Fela Kuti (born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti) was a Nigerian musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist, pioneer of the Afrobeat music genre, political maverick, and human rights activist
Background
Ethnicity:
Both parents are Yoruba from South-Western Nigeria.
Fela Kuti was born on 15 October 1938 in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria into the family of Israel Oludotun and Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was a feminist activist in the anti-colonial movement, while his father, Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a Protestant minister and school principal, was the first president of the Nigeria Union of Teachers. His brothers, Beko Ransome-Kuti and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, both medical doctors, are well known in Nigeria. Fela was a first cousin to the Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Education
Fela Kuti attended the Abeokuta Grammar School in Abeokuta and thereafter he was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but opted to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music, the trumpet being his preferred instrument.
In 1963, Fela returned to Nigeria where he formed a band called Koola Lobitos. He would later change the band's name to Afrika 70, and again to Egypt 80. Beginning in the 1960s, Kuti pioneered and popularized his own unique style of music called "Afrobeat." Afrobeat is a combination of funk, jazz, salsa, Calypso and traditional Nigerian Yoruba music. In addition to their distinctive mixed-genre style, Kuti's songs were considered unique in comparison to more commercially popular songs due to their length - ranging anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour long. Kuti sang in a combination of Pidgin English and Yoruba.
In the 1970s and '80s, Kuti's rebellious song lyrics established him as political dissident. As a result, Afrobeat has come to be associated with making political, social and cultural statements about greed and corruption. One of Kuti's songs, "Zombie," questions Nigerian soldiers' blind obedience to carrying out orders. Another, "V.I.P. (Vagabonds in Power)," seeks to empower the disenfranchised masses to rise up against the government.
In 1989, three years after touring the United States, Kuti released an album called Beasts of No Nation. The album cover portrays world leaders Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan (among others) as cartoon vampires baring bloody fangs.
Rebelling against oppressive regimes through his music came at a heavy cost to Kuti, who was arrested by the Nigerian government 200 times, and was subject to numerous beatings that left him with lifelong scars. Rather than abandon his cause, however, Kuti used these experiences as inspiration to write more lyrics. He produced roughly 50 albums over the course of his musical career, including songs for Les Negresses under the pseudonym Sodi in 1992. He died on 3 August 1997.
Fela Kuti was an African traditional man that believed in Polygyny.
Quotations:
“…When I was first put in jail, the name of my prison cell was ‘Kalakuta’, and Republic? I wanted to identify myself with someone who didn’t agree with the Federal Republic of Nigeria…I was in non-agreement.”
“…just want to do my part and leave…Not for what they’re going to remember you for, but for what you believe in as a man.”
“Everything I did wrongly is an experience…to be honest and truthful in all endeavours is an experience, not a regret.”
Sex is a gift of nature. Why do men make laws to check it? A law telling you where to Bleep and another telling you when to Bleep.”
"A man goes for many women in the first place. Like in Europe, when a man is married, when the wife is sleeping, he goes out and fucks around. He should bring the women in the house, man, to live with him, and stop running around the streets!"
Personality
Kuti was outspoken and brave.
Quotes from others about the person
Herald Sun: "Imagine Che Guevara and Bob Marley rolled into one person and you get a sense of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti."