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Fela’s Dynasty
The Kuti sons carry on family tradition
Paris
02/08/2007 -
2 August 1997 – 2 August 2007. The dates are inscribed in Lagos legend. Ten years ago today, after a life of intensive musical creation and radical political activism, Fela Anukilapo Kuti took his final bow at the age of 58, promising to "look on and laugh." Lagos turned out in force to mourn his death, crowds thronging the streets to pay their respects to the man who, from the mid-60s to the late ‘90s, had devoted his life to political resistance, defying Nigeria’s authorities and the country’s successive generals to the end. Meanwhile, Fela also went down in music history as the inventor of an innovative new style : Afrobeat, a vibrant cocktail of Ghanaian high-life, jazz, funk, juju music and powerful protest lyrics. A decade after Fela’s death, the next generation is faced with the near-impossible task of stepping into the great man’s shoes and continuing his revolutionary Afrobeat.
Putting his own spin on Afro-beat
Drummer Tony Allen, a musician who made his name accompanying the Black President, has done much to further the cause. Allen, who still possesses a powerful drive and an exceptional sense of rhythm, has collaborated with a number of contemporary artists, plying his sticks for everyone from Doctor L to The Good, The Bad and The Queen. On occasions, he has also teamed up with Femi and Seun, two of Fela’s sons who have gone on to launch their own musical careers, wowing audiences with their collective 100% Afrobeat sets with Allen.
After his baptism of fire at the Hollywood Bowl, Femi went on to forge a reputation in his own right, setting up his own group, The Positive Force. The early days of his solo career marked a radical departure from his father’s sound as he experimented with rock and fusion styles. But the first time he performed Fela’s classic Shakara on tour the crowd went absolutely wild and Femi understood that from now on his musical destiny lay in putting his own spin on his father’s Afrobeat. Despite the great success he made of this, relations between father and son were often strained, not to say downright stormy at times. And Femi’s song 97 reflects the essential ambiguity of the pair’s Oedipal struggle. Femi later admitted, "I often bore a terrible grudge against my father, but it’s tricky to kill your father when he’s already dead!"
Towards the end of his life as illness overtook his body and his brain, Fela became delirious, his mind wandering in directions that few of his loved ones understood. He began dabbling in sorcery and witchcraft and became increasingly paranoid, at one point even accusing his first wife, Femi’s mother Remi, of belonging to the C.I.A. This was the last straw for Femi and Fela’s biographer, I.D. Ten years after his father’s death, Femi appears to have put old differences behind him, however, and assumed the Kuti mantle. He has released three acclaimed albums on the international scene, played hundreds of concerts worldwide and has also revived The Shrine, the legendary nightlife temple in Lagos renowned as the heart of Afrobeat.
Fulfilling his promise
In his lifetime, Fela was often misunderstood in the west where the focus was often put on the man with twenty-seven wives rather than the brilliant musician. In reality, Fela married the twenty-seven dancers who lived in the Kalakuta Republic to put an end to accusations that he was abusing minors. His polygamy was something of a provocation to the authorities, nevertheless and needless to say given his numerous wives he had plenty of offspring. Seun, one of the youngest of Fela’s children, was just fifteen when he got up on stage in 1997 and moved the crowd with his emotion-charged rendition of Sorrow, Tears and Blood. Clinging to his father’s coffin, he would later shed his own tears, swearing "I’ll play music until the day I die - and the music I play will be Afrobeat!"
Seun has kept that final promise to his father, launching his own musical career. And with his high cheekbones, his bare torso and his muscly back, often adopting the exact same posture as his father live on stage, he could almost be his father’s double. 25-year-old Seun is currently playing with his father’s last band, Egypt 80 (or rather what remains of the band today, many of its original members having left or died). Sean acknowledges this symbolic keeping of the flame, modestly commenting, "I have to play my father’s songs until I’m ready." Honing his material at his concerts, Seun is gradually evolving into his own style. But he always slips a few of his father’s classics into his live shows, causing a collective intake of breath. Blink your eyes and for a minute you’ll believe Fela is back up on stage powering out his legendary Zombie!
Seun, who has just released the maxi single Think Africa, and is currently working on an album, belongs to a different generation from his elder brother, Femi. Political issues do not mobilise his peers in the same way and his generation is a disillusioned one, living in a Nigeria where globalisation has become synonymous with consumerism and it’s every man for himself in the fight for day-to-day survival. A long way from the radical activism his father was engaged in the ‘70s, trying to change the world with his Afrobeat. Fela’s revolutionary invention has already gone down in the music annals as one of the most hypnotic sounds of the late 20th century. Now all that remains to be seen is exactly where the two Kuti brothers, Femi and Seun, will take it next!
Eglantine Chabasseur
Translation : Julie Street
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