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Tag: Fela

  • Fela’s ‘Zombie’ inducted into Grammy Hall of Fame

    Fela’s ‘Zombie’ inducted into Grammy Hall of Fame

    Afrobeats pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s iconic album “Zombie” has been posthumously inducted into the 2025 Grammy Hall of Fame.

    Released in 1976, “Zombie” is a powerful critique of the Nigerian military, likening soldiers to mindless drones who blindly follow orders.

    The album’s influence extends beyond its music, as it sparked a violent assault on Fela’s commune, Kalakuta Republic, and cemented his reputation as a fearless musical dissenter.

    Reacting to the news, his eldest son, Femi Kuti wrote: “Our father’s legacy lives on. We are honoured to accept this Grammy Hall of Fame award on behalf of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. His music continues to inspire & unite people across the world #Grammy”.

    Fela’s music, which fused jazz, highlife, and traditional African rhythms with searing political commentary, continues to inspire generations of artists and activists.

    Read Also: Fela was admitted to music school with pity – Yeni Kuti

    His legacy has been recognised globally, with notable figures like Seun Kuti, Burna Boy, Questlove, and Beyoncé drawing inspiration from his work.

    The Grammy Hall of Fame nod is a fitting tribute to Fela’s contributions to world music and his unwavering commitment to speaking truth to power.

  • Fela influenced Wizkid, Rema, Burna Boy’s music – Sarz

    Fela influenced Wizkid, Rema, Burna Boy’s music – Sarz

    Record producer, Osabuohien Osaretin, popularly known as Sarz, has argued the influence of legendary musician and Afrobeat pioneer, Fela Kuti, is still evident in the entertainment industry.

    According to Sarz, Fela’s works still inspire contemporary afrobeats singers like Wizkid, Burna Boy, Rema and generations to come.

    Speaking in a recent interview with ARZ, Sarz claimed that he also samples beats from Fela’s works.

    Read Also: I’m not successful in music because of Fela – Seun Kuti

    He said: “Recently, I listened to Fela’s catalog and I just find things I can sample or flip. Even in modern Afrobeats, you can tell his influence on a lot of us, from Burna Boy to Wizkid to Rema, and to the generation even coming. I’m sure they will still be inspired by the legend.”

  • Fela Kuti’s grandson Made rings wedding bells in photoshoots

    Fela Kuti’s grandson Made rings wedding bells in photoshoots

    Made Kuti, the grandson of legendary Afrobeat singer Fela Kuti is set to tie the knot with his beloved partner, Inedoye after a year of engagement.

    The Afrobeats singer, composer, and musician is prepared to walk down the aisle with his lover.

    Recall that he popped the ‘Will you marry me’ question to his fiancee last year.

    Read Also: Nigerians mobilise support for Fela Kuti as winner ‘Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’

    Made Kuti expressed how excited he was to see the future they would build together.

    He wrote: “Today a love story that began with two characters continues into one. Let the adventure begin.”

  • How Orijin celebrated Fela’s Legacy at 2023 Felabration

    How Orijin celebrated Fela’s Legacy at 2023 Felabration

    The Freedom Park edition of Felabration, themed “Question Jam Answer,” captured the enduring legacy of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, uniting cultural heritage with a resonant celebration. The Orijin brand, inspired by the African roots that drive the global influence of Afrobeat, took centre stage while offering a narrative that complements the rhythms of the event.

    The event, themed “Question Jam Answer,” harmoniously blended excellence and cultural celebration in honour of the Afrobeat founder, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

    The African roots behind Afrobeat music created by Fela Anikulapo ‘Baba70’ have been a wellspring of inspiration for countless talents, leading to the rise of superstars who have taken Afrobeat to the global stage, earning prestigious awards like the Grammys, BET Awards, and numerous other international accolades.

    Read Also: Indecent dressing: Solomon Buchi defends Maraji against internet trolls

    Throughout the week, Freedom Park resonated with creativity and self-expression providing a platform for live music performances, spanning a spectrum of genres from jazz to reggae, highlife, and electrifying cover renditions of Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat classics.

    Over 90 distinguished artists from different continents took the stage. The line-up included Fela Anikulapo’s protégé, Dede Mabiaku, the UK-based Ezra Collective, the versatile Greek-born scientist and musician Salvador Sango, and legendary Jamaican acts. The event reached its climax when Sir Shina Peters added his flair with a high-energy performance, joining a diverse assembly of local and international talents.

    Uche Onwudiwe, Marketing Manager, Mainstream Spirits & RTS, Guinness Nigeria, expressed, “Orijin’s partnership with Felabration is a testament to the inspirational power of African roots and creativity. It reflects our dedication to nurturing culture, talent, and the deep-rooted heritage of the now-winning African entertainment industry.”

  • I’m happy Fela didn’t exist in our generation, says Singer Burna Boy

    I’m happy Fela didn’t exist in our generation, says Singer Burna Boy

    Grammy award-winning Nigerian singer, Damini Ogulu popularly known as Burna Boy, has stated that if Fela existed beyond the period he did, he would have been criticised and probably arrested. 

    He said he is grateful that the late afrobeats pioneer, Fela Kuti, didn’t exist in this generation.

    The ‘Last Last’ crooner disclosed this in an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in New York. 

    The African giant said Fela’s existence was good while it lasted, adding that he passed on the message his songs carried and explored the music space extensively.

    According to Burna Boy, if Fela had existed in this current generation, most people holding him in high esteem today would have criticised and called for his arrest.

    He said: “What I have realised is that the times are really funny. Fela in his time was going through things that, if he was here today, it might have been a whole different feeling like a whole bunch of people from Nigeria who you see today celebrating Fela, are the same people that would have been tagging the police to go and arrest Fela if there was Twitter then.

    Read Also: I can’t wait for Burna Boy’s album, says Ayra Starr

    “So, at the end of the day, I feel like God doesn’t make mistakes. You know what I mean like the times are just perfect for everyone, you know. If he Fela was here today, like his career started now, he may not have the space to explore that [his conscious creativity] because there is too much in this day and age that it just doesn’t interlock with the spirits. Right now, spirituality is almost non-existent.

    “Now, the society is just mostly run by stupidity and ignorance. It was still the same back then [during Fela’s era], but it wasn’t as amplified or accessed [as it is today]. Now, everything is defined by stupidity and ignorance.

    “I’m grateful for the fact that he Fela existed in his time so that we can get an experience of the true organic nature of what he was, the essence of what he stood for and the messages he passed across to us.”

  • Fela resurrects at FESPACO

    Fela resurrects at FESPACO

    Afro-beat legend, the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti, ‘resurrected’ at the screening of a feature documentary, Meu Amigo Fela (My Friend Fela), in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. The film, which won the Paul Robeson Award for best film in the Diaspora at the 26th edition of The Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), was written and directed by Brazilian filmmaker Joel Zito Araujo, Chinyere Elizabeth Okoroafor reports.

    Inside the cosy Neerwaya Cinema, international and local cinema lovers filled the 300 red fabric seats to watch the 92-minute documentary that resonates around the complexity of Fela’s life. The film teases with infectious rhythms and disappears too swiftly, while other repetitive melodies dig in for the long haul.

    My Friend Fela as mediated through Carlos Moore’s narrations combines good present and past footage, interviews, images and music to present a comprehensive, intimate description of Fela, as seen from the eyes of those who knew him closely.

    The documentary begins with a song, Why Black Man Dey Suffer, criticising the evil of white colonialists and stating the predicaments of African people since colonisation. Fela asks, ‘Why black man no get money today?’ And then he explains that the black man was minding his business before a group of white persons showed up. “Na since them trouble start.”

    The song like many of his songs serves as a confrontational platform for social justice, but unfortunately, it causes him to become a target of Police and Army harassment, arrests and violence. His popular song, Zombie, was a song on the ruthless approach of Nigerian military government without mercy. The song results in a brutal military raid of Kalakuta that Fela had declared an independent republic.

    To understand Moore’s presence in the documentary as the dynamic, informative guide that leads the audience through the intricate, stimulating and occasionally disturbing life of Fela, the documentary vividly takes us through Moore’s background as an Afro-Caribbean. He mentions his fugitive experience in his native Cuba, his own political awakening inspired by working with Malcolm X and the work of Maya Angelou.

    Moore connects his interest in civil right activism to the moment when Fela in his tour of America in 1969 met Sandra Izsadore in Los Angeles, an African-American and  former Black Power radical

    Before then, Fela was a man who didn’t like black’s inferiority to white supremacy as witnessed during his studies in Britain.He couldn’t take a cigarette or drink alcohol. In an interview with Moore, Izsadore told Moore: “I asked him what he was singing about and he told me he was singing about his mother’s soup. And I said ‘with all the injustice happening in the world, you are singing about your mother’s soup?’ Sandra said she began to give him books to read.

    Meeting Sandra and learning why he shouldn’t despise black’s complex life but embrace the fact that black’s life is as important as the white who frustrates its existence especially in America. It was then that Fela first began to think in an Afro-conscious way.

    As Moore said, recalling from Fela’s interview with him, it was Sandra who gave him the education he wanted. She was the one who opened my eyes.  She talked to him about politics, history and she blew his mind. It was reading her copy of Malcolm X’s autobiography that realised that he wanted to play African music.

    Izsadore also comments on Fela’s regressive attitudes toward women, spreading his attention among 27 wives and countless lovers in his Kalakuta. This remains a sad irony for the son of an outspoken feminist advocate. The film suggests that his mother’s death, after being thrown from a second-storey window during a raid, robbed Fela of a coherent political model and steered him toward arcane spiritual beliefs. His detachment from reality peaked when he contracted the HIV virus, refusing to acknowledge either the illness or the benefits of Western medicine. He died in 1997.

    Some of the characters who feature in My Friend Fela such as LemiGhariokwu- who designed some of Fela’s most arresting album covers- and drummer, Tony Allen. While their conversations take a different route on My Friend Fela, the recordings are also complemented by figures who contribute to the Fela discourse either intimately or professionally. These figures include Seun Kuti, Fela’s youngest son, Ray Lema, Congolese jazz musician who has paid tribute to Fela in his music, and Babatunde Banjoko, an illustrator and photographer who contributed to Fela’s album covers.

    The documentary also ruminates on Fela’s powerful relationship with his mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, and some of the 27 women whom he famously married in a day.

    At the end of the documentary, both Moore and Izsadore agreed that Fela’s struggle and death were worth his relevance as a cultural figure, just like Bob Marley.

    The history behind the story

    When Carlos Moore, a Cuban intellectual, who speaks more than three international languages, relocated to Brazil with his family where he has been teaching and researching about Latin American culture, he contacted Araujo to make a documentary of his friend Fela. Moore’s decision to recreate Fela’s life, struggle and death after 12 years of his death came after seeing several of Araujo’s films; he concluded he was the best filmmaker to do the job.

    Sitting with Moore and listening to fascinating stories about Fela, an African Afro beat music icon he had never met, Araujo, was charmed. Later, after reading a copy of Fela’s biography titled Fela: This Bitch of a Life, it dawned on Araujo that there was a need to document the life of a man who gave it all for an important struggle he never actualised. He said he was interested to do the film and at that moment he started to look for funds in Brazil to do the film, “But it was difficult because in Brazil they didn’t know Fela but only the new generation (of artistes),” he said.

    “So, the supporters, the producers said to me, ‘this guy is important but Brazilians don’t know about him,’ and it was frustrating,”he said. After spending more than six years seeking funds from the Brazilian government, Araujo finally received the first money to do the film, but then another film about Fela from Alex Gibney’s 2014 work titled: Finding Fela, had already been released. Rather than been discouraged, Araujo said he took it without any trouble. “I said there is no problem, I will go ahead and do the film about Fela, the Fela that is important to us Brazilian people through our own eyes,” he added.

    To Araujo, writing and directing the documentary about the life of Fela was to use the channel to raise the Pan African consciousness into the lives of Afro-Brazilian new generation.

    To execute the job, Araujo did face some difficulties. He was refused a visa and it was the intervention of Wole Soyinka who finally got Araujo and the writer Carlos Moore into the country, but their crew members were denied visas.

    For Moore and Fela, it was love at first sight. Working as a journalist in France, Moore was contacted by the then Nigerian government, which was organising an international black festival.

    In Moore’s narration, ‘I came to Nigeria with my family in February 1974 and immediately I arrived the country, I heard Fela’s music and fell in love with it instantly. I asked one person to arrange for me to meet him. So, I was taken to Fela by Dr. Ola Balogun and that was how we met.’

  • 21 years after, Fela still evokes politics

    Legendary musician, Africanist, socio-political and economic activist, lover of women and an unrepentant cannabis smoker, Fela Anikulapo Kuti represented many things to many people. At Felabration, 21 years after his death, his ghost still haunts the political elites, Joe Agbro Jr. writes

    His death on August 2, 1997 from AIDS sent reverberations across the world, seeing over a million people troop out to witness his burial at his Ikeja, Lagos residence on August 12, 1997. Many in the mammoth crowd didn’t mind they wouldn’t catch a glimpse of the legend’s earthly remains. Just being around for his spirit was enough. 21 years later, Felabration, the annual festival to immortalise the musician, has ensured that the devotion to the spirit of Abami Eda (the strange one), one of Fela’s monikers, is reignited.

    However, underneath Fela’s bohemian lifestyle, many agree there is no denying his political leaning of seeing a better Nigeria, nay Africa. And organisers of Felabration have ensured that the Felabration stage, beyond espousing musical concerts for established and up and coming artistes, is also used to canvass for betterment of the society.

    Hence, it was perhaps of little surprise that vice-president professor Yemi Osinbajo waltzed onto the stage at the New Afrika Shrine, Ikeja, Lagos, to address concert goers at a jam-packed event on the seventh and final day of the festival. But if Osinbajo was expecting a rubber stamp of approval from Fela’s scions, he was wrong.

    Typical of the Kutis, Femi, Fela’s son, told the vice president how he loves him as a friend but would not support him during the 2019 elections because he represents a government which he is sure his father would not align with.

    “When I went to his (Osinbajo’s) house, he asked me to support him and he is here now and I am saying no,” Femi said, standing with Osinbajo on the stage.

    “I won’t support him because of my father. But he is my friend. He said he understands and respects my view. He said he has been hearing about the shrine and wants to come and I’m very happy he came. When he got here he didn’t know the place was like this and he has seen that we are not mad people.”

    While he was Nigerian military head of state, Buhari had jailed Fela for trafficking in foreign currency. This charge was viewed as a witch hunt by Fela’s family, friends and supporters because he criticised the Buhari-led government.

    Responding, Osinbajo said; “The country will be great no matter what happens.”

    While alive, Afrobeat founder, Fela Kuti dubbed his political songs ‘yabis’. Effectively speaking against the tyranny and ineffectual political elite, Fela invoked a socio-political awareness in many Nigerians. And 21 years after his death, Fela’s name still resonates in Nigerian politics.

    As Fela himself desired to be Nigeria’s president, intending to run under the platform of Movement of the People (MOP), a party he formed, it was reflective that Felabration opened its stage to three 2019 presidential candidates – Eunice Atuejide, Omowole Soyore and Fela Durotoye – to discuss the topic ‘African Leadership in the Millennium’ as part of the ‘Fela Debates’ on October 15, the opening of Felabration at NECA Hall, Agidingbi, Lagos. On that day, were he alive, Fela would have turned 80 and it would have presented an opportunity for him to ‘yab.’

    However, the candidates in no small ways must have voiced some of his positions as they all lambasted the present administration of President Muhamadu Buhari, drawing instances from where Fela blasted both president Muhamadu Buhari and former president Olusegun Obasanjo. And when Durotoye launched into ‘Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense,’ to many present, the song, like many of Fela’s ‘conscious’ songs evoked his prophetic sides. Other Fela’s songs which was referenced at the event include ‘Coffin for Head of State’, ‘Suffering and Smiling’ and ‘Why Blackman dey Suffer’.

    A fourth candidate, Oby Ezekwesili, sent a representative, Tunde Lardner while Donald Duke, who had earlier been scheduled to attend was absent.

    And while the session as ongoing, Seun, another musician son of Fela, took to Facebook to bolster his father’s angst on some persons still bearing influence in Nigeria’s political space.

    “Fela sing against MKO Una vote am,” Seun wrote.

    “Fela sing against Obasanjo Una vote am. Fela sing against Buhari Una vote am. Now Una go still vote for Atiku. Where is the love? Nigerian people, make Una talk true na. Who’s fooling who?”

    Former vice president Abubakar Atiku is seen as the most formidable opponent of President Buhari.

    Discourse around social rights was the underlying spirit of the 2018 edition of Felabration which held between October 15 and October 21 and had as its theme ‘Baba @ 80: Overtaking Overtake’. However, on October 10, 10 Lagos State secondary schools had debated the topic ‘State Police should be implemented in Nigeria.’ While Rainbow College, Surulere, won the debate, Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, praised the participating students for their points and delivery.

    “We have very promising politicians among us,” said Soyinka’s who is also Fela’s first cousin, after watching the debate. He however, urged those inclined towards politics to be prepared beyond rhetorics.

    “Try and distinguish between rhetoric and politics.  Be good speakers but if you are going to get into politics be prepared for some rough time.”

    Fela, a prolific musician, used his songs, many of which were frontal on the elite, to canvass for social change. And this edition of Felabration had established and up and coming local and international bands perform free at both the New Afrika Shrine, Ikeja, the festival’s primary base and Freedom Park on Broad Street. It remains the biggest Nigerian concert.

    However, beyond the musical concerts, Felabration, founded by Fela’s daughter, Yeni, is poised to evolve beyond the staple of Secondary School Debates, Fela Debates, Afrobics Dance Competition and Arts Competition. Yeni disclosed that Felabration Organising Committee has morphed into a Felabration Foundation poised to look into other activities which her father believed in.

    “Felabration is not just about music, symposium and school debates,” said Yeni.

    “It’s also about helping the people.”

  • ‘Why I wrote book on Fela’

    The need to continuously document the life and philosophy of the late Afrobeat King, Fela Anikulapo Kuti has motivated Journalist, writer and activist Lanre Arogundade to present a book on the music icon at the weekend.

    Riding on the crest of this year’s edition of Felabration, Arogundade, chairman of the International Press Center (IPC) presented the book on Saturday at the Kalakuta Musuem in Ikeja, Lagos.

    In attendance were members of Arogundade’s constituency in the media and activism as well as Fela enthusiasts.

    The book ‘Fela: Yesterday’s Message As Toady’s Reality,’ is a recollection of the author’s encounters with the globally celebrated African music and political icon. It also documents the author’s views on nationalistic issues, using Fela’s life, music and ideologies as a peg.

    According to Arogundade, he encountered Fela as a child through his uncle’s music store in Ijebu Ijesa, as a student union activist and also as a journalist.

    He said he was motivated to write the book to document the founder of Afrobeat from his interactions with him.

    “I discovered that the more you think you know Fela, the more you realise that you didn’t know him,” said Arogundade

    “And the more you write about Fela, the more you discover you still have much more to write about him.”

    Arogundade said he decided to share how he ‘encountered’ Fela as a sense of duty.

    “With this wealth of knowledge about Fela, I thought that I would be doing history injustice not to document some of them so that through my prisms, some other people could at least understand the man Fela much better.”

    The guest speakers – culture activist Jahman Anikulapo, publisher Kunle Ajibade and renowned author Odia Ofeimun – praised the author for his work and reiterated the importance of studying Fela and his ideals. Also, veteran journalist, Benson Idonije, who wrote a book about the music legend, Dis Fela Sef, activist Yinka Odumakin and former presidential spokesman Reuben Abati spoke on Fela, sharing snippets of their encounters with him.

     

     

  • What Nigerians should learn from Fela – Yeni Kuti

    Yeni Kuti, daughter of the late legendary musician, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, on Wednesday, advised Nigerians to emulate her father’s pursuit of unity, for national development.

    Kuti told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos that for the nation to make remarkable progress, its citizens must pursue unity just like the late musical icon.

    She said that the major problems of the nation, which were ethnicity, religious bigotry and politics, could be subsumed if the spirit of unity is in play the lives of the citizenry.

    According to her, this was emphasised by Fela in music, which she urged all to listen to.

    She said Fela’s song entitled: “Water no get Enemy’’, in a subtle and proverbial manner, through thought-provoking lyrics, preached harmony and unity across humans, with nature as his metaphor.

    “When we consciously pursue unity as a country, we will discover that issues of ethnicity, religious bigotry and politics that divide us will no longer do.

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    “As a nation, we must work in unity to achieve our collective goals.

    “ We must all see ourselves as Nigerians, regardless of our ethnic group, political bias or religion,’’ she said.

    Kuti said paucity of funds and lack of adequate sponsors had been challenging in organising the ongoing “Felabration”.

    She, however, said that this had not affected the success of the programme.

    “This year’s edition has been awesome, despite the fact that we got few sponsors.

    “Felabration is celebrated in over 20 nations of the world as we speak,’’ she said.

  • What would Fela have been like at 79?

    THE late Afrobeat founder and human rights activist, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti might have left the scene when the ovation was loudest.

    Born on October 15, 1938, the Abami Eda, as he was fondly called, passed on August 2, 1997 at the age of 58. Were he to still be alive, he would have been 79 years old last Thursday, August 2, 2018.

    If there is one single man who is so celebrated across the world, even in death, apart from the late apartheid fighter, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, that person would be Fela whose weapon of activism was music.

    However, I am wondering if Fela would still command the same regard, accolade, and idolization as a person if he were to be alive today.

    For a fact, Fela did not live a perfect life, but his music which today seems to be fulfilling some political prophesies has overridden his ‘shortcomings’.

    I think it is unlikely that one would dissipate the same level of energy spent on a lion to wrestle a dog. The most active years of Fela on earth, he spent fighting dictatorship. Today, the political atmosphere appears to me more complex with the most revered democracy turning the nation into field of play. Would Fela have visited the current foul players with the same energy?

    Of course, there would be more story ideas for his songs going by the daily shows within political parties, dramas in the House of Reps and Senate, the presidency et al… are these not too much for one man to chew? Isn’t there going to be a point of discouragement where results are not in view? Was Fela truly expecting positive results or had he given up on the possibility of good governance in Nigeria and Africa, outside his personal ambition of being the best black president Africa never had? If he won a presidential election in Nigeria, would he still be this revered?

    During the last visit of President Emmanuel Macron to the Afrika Shrine, there were opinions that suggested that Fela wouldn’t have played host to such event that feasted government functionaries. But toughness is known to wane with age, giving way to simpler mien, tolerance and accommodation. Would Fela have remained a lion all his life even if he had the energy? This is most likely not so at 79?

    On the side of energy, it is unlikely that he would be able to do more gigs than a contemporary like Victor Olaiya who hardly can meet up with weekly shows. Would he have turned around to eulogise Ifa like Sonny Okosun who turned a gospel singer in his last days? Would his vibes as a music activist have reduced to the level that other contemporaries like Segun Bucknor, Joni Haastrup and Tony Allen attained?

    I feel that Fela left when the ovation was loudest; such a good time to quit and remain a music legend forever with a cult of followers from generation to generation. And with the annual Felabration being championed by his children and the tourist attraction that the Shrine is today, there is no asking for a better Fela’s relevance were he to be alive today because it may not just be any better.

    However, because all his life, Fela did not conform with norms, it is most likely that if alive today, his weak bones would make that deviant difference, enough to make news, an ‘Abami Eda’ (spirit being) that he was known as.