There are few people who have attained the height the late Pan-African music king, composer, saxophonist, spiritualist, vocalist, dancer, keyboardist and the grandfather of Afro beat Fela Anikulapo Kuti a.ka Baba 70 or Abami Eda attained during his life time.
The super human musician, who had 77 albums, numerous wives, over two hundred court appearances, scores of harassment and jail cases became one of Nigeria’s most respected activists, securing an enviable place for himself on the podium of world music legends.
14 years after his death, he’s still putting Nigeria and Africa’s name on the global map.
Tuesday, 2nd August, 2011 marked the 14 anniversary ofthat the King of Afro beat, Fela Anikulapo’s death.
Fela, the late Nigerian musician and political agitator, fascinated millions and had fans around the world, including legends like Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder.
Bill T, Jones recently put together what he termed Fela – from West Africa to West Broadway.
Jones, a Tony Award winner who directed and choreographed the show, said it was an opportunity to project to the world one of the most outstanding music icons the world has ever known.
Shown at the popular Eugene O’Neil Theatre on Broadway, the huge attendance was to further underscore the importance of Fela’s dogged fight against many odds.
His brand of Afro jazz was thoroughly informed and influenced by his own immediate environment and what he felt ought to be done to make the society a better place for all.
It is also important to look at the struggle of the late icon who through the huddles overcame the so called dictators of his time in order to pass across vital information through music.
A man who excelled in his chosen career was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but decided to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music.
While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos, playing a fusion of jazz and highlife. In 1960, Fela married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he had three children (Femi, Yeni, and Sola).
In 1963, Fela moved back to Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He played for some time with Victor Olaiya and his All Stars.
In 1967, he went to Ghana to think above a new musical direction. That was when Kuti first called his music Afrobeat.
In 1969, Fela took the band to the United States.
While there, Fela discovered the Black Power movement through Sandra Smith (now Izsadore)—a partisan of the Black Panther Party—which would heavily influence his music and political views and renamed the band Nigeria ‘70.
Soon, the Immigration and Naturalisation Service was tipped off by a promoter that Fela and his band were in the U.S. without work permits.
The band then performed a quick recording session in Los Angeles that would later be released as The ‘69 Los Angeles Sessions.
After Fela and his band returned to Nigeria, the band was renamed Africa ‘70, as lyrical themes changed from love to social issues.
He then formed the Kalakuta Republic, acommune, a recording studio, and a home for many connected to the band which he later declared independent from the Nigerian state.
Fela set up a nightclub in the Empire Hotel, named the Afro-Spot and then the Afrika Shrine, where he performed regularly. Fela also changed his middle name to Anikulapo (meaning “he who carries death in his pouch”) stating that his original middle name of Ransome was a slave name.
The recordings continued, and the music became more politically motivated. Fela’s music became very popular among the Nigerian public and Africans in general.
In fact, he made the decision to sing in Pidgin English so that his music could be enjoyed by individuals all over Africa, where the local languages spoken are very diverse and numerous.
As popular as Fela’s music had become in Nigeria and elsewhere, it was also very unpopular with the ruling government, and raids on the Kalakuta Republic were frequent. During 1972 Ginger Baker recorded Stratavarious with Fela appearing alongside Bobby Gass.
Around this time, Kuti was becoming more involved in Yoruba religion.
In 1977 Fela and Afrika ‘70 released the ever green hit album Zombie, a mocking attack on
Nigerian soldiers using the zombie metaphor to describe the methods of the Nigerian military.
The album was a massive hit with the people and infuriated the government, setting off a vicious attack against the Kalakuta Republic, during which one thousand soldiers attacked the commune.
Fela was severely beaten, and his elderly mother was thrown from a window, causing fatal injuries.
The Kalakuta Republic was burned, and Fela’s studio, instruments, and master tapes were destroyed.
Fela claimed that he would have been killed if not for the intervention of a commanding officer as he was being beaten.
Fela’s response to the attack was to deliver his mother’s coffin to the Dodan Barracks in Lagos, General Olusegun Obasanjo’s residence, and to write two songs, “Coffin for Head of State” and “Unknown Soldier”, referencing the official inquiry that claimed the commune had been destroyed by an unknown soldier.
Fela and his band then took residence in Crossroads Hotel as the Shrine had been destroyed along with his commune.
In 1978 Fela married twenty-seven women, many of whom were his dancers, composers, and singers to mark the anniversary of the attack on the Kalakuta
Republic.
Later, he was to adopt a rotation system of keeping only twelve simultaneous wives.
The year was also marked by two notorious concerts, the first in Accra in which riots broke out during the song “Zombie”, which led to Fela being banned from entering Ghana.
The second was at the Berlin Jazz Festival after which most of Fela’s musicians deserted him, due to rumours that Fela was planning to use the entire proceeds to fund his presidential campaign.
Despite the massive setbacks, Fela was determined to come back. He formed his own political party, which he called Movement of the People.
In 1979 he put himself forward for President in Nigeria’s first elections for more than a decade but his candidature was refused. At this time, Fela created a new band called Egypt ‘80 and continued to record albums and tour the country.
He further infuriated the political establishment by dropping the names of ITT vice-president Moshood Abiola and then General Olusegun Obasanjo at the end of a hot-selling 25-minute political screed titled “I.T.T. (International Thief-Thief)”.
In 1984, Muhammadu Buhari’s government, of which Kuti was a vocal opponent, jailed him on a charge of currency smuggling which Amnesty International and others denounced as politically motivated.
His case was taken up by several human-rights groups, and after 20 months, he was released from prison by General Ibrahim Babangida.
On his release he divorced his twelve remaining wives, saying that “marriage brings jealousy and selfishness.”
His album output slowed in the 1990s, and eventually he stopped releasing albums altogether. In 1993 he and four members of the Afrika ‘70 organisation were arrested for murder.
The battle against military corruption in Nigeria was taking its toll, especially during the rise of the late military dictator Sani Abacha.
Rumours were also spreading that he was suffering from an illness for which he was refusing treatment.
H later died and more than a million people attended Fela’s funeral at the site of the old Shrine compound.
A new Africa Shrine has opened since Fela’s death in a different section of Lagos under the supervision of his son Femi Kuti.
Even in death he is still being remembered, celebrated after 14 years by his numerous fans and lovers of Afro beat.
The Broadway which generated a lot of hype in Nigeria, New York, England, United States of America and other countries of the world had a different stage productions and shows which celebrated the late music nationalist.
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