Afeni Shakur was born Alice Faye Williams but changed her name after moving to New York and joining the Black Panthers.
She is best-known as the mum of Tupac and the inspiration for his track Dear Mama, but she’ll also be remembered as a philanthropist, political activist and businesswoman.
Following her son’s 1996 death, Afeni Shakur took control of his estate, which reportedly earns $900,000 (£615,000) a year. Afeni Shakur founded the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation a year later, a programme determined to offer young people opportunities through the arts whether that be dance, drama, or writing.
More recently, she co-produced Holler If Ya Hear Me, a musical featuring Tupac’s works, and served as an executive producer on All Eyez On Me, a film about her son scheduled for release later this year. Through her words she offered a lot of wisdom, and we’ll leave you with this from 2011: “My personal message for Tupac fans would be for them to live brightly, strongly out loud. To sing, to write, to dance, to play, to create music, to create plays, to create poetry, just to create. To live.
“I want his fans to live giving us everything that they have because I sincerely believe those young people and other people who want freedom and justice in the world, that they will be able to give us that but only if we encourage them to be wrong sometimes, if we encourage them to make mistakes sometimes.”