Fela Kuti and Afrobeat Music

I was first introduced to Fela Anikulapo Kuti 's music in the early 80s by Frank Hill and Ted Singer, two eclectic, well-traveled DJ's who ran a world beat show on our local NPR station called "Reggae Sound System." They acquainted listeners with bands such as Fela's and played music which decried the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela in South Africa and apartheid in general. They scoured record stores on their travels for the tastiest bits of music to play for the culturally deprived citizens of the desert. Frank and Charles taught me that Fela was a musician and composer from Nigeria who played a type of music they called "Afrobeat."

“Afrobeat” was a mixture of jazz, funk and African chanting, infused with African percussion styles, vocals and included a jazz-based, funked-up horn section. They referred to an "endless groove" in Fela's music, which was his use of a rhythmic baseline consisting of drums, muted guitar, and bass guitar. These three elements are then repeated throughout the song, and Fela's songs were usually at least 10 minutes in length, sometimes 20 to 30 minutes. Fela played the sax and keyboards, but also performed on the trumpet and guitar, along with an occasional stint on the drums.

Although Fela had planned to study medicine, he instead pursued music courses at Trinity College of Music in London in 1958. During this time he formed the band, Koola Lobitos, which is where he first began playing his style of Afrobeat. Returning to Nigeria in 1963, he re-formed Koola Lobitos and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. On a 1969 band tour of the U.S., he was exposed to the black power movement, which influenced his political views and music. He renamed the band “Nigeria 70.” After U.S. Immigration was tipped off that the band was working without visas, they made a quick recording session (which would later be released as “The '69 Los Angeles Sessions”) and returned to Nigeria.

Upon his return, he formed a commune which he called the “Kalakuta Republic,” which also housed his recording studio and was home for many of the band members. Fela changed his middle name to "Anikulapo" (meaning "he who carries death in his pouch").

His music was increasingly becoming politically motivated. He publicly stated that the Kalakuta Republic was independent from Nigeria. However, he was not popular with the ruling government and there were frequent raids on his commune. In 1974, the police staged a raid on his commune with a planted marijuana joint, but because he was aware in advance of the plan, he swallowed the evidence. The police took him into custody and "examined the evidence." His song "Expensive Shit " was the result of that experience.

In 1977, he released the hit album Zombie , which was a direct attack on the methods employed by the Nigerian army. As a result, 1000 soldiers attacked his commune. Fela was severely beaten, and his elderly mother was thrown from a window, killing her. His compound was burned, and his studio, instruments, and master tapes were all destroyed. Fela later said that he would have been killed if the commanding officer had not interceded as he was being beaten. Fela was so enraged by this attack that he delivered his mother’s coffin to the main army barracks in Lagos and wrote two songs, “Coffin for Head of State” and “Unknown Soldier ,” making reference to the official report which claimed that the commune had been destroyed by an unknown soldier.

Fela later formed his own political party, which he called “Movement of the People”. In 1979 he put himself forward for the presidential ballot, but it was refused.

He was again jailed by the military in 1984 on a bogus charge of currency smuggling. His case was taken up by several human-rights groups, and after twenty months, he was released from prison.

He toured the U.S. and Europe and contiued his political activism. In 1986, Fela performed in Giants Stadium in New Jersey as part of the Amnesty International “Conspiracy of Hope” concert, sharing the bill with Bono, Carlos Santana, and The Neville Brothers. In 1989, Fela & Egypt 80 released the anti-apartheid “Beasts of No Nation” album which depicts on its cover U.S. President Ronald Reagan, U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and South African Prime Minister P.W. Botha with fangs dripping blood.

His album production slowed in the 1990s, and eventually stopped. On August 3, 1997, his brother, Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, a prominent AIDS activist and former Minister of Health, stunned the nation by announcing his younger brother's death a day earlier from Kaposi’s sarcoma brought on by AIDS. More than a million people attended Fela's funeral.

So you see, without that wild Saturday morning journey to the far-flung corners of the world, courtesy of my local NPR radio affiliate, I would have never have learned about Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Their show is long defunct, but they are not forgotten. They were two of the heppest cats to ever place vinyl on a turntable, the likes of which have not passed this way since.