It's almost impossible to overstate the impact and importance of Fela
Anikulapo (Ransome) Kuti (or just Fela as he's more commonly known) to
the global musical village: producer, arranger, musician, political
radical, outlaw.
He was all that, as well as showman par excellence , inventor of
Afro-beat, an unredeemable sexist, and a moody megalomaniac. His death
on August 3,1997 of complications from AIDS deeply affected musicians
and fans internationally, as a musical and sociopolitical voice on a
par with Bob Marley was silenced.
A press release from the United Democratic Front of Nigeria on the
occasion of Fela's death noted: "Those who knew you well were
insistent that you could never compromise with the evil you had fought
all your life. Even though made weak by time and fate, you remained
strong in will and never abandoned your goal of a free, democratic,
socialist Africa." This is as succinct a summation of Fela's political
agenda as one is likely to find.
Born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, north of Lagos in 1938, Fela's family was
firmly middle class as well as politically active. His father was a
pastor (and talented pianist), his mother active in the anti-colonial,
anti-military, Nigerian home rule movement. So at an early age, Fela
experienced politics and music in a seamless combination.
His parents, however, were less interested in his becoming a musician
and more interested in his becoming a doctor, so they packed him off
toLondon in 1958 for what they assumed would be a medical education;
instead, Fela registered at Trinity College's school of music.Tired of
studying European composers, Fela formed his first band, Koola Lobitos
, in 1961,and quickly became a fixture on the London club scene. He
returned to Nigeria in 1963 and started another version of Koola
Lobitos that was more influenced by the James Brown -style singing of
Geraldo Pina from Sierra Leone.
Combining this with elements oftraditional high life and jazz, Fela
dubbed this intensely rhythmic hybrid "Afro-beat," partly as critique
of African performers whom he felt had turned their backs on their
African musical roots in order to emulate current American pop music
trends.
In 1969, Fela brought Koola Lobitos to Los Angeles to tour and record.
They toured America for about eight months using Los Angeles as a home
base. It was while in L.A. that Fela hooked up with a friend, Sandra
Isidore, who introduced him to the writings and politics of Malcolm X,
Eldridge Cleaver (and by extension the Black Panthers), and other
proponents of Black nationalism and Afrocentrism. Impressed at what he
read, Fela was politically revivified and decided that some changes
were in order: first, the name of the band, as Koola Lobitos became
Nigeria70 ; second, the music would become more politically explicit
and critical of the oppression of the powerless worldwide.
After a disagreement with an unscrupulous promoter who turned them in
to the Immigration and Naturalization Services, Fela and band were
charged with working without work permits. Realizing that time was
short before they were sent back to Nigeria, they were able to scrape
together some money to record some new songs in L.A. What came to be
known as the '69 Los Angeles Sessions were remarkable, an indication
of a maturing sound and of the raucous, propulsive music that was to
mark Fela's career.
Afrobeat's combination of blaring horn sections, antiphonal vocals,
Fela's quasi-rapping pidgin English, and percolating guitars, all
wrapped up in a smoldering groove (in the early days driven by th e
band's brilliant drummer Tony Allen) that could last nearly an hour,
was an intoxicating sound. Once hooked, it was impossible to get
enough.
Upon returning to Nigeria, Fela founded a communal
compound-cum-recording studio and rehearsal space he called the
Kalakuta Republic, and a nightclub, the Shrine. It was during this
time that he dropped his given middle name of "Ransome" which he said
was a slave name, and took the name"Anikulapo" (meaning "he who
carries death in his pouch") .
Playing constantly and recording at a ferocious pace, Fela and band
(who were now called Africa 70 ) became huge stars in West Africa. His
biggest fan base, however, was Nigeria's poor. Because his music
addressed issues important to the Nigerian underclass (specifically a
military government that profited from political exploitation and
disenfranchisement), Fela was more than a simply a pop star; like Bob
Marley in Jamaica, he was the voice of Nigeria's have-nots, a cultural
rebel.
This was something Nigeria's military junta tried to nipin the bud,
and from almost the moment he came back to Nigeria up until his death,
Fela was hounded, jailed, harassed, and nearly killed by a government
determined to silence him. In one of the most egregious acts of
violence committed against him, 1,000 Nigerian soldiers attacked his
Kalakuta compound in 1977 (the second government-sanctioned attack).
