Fela Kuti
Fela Anikulapo Kuti (born October 15, 1938 in Abeokuta , † August 2, 1997 in Lagos ; real name Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti ; Fela for short ) was a Nigerian musician (including saxophone , trumpet , vocals), band leader and political activist . He is considered the founder of Afrobeat .
Life
Youth and Education in London
In 1938 Kuti was born as Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, the fourth of five children. His father was a Protestant pastor and an avid pianist . His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti , was a leading Nigerian women's rights activist . So music and politics played an important role in his life from an early age.
In 1958 Ransome-Kuti moved to London, where he should study medicine at the request of his parents. Instead, he enrolled at Trinity College of Music and studied piano , composition, and music theory for four years . In 1961 he founded his first band, the Koola Lobitos . With her he developed high life jazz, a mixture of jazz and West African high life . At that time he played the trumpet almost exclusively.
Return to Nigeria and invention of the Afrobeat
In 1962 he returned to Nigeria, where he re-founded Koola Lobitos . He worked as an intern at a radio station in Lagos. Due to frequent band appearances after work, Fela Kuti could hardly meet his professional obligations and was dismissed after a few months. From this point on, he devoted himself exclusively to his career as a band leader. In 1968 he referred to the music of his band Koola Lobitos for the first time as Afro-Beat and thus reacted to the subordination of most local band leaders to the black music of America. Driven by the idea of counteracting this trend of one-sided musical influence, he decided to go to the USA with the band.
A ten-month stay in the USA in 1969 should be the hour of birth of the Afrobeat. Here Fela Kuti met well-known musicians such as James Brown , Miles Davis and Sly Stone . He met with Angela Davis , Stokely Carmichael and The Last Poets and internalized views of the black civil rights movement - especially its militant currents like the Black Panthers - he was friends with the activist Sandra Smith (later Sandra Izsadore). These experiences now flowed into his music. While still in the USA, he renamed his band Koola Lobitos in Nigeria 70 ; A few years later it became - in the sense of Pan-Africanism - Africa 70. One band member was the drummer Tony Allen , who developed the music together with Kuti. The band's music was now a mix of funk , jazz and African influences: the Afrobeat.
Upon his return to Lagos, Fela Kuti founded the (Africa) Shrine Club , a nightclub that soon became the focus of his musical and political activities. The Kalakuta Republic he proclaimed there was a commune that included a recording studio. Up until now he had mainly worked as a saxophonist and composer, but now he has also started to sing. Since he deliberately sang in pidgin English and not in his native Yoruba language , his texts were understandable for the population in all English-speaking countries in Africa. Now his group numbered up to forty members and consisted of several singers, dancers, saxophonists, trumpeters, drummers, guitarists and drummers of all kinds. In 1973 he worked with the South African trumpeter and singer Hugh Masekela . James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney visited him at the Shrine.
His songs are quite long, individual pieces fill the entire page of a long-playing record. Performances led by him had the character of jam sessions , driven by hypnotic polyrhythmics with African dialogue chants and Afro- rock monotony. His long stage appearances, which were interrupted by diatribes, and his refusal to play previously recorded pieces again at concerts, ultimately led to the lack of success in the USA.
Conflicts with the military government
In his texts, Fela Kuti increasingly criticized the social systems in Africa that had been deformed by colonization and condemned Nigeria's dictatorial military regime . On his 1976 album Zombie , he criticized the government soldiers as zombies. Due to its popularity among the Nigerian population, its international fame and, above all, its song lyrics, it posed a great threat to the rulers. In 1977 around 1,000 soldiers attacked Kalakuta , set it on fire and destroyed the music studio. Kuti survived with a fractured skull base , but his 77-year-old mother died of her injuries. In protest, Kuti had her coffin brought in front of the presidential palace of Olusegun Obasanjo and in 1981 released the album Coffin for Head of State (roughly: " Coffin for Head of State "). He himself fled to Ghana with his band .
Shortly afterwards he was able to return to Nigeria, which was now under civil rule. He changed his second family name Ransome, which he saw as a slave name, to the name Anikulapo (something like: "Who carries death in a bag", that is, is immortal), initiated a new band, the Egypt 80 , and founded his own party in 1979, the Movement of the People, MOP for short. In 1984 Kuti was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for alleged foreign currency offenses by the now military government under Muhammadu Buhari . Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience and subsequently stood up for him. After another military coup by Ibrahim Babangida, he was released 18 months after the start of his detention. Despite the recurring threats, persecutions, arrests and the use of physical violence by the Nigerian government, he continued his criticism and repeatedly denounced the oppressive conditions in his homeland. His music caused a furore and criticism of the ruling system among the population. Rolling Stone magazine called him "the most dangerous musician in the world". In 1993 he and four other band members were arrested for murder.
Fela Kuti described himself as an anti - colonial Pan - African . However, he is also seen by critics as a demagogic, sexist fundamentalist. His role as a supposed rediscoverer of traditional African values gave him the excuse to view women as an available commodity. In interviews and song texts, he repeatedly made statements such as: "Women are mattresses". In a mass ceremony, he married 27 of his dancers and singers. He demonized homosexuality as a punishment for a previous bad life.
Sickness and death
In the 1990s, Kuti fell ill with AIDS , of which he died on August 2, 1997. Kuti had always denied the existence of the disease (see AIDS denial ). In his opinion, condoms were the tool of a white conspiracy aimed at reducing the black birth rate. Only shortly before his death did he agree to be admitted to the hospital. Because of his condition, he was no longer able to acknowledge the diagnosis “HIV positive”. Over a million people attended his laying out in the stadium in Lagos.
family
One of his brothers was the human rights activist and doctor Bekololari Ransome-Kuti (1940-2006). Another brother, Olikoye Ransome-Kuti , was Minister of Health and later - before Fela Kuti's death - an anti-AIDS activist. Africa's first Nobel Prize for Literature is Kuti's first cousin Wole Soyinka .
aftermath
By the time he died, Kuti had produced over 50 albums, many of which also received international recognition. His music and lyrics are still a topic of discussion. His sons Femi Kuti and Seun Kuti and his former drummer Tony Allen , as well as young bands from numerous countries, for example the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra from New York , continue the musical resistance and the tradition of Afrobeat .
2000 Femi Kuti opened in Lagos in memory of the Africa Shrine the New Africa Shrine. On the initiative of Fela Kuti's daughter Yeni Anikulapo-Kuti, the Felabration takes place there every year, a festival with international groups, symposia and photo exhibitions. The time is always the week around Fela Kuti's birthday in October. Fela Kuti's albums have been reissued since 2000. In 2013 the KFR label issued eleven CDs with a selection of Kuti's works. Other albums were released as records.
Discography (selection)
| year | title | Label |
| 1969 | the '69 los angeles sessions | Stern's (published 1994) |
| 1971 | Live ! (with Ginger Baker ) | Shelf Zonophone / Pathe Marconi / EMI / HÖRZU SHZE 342 |
| 1971 | Why Black Man Dey Suffer | EMI / Decca Afrodesia |
| 1972 | Stratavarious (with Ginger Baker ) | Polydor / Atco |
| 1972 | Well poi | EMI HMV |
| 1972 | Open & Close | EMI / Pathe Marconi |
| 1972 | Shakara | EMI / Editions Makossa / Pathe Marconi / Creole |
| 1972 | Roforofo Fight | Jofabro / Editions Makossa / Pathe Marconi |
| 1973 | Afrodisiac | EMI / Regal Zonophone / Pathe Marconi |
| 1973 | gentleman | EMI / Pathe Marconi / Creole |
| 1974 | Alagbon Close | Jofabro / Editions Makossa |
| 1975 | Noise for Vendor Mouth | Afrobeat |
| 1975 | Confusion | EMI / Pathe Marconi |
| 1975 | Everything scatter | Coconut / Creole |
| 1975 | Hey Miss Road | EMI / Pathe Marconi |
| 1975 | Expensive shit | Soundwork Shop / Editions Makossa |
| 1976 | No bread | Soundwork Shop / Editions Makossa |
| 1976 | Kalakuta show | Kalakuta / Editions Makossa |
| 1976 | Upside down | Decca Afrodisia |
| 1976 | Ikoyi blindness | Africa Music |
| 1976 | Before I Jump Like Monkey Give Me Banana | Coconut |
| 1976 | Excuse O | Coconut |
| 1976 | zombie | Coconut / Creole / Mercury |
| 1976 | Yellow fever | Decca Afrodesia |
| 1977 | Opposite people | Decca Afrodesia |
| 1977 | Fear Not For Man | Decca Afrodesia |
| 1977 | Stalemates | Decca Afrodesia |
| 1977 | Observation No Crime | Decca Afrodesia |
| 1977 | Johnny Just Drop (JJD Live! At Kalakuta Republic) | Decca Afrodesia |
| 1977 | I Go Shout Plenty | Decca Afrodesia |
| 1977 | No agreement | Decca Afrodesia / Barclay / Celluloid |
| 1977 | Sorrow, Tears and Blood | Kalakuta |
| 1978 | Shuffering and Shmiling | Coconut / celluloid |
| 1979 | Unknown soldier | Phonodisk / Uno Melodic |
| 1979 | ITT (International Thief Thief) | Kalakuta |
| 1980 | Music of Many Colors (with Roy Ayers ) | Phonodisk / Celluloid |
| 1980 | Authority stealing | Kalakuta |
| 1981 | Black President | Capitol |
| 1981 | Original Sufferhead | Lagos International / Arista |
| 1981 | Coffin for Head of State | Kalakuta |
| 1983 | Perambulator | Lagos International |
| 1983 | Live in Amsterdam | Wrasse |
| 1985 | Army arrangement | Kalakuta / celluloid |
| 1986 | Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense | Polygram / Barclay |
| 1989 | Beasts of No Nation | Kalakuta / Eurobound / Shanachie |
| 1989 | ODOO (Overtake Don Overtake Overtake) | Kalakuta / Shanachie |
| 1990 | Confusion break bones | Kalakuta |
| 1990 | Just like that | Kalakuta |
| 1992 | Underground system | Kalakuta / Sterns |
Documentaries
- 1982: Music is the weapon
- 2014: Finding Fela! by Alex Gibney
musical
- 2008: Fela! , Musical by Bill T. Jones , the Broadway production won three Tony Awards in 2010 .
See also
literature
- Carlos Moore: Fela, Fela! This bitch of a life. Authorized biography. Allison & Busby, London 1982.
- German as Fela Kuti. This bitch of a life. Tolkemitt, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-942048-42-2 .
- Michael E. Veal: Fela. Life and Times of an African Musical Icon. Temple University Press, Philadelphia 1997.
- Rolf Brockmann, Gerd Hötter: Scene Lagos. Travel to an African cultural metropolis. Trickster, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-923804-75-X , pp. 15-48.
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Fela Kuti in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Fela Project (English)
- Fela Kuti's idea of freedom: Afrobeat
- Fela Kuti at Allmusic (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Harald Peters: The unstoppable renaissance of the Afrobeat. welt.de from October 27, 2015, accessed on May 17, 2016
- ↑ a b c d e biography at allmusic.com (English), accessed on May 18, 2016
- ↑ 10 best songs: Fela Kuti. theguardian.com, May 5, 2016, accessed May 18, 2016
- ↑ Colin Larkin (Ed.): The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music . Virgin Books, London 2002, ISBN 1-85227-923-0 , p. 721.
- ^ The Afro-Beat goes on and on. marcosolo.antville.org of August 4, 2002 (English), accessed May 16, 2016
- ↑ biography at laut.de
- ^ Christian Graf, Burghard Rausch: Rockmusiklexikon. America, Africa, Asia, Australia . Volume 2. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-596-15870-2 , p. 952.
- ↑ Entry at encyclopedia.com
- ↑ Fela Kuti - Zombie Lyrics | MetroLyrics. In: www.metrolyrics.com. Retrieved September 18, 2016 .
- ^ Nigerian musician Fela charged with murder. The Washington Post, January 26, 1993, accessed May 18, 2016
- ^ A tale of two brothers. (English)
- ↑ Interview with Soyinka at achievement.org ( Memento from January 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ Activist, composer, polygamist in FAZ of May 14, 2013, p. 26.
- ↑ Entry at imdb.com , accessed on May 18, 2016
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kuti, Fela |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kuti, Fela Anikulapo (full name); Ransome-Kuti, Olufela Olusegun Oludotun (real name); Fela (short name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Nigerian saxophonist and band leader |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 15, 1938 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Abeokuta , Nigeria |
| DATE OF DEATH | 2nd August 1997 |
| Place of death | Lagos , Nigeria |