Music to Explore: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti

If you have ever wondered how to make music that sums up the emotions of anger, sadness, frustration, happiness, and hope simultaneously, a good reference point is the music of Fela.

Fela’s music combines elements of Traditional African Call and Response and Poly-rhythms, with Syncopated Jazz, Big Bands, Funk, and Pyschedelia, This happens simultaneously creating a quite chaotic phantasmagorical wall of sound that is surprisingly, easy to listen to, and hard not to dance to. Music and Lyrics that are an honest reflection of the social and political problems and social strengths of Fela’s native Nigeria and many countries on the African Continent.

I first came across the music of Fela while watching a segment on African Music on USA Network’s Nightflight during the mid-80s. After seeing a very shortened and edited video of Fela’s “Army Arrangement” I was hooked and had to find out more about this man and hear more of his music. Luckily two of my friends had came across the music of Fela via other sources at the same time. One who was lucky enough to have been given a Fela tape by a passing acquaintance. We listened to that tape quite a bit.

During this time I was living in Michigan and was a part of the Flint “Alternative Music” Scene. For some of us the music of Fela became quite iconic. I guess this was due to the downward economic spiral we were experiencing in Flint. We could relate the mix of emotions that Fela conveyed so beautifully in his music and words about his beloved Nigeria. Mind you, the same emotions, not the same social or political situations. If Fela’s music is listened to with the emotions involved in mind, everyone can relate it to their own lives, regardless of where they live, or the specifics of their life’s events.

In the fall of 1986 we heard Fela would be going on tour. One of the tour dates was at the Fox Theater in a suburb of Detroit. We purchased a large group of tickets and our Flint contingent attended this event. An event it was. Fela was backed by Egypt 80 and Dancers (most of whom were his wives). There was this huge log drum on the stage. Fela began the show dressed in typical casual West African clothing. You know the type of attire you see in films about African countries where it is sort of 1st World style but just not quite. Throughout the concert Fela sang, played saxophone, and communicated in his own style of rhythmic spoken word in a type of pidgin English. He seemed to constantly have cigarette in his hand or mouth. I swear that I saw him play the saxophone while smoking a cigarette more than once that night. During the concert Fela would slip back stage for a few seconds he would come back without his shirt, or a piece of clothing, with a white line painted on this or that part of his body until at the end of the concert it became clear that the image of a skeleton was painted on this entire body and the last piece of the puzzle was a skull painted on his face for the last song.