“Fela was virtually a one-man

countergovernment in the popular realm, rhetorically redressing with vitriolic scorn

various government policies launched with fanfare and utmost seriousness and passing them on to

the people – through the great power of his music – completely tattered and dripping with ridicule.”

-Tejumola Olaniyan

“Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was James Brown, Huey Newton, Rick James, Bob

Marley, Duke Ellington and ODB all rolled in 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. A pure blend of ancestry and modern marvel.”

- Mos Def Fela was a brilliant composer and performer, but foremost he was a

leader. A political dissident, he was an outspoken critic of the corruption and repressive policies that left millions of Nigerians

without basic human rights

-Trevor Schoonmaker

"My name is Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Black president or Chief Priest of Shrine.“

-Fela

77 albums, 27 wives, over two hundred court appearances. Harassed, beaten, tortured, jailed.

Twice-born father of Afro-beat. Spiritualist. Pan-Africanist. Commune king. Composer,

saxophonist, keyboardist, vocalist, dancer. Would-be candidate for the Nigerian presidency. There will

never be another like him

When he start to dey yab

Dictator go dey shake

Oppressor go dey fear

When he put mouth for song

Philosophy go dey flow

When he put horn for mouth

Melody go dey blow

- Nigerian artist Lagbaja

“To listen to Fela’s music then is to listen to a kind of cultural, specifically musical

“biography” of the postcolonial African state: an account of the state’s crisis-ridden life so far as seen by an oppositional music.”

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and the 9th

most populous country in the world. Its oil rich economy is one of the fastest growing, unfortunately few of its 135 million people receive any share of the nation’s wealth.

A nation of great ethnic diversity, its postcolonial history has been dominated by

violence and military rule. Lagos, the most populous city is one in which Nigeria’s richest and poorest coexist. Access to safe water is a major problem and in some areas sewage drains in open

ditches. For the rich, Lagos is a commercial and financial hub, and they avoid its pitfalls by sinking boreholes for water, and riding air-conditioned Jeeps over its potholed highways.

Ikeja is the ghetto in Lagos that Fela Kuti created his

Kalakuta

(Rascal’s)

Republic.

A liberal commune with over 70 people living there at the time including dancers, band members, girlfriends, and relatives. Unlike most middle/upper-class Nigerians Fela chose to live among the common people,

who tolerated his libertine lifestyle. Notorious for open drug use, stoned and disorderly messengers and bodyguards, and skimpily dressed, heavily made up, smoking girls, it was here that Fela first caught the attention of Nigerian authorities.

Homeless people sleeping in Ikeja

A boy selling marijuana in Ikeja

In 1974, when a number of complaints came into the Lagos Police station

at Alagbon Close of daughters that had been “kidnapped” by Fela, over fifty armed policemen visited his residence. Most of the occupants were arrested. Fela was released on bail and many of the girls escaped from their homes and juvenile detention centers back to Fela. When the police returned to consolidate their case against him, they could not find evidence of marijuana usage anywhere. However, they had brought some of their own to plant as evidence.

“I looked at it. I was thinking fast, man. Then suddenly in split second - really fast! – I went for the paper, grabbed it and put it in my mouth and jumped on

my bed, man. I’d swallowed it! I took the whisky bottle by my bed, put it to my mouth and washed the shit down.”

After failed attempts to regain the evidence, Fela was again arrested, in a conspiracy with his fellow prisoners and his mother, Fela was able to keep his “shit…clean like a baby’s”. Following his release, Fela recorded two

songs, “Alagbon Close” and “Expensive Shit” to immortalize his experience.

Thus began Fela’s career as a thorn in the side of 6 Nigerian administrations; civilian and military.

For Alagbon

Dem no get respect for human being

Dem no know say you get blood like them

Dem go send dem go bite you

Dem go put dem gun to your face

The gun wey dem take your money buy

Dem go torture you and take your statement from you

Dem go lock you for months

Dem dey call am “investigation”

If you know dem for Alagbon

Make you tell dem make dem hear

Uniform na cloth, na tailor dey sew am

Tailor dey sew am like your dress

Tailor dey sew am like my dress

Nothing special about uniform.

“Alagbon Close”

In his music he attempted to incite the common person to stand up to

an authority not legitimated by concepts such as democracy or a constitution, but by violence. He paid dearly for it. After its release police again came to Kalakuta and beat Fela within an inch of his life. He spent three days in hospital but only became more belligerent as a result.

Fela dedicated his career to defending and promoting the rights of African people. No one was safe from his impassioned tongue. He would open his concerts at the

Afrika Shrine with a yabis in which he would launch into scathing monologues on local and international headlines, and withering satires on political figures and institutions which he believed deserved only scorn

The thing wey black no goodna foreign things dem dey like. No be so? EE BE SO/ I BE SO Dem go turn air condition and close dem country away. Na be so? E be so

Dem judge him go put white wig and jail him brothers away No be so? E be so Dem go proud of dem name and put dem slave name for head No be so? E be so

Colomentality now make you hear me nowMr. Ransome you make you hear Mr. Williams you make you hear Mr. Ali -a you make you hear Mr. Mohammed you make you hear Mr. Anglican you make you hear Mr. Bishop you make you hear Mr. Catholic you make you hear Mr. Musulim you make you hear

“Colomentality” (Colonial Mentality)

Dem call the place, the “United Nations” Hear-oh another animal talkWetin united inside “United Nations”?Who & who unite, for “United Nations”?No be there Thatcher & Argentina deyNo be there Reagan & Libya deyIs-i-rael versus LebanonIran-i-oh versus Iraq-iEast West Block versus West Block EastNo be there dem dey oh- United NationsDis “united” United NationsOne veto vote is equal to 92 […OR MORE, OR MORE]What kind sense be dat, na animal sense

Human rights na my propertySo therefore, you can’t dash me my propertyHuman rights na my propertyDey wan dash us human rights

Some people say, “Why I dey talk like dis,No be talk like dis, dem take to carry me go prision ee-oh”No be me dey talk, na Prime Minister Botha dey talk, ee-oh Him say, “this uprising will bring out the beast in us”THIS UPRISING WILL BRING OUT THE BEAST IN US

Botha na friend to Thatcher & ReaganBotha na friend to some other leaders tooAnd together dem wan dash us human rightsAnimals wan dash us human rightsAnimal can’t dash me human rights

Many foreign companies dey Africa carry all our money goSAY AM, SAY AM

Many foreign companies dey Africa carry all our money goDem go write big English for newspaper, Dabaru we AfricansDem go write big English for newspaper, Dabaru we AfricansI read about one of them inside book like that- Them call him name na I.T.T

[…]

Cause oppressionOPPRESSIONCause confusionCONFUSIONCause inflationINFLATIONCause oppressionOPPRESSIONOppression, Opression, Inflation, Corruption, Opression, Inflation----

I. T. T (International Thief Thief)

[insert relevant quote from The Wretched of The Earth on the African bourgeoisie]

Dem leave Sorrow, Tears and Blood,

Dem Regular trademark

Dem throw my mama

Unknown Soldier78 year-old mama

Political mama

Ideological mama

Influential mama

Dem throw my mama

Out of from window

Dem kill my mama

[…]

I get some information for you

That my mama wey you kill

She fought for universal adult suffrage

That my mama wey you kill

Na the only mother of this country

Wives and Queens

Cultural Nationalism,

Spirituality and Influence

We wey ele for AfrikaWe dey leave like servantsUnited Nations dem comeGet name for usDem go call us under developed nationWe must be underdevelopedTo dey stay ten-ten in one room OFirst and second dey

Dem go call us Third WorldWe must dey craze for headTo dey sleep inside dustbinDem go call us none-aligned nationsWe must dey craze for headTo dey sleep under bridge O

Ordinary house for manE yen deyDem come turn-us to suffer-head toOriginal Suffer-headIt' s time for Jefa-Head O (to enjoy good fortune)Original Jefa-Head ODem turn us to Suffer-head O

Fela Anikulapo (one who carries death in his pouch) Kuti

1938-2007

What makes me sad today is to see people pushed around in life by other human beings…

And the work that has to be done in Africa for Africans to progress… I think of how many Africans are so unaware, how they suffer in oblivion. That makes me sad… Despite my sadness I create joyful rhythms…I want to

change sadness. I want people to be happy. And I can do it by playing happy music. And through happy music I tell you about the sadness of others. So they will come to realize that, “Oh we can be happy!” With my music I create a change. I see it. So really I am using

my music as a weapon. I play music as a weapon. The music is not coming from me as a subconscious thing. It’s conscious.