Fela remains larger than ever with Nigerian millennials who have embraced the rebel's attitude to life
Monday, October 15, marks the 80th posthumous birthday of Afrobeat creator Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
Much has been said and written about the enigma who defied the powers that be and had more than his fair share of life. Countless stories have been told about him, JAY-Z and Will Smith bankrolled a Broadway play about his life and times.
With the abundance of reference materials, Fela still remains a mystery. How the son of a clergy and feminist dumped medicine for music, invented a new genre of music and ridiculed military regimes on wax, is a tale that tingles ears years after his death.
Proof of Fela's larger-than-life appeal will be on full display during the week-long Felabration at the New Afrikan Shrine. The annual music festival is a celebration of Fela Kuti's impact, influence and legacy. Since its inception in 1998, the 20-year-old festival has attracted the curious as well as thousands of devotees to the spiritual home of Afrobeat.
To Nigeria's youth, Fela's iconic lifestyle has been a major pull. His classics are still unfortunately relevant, while his liberal attitude and lifestyle have made him a cult hero.
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My first real contact with Fela's music was in 1997, a few months before he died. My father drove me to the old Afrika Shrine on Pebble Street in Ikeja where we bought a bootleg compilation of Fela's hits.
When I got back home, I played the tape and that trademark voice boomed from the tiny speaker of by Binatone rechargeable lamp that had a cassette player compartment, saying 'let us start what we have come to do'.
The genius thing about Afrobeat is that despite the complexity of its arrangements, the end product is simple- infectious grooves that will get you lost in the spiritual underground.
'Monday Morning in Lagos', 'Suffering and Smiling', and 'Water No Get Enemy', were probably the only songs that I truly understood. While I danced to 'Beast of No Nation', 'Sorrow, Tears & Blood' and others, the importance of the songs were lost on me.
After Fela's death, I dubbed the latest rap songs from Puff Daddy, Busta Rhymes, DMX and Mase over the bootleg compilation. By the late 90s, Hip-Hop culture had become an obsession for young people in Nigeria.
In 2009, Hip-Hop would find its way to Fela, thanks to the self-titled Broadway play. It would go on to captivate the attention of the world and would play a part in the global reawakening of Fela's music.
Two years later, US hit maker Swizz Beatz started his flirtation with Afrobeat when he released 'Swizz Beatz vs Fela Kuti'. Around this period Beyonce worked on a Fela-inspired album that was never released.
Fela had become more than a multi-instrumentalist at this point for Nigerian millennials. He had become a symbol of anti-establishment and counter-culture at a time when the buzz term 'dividends of democracy' represented the failures of Nigeria's political class.
Disappointed with the country of their birth, millennials have turned to Fela to make sense out of the confusion and struggle of being a Nigerian. His rebellious lifestyle serves as an inspiration to many who want to unplug themselves from the Nigerian matrix.
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There has been a tendency to glamorize Fela's affection for weed and women and neglect the sacrifice and pain he endured by some. While the gloss has overshadowed the grit for some, most young Nigerians idolize the maverick for speaking up against power.
In the Nigerian terrain, there has been a scarcity of those who speak up and live life according to their own terms. Millennials have a desire to do these things, express themselves and determine how they live without dictated bias and constraints dictated by society.
Fela is a symbol that resonates deeply with Nigerian millennials.
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