Just a Breath of Freedom

The dedication above the text is concise: “4 Nelson Mandela”. With Just a Breath of Freedom, Tupac opened the third part of the book The Rose That Grew from Concrete, which is named after this poem. The text reckons with the rulers in Pretoria-and looks toward the first breath of freedom.

Worse Than Murder: Tupac’s Accusation

The poem addresses Mandela directly. He was held captive for his politics: they wanted to break his soul and wipe out every mind that could not be controlled. Tupac calls this fate worse than murder: they caged Mandela like an animal and watched him die inside.

The second half turns to the day of release. On his first breath of freedom, Mandela should raise his brow in pride; now he is in God’s hands. The poem ends with an accusation: many gave their lives so that the men in power in Pretoria would one day pay for their crimes.

Written Around the Release in February 1990

Mandela spent 27 years in prison and was released in February 1990. Whether Tupac wrote the poem before or after that day is not documented. The text speaks of the release as if it were imminent or had just happened. According to the preface by Afeni Shakur, the poems were written between 1989 and 1991.

South Africa visibly occupied Tupac during this time. In the introduction, Leila Steinberg describes reading Winnie Mandela’s book Part of My Soul Went with Him at their first meeting in spring 1989-and Tupac quoting lines from it by heart. Mandela also appears in How Can We Be Free and Liberty Needs Glasses. Tupac brought the attitude behind it from home: his mother Afeni had been active in the Black Panthers before he was born.

More on the book in the introduction.