Overview
Fela Kuti was a bandleader, saxophonist and composer who created Afrobeat and used it as a vehicle for political criticism. He was Yoruba, born at Abeokuta in what is now Ogun State, a son of the campaigner Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti.
Biography
Fela was sent to London to study medicine and enrolled at Trinity College of Music instead, forming the band Koola Lobitos. A stay in the United States in 1969 brought him into contact with Black Power politics, and on his return he renamed his band Africa 70 and developed Afrobeat: long compositions built on Yoruba rhythm, highlife and jazz horn arrangements, with call-and-response vocals largely in pidgin.
He established the Kalakuta Republic as a communal compound and the Afrika Shrine as a performance venue, and released a stream of albums including Zombie, Expensive Shit, Coffin for Head of State and Beasts of No Nation. The records attacked military government, corruption and colonial mentality, and he was arrested and beaten repeatedly. In 1977 soldiers destroyed the Kalakuta compound; his mother was injured in that raid and died the following year. He stood for president in 1979 through his own Movement of the People, and continued recording and performing until his death in 1997.
Notable achievements
- Created Afrobeat and led Africa 70 and Egypt 80
- Recorded Zombie, Expensive Shit, Coffin for Head of State and Beasts of No Nation
- Founded the Afrika Shrine as a permanent performance venue in Lagos
- Used popular music as sustained public criticism of military government
Legacy
Afrobeat became a form used by musicians across Africa and beyond, and Fela's records are still the standard reference for politically explicit African popular music. His confrontations with the state, and his personal life, have been written about extensively and are read in very different ways.