REFLECTIONS
The first week of August 1997 was tragic for the nation and the Anikulapo Kuti family. 21 years ago, Nigeria lost its most known music personality and voice of the disenfranchised, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
The Kuti family lost a dear son, father, grandfather and uncle. He died August 2, 1997, and was buried five days later, August 7, by a grateful nation and proud family. This week continues reflections of this iconic legend as we mark the 21st year anniversary of the death of our social engineer and national icon that created a brand of music that has stunned World music and by every standard, is here to live: Afrobeat music, as Fela prophesied remains, the weapon of our future.
Through his polyrhythmic music and bohemian lifestyle, Fela’s home, a free spirited community he named KALAKUTA REPUBLIC, became a shelter where mostly disenfranchised Nigerians gathered, every day to be pacified, sanctified, sensitized and sanitized by the lifestyles and presence of the Afrobeat music creator. KALAKUTA Republic was a gate pass to simplicity of living and existence, authenticity and spiritualism, embedded in Pan Africanism, mutual respect, communal love and Afrobeat culture.
Fela redirected and encouraged Nigerians to identify with their self-pride, dignity, consciousness and patriotism. He used his music to call to action, to tell our everyday stories, our lives and our lifestyles, the tortured and torments, the dehumanization and disrespect of we, the people, by a few elitist corrupt military and politician rogues of our common wealth. He encouraged us to rise against authoritarianism and fascism of military rulers; embolden our generation to demand our rights to live, our rights to human dignity from the then military rulers. Fela’s messages were not new. He told our stories as they happened to us, every day in our nation and continent, with fearless aura and an appealing creativity. He sang our songs of sorrow.
Nigerians heard a fellow citizen bravely and brazenly, trumpeting, provocative calls to actions and empowerment, self-sacrifice for the love of our dear native land, ideals made popular by such African leaders and pioneers as Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Late Nelson Mandela and his late mother, Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti, who led the famous Egba women’s arbitrary taxation revolt in 1948.
The Nigerians who assembled daily at the Kalakuta Republic or Afrika Shrine, his live music venue, to be regaled by these thought-provoking aphorisms from a man, who, though, was raised with the trappings of privilege, turned his back on his upper-class upbringing, to champion the cause of the underlings.
The daily visitors, tourists and the curious alike were held in awe of Fela’s challenges to the status quo as established and determined by the then military that held sway over Nigeria from 1967.
Many of us, who visited the Kalakuta Republic, and Afrika Shrine, those times, were just curious and interested in drawing our own conclusions on the tales, innuendos and rumors of his bohemian lifestyle, sexual promiscuity, his hedonistic lifestyle and easy living than serious aficionados of Afrobeat music. Fela was an enigma, a masquerade you could only view in totality by dancing around it.
Therefore, to understand Fela, one must always be around wherever he was to soak in the rudiments, history, his heroic self sacrifice for our sufferings, defiant, and context of his musical style of which he was a pioneer and revolutionary.
I occasionally spent my “long recess” periods away from my primary school, by joining the sea of heads at the frontage of his 14 Agege Motor Road, Idi-Oro, Mushin; Kalakuta Republic command center. I would also stretch from the gated community, an outsider, curious about happenstances on the inside during a fifteen minutes lunch break, to have a glimpse of this larger than life figure and his women who always dressed sensually in colorful African fabrics.
I was a naïve curious 8 year old Jehovah Jireh primary school boy undertaking a pilgrimage to the hallowed throne room, only to see the priest and officiating elders gathered in a conclave, performing rituals that were sophisticated, rituals that more than expressed their total rebellion against the government and the “shitstem”.
But in the same ritualistic stance, one could also appreciate the best of our cultural values with their fashion statements and body decorations.
The Afrika Shrine was the music center of KALAKUTA REPUBLIC…..
THE MILITARY TRIAL OF FELA:
In 1984, the Federal Military Government of Nigeria, led by General Muhammadu Buhari and late Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon,( both late), arrested Afrobeat music superstar, Fela Anikulapo Kuti for violating the foreign exchange/ anti-sabotage decree 2. He was allegedly found with US$1,200.00 in his possession at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport. Fela was about to board his flight to Los Angeles for the summer concert tours of the United States.
His arrest became the hottest trending news of 1984. Fela was notoriously critical of our military government. The feeling was mutual as the military administration considered Fela and his fearless, brave condemnation of its corrupt and inhumane administration.
The government needed to make an example of a violator of the then new decree: to prove to Nigerians its unyielding determination and seriousness to fight the War Against Indiscipline, WAI. So, Fela became the poster child for the Buhari/Idiagbon’s War Against Indiscipline, popularly abbreviated thusly: WAI
The then Punch City Editor, Feyi Smith, anchored the spectacular trials of Fela by the military tribunal in Lagos. I joined Smith sometimes as he scheduled for the coverage. I was posted from the Onipetesi Punch office to the City as a City Reporter. A few months before the posting, I arrived at the Punch newspaper to begin a six month internship from Times School Of Journalism.
The daily serenity of Marina waterfront ocean fresh breeze blew into the newsroom to calm our mornings, against the staccato of chaos, confusion and hustles at CMS bus terminal and the Marina waterfront.
Fela Anikulapokuti ’s daily arrival from prison to the trial venue seemed then choreographed by the government for the media and the daily sea of spectators curious for a glance at the “stubborn, radical and fearless musician” threatening the mighty and powerful military regime. As he stepped out of the ‘Black Maria,’ he stood by the entrance and gave his symbolic Black Power clenched fist defiant salute – a special gesture and a sign of appreciation- to the legions of fans that assembled at the court premises to express their profound support for Fela and protest against military authoritarianism each day of the trial.
However, Fela’s larger than life persona did not deter Buhari’s regime. In November 1984, Fela was found guilty of violating decree 2 and sentenced to five years in prison. The reactions to “which kind injustice be this,” was one of shock and awe as some police and military officers that provided security every day of the trial, in anticipation of security breaches, were shocked by the verdict that Fela had been found guilty and would begin a five-year jail sentence effective immediately. I captured the moment, the mood, the movement and the reactions at the court house and within its community with my report. The next day, Punch captioned my story on its front page shoulder: “SORROWS, TEARS, MINUS BLOOD”
Omo, it aff teyed.
