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The Afrobeat Legacy of Fela Anikulapo Kuti in Nigeria

Research · May 2017

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.19121.43366

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Running head: THE AFRO-BEAT LEGACY OF FELA 1

The Afrobeat Legacy of Fela Anikulapo Kuti in Nigeria

Ezekiel M. Sebastine

Ashesi University College

Course title: African Music and Dance

Course code: SOAN 233

Lecturer: Prof. John Collins

Date: 2 May 2017

THE AFRO-BEAT LEGACY OF FELA 2

Abstract

Various literatures have addressed the socioeconomic and linguistic aspects of Fela’s Afro-beat

music, however, not much attention has been given to studying the impact of the legacy of Fela

and his Afro-beat music genre. This research seeks to reconnoiter the impact of the Afrobeat

legacy of Nigerian Afro-beat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti on Nigeria. The paper begins by

looking at Afro-beat music and how it came into being. It briefly highlights the differences with

other forms of African music. The paper asserts that Fela’s Afro-beat has had an impact on the

Nigerian society; It then proceeds to mention the impact of Afro-beat on Nigerian government,

Nigerian music industry and the average Nigerian. The paper does this by critically analyzing

research papers and examining events in the Nigerian context.

Keywords: Afrobeat, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Nigeria, Nigerian government, highlife

THE AFRO-BEAT LEGACY OF FELA 3

Dedication

For Sylvia Sebastine.

THE AFRO-BEAT LEGACY OF FELA 4

Acknowledgment

My deepest appreciation goes to God for life.

I thank Prof. John Collins for sharing generously out of his great wealth of knowledge in

music.

I also appreciate the efforts of my friends in reviewing and helping with some of the

issues addressed in this paper and especially for sticking around me to boost my morale.
THE AFRO-BEAT LEGACY OF FELA 5

The Afrobeat Legacy of Fela Anikulapo Kuti in Nigeria

Music has no one definition. In fact, music has as many definitions as there are people to

define it. It is all a matter of perspective. In my perspective, music is a sequence of mental

imagery that ends in an artful arrangement of sounds that are pleasing to the ear. As a mental

image, or better still, an art, music comes in various styles and attracts different kinds of people.

By analyzing research papers and studying events in the Nigerian context, this paper will explore

the Afro-beat music of Fela Anikulapo Kuti and its impact on the Nigerian government, the

Nigerian music industry and the average Nigerian.

Purpose of research

The purpose of this research is to show the impact of the Afrobeat legacy of Nigerian

Afro-beat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti on Nigeria. The research also seeks to explore the origin

of Afro-beat music style and the differences between Fela’s Afro-beat music style and other

African music styles.

Significance of research

Nigeria, as well as several other African countries are striving to meet the 21st century

economic and socio-political conditions (Think of the Millennium Development Goals). To meet

these conditions, the use of new and modern approaches is inevitable and this research is

essential. This research has the potential to be applied to real life issues especially in helping

individuals to appreciate the Afro-beat legacy of Fela Kuti in the Nigerian context. The research

will provide deeper insights into the revolutionary impact of Fela’s Afro-beat music in Nigeria.
THE AFRO-BEAT LEGACY OF FELA 6

Literature Review

Fela Anikulapo Kuti

Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the Afro-beat legend and Nigeria’s most famous musician was born

in 1938 to a Christian family. The 1982 documentary: Fela Kuti: Music is the weapon directed

and produced by Stéphane Tchal-Gadjieff and Jean Jacques (Tchal-Gadjieff & Jacques, 1982)

describes Fela’s birth into a middle-class family and his travels to London and the united states

for education and other ventures. The documentary also described Fela’s contact with Malcom X

and the Black Power Movement that undoubtedly influenced his way of thinking and which he

will sing about for the rest of his life. Being an outspoken person, Fela’s music spoke his

political thoughts. In a review, Sarah Adams described the searing music of Fela as critiques of

the Nigerian government (Adams, 2004). Scott Pegg’s review offered similar findings and added

that Fela’s music linked colonialism to present problems and cautioned Nigerians of the dangers

of continuing on the same paths (Pegg, 2001). Fela’s mother was an important figure in Nigerian

politics and a human rights activist, it is just apparent that the idea of protest music must have

been influenced by his mother as well.

Birth of Afro-beat

Afro-beat is a music style that was birthed in the 1970s. The Afro-beat music style placed

focus on chanted vocals and percussions. Afro-beat was pioneered by Fela Anikulapo Kuti as

seen in Justin Labinjoh’s narrative in Fela Anikulapo-Kuti: Protest Music and Social Processes

in Nigeria (Labinjoh, 1982). Labinjoh narrates that Fela was employed by the Nigerian

Broadcasting Company (NBC) after studying music in England and returning to Nigeria. As at

that time, highlife was the popular music in Nigeria and Fela did not like highlife music,

consequently, he was bad at it and was fired soon after from the NBC. Fela preferred jazz music
THE AFRO-BEAT LEGACY OF FELA 7

instead and was greatly influenced by Miles Davis (Collins, 2015). He thought that highlife had

the beat not the depth while jazz had the depth but not the beat. Thus, he combined jazz and

Ghanaian highlife music and re-formed his Koola Lobitos1 dance band and called his new music

style highlife-jazz (Collins, 2015). Fela continued to experiment with various styles of music

including soul music, funk music (of James Brown) and salsa until he eventually coined the word

‘Afro-beat’. Afro-beat – being a combination of highlife, jazz, funk and black American soul

music (Labinjoh, 1982) (Collins, 2015).

Fela’s Afro-beat vs other African styles of music.

While Fela’s Afro-beat music is rooted in Ghanaian highlife music – “a bright, sunny

dance music driven by horns and/or guitars” (All Music, 2017), it has maintained a distinctive

style from highlife music and other African music styles. First, there is the synthesis of African-

American musical styles namely jazz and funk, and soul music with the Yoruba local music

styles in a far more sophisticated manner than other African styles of music. Randall F. Grass

describes this as an “Africanization of Afro-American rhythm and blues” (Grass, 1986).

There is also a difference between the way the lyrics are presented in Fela’s Afro-beat

music and other African styles of music. In Grass’ analysis of Fela’s music lyrics, he pointed out

that, in contrast to the humorous, light-hearted moralizing of many other popular African

musicians, Fela’s Afro-beat music lyrics sent uncompromising messages of sharp societal

observations. This idea is reflected in such recordings as “Buy Africa”, “Black Man’s Cry”,

“Fight to Finish”, and others. Though his lyrics still maintain a personal touch that is found in

1
Koola Lobitos was a unique late 1950s dance band led by Fela Kuti when he was still in college.
The reformation described above happened in 1963 when Fela returned to Nigeria. This band helped to
create the foundation for the Afro-beat music.
THE AFRO-BEAT LEGACY OF FELA 8

most lyrics of African traditional music, especially in Nigeria, Fela shuns praise songs. Unlike

other equally prominent Nigerian traditional music artiste such as Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny

Ade (King of juju music), and other popular Nigerian performers, Fela’s music does not sing the

praises of anybody (Grass, 1986). His lyrics are also written in Nigerian (pidgin) English or

Yoruba or a combination of both. This is reflected in some of his titles such as “water no get

enemy”, “chop and quench”, “overtake don overtake overtake”, “trouble sleep, yanga go wake

am” and others. His lyrics also adopts the proverbial style in some of his songs such as “trouble

sleep, yanga go wake am”.

Afro-beat was fundamentally a dance music, and it still is. Despite this fact, the messages

in Fela’s songs were so straight that they rarely permitted listeners to get lost in the propulsive

rhythmic feel – whether through the flashy choreography of his band and backup singers, the

demanding length of his songs, or the frequent political rants aimed at provoking intellectual

response (Grass, 1986). This makes Afro-beat to particularly stand out among other African-

music styles.

Methodology

The methodology used in this research is conceptualization and qualitative

methodologies. Conceptualization is the process of specifying what an individual means by

forming an abstraction of it for research. Qualitative research method is the method used to dive

deeper into a problem to uncover thoughts, effects, trend and opinions. Qualitative methods

include techniques such as interviews, observations, focus groups etc. This research uses

observation of data and events as recorded in literature.

THE AFRO-BEAT LEGACY OF FELA 9

Source of data

Data and information for this research was gotten through critical analysis of research

papers and examining events in the Nigerian context.

Findings

Fela’s existential behavior, especially through his Afro-beat music, heightened certain

demonstrations of social change in Nigeria. Such demonstrations include bringing a stop to the

law of wandering, creating a communitarian behavior among Nigerians and influencing the

evolution of Afro-beat to other music genres. The demonstrations are discussed below.

Impact of Fela’s Afro-beat music on the Nigerian government

Ogidan Damilola identified two impacts of Fela and his Afro-beat music on Nigerian

government. He believed that Fela brought a complete stop to the law of wandering in Nigeria

through his song; “Country of pains” (Damilola, 2012). The law of wandering was a Nigerian

law that prevented Nigerian citizens from wandering or loitering. In the song, Fela’s message

was a question; he asked who the real wanderers were. Were the real wanders the citizens who

were hustling to earn a living or the police who ‘aimlessly’ move about, looking for who to

extort money from? The second impact that Damilola described was the reduction in the arrest

and seizure of petty traders who hawked or confined themselves in an area to sell their goods

(Damilola, 2012). The issue was addressed in the same song.

Fela’s political activism cannot be overlooked. Fela’s Afro-beat was at bottom a protest

music with a low-class language and, in agreement with Labinjoh, tough and best fitted for the

need of the lower-class youths (Labinjoh, 1982). Fela’s protest music has helped to identify two

combinatorial circumstances. There had been issues in the Nigerian economy and government

that were subterranean that Fela uncovered through his protest music. Such issues include
THE AFRO-BEAT LEGACY OF FELA 10

corruption (addressed in his song ‘International Thief Thief, ITT’), “embourgeoisement”

(Labinjoh, 1982) transparency (addressed in his song ‘Unknown soldier’) and inequality

(addressed in his song ‘Shuffering and Shmilling’) etc. This always put him in odds with the

Nigerian government. Secondly, he inspired communitarian behavior in Nigerians. This aspect

was only obvious long after Fela’s demise.

Impact of Fela’s Afro-beat music on the Nigerian music industry

Many musicians have been attracted to Fela’s Afro-beat music from the days it was

coined till date. One of such musicians is Roy Ayers. Roy Ayers collaborated with Fela to sing

‘Africa: Centre of the World’ that was released in 19812. Brandforth Marsalis, a jazz saxophonist

included Fela’s song, ‘Beast of no nation’ in his ‘Buckshot LeFonque’ album in 1994. The sweep

did not leave out DJs, music producers and 21st century musicians who have also fallen in love

with Fela’s Afro-beat music and produced several materials to that effect. There have been

remixes of original works of Fela and the Afro-beat genre itself to produce entirely new genres

such as Afropop, groove, azonto etc. to satisfy the unquenchable yearning in the ears of listeners.

New bands and genres have been introduced. Today Afro-beat is mixed with hip hop,

azonto, makossa, gospel, skelewu, galala etc. (Oikelome, 2010). One genre that is worth nothing

2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrobeat#afrobeats
THE AFRO-BEAT LEGACY OF FELA 11

is the ‘Afro-beats’ genre – Afro-beat with an ‘s’. DJ Brantee, the man that coined Afro-beats, has

this to say about the current heave towards Afro-beats:

“The floodgates have opened. Music is always evolving, and everyone's

always looking for the next drug. Funky house has died out, grime is still there but
it's gone back underground, electro-pop's got UK urban music in the charts, but
that'll die out too, it's got a short shelf-life. So everyone's looking for the next thing,
the next hype – and people are finally noticing I'm getting 3,000 people coming out
to dance to Afrobeats” (Hancox, 2012).

The evolution of music is not a new thing in societies especially the African society, and in the

context of this paper, what the current sweep is about is just an inevitable evolution of what Fela

himself started.

Impact of Fela’s Afro-beat music on the average Nigerian

The most important impact that Fela’s music created on the average Nigerian is the

consciousness of what political activism is all about – the power of the mind. Tejumola Olaniyan

asserted rightfully that “Fela did not overthrow any government, his overall contribution was far

more reaching, his potent detachment of the power of truth from any putative hegemony that the

state might profess remains his central political effect and significance” (Olatunji, 2004). Fela

was an exceptional musician who did not only sing about the present but his songs contained

messages for the future. As a result, many of his listeners today, describe him as a prophet and

some even see him as a messiah (Adams, 2004).

Fela’s impact was not completely positive. Though Fela’s life style was skewed towards

tradition, some of his actions, especially of flouting convention and norm was at odds with the

Nigerian tradition. Fela is usually pictured standing in underwear amidst bare-breasted ladies.

His hemp smoking habit is another terrible act that is not in line with the Nigerian tradition. The

effect of this on insolent youths and listeners is spontaneous. In fact, it is hard to describe such
THE AFRO-BEAT LEGACY OF FELA 12

blatant violation of convention in a society that advertises decorum. His open disrespect for the

government and other higher powers and authorities often created harassments and landed him in

trouble with the police and consequently in jail.

Discussion and recommendation

This paper has attempted an artistic analysis of Fela’s Afrobeat music genre. From the

analysis, it is evident that Afro-beat genre was derived primarily from the fusion of such genres

as highlife, jazz, funk and black American soul music (which were African derived in the first

place) with African traditional music genres such as juju music and Ghanaian highlife music.

Fela acquired knowledge and skill in music performance where he studied music in London and

in his contact with other African musicians of his time. This paper has also attempted to analyze

the impact of Fela and his Afro-beat music legacy in Nigeria, broadly covering the Nigerian

government, music industry and average Nigerian. In doing this, both positive and negative

impacts were assessed.

This paper therefore proposes further study on Fela’s musical derivatives and the impact

of those derivatives in a context that is broad enough to document a correlation between the

impact of the derivatives and the impact of the original works. This will be beneficial for a more

holistic understanding and evaluation of Fela and his Afro-beat music and the impacts.

At some point, Fela wanted to run for presidency in Nigeria. He failed because he did not

get the necessary consensus from all the three main regions in Nigeria, specifically, he did not

get support from the northern region. A study into how a ‘Fela regime’ would have been for

Nigerians if he got all necessary support as stipulated in the Nigerian constitution will be an

interesting read. Would he have forgone music and focused solely on leadership? Would he have

become as one of the leaders that he critiqued almost all his life?
THE AFRO-BEAT LEGACY OF FELA 13

References

Adams, S. (2004). Reviewed Work(s): Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-

Kuti by ; This Is Lagos: Yabis Night. African Arts, 37(1), 83-85+95. Retrieved 04 18,

2017, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3338016

All Music. (2017). Retrieved from Afro-beat: http://www.allmusic.com/style/afro-beat-

ma0000004495

Collins, J. (2015). Fela: Kalakuta notes. Connecticut: KIT.

Damilola, O. P. (2012, October 23). Green Thesis. Retrieved from Green thesis:

https://greenthesis.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/music-as-political-activism-a-case-study-

of-fela-anikulapo-kutis-afro-beat/

Grass, R. F. (1986, Spring). Fela Anikulapo-Kuti: The Art of an Afrobeat Rebel. The Drama

Review, 30(1), 131-148. Retrieved April 18, 2017, from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1145717

Hancox, D. (2012, January 19). The rise of Afrobeats. Retrieved from The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/jan/19/the-rise-of-afrobeats

Labinjoh, J. (1982, September). Fela Anikulapo Kuti: Protest Music and Social Processes in

Nigeria. Journal of Black studies, 3(1), 119-134. Retrieved April 18, 2017, from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2783979

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 THE AFRO-BEAT LEGACY OF FELA 14

Olatunji, T. (2004). Arrest The Music : Fela And His Rebel Art And Politics. Indiana. Retrieved

04 18, 2017

Pegg, S. (2001, October). Reviewed Work(s): Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical

Icon. African Affairs, 100(401), 658-659. Retrieved 04 18, 2017, from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3518708

Tchal-Gadjieff, S., & Jacques, J. (Directors). (1982). Fela Kuti: Music is the weapon [Motion

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