Meet The Man Fela Kuti Fela was born Olufela Oludotun Ransome-Kuti on 15th October 1938 at Abeokuta, south-west Nigeria into a middle-class family, his father a reverend and a school principal, his mother a renowned anti-colonialist and a feminist activist. He was brought up in a Christian way and had colossal life prospects and hopes ahead of him. Like many parents, his parents wanted him to become a medical doctor which he initially didn’t refuse, he travelled to London in 1958 hoping to become a doctor but to change his mind and enrolled at Trinity College of Music. It was at that college he formed his first band; Koola Lobitos, a combination of highlife music and jazz. While there, he married his first wife Remi Taylor in 1960, Remi who became mother of Femi, Yeni and Sola Kuti. Fela eventually returned to Nigeria in 1963 He was the pioneering founder of Afrobeat, he left for America in 1969 in pursuit of fans for Afrobeat, it was there he discovered the importance of being black, that was during Martin Luther King’s assassination and other racism mayhem that followed and perhaps coupled with his experience in London, England where racism was still lawful. He once lamented during an interview in 1984 to the BBC about how he became a black proponent, he talked about issues of renting a room in London back in the day where an awful advert would be displayed saying “room for rent, no coloured no pets” and he further mentioned how white people wear pretentious smile. While in America, he released The 1969 Los Angeles Sessions and was later asked to leave America by Immigration authority following a certain promoter who reported him to be working without work permit. His band was renamed Africa ’70 on his return to Nigeria, and subsequently, the theme began to change from sentimental love songs to rugged and fiery lyrics pointing at ills in government. He later formed Kalakuta republic, a compound that housed his family, band members and recording studio. He undauntedly declared Kalakuta an independent commune from Nigeria. He dropped “Ransome” claiming it’s a slave name and that slave era had been over, he instead adopted “Anikulapo”; he that has death in his pouch. Comment with any of the lyric of baba 70 you know, if u truely know the afrobeat king Dr Odion
Posted on: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 17:12:45 +0000
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