Fela Anikulapo Kuti (1938-1997) - Iconoclastic King of AfroBeat

Written by Sam Mathe
Wednesday, 06 July 2011 18:44

“Fela Anikulapo Kuti was James Brown, Huey Newton, Rick James, Bob Marley, Duke Ellington ... all rolled into one black African fist – the protest artist as a real, live, awake and hungry human being. Africa’s original rock superstar. The importance, vitality and power of his work cannot be overestimated. He was a pure blend of ancestry and modern marvel.” – Hip-hop star Mos Def

Almost 14 years since his passing, Afro-beat superstar Fela Kuti’s life and music continue to fascinate and inspire a new generation of musicians from both sides of the Atlantic. Fela Kuti was to African music what Bob Marley was to reggae – an enigmatic character with a larger-than-life persona. SAM MATHE remembers the Black President.

It is very rare for musicians or artists in general to express a desire for political office – let alone do so openly. That is probably because artists tend to view their role in society as that of voicing the concerns of the everyday person against injustices normally perpetrated by the powers that be. To use a popular phrase coined by Palestinian intellectual Edward Said, like writers, musicians regard their purpose in society as that of “speaking truth to power”.
The late iconoclastic originator of Afro-beat music, Fela Kuti was the kind of artist who certainly spoke truth to power. In fact, he demonstrated it with such dramatic courage and exceptional dare-devilry that those who knew and understood the brutality of Nigeria’s military regimes would have been forgiven if they thought he was a suicidal maniac. His defiant and confrontational stance in the face of the raw power of the Nigerian police and the military confounded mere mortals.

Many artists with “struggle” credentials are happy to write “political” lyrics with hidden meanings and innuendo. But Fela Kuti was not an ordinary musician. He called a spade and spade in his defiant songs. He openly and fearlessly denounced the excesses of feared military tyrants such as the late unlamented General Sani Abacha. When the soldiers killed his mother, Kuti laid her coffin it on the doorstep of President Obasanjo’s residence in broad daylight.

This daring action inspired his popular hits Coffin For Head Of State. And he suffered horrific beatings at the hands of Nigeria’s sadistic police and soldiers – not to mention endless visits to Lagos’s notorious jails. So much has been written about Kuti’s unconventional world-view – such as declaring his communal compound an independent state named the Kalakuta Republic or embracing a polygamous lifestyle in an unusual ceremony that saw him marrying all 27 women in one day, only to controversially divorce all of them after eight years. He attracted even more controversy as an artist when he attempted to become president of Nigeria.

A paradoxical character, his children remember him as a gentle and generous soul who gave freely to the needy. Yet he was strict with his musicians – they would be fined if his sharp ears caught a discordant note during rehearsals or performances.

Kuti was a complex and compelling figure whose life and art is still being analysed by music experts, peers and a new generation of hip-hop artists who find in him an intriguing yet exceptionally gifted personality. They see in him an extraordinary cult figure and the ultimate social rebel whose rich musical legacy will remain an inspiration for young music-lovers across the globe.

In a career spanning four decades he released more than 50 albums characterised by unusually long but engaging songs with incendiary messages of freedom and justice. He sang most of them in Pidgin English – a lingua franca that was familiar to all Nigerians and most West Africans. As a prolific artist, he left behind an impressive oeuvre that continues to inspire and influence young musicians.

From Timbaland to Missy Elliot and Mos Def, hip-hop’s leading lights have taken liberties with the King of Afro-beat’s music. His sons, Seun and Femi, continue the tradition alongside the likes of Lagbaja – all respected and talented Afro-beat exponents in their own right. In theatre, the sold-out Broadway production Fela! is testament to his musical virtuosity and far-ranging artistic influence.

This, dear reader, is Anikulapo. He who cheated death and keeps it in his pocket. Egba Ami – “the strange one”. The self-anointed chief priest of the shrine. The Black President.

FELA KUTI IN HIS OWN WORDS:

On music: “With my music I create change. So I am using my music as a weapon. People call my music Afro-beat. I call it African music. The music is not coming from me as a subconscious thing. It is conscious. I am consciously doing what I am doing.”
On education: “Education today doesn’t allow people to know their purpose. It is meant to stifle that purpose. That is why I am against the education the white man has brought to Africa – where they force some careers on children instead of allowing them to choose their own way.”
On happiness: “That is the essence of true life. The mind is the source of happiness. I don’t believe those people who say because they have money they are happy. To be happy is not easy, but it is man who makes himself lonely.”
On greatness: “To be great you have to have a great nation first. That is why I say Africa – not Nigeria, Togo or Senegal – must become a great nation for all of the peoples that live there. But in this corrupt world of ours greatness is seen as the ability to destroy. Creativity, not destruction, should be the yardstick of greatness.”
On African and Western culture: “Africans always had what Europeans call the extended family. You stay in the compound together. Loneliness is absent in that culture. But in a culture where you live with your wife and children alone, loneliness will crop up, inevitably. Loneliness is inevitable in European culture. So human beings brought loneliness to themselves by making the wrong cultures. That is why I think Africa is the pacesetter for culture.”
On regrets: “Is there something I regret in life? Something I would have done another way if I had the chance to do it again? No. Everything I did wrongly was for experience. Once a man is looking for better knowledge and he tries to be honest and truthful in all his endeavours, then his life is just an experience. It cannot be a regret.”
On death: “Death is a beautiful thing. Don’t fear it. It doesn’t worry me. When my mother died it was because she had finished her time on earth. I know that when I die I will see her again.”
On his legacy: “Do I want to leave an imprint on the world? No. Not at all. All I want is for the world to change. I don’t want to be remembered. I just want to do my part and leave.”

FELA KUTI’S SONS ON LIFE WITH THEIR FAMOUS DAD

“My parents were very different. My father was very liberal, whereas my mother was both more attentive and stricter, because she was very concerned about us. In the beginning, my father was never at home, but once we reached adolescence, he was earning more money and he gave us anything we wanted. He let us drive all of his cars, even though we were too young. It used to bother my mother a lot. She didn’t understand why he did that. But I think it was his way of showing affection to his children.” – Femi Anikulapo Kuti, eldest son and Afro-beat musician

“There was no such thing as an average day [on Kalakuta]. My father kept an open-door policy. Anyone could come in or go out. We had ex-convicts, killers, doctors, lawyers, professors, electricians, plumbers as well as many musicians. For many their lives had gone off the rails. My dad would give these people a job and some money. Occasionally someone famous, like Shabba Ranks, would drop by with his posse. It was always up-tempo, always exciting.” – Seun Kuti, Afro-beat artist and youngest son

A CHRONOLOGY OF FELA KUTI’S LIFE

• 1938 15 October – Born Olufela Olusegun Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta, Nigeria, to the Reverend Israel Olodotun Ransome-Kuti and Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (née Thomas).
• 1947 – At the age of nine, Fela begins playing piano and organ and becomes his school’s pianist.
• 1954 – Fela joins the Lagos-based Cool Cats, a highlife band, as a singer.
• 1957 – Fela’s mother, a staunch pan-Africanist and personal friend of Kwame Nkrumah, introduces him to the Ghanaian president.
• 1958 – Fela’s parents send him to England to study medicine, but he registers at London’s Trinity School of Music instead. He studies classical music but plays jazz with his band Koola Lobitos in London clubs.
• 1959 – He meets his future wife Remi at a party in London.
• 1961 – Fela and Remi marry in London. Their eldest daughter, Yeni, is born.
• 1962 – The couple’s eldest son, Femi, is born.
• 1963 – Fela returns to Nigeria with his young family after completing his music studies at the Trinity School of Music.
• 1966-68 – Fela is inspired by the soul and funk of James Brown through Sierra Leonean musician Geraldo Pino and decides to evolve his own style, Afro-beat.
• 1969 – Fela takes Koola Lobitos to the United States. In LA African American woman Sandra Isidore introduces him to The Autobiography Of Malcolm X and other black activists and thinkers such as Eldridge Cleaver, Rap Brown, Huey Newton and Stokely Carmichael.
• 1970 – Back in Lagos he renames his band Africa 70 in line with his decision to play an African style of music he had called Afro-beat.
• 1971 – He renames his Lagos club Afro-Spot the Shrine.
• 1972 – Fela and Africa 70 release Shakara, his most popular album ever.
• 1974 – Fela has his first brush with the law when he is arrested for illegal possession of marijuana. He spends eight days in jail.
• 1974 – In pursuit of his dream of an alternative society, he fences his communal compound and names it the Kalakuta Republic, after a prison cell where he was once incarcerated. Kalakuta means “rascal” in prison slang.
• 1977 – Fela boycotts the government-initiated Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC). He organises a counter-FESTAC at the Shrine where he entertains international audiences and celebrity musicians such as Stevie Wonder and Gilberto Gil. In retaliation, soldiers raid his compound, rape female relatives. They beat Fela to a pulp, leaving him unconscious.
• 1978 – Fela marries 27 female dancers and singers from his band in a collective ceremony.
• 1979 – He forms a political party, Movement of the People (MOP) and puts his name forward as a presidential candidate in Nigeria’s elections, but his candidature is turned down.
• 1980 – Africa 70 becomes Egypt 80
• 1982 – Fela – This Bitch Of A Life, an authorised biography by Carlos Moore, is launched to critical acclaim. Music Is The Weapon, a documentary on the life and ideas of Fela, is shot in Lagos.
• 1984 – Fela is arrested and serves 20 months of a five-year prison sentence on currency-smuggling violations.
• 1986 – Fela denounces the institution of marriage and divorces all his 27 wives. “The marriage institution for the progress of the mind is evil,” he says at the time. “People marry because they are jealous, possessive and selfish”. Femi leaves his father’s band and forms Positive Force.
• 1987 – Fela is devastated by the murder of Captain Thomas Sankara – personal friend, fellow musician, revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso and the only head of state who publicly embraced Fela and his music.
• 1989 – Fela and Egypt 80 release Beasts Of No Nation, an anti-apartheid album that decries America and Britain’s support for South Africa. The sleeve cover portrays PW Botha, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Mobutu Sese Seko.
• 1993 – Fela is arrested and charged with murder after the police discover a body next to his compound. This brings his court appearances to 356 over 25 years. He spends two-and-a-half months in prison.
• 1995 – The new regime of General Sani Abacha hangs human-rights activist and author Ken Saro Wiwa for treason. Fela denounces Abacha’s tyrannical rule in a song titled Clear Road For Jagba Jagga
• 1996 – Fela and 30 of his band members are arrested on charges of possession of marijuana. He is released on bail after spending 10 days in jail.
• 1996 – Fela’s brother Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti is arrested along with other human-rights activists for plotting against the Abacha regime. He is sentenced to life imprisonment (later commuted to 15 years).
• 1997 – A frail-looking and visibly ill Fela and some supporters are arrested for possession of marijuana. He is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment but later released on bail after a public outcry.
• 1997 1 August – Fela slips into a coma and dies in hospital the following day. The cause of death: complications associated with AIDS.
• 1997 12 August – On the day of Fela’s funeral Lagos traffic – and business activity in general – literally comes to a halt. An estimated 150 000 mourners gather in Tafawa Balewa Square to pay their last respects as they file past his glass coffin before it is carried to his final resting place, the Kalakuta Shrine