Fela in Eternity

Iroyin: The passage, last week in Lagos, of the legendary Afrobeat King and leader of the Egypt 80 and, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, has brought three decades of cultural and political development in Nigeria through the medium of music to a sharp and rude closure. Fela, 58, when he gave up the ghost, lived a spacious life filled with controversy, passion, and turbulence but even more so was the passion generated by his oeuvre that was relentlessly iconoclastic and certainly revolutionary. However, among the flood of fitting tributes to which Fela could tumble in a healthy bath, the greatest point to be made about this enigmatic talent is that he lived a life that imposed the imperatives of excellence in art to the challenges of social and historical reconstruction.

Unhappily, the circumstances of his death, by AIDS, is likely to distract attention from the core social values and import of his life; but Fela was the most self-lacerating crusader who did not play God. Times like this therefore require that we focus on the virtues of a great man, even if we acknowledge his vices.

To be sure, Fela was the quintessential metaphor of his age. He was indisputably a freewheeling contradiction of his time and society, limitations which, in any case, he managed to supercede in many respects as in his rich symphony of African percussion and rhythm with the reverent temper of jazz that led to the birth of the Afrobeat tradition in music. Yet Fela’s genius is not limited to music for which he enjoyed global acclaim as the most popular and authentic voice in post-colonial Africa. His unrelenting attack on social anomie, political chicanery, corruption and dictatorship in Africa represent his most robust contribution to the course of Africa’s progress.

That he was the butt of endless state assaults; some so terminally wicked that it cost his mother her life’; makes his commitment even more noble and his passage more tragic. In the sixties through the seventies to the heady eighties, Fela was furiously transforming from one sensibility to another, but he never wavered on the principles of justice and fair play. This explained his huge appeal and patronage, which transcended the artificial frontiers of age, class, and culture. Now with his passage, these values that will come under severe test but his band must stand steadfast and irrevocably committed.

Our concerns and prayers go to them, as our condolences to his family, and the numberless fans all over the world, who saw in his art and life a pattern and inspiration that reject crass compromise but endorse justice, artistry and excellence. For this great African, Nigerian and Yoruba, eternity is most assured.