Fela Kuti was a Nigerian musician and composer who along with drummer Tony Allen, is credited with inventing Afrobeat, a "fusion of jazz, funk, and African styles. His music is incredible, and deserves a post of its own, but he was a pretty interesting character himself, and I wanted to share a bit of his colorful and tragic life.
In the late 60's, after a stint with his band in the US, Fela started a commune in Nigeria called the Kalakuta Republic, which was also a recording studio, where he and is band lived, eventually declaring themselves as a sovereign nation, independent from the deeply corrupt Nigerian state. There, Fela and company also began to delve into the traditional west-African Yoruba faith.
Fela Kuti became wildly popular in Africa not only because of his novel and exciting musical style, but also for his human-rights activism and charismatic personality. He chose to sing his songs in Pidgin English, common all over the continent, so that Africans of any language could enjoy and connect with the music. His fame and outspokenness made him an enemy of the Nigerian government, who frequently raided his commune.
Eventually, after he attacked the country's brutal military tactics with the smash hit song Zombie, 1,000 soldiers were sent to attack the commune. Besides being badly beaten and having his studio, equipment and master recordings burned and destroyed, Fela Kuti's elderly mother was thrown out of a window and killed. He never quite recovered from this setback, and his attempts to run for office in Nigeria were always rebutted. In the 90's he was arrested for smuggling and soon died from the complications of AIDS, though many that knew him claim he never had AIDS, and was murdered in prison for his antagonism to the government.
Still, his musical legacy lives on all over the world, as Afrobeat has seen a huge resurgence and musicians from a wide variety of genres find inspiration in his work.
