Fela Kuti

Fela Anikulapo Kuti (Abeokuta, October 15, 1938-Lagos, August 2, 1997) was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, politician and human rights activist.

He created afrobeat, a genre that was enormously influential in the decades from the 70s to the 90s, and which consisted of a fusion of several genres such as jazz, blues and funk.

He is considered one of the most important musicians on the African continent and an icon for Nigeria, being the most famous musician born in that country. His song "Zombie" It appears on Time magazine's list of the 100 best songs.

During his life he had to testify 356 times in court and was arrested and imprisoned by the police 4 times. He died in 1997 from complications resulting from AIDS.

Among his children are the musicians Femi Kuti and Seun Kuti.

Biography

Fela Kuti was born in Abeokuta (Nigeria) into a middle-class Christian family as Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti. Her mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was an activist in the feminism and anti-colonial movement, while her father, the Reverend Israel Oludoton Ransome-Kuti, was the first president of the Nigerian Teachers' Union and a talented pianist.

In 1958 Kuti moved to London to study medicine but changed his plans and enrolled at Trinity College of Music. Once he began his musical studies, he formed a band called Koola Lobitos, which played afrobeat, a style invented by Fela Kuti that synthesized West African music with the most classic jazz.

In 1963 Fela moved to Nigeria and re-formed the dissolved band Koola Lobitos, while he began working as a radio producer. In 1969 Fela took the band to the United States, where he discovered the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party, which radically influenced his music and his political vision; He renamed his band Nigeria 70. Due to his activism, the United States immigration office began deportation proceedings so Fela Kuti and his band, renamed Africa' 70, returned to Nigeria.

Once in his country, Fela created Kalakuta Republic, a cooperative music production company where activists seeking independence used to meet. At the Empire Hotel he opened a nightclub in which he played regularly.

In the seventies he decided to start singing in English so that the "African nation", where a multitude of languages are spoken, could understand his political message. Her popularity grew and she began to suffer official persecution because of her political ideas.

In 1974 the police tried to involve him in a drug case by "planting" marijuana on his clothes, Kuti reacted by eating the drug, which is why the police waited for him to defecate before proceeding with a fecal analysis that did not come back positive due to that Kuti managed to give the police the feces of another detainee who had not consumed drugs, managing to leave prison; The story was told many times and he released an album in which he was recorded forever: Expensive shit ('expensive shit').

In 1977 Fela and África 70 released one of their most successful albums: Zombie, a direct attack on Nigerian soldiers, using the term zombie to metaphorically refer to the army's methods. The album was so successful that the government launched various attacks against the band, with raids and armed attacks on the Kalakuta Republic cooperative; In one of them, 1,000 soldiers attacked the cooperative and Fela was seriously injured and his 77-year-old mother was thrown out of a window, which caused her death. The studio was completely destroyed and hundreds of original recordings also disappeared there.

In 1978 Fela married 27 women, many of them singers and dancers, commemorating the anniversary of the attack on Kalakuta Republic. That year was marked by two memorable concerts, the first in Accra in which a raid broke out during the show at the moment when Fela Kuti was playing "Zombie" and he was expelled from Ghana. The second was at the Berlin Jazz Festival, after which he was abandoned by all of his musicians due to rumors that Fela would use the money raised to start his electoral campaign for the presidential elections in Nigeria.

He formed his own political party, which he called the 'People's Movement'. In 1979 he ran for president in the first election in more than a decade, but his candidacy was rejected. At that time he created a new band which he called & # 34; Egypt 80 & # 34; and he continued recording albums and touring his country.

In 1983 he ran again for president, and again suffered police persecution and was imprisoned on charges of smuggling. After 20 months in prison he was released when the government changed, and Fela divorced 20 of his wives.

In 1986, Fela performed at the New Jersey Giants stadium as part of the Amnesty International concerts, sharing the stage with Bono, Carlos Santana, and The Neville Brothers. In 1989 he released the album 'Beasts without Nation'. in which she harshly attacked Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and the military government of Nigeria.

Fela Kuti believes in the ideal of African unity and tries to preach peace among Africans. A pan-Africanist and socialist, she especially supports the presidents of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara. The American Black Power movement is also one of the sources of her political influence. On the other hand, he is highly critical of the US government for discriminating against blacks and orchestrating coups against non-aligned African countries.

In the 1990s his activity began to decline and he stopped releasing albums. A wave of rumors about his possible illness and his refusal to be treated flooded the Nigerian media.

On August 2, 1997, his death was announced, at the age of 57, in Lagos, Nigeria. Some time later it was reported that he had died of a heart attack caused by his infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), although his followers still claim that he died from the repeated attacks he suffered from the Nigerian government over 20 years. of political activism in pursuit of a socialist and free Africa. Other versions, however, indicate that his deteriorating health was the result of an unbridled sexual life and his anti-scientific beliefs that the virus only attacked white people, so he refused to take medication.

He was buried in front of his house in Ikeja on August 12, 1997. During the burial, his son Femi played a saxophone solo in his honor.

Style

The musical style that Fela Kuti founded was Afrobeat, which is essentially a fusion between jazz, funk and traditional African songs. It is characterized by having a rhythm section, vocal work and an African musical structure plus the addition of a wind section from jazz and funk. The lyrics always touched on sensitive topics regarding human rights and the struggles for the liberation of oppressed peoples, with a style called "question and answer" in which a choir responds to the words of the lead voice.

Most of Kuti's songs last more than 10 minutes, some even last half an hour. Perhaps, that is one of the reasons why Kuti was not a popular artist outside of Africa. Before singing in English, Kuti used to sing in Yoruba, one of the 200 languages in Nigeria.

Fela Kuti was a multi-instrumentalist capable of playing more than ten types of instruments, among which the saxophone and keyboards stand out, but also trumpets, flutes, guitars and various percussion instruments. Once Kuti recorded a song he never performed it again in a show or on any other album since he said that the artist must create art and not repeat it.

In his entire career he recorded 77 CDs.

The band Talking Heads, particularly in Remain in Light, names Fela Kuti's afrobeat as one of its main influences. Remain in Light was one of the main promoters of New Wave, a genre that greatly influenced the direction of Western music in the 80s.

Family

In 1961 Fela married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he had three children (Femi, Yeni and Sola).

Discography