By Bayo Ogunmupe
The book, Dis Fela Sef is the untold story of the legendary musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti. It is a memoir by his friend and manager, Benson Idonije. The author, now 82 years old, is the most credible chronicler of Fela's sexual escapades and tempestuous career as a musician and man of the world. Idonije was with Fela from the beginning till the end of his career as musician, politician and human rights activist. Fela's great musical creativity endeared him Idonije while Benson's love of music as a producer in Radio Nigeria cemented their relationship.
Thus, as Fela's confidant Idonije became the power behind Fela's throne. And Fela's respect and trust an elder brother gave Benson access to every facet of Fela's life. Which is why Dis Fela Sef is so accurate, deep and authoritative. This memoir was published in 2016 by Festac Books and reprinted by Havilah Grand Pearl Limited, Lagos, Nigeria. It has 20 chapters, an epilogue, 284 pages, two pages of bibliography, 13 pages of pictures and the chronology of Fela's life.
In his introductory: Why this book? Idonije answers that there are still more legends to be known and misunderstandings to be corrected about Fela's tumultuous lifestyle and apostasy. As an Art critic on The Guardian, Nigeria for almost 20 years, and contemporary of Fela barely two years Fela's senior, Idonije has written about Fela more than any journalist in Nigeria. His original intention was to assemble those stories and publish them in book form. But his friends urged and assisted him to write a memoir of his friendship and as manager of the Fela Ransome Kuti Quintet from 1963 till 1970.
Indeed, as band manager, Idonije was intimately involved and grappled with every activity of Fela's life and commune. Dis Fela Sef isn't a biography, nor is it a musical study, especially because not all of Fela's music is discussed. This is Benson's memorial of Fela, it is a new perspective, the story behind the story. with more legends to be told. Though Fela died on August 2, 1997, we still speak of him in the present tense; he is omnipresent. We use his first name to acknowledge the pervasiveness of his influence.
Fela's music is the inspirer of modern hip hop in West Africa. Afrobeat bands are being formed around the world drawing from his overwhelming influence. Musicians and fans lapse into his vocal rasp to make a point. Fela has been celebrated on Broadway Theatre in New York, USA. Felabration continues to wax stronger and bigger with activities at every yearly edition even as they celebrate him with excessive veneration. Fela's Kalakuta commune has been recreated and turned to a museum for his immortalization.
In treating the first ten chapters of this volume, I shall start from the chronology of Fela's life from 1938 to the time of his death in 1997. From his ancestry, his musical odyssey, redefining Highlife music to resurrecting the Koola lobitos culminating in the making of a new Afrobeat genre after his visit to the United States. It goes without saying that Fela's pervasive influence is proof of his ingenuity as a musician and man of letters.
In the middle of the 19th century, one Egba gentleman named Kuti, Fela's great grand father fell in love with a princess called Efupeyin. The marriage of these lovers produced a son christened Josiah inn 1855. Both were heathens but Efupeyin, Fela's great grandmother converted to Christianity. At her baptism in 1848 Efupeyin took the name Anne. In his memoirs, Josiah, Fela's grand father wrote: "To her I owe my Christianity today for my father lived and died a heathen." Kuti was a staunch weaver of cloth and musician. He is the one Fela appeared to be his alter ego and reincarnation. Fela's grand father was Josiah Likoye Kuti while his father was Oludotun Ransome Kuti
His mother, Frances Olufunlayo Ransome Kuti nee Thomas was in the forefront of women liberation in Nigeria during the colonial era. She championed female rights to vote and founded the Nigerian Women's Union. For these achievements, she earned international fame and recognition. Olufunlayo was a great admirer of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of the republic of Ghana and his pan African ideology. Nkrumah also recognized her for her political activities.
Mrs Kuti was so courageous that her organization, the Nigerian Women's Union, chased the Alake of Egbaland out of his palace into exile in Osogbo for levying taxes on women. For so doing she became a heroine of Nigerian politics. Through Mrs Kuti Nigerian women achieved universal suffrage by being exempted from paying tax and allowed to vote and be voted for by 1959. She founded the Nigerian Women's Union in 1949.
Of Funlayo's children, Dolapo, the eldest, a female chose the nursing profession. She excelled there, retiring from the Lagos Island Maternity Hospital as a matron in 1974. Next in line was Dr Olikoye Ransome Kuti. He was professor of Paediatrics at the Lagos University Hospital. He was appointed Minister of Health by President Ibrahim Babangida. As minister he transformed our health care delivery system for which he received acclaim and was made a director of the World Health Organization.
Fela's younger brother Beko, born in 1940, was also a physician and former secretary general of the Nigerian Medical Association. He was a strong opponent of military rule. Later, he became chairman of the Campaign for Democracy. For his democratic views he was imprisoned during the regimes of Buhari, Babangida, Ernest Shonekan and Sani Abacha. He had been framed with involvement in a plot to overthrow the military government and was slammed with a 15 year jail term. He was only released in 1998 after a change of government.
All of the Fela siblings have died. But their pedigree is awesome. Not many Nigerians living or dead have documentary records of their lineage dating back to 1850 like them. Fela studied classical music at Trinity College of Music in London. He married Remilekun Taylor in 1961. He had three children: Yeni, Femi and Sola. He returned to Nigeria with his family in 1963. He gained employment as music producer at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in 1964. he launched his band the Koola Lobitos in 1965. He played at the yearly Havanah Dance Festival organized by the Sigma Club, University of Ibadan in 1965.
Fela resigned from NBC to manage the Koola Lobitos full time in 1968. Thereafter, he devoted his life to music. But in February 1976, Kalakuta Republic, his Agege Motor Road commune was burnt down by soldiers. In April of the same year he changed his name from Ransome Kuti to Anikulapo Kuti. He sang it loud and clear that religions not indigenous to Africa should be discarded. He established a shrine and appointed priests in order to worship God in the African way. He married 27 wives and kept them in his commune to rubbish Western culture we are adopting.
In his last days, considering his type of music you would think Fela was on drugs but no. Later bad companions led him into sex, women and marijuana. He eventually succumbed to HIV/AIDS. While Idonije was a bachelor, his apartment became Fela's slaughter slab. He sometimes had three different women a day. Which is why Idonije book became a best seller. In fact the copy I used in this review is a pirated one: there is no greater testimony to the success of Dis Fela Sef.
Benson Idonije studied communication engineering at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. He joined Radio Nigeria in 1957 later becoming a presenter of famous programmes. The high pint of his career in broadcasting was his transfer to the training school where for eight years he became principal lecturer in programme production. After he retired in 1992, he wrote art columns for The Guardian, Nigeria. Now 82 years old, Pa Idonije is still alive and writing.
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