Fela Kuti forged Afrobeat and fought Nigeria’s juntas
Nigerian musician Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì (1938–1997) fused West African music with American funk and jazz into Afrobeat. With Africa ’70 and drummer Tony Allen he dominated 1970s Lagos stages while baiting military regimes from his Kalakuta Republic compound—and entered the Rock Hall in 2026.
Olufela Ransome-Kuti was born in Abeokuta into a prominent family: his mother Funmilayo was an anti-colonial feminist and his father an Anglican minister, headmaster and first president of the Nigeria Union of Teachers. In 1958 he went to London to study at Trinity College of Music, trumpet his instrument of choice, and formed Koola Lobitos to play a blend of jazz and highlife. A ten-month stay in Los Angeles in 1969 introduced him, through the Black Panther supporter Sandra Smith, to Black Power politics.
Back home the band became Africa '70 and its lyrics shifted from love to social questions. He built a commune, studio and home for his circle, later declaring it independent of Nigeria, and ran a nightclub, first the Afro-Spot and then the Afrika Shrine, where he also held Yoruba ceremonies. He renamed himself Anikulapo, he who carries death in his pouch, and sang in Pidgin English so audiences across the continent's many language groups could follow.
The state answered with raids. After the 1977 album Zombie mocked soldiers as mindless followers of orders, about 1,000 troops stormed the commune, beat Fela badly and injured his elderly mother. The following year he married 27 women at once, many of them his dancers and singers. Tony Allen and most of the band quit, and Fela formed Egypt 80. He launched a party, the Movement of the People, and tried to run for president in 1983 but was refused.
In 1984 Muhammadu Buhari's government jailed him for alleged currency smuggling; Amnesty International called him a prisoner of conscience, and he was freed after 20 months. He played Amnesty's 1986 Conspiracy of Hope concert with Bono and Carlos Santana and released the anti-apartheid Beasts of No Nation in 1989. He died of heart failure linked to AIDS, a disease he had denied. His son Seun still leads Egypt 80.
Source: Fela Kuti
