{"id":181018,"date":"2021-02-18T23:24:42","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T21:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/the-quest-to-identify-felas-successor-why-its-time-to-end-it\/"},"modified":"2021-02-18T23:24:42","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T21:24:42","slug":"the-quest-to-identify-felas-successor-why-its-time-to-end-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/the-quest-to-identify-felas-successor-why-its-time-to-end-it\/","title":{"rendered":"The quest to identify Fela’s successor: why it’s time to end it"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s nearly a quarter of a century since Fela Kuti passed away<\/a>. Yet, the influence of his music and pan-Africanist thoughts hasn\u2019t stopped. Fela was notorious for the deployment of his Afrobeat as a critical tool against human rights violations, social injustice and insensitive cum inept leadership in Africa. And the conversation as to who best fits the profile of a successor has continued unabated. <\/p>\n

Many Nigerian artists have gone as far as naming themselves as the reincarnation of Fela. From Dede Mabiaku\u2019s endless references to his closeness to the Abami Eda \u2013 the name Fela gave himself<\/a> \u2013 a Yoruba phrase that roughly translates to \u201cthe strange one\u201d \u2013 and Chief Priest, to Charles \u2018Charly Boy\u2019 Oputa\u2019s antics<\/a>, a few have pretended to be made of the sort of defiant stuff at Fela\u2019s core. <\/p>\n

Musically, Eedris Abdulkareem\u2019s<\/a> success with the 2004 hit \u2018Jaga Jaga\u2019 appeared to have instigated a Fela complex in him to the point that he got Fela\u2019s eldest son Femi Kuti\u2019s saxophone support to legitimise his tribute in the single titled \u2018Fela\u2019 (2013)<\/a>. <\/p>\n

There have been several other musical tributes to the memory of Fela. These have included Seyi Sodimu\u2019s remarkable \u2018Fela the King\u2019 (2002) and W4\u2019s rather cheesy \u2018Like fada, Like son\u2019 (2012). Beyond these, pop-inclined artistes have sought to appropriate different features of the great musician\u2019s legacy. This has included drawing from the rich repertoire of Fela\u2019s ensemble in embellishing their works, particularly over the last decade<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet, undoubtedly the most powerful of the tributes to Fela is \u2018\u201997\u2019 (2001) which was recorded and performed by Femi Kuti, himself an accomplished Afrobeat star. <\/p>\n

A great deal of work has been done on protest music in Nigeria. But, in my view, studies have been reticent in appreciating the works of Femi. <\/p>\n

I set about to fill this gap. In my study<\/a>, I look at Femi\u2019s music through the framework of a re-democratised Nigeria and I invariably draw equivalents with Fela\u2019s works which constituted a major alternative voice through military-ruled Nigeria.<\/p>\n

I conclude that, to source for a Fela successor outside the direct lineage of his family is to court the ridiculous \u2013 that is if there is any need to source for a Fela successor to begin with. <\/p>\n

Protest music under military rule<\/h2>\n

Previous research<\/a> showed that Femi\u2019s consciousness through art had begun during military dictatorship in Nigeria. Songs like \u2018Wonder Wonder\u2019 (1995), \u2018Plenty Nonsense\u2019 (1995), \u2018Nawa\u2019 (1995), \u2018Stubborn Problem\u2019 (1995), \u2018Sorry Sorry\u2019 (1998), \u2018What Will Tomorrow Bring\u2019 (1998), and \u2018Victim of Life\u2019 (1998) are standouts from Femi\u2019s catalogue during that particularly dark era.<\/p>\n

\"Man
Fela Kuti performing on stage.<\/span> Michael Putland\/Getty Images<\/span><\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The same study<\/a> posited that Fela was not the only popular musician who confronted the military and tyrannous leaders of Nigeria between independence in 1960 and Fela\u2019s passing in 1997. <\/p>\n

The study discussed the protest contributions by reggae, highlife and other Afrobeat stars during the same period. These included Sonny Okosuns, Tunji Oyelana, Wole Soyinka, Victor Essiet and The Mandators, Majek Fashek, Ras Kimono, Lagbaja and Osayomore Joseph.<\/p>\n

Femi Kuti\u2019s protest credentials spans across both military-ruled and democratic Nigeria. My research further found that hip hop has constituted an accomplice to Femi Kuti\u2019s work having served as a veritable vehicle in speaking truth to power in Nigeria since re-democratisation in 1999. Contrary to its critics\u2019 claims, hip hop culture in Nigeria isn\u2019t always about hedonism and the objectification of women. <\/p>\n

Kuti himself featured American hip hop acts Mos Def and Common on \u2018Do Your Best\u2019 and \u2018Missing Link\u2019 off 2001\u2019s Fight to Win album. <\/p>\n

Blood is indeed thicker than water<\/h2>\n

A review of Femi Kuti\u2019s discography from 1989\u2019s No Cause for Alarm to 2018\u2019s One People One World shows that through all ten albums spanning about 30 years, Femi is undoubtedly the most prolific creator of protest music in Nigeria. Add to this the maturation of his first son Omorinmade Kuti. Now 23 years old, he released his debut single \u2018Free Your Mind\u2019 in 2020 to respectable acclaim in the Afrobeat genre<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Omorinmade who has grown to become an Afrobeat artist in his own right under his father\u2019s watch, makes it even clearer that Femi\u2019s proximity to the title of a Fela successor is rivalled by none. <\/p>\n

Yet, there are no signs that the family plans to rest on past laurels. A new release, Legacy+, is out. A double record comprising Femi\u2019s Stop the Hate (his 11th album) and Omorinmade\u2019s debut, For(e)ward, it links three generations of the Kuti dynasty<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Through Legacy+, we find a deliberate merging of Fela\u2019s legend, Femi\u2019s unrelenting struggle and Omorinmade\u2019s forging on through youthful and possibly futuristic Afrobeat.<\/p>\n

The sole caveat to this chain is that Fela\u2019s last son Seun Kuti, also an Afrobeat artist, presents the public space in Nigeria with the most cerebral viewpoints of any artist at the present time. Following the #EndSARS protests, Seun has flown kites on the possibility of relaunching his father\u2019s Movement of the People, a political party through which Fela attempted to run for Nigeria\u2019s presidency during the Second Republic. <\/p>\n

The truth is that no artist through Nigeria\u2019s postcolonial years has contributed close to what Fela did \u2013 and continues to do – for human rights and social justice. Appreciation must of course follow the efforts of Charly Boy, Eedris Abdulkareem, Dede Mabiaku, Lagbaja and Wole Soyinka<\/a>. But, musically and otherwise, only Gani Fawehinmi<\/a>, the late human rights lawyer, holds the semblance of a record anywhere in the neighbourhood of the organic consistency for the betterment of Nigerian lives close to Fela\u2019s.<\/p>\n

To put it simply, I re-assert the words of singer and song-writer Seyi Sodinmu: <\/p>\n