Fela: The Life &
Times of controversial Afrobeat superstar
by
Chido Nwangwu
The
African continent's most creative Afrobeat
superstar, anti-military dictatorship
activist, social maverick and pan-Africanist
Fela Anikulapo-Kuti has died of AIDS-related
reasons and heart failure. Fela's 58
years old, odd but very courageous engagement
with life was as controversial, irreverent,
creative as he was sometimes confusing
to even his most ardent admirers. His
social promiscuity and hyper-sexual
relationships with women, mainly his
retinue of dancers were, at once, revolting
to many, as he was also an object of
curiosity for all manner of people,
Americans and Europeans, Africans and
Arabs, men and women. He was a genius,
albeit, for lack of a better word, a
usefully mad genius, a creative iconoclast.
Fela's genius as a musician had an unmatched
stellar power, may be an acute acoustic
verve and caustic provocations to the
powers that be. The military in Nigeria
feared only one man in Nigeria: Fela.
The African continent's most creative
Afrobeat superstar, anti-military dictatorship
activist, social maverick and pan-Africanist
Fela Anikulapo-Kuti has died of AIDS-related
reasons and heart failure. "The immediate
cause of death of Fela was heart failure
but there were many complications arising
from the Acquired Immuno-Deficiency
Syndrome,'' Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, a
medical doctor and Fela's older brother
told a news conference in Lagos on Sunday
August 3, 1997 announcing the death
of a musical giant, social commentator
and maestro.
Fela's
58 years old, odd but very courageous
engagement with life was as controversial,
irreverent, creative as he was sometimes
confusing to even his most ardent admirers.
His social promiscuity and hyper-sexual
relationships with women, mainly his
retinue of dancers were, at once, revolting
to many, as he was also an object of
curiosity for all manner of people,
Americans and Europeans, Africans and
Arabs, men and women. He was a genius,
albeit, for lack of a better word, a
usefully mad genius, a creative iconoclast.
In my opinion, there was just one Fela;
there has never been any like him in
his country; there will really never
be another like him. Fela's imprints
on the sand of our social time are permanent.
Although Fela's (ab)use of drugs (hemp)
did not help his health and focus on
the other things that were important.
He could have been better. But to some,
it was all part of his eccentricities,
a part of his mystique as Fela Anikulapo
Kuti! No.
The
king of Afro-beat, the guru of strategic
irreverence and pan Africanism, the
master exponent of "Shakara" and the
enchanting saxophonic rhythms and synthesizers
which waft through his classic song
"Lady" has joined his ancestors but
his views on everyday, existential matters
are relevent today across Africa. Fela,
the king of socio-musical commentary
is no more; one of the best jazzologists
and creators of the most compelling
and inimitable ethno-orchestra sessions
of the 20th century is dead but his
call that Africans get beyond "colonial
mentality"and anit-corruption songs
"Yellow Fever" are entirely valid.
Coincidentally,
a few hours after his death, I had the
privileged of being the guest (with
my wife) of creative events photographer
Richard Dabon's at the Omni Hotel this
August 3 weekend for the 1997 Houston
Mayor's Jazz Brunch. Tunes reminiscent
of Fela's saxophonic vitality and energies
were played occasionally at the event.
May be only a few persons at the Omni
would have known the giant had passed.
It all seemed like an unscheduled, unmentioned
tribute to Fela-- with the likes of
the very remarkable South African Jonathan
Butler doing an incredible, elevating
live jam session with the Houston Jazz
Education All Stars. Fela would have
been proud.
|
