“I just want to do my part and leave…Not for what they’re going to remember you for, but for what you believe in as a man.”-Fela
He was born in 1938 in Abeokuta to a very well-known socially and politically active Christian family. A son of a clergyman and an educationalist, though not a church going man but he was spiritual in his own way, he said;”To be spiritual is not by praying and going to church. Spiritualism is the understanding of the universe so that it can be a better place to live in.”Love him or loathe him, you simply cannot ignore Fela. He was a tour de force, a verbal tornado. He spoke to millions and so eloquently through his music about the daily struggles of the ordinary man and that is why 20 years after his death, his music remains relevant as it was, when he first performed them. Everyone had their favourite. My son’s favourite is Zombie and mine is Yellow fever. Well, to be honest with you, teacher don’t teach me nonsense, comes very close.
His Mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (FRK) was a political activist,the lioness of Lisabi, she was a commanding voice to speak out for women’s rights, earning women the right to vote and earning herself the Lenin Peace prize in the early sixties. On April 30, 1974, Fela’s compound was raided by scores of military men,they raided the property,threw his mother from the first floor and she broke her leg and sustained other injuries and Fela was arrested for possession of marijuana. Released on bail, he returned to his compound and re-named it “Kalakuta Republic. As to how he came by Kalakuta republic:”…when I was first put in jail,the name of my prison cell was ‘Kalakuta’ meaning rascality, and Republic? I wanted to identify myself with someone who didn’t agree with the Federal Republic of Nigeria…I was in non-agreement.”
That is, Fela always dances to his own drum and plot his own path, never one to follow like a lemming, he will stick his head out while others cower in fright, no, not Fela. Fela was known and loved the world over for his brand of music, Afro beat and he was given the key to the freedom of cities in Europe. He was irreverent and unapologetic and this often gets him into trouble with the military government and he paid dearly for it. In February of 1977, about 1,000 members of the military went to Kalakuta Republic, blazed through the electric fence, set fire, brutally beat everyone in sight, raped any number of the many women who lived there, and threw Fela’s 77 year old mother out of a window (which eventually resulted in her death). The whole of Kalakuta Republic was burned to the ground.
He wailed in his tribute to his mother in his song :“they kill my mama”, and pointed the finger of blame at the army. It was apparent how much he loved his mother and how pained he was at his loss of a woman, who had done so much for Nigeria and Nigerians, especially women’s rights to vote. His father penned the best National anthem that Nigeria will ever have; “Nigeria we hail thee” well, to me it is. If you were looking for patriotic Nigerian embodiment, this family was it. Fela definitely was very patriotic and he believed that Africans should be proud of who they are. When asked about why he came up with Afro-beat. Fela said: “With my music, I create change…I am using my music as a weapon.” His music was a weapon for change and a consciousness of the struggles of many Nigerians but it is also resonant with other people who struggle all over the world.
He was determined to use his music to prick the oppressors’ consciousness and to bring about change. He said:”A lutta continua…a lutta continua, no! It must not continue. The struggle must STOP!” . He was proud of who he was and in Yellow fever , he went to town on those who bleached their black skin and he did not spare them as he described the process and the aftermath side effects of skin bleaching. He said:” “Bleaching of the body to look lighter is immoral.”
And the humour and the derision he felt for black people who bleached their skin and how it looks,he shames them and called them as yeye thing and ugly thing,he left you with no doubt that he called out those with dark skin who resort in making their skin lighter, it is both funny and harsh but all said in truth, yet so sublime. No one was spared from Fela’s brand of tongue-lashing, if he feels you deserve it ,he will dish it hot,like in 1979 hit, International Thief Thief. Wherever, he goes and so does controversy, it follows hand in hand with Fela not one without the other so much so, when he married 27 wives in one day and years later he divorced all of them in April 1986, after his release from Maiduguri prison.
The reasons why Fela crosses all the borders of tribes, religion and age is his use of a lingua franca that unites us: the Pidgin English. He said of pidgin English; “Broken English has been completely broken into the African way of talking, our rhythm, our intonation.” That is Fela’s appeal the way he appeals to everyone who knows and is in the struggle,whatever the struggle was , he always strikes the right key and reaches out to the ordinary person who, on listening to his music is drawn to the message. Here was a rebel with a cause and he knew it;” “A radical is he who has no sense…fights without reason…I have a reason. I am authentic. Yes, that’s what I am.” And that is the appeal of Fela. He tells it as it is and he damns the consequence.
Of the looters of the public purse, he describes them so well .like only Fela can:”The government dey steal o!…when you call dem thief now, e be like title, e go say ‘so what, I’m a thief’. E go dey chop dey go; him belle dey swell, him neck dey double like Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji ( na him ‘hole our money ). The new way dem dey steal for Nigeria now…na story, no be title…we call am ‘C.A.C.M.L.S.N.H.N.N.N.F.S’. Na him be; Chop And Clean Mouth Like Say Nothin’ Happen Na New Name For Stealing!”
Fela was straight and frank and in this days of political correctness, he won’t win prizes but Fela would not have cared, his message was not for those whose ears and eyes were closed;”I don’t tell lies against anybody. That’s why I always win all my wars.” Twenty years after his death,many of what he sang about still rings true today as the day he first performed his messages, his was not merely songs, his was a political statement,a social message and often a war cry, they shot the messenger so many times but they could not kill his message.
He was always looking ahead and into the future ;”I want peace. Happiness. Not only for myself, for everybody.” that was Fela,always inclusive whether you liked it or not. He was very generous.
Asked what he would like his legacy to be;”Everything I did wrongly is an experience…to be honest and truthful in all endeavours is an experience, not a regret.”
VANGUARD
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