity to temporarily settle down and she afterwards enrolled her son at the prestigious Baltimore Academy of Arts where Tupac studied Poetry, Jazz, Acting and Ballet. A smart black mother in America, Afeni Shakur knew the legitimate way out of poverty for her children was to get quality education and this investment on Tupac yielded a life dividend for the family later in his life and even long after.

It was also at this period that Tupac’s leadership values became established and ingrained. Without a father, being the man of the house meant that Tupac played the role of virtual husband to his mother, adopted father and brother to his sister and that of a role model to the society that looks up to them as example of excellent black family with consciousness and pride in America. Just as the travails of surviving as a black breadwinner in America of the 1980’s had begun to take its toll on Tupac’s mother, Tupac toughened up and assumed his role with the earnestness that first born prodigies are known to possess. 

While in Baltimore, Tupac Shakur flowered as a brilliant student in school and graduated with honours. His interest in poetry was established in this great school and so was his talent for acting, which later made him into a Hollywood celebrity.

HIS EMERGENCE AS AN ARTIST

Still in search of better living, Tupac Shakur moved with his mother and sister to Marin, California, where as a teenager he was formally inducted into the Street.

Having grown into the reality of life for blacks in the ghettos of America, which consisted of drudgery, drug addiction, petty crimes and like vices, Tupac considered the choice fostered on him by his American destiny as a black man born in the ghetto and decided, like many of his contemporaries, to enrol in the game and be taught the rudiments of survivor skills on the street. It was here in Marin that Tupac earned his first street cash selling drugs on the street corner – a feat that signalled his ascendance to the loyal class of street owners.

The baptism of fire into the black market of the street must have made an indelible impression on Tupac Shakur as, I imagined, he too must have visualised the life of a drug baron for himself – living in a mansion on the countryside, having private jets, hosting a harem of beautiful girls at the pool side, living the la vida loca life. However, the artistic part of Tupac’s soul overcame the lure of street wealth and instead he sought to make money through selling music on the street.

This grand dream got the first breakthrough in 1989 when, in a chance meeting at a poetry class event, Tupac met a white woman with interest in racial injustice and activism, Ms Leila Steinberg who later became his manager.

It was Leila Steinberg that introduced Tupac to Atron Gregory, manager of the group Digital Underground who employed Tupac as a roadie and a dancer with the group. Tupac later became an MC with the group and featured in their album Sons Of The P released in 1991 and also in a movie soundtrack.

Having noticed that Tupac had a streak of genius in him which needed tending and nurturing, Atron Gregory, in a flash of insight that became historical,  decided to take over as Tupac’s manager and together they waxed his first solo studio album entitled 2pacalyspse Now.

Tupac’s first album 2paclayspe Now, made to parody the 1979 epic war film Apocalypse Now, showed the beginning of a music career that will travel globally and will be a soundboard for issues affecting black people and the minorities in America and all over world. Featuring such songs like Brenda’s Got A Baby, I Don’t Give A Fuck, Violent and Souljah’s Story, the voice of the iconoclast that Tupac would later adopt in his music career came cracking through the speakers in this debut album, prefacing the black tale of racial injustice, police brutality, poverty in the ghettos, black ignorance and teenage pregnancy and many other topical issues that affected the black community in America.

It is imperative to observe that this 2paclayspe Now album, which sold over 500, 000 copies in the US, was critically denounced by the government of the day as incendiary artistic work capable of inciting people to violence¹.  The album would serve as a taste of the pudding and a foretaste of more fiery music from an iconoclastic artist that at last has found a voice. 

HIS EPIPHANY AS A BLACK ACTIVIST

The question is asked, how did Tupac become an activist for blacks and minorities rights?

The answer is not farfetched. Being born and having lived all his life in America, as well as being raised in a family with activist blood flowing in their veins, it was only a matter of time and opportunity before Tupac became an activist. He lived daily with inequality that he saw in the affluent, hygienic and well paved white people’s community compared against the dingy and dirty ghettos that black people lived in America. He breathed and experienced injustice in the quality healthcare available to white people with access to medical care, which was never available to black people dying in droves of tuberculosis, diabetes, drug addiction, HIV and hunger in the black ghettos.

If I claim that Tupac Shakur became an activist the day he was born, I could not be far from the truth because the condition of life in which he was born was still pretty much the same, if not worse, by the time he became an adult. Tupac knew how much he visited cemetery to bury loved ones felled by bullets of racist cops or black on black violence precipitated by the economic stagnation of the black race in America. He knew how much ‘tattoos tears’ he shed when many of his hommies got slashed in the throat in the dark or shot from the back, while looking for daily bread and means of sustenance in the ghetto boulevards. He knew how many black babies had their destinies blighted from conception by the ravages of drugs in the black ghettos...

It was in navigating this treacherous life in the street that Tupac made enemies – of the state and the street. First, Tupac had a brush with the law in 1992 when Qa’id Walker-Teal, a 6 year old kid, was killed by a gun dropped by Tupac during a street brawl with some rampaging black youths ². Even though he was not formally indicted for the crime, the guilt of the incident weighed heavily on Tupac’s mind and would make him later question his stance on his Thug Life attitude. 

By the side, the American Dream long aspired for began to happen as Tupac had his acting big break in the 1992 movie Juice where he played the character role of Bishop – an angry, wilful and demonic black teenager without regard for life or authorities that enamoured Tupac to black movie goers and increased his fame as an artist. It was like Tupac the rapper given the montage to act out his anger on screen and for the world to see and relate. This classic movie, even till date, is evergreen and still dramatizes the reality in the ghettos of Harlem and other projects spread over America.

Tupac released his second album STRICTLY FOR MY N.I.G.G.A.Z in 1993 which received rave reviews and had such songs as Keep Ya Head Up, I Get Around and others enjoying massive radio play. According to Tupac, the N.I.G.G.A.Z is an acronym for ‘Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished' and a clarion call to his street comrades to buckle up and get the best out of the world which destiny fostered on them.

The same year, Tupac formed the group THUG LIFE with his friends and stepbrother Mopreme Shakur and they waxed an album Thug Life: Volume 1 which did well with tracks like Out On Bail, Bury Me A G, From Cradle To The Grave and others which continued to dramatize the plight of black society in America for their global listeners and fans.

It is again imperative to observe that while Tupac’s interest in rap music as a means of spreading his ghetto gospel intensified, at the top, efforts were already being made to stifle the trend of ‘gangsta rap’ as a section of the public began to criticize their lyrics and content. Not considering that Hollywood as a money spinner for the US displayed far more violence on screen and in cinemas all in the name of art, the narrative became different for black enterprise whose cinemas were made on wax for entertainment purposes. This censure on hip hop music resulted into artists and production houses cutting out purportedly offensive parts of their music to avoid controversy in order to be allowed into public airplay.

While enjoying the fame and rave reviews from his romantic movie with Janet Jackson, Poetic Justice, where Tupac again dramatized another aspect of his life as a ghetto poet, as though haunted by violence, Tupac would again feature in the news in 1993 when he was accused of shooting two off-duty cops in Atlanta after an altercation ³. Because these police officers were white men, the news caused much furore until the charges were eventually dropped when the affected cops were later found to have unofficially tampered with evidence. But the issue was never forgotten.

Still haunted by violence, in 1994 Tupac was fatally shot multiple times in the lobby of a Manhattan recording studio where he had gone to record music with a newly acquainted music artist, Christopher Wallace (alias Notorious B.I.G) but he escaped and found his way to the hospital where he later recuperated ⁴. From the hospital bed, Tupac was promptly transported to prison on conviction for sexual assault charge on a female fan where he spent quality time in Clinton Correctional Facility and Rikers Island, both in New York City. 

Tupac released his third studio album, Me Against The World, in 1995 while in prison serving time and this was the definitive work that launched his career on a