Onika Henry performing in Afeni | Photo by Adam Bailey

Presented by Still Your Friend

In the early 1970s, Afeni Shakur, and 20 other Black Panthers, were put on trial for over 150 trumped-up charges and threatened with 300 years in prison. The overall flavour of these crimes, when dumped into the bogus soup cooked up by government, was conspiracy. (Which is deeply ironic given the reality of the situation.) She chose to represent herself. The “Panther 21” were found not guilty of all charges, due, in large part, to her efforts.

One could easily be tempted to turn a review of Afeni into a play-by-play of the historical facts. But the above lede is the extent to which I’ll get into the weeds on this woman whose massively famous son all but eclipsed her own bad-ass achievements. His name, we are told at the top, will mark the end of the story. I, too, will only mention Tupac once. Continue Reading