Gwen Ansell
If it weren’t for Fela Kuti, we might not have Bayete. Today Afropop is a recognised musical genre; in the late 1960s, it didn’t exist. Two men – Manu Dibangu with Soul Makossa in 1972, and Fela Anikulapo Kuti with the 1970 Fela’s London Scene – pioneered big, jazzy outfits which fused traditional roots with a passionate, James Brown-ish 1970s soul feel. They were the true fathers of today’s African dance music.
Fela was the son of respectable, highly political parents. He learned his music theory (and to play trumpet and sax) at London’s Trinity College of Music. Back in Nigeria, he played modern highlife until Sierra Leonean soul singer Geraldo Pino gave him some new ideas in 1966. Then he began a series of musical pilgrimages – to Ghana, the US and later Europe – to define the style.
Populism, Pan-Africanism and a bohemian lifestyle (in 1978 he married all 27 of his female singers and dancers before divorcing them all in 1988), all reflected in his lyrics.
These factors also led to confrontations with the authorities – including his putting an electric fence around his club in Lagos and declaring it an independent state in 1976; the death of his mother Funmilayo after a violent army raid in 1977; and his own imprisonment on trumped- up charges in 1984.
Johannesburg drummer Jethro Shasha visited Fela’s Lagos base in 1988: “He showed us huge hospitality, and was very supportive of South Africa’s struggle. In music, he was our messiah. His lyrics reflected the way we as Africans spoke.”
Fela Anikulapo Kuti, musician and political rebel, died of an Aids-related illness at his home in Nigeria on August 2 at the age of 58