Black And Bold - the True Face of African Defiance

Even in death, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who, alongside Bob Marley and James Brown, electrified the world with explicitly anti-establishment and unapologetically ghetto-inspired black music, is still making waves. It is the 12th anniversary of his death.

He was known by various names: 'Black President', 'Omo Iya Aje' (Son of a Powerful Woman), 'Baba' (Father) and 'Abami Eda' (Strange One or Spirit Being) -- he was given the latter name after release from jail in 1986 after serving his term for one of his many politically-motivated charges.

This August marks the 12th anniversary of the death of the musician, activist, rebel, and political maverick, but it is impossible to make a mention of Fela without highlighting the controversial aspects of the man's character.

Musical accomplishments

His songs were political attacks aimed at the successive military governments in Nigeria, and what he viewed as an oppressive world order.

Sorrow, Tears and Blood, Colonial Mentality, International Thief Thief (ITT) and Vagabonds In Power were all potent commentaries that riled the authorities in Lagos.

If I were a respectable professor at a university saying these things, that would be something different," Fela said, "But to them, I am just a musician, a crazy artiste saying crazy things.

In 1977, hundreds of soldiers raided Fela's communal compound, The Kalakuta Republic, razed it to the ground and threw his 77-year-old mother from a window, causing her injuries from which she later died.

In a show of defiance, Fela delivered his mother's body in a coffin to the residence of military leader Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and released the song Coffin For Head Of State, in which he agonised.

Them burn many houses<br>

Them burn my house too<br>

Them kill my mama<br>

Marrying 27 wives<br>

It was after this brutal attack that Fela married 27 of his back-up singers and dancers at a mass wedding ceremony "because they could not find employment since his studio had been burnt down by the soldiers

In Nigeria, this was seen as an attack on the hypocrisy of prominent Nigerians who posed as modern and monogamous, yet were known to keep mistresses.

Elsewhere in the world, it held up as another example of Fela's reactionary sexual politics as heard in songs like Lady, in which he extols the virtue of a market woman while mocking the 'African lady'

Fela Kuti's music was as much for education as it was for dancing and entertainment.

He sought to counter the commercialism that limited a song to a three-minute duration, saying this was insufficient for satisfying dancing or effective listening.

He created lengthy and complex songs running to at least 10 minutes, complete with instrumental solos, intricate percussions and horn arrangements.

Ethnomusicologist Michael E Veal describes Fela as "combining the dancing agility of James Brown, the mystical inclinations of Sun Ra, the polemics of Malcolm X and the harsh insightful satire of Richard Pryor

In the 1970s, Fela developed an innovative music genre called 'Afrobeat', a fusion of West African highlife, jazz, funk and traditional African music.

It was here that Fela formed his first band, Koola Lobitos, entertaining Nigerian and Caribbean students in England. Fela belonged to a generation of musicians, including Miriam Makeba, Manu Dibango, Hugh Masekela, Franco, Tabu Ley 'Rochereau' and Abdullah Ibrahim, who gained international success due to their distinct African music styles.

It was Miriam Makeba, already a household name with Pata Pata, who gave Fela business contacts during his band's first trip to the States in 1969.

While in the US, he met and fell in love with Sandra Smith Isadore, a former member of the African American revolutionary group, The Black Panthers.

Sandra introduced Fela to the ideas of civil rights icons like Martin Luther King, Elijah Mohammed and Malcolm X.

The latter made the biggest impression on Fela: "I wanted to be like Malcolm X," he would later admit

Coming back from America in 1970, Fela reflected on his experiences: "I had realised I should not try to impress foreigners.... When my people accept me, then foreigners will see the need to accept me

He addressed issues important to the Nigerian underclass, political exploitation and disenfranchisement, and soon became satirical and sarcastic towards those in power, condemning both military and civilian regimes for mismanagement, incompetence, theft and marginalisation of the poor.

Almost from the moment he came back to Nigeria until his death, Fela was hounded, jailed, harassed and nearly killed during the military attack on his Kalakuta compound.

Author Carlos Moore sets Fela alongside James Brown and Bob Marley "as the only 20th century musicians to have electrified the world with explicitly anti-establishment and unapologetically ghetto-inspired black music.

During his funeral in 1997, over one million people filed past his casket chanting, "Fela will live forever!"

True to character, Fela was buried with a marijuana joint in his mouth.

Forever in our hearts.