Words: Adedosu 'kenzy' Adekunle
After over 30 years in the music business, Femi Kuti has become a force to reckon with and remains one of Nigeria’s most bankable performers. Starting out under the wings of his father- the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Femi has undoubtedly carved a niche for himself as his numerous achievements speak for him, leaving us with an impression that consistency and tremendous hard work must have been put into place in creating the ‘Femi Kuti brand’. Hip TV’s Bukky Babalola sits down with the Afrobeat legend to find out why he still reigns supreme.
We arrive an hour earlier than scheduled at the African shrine, as Femi’s sister and manager- Yeni Kuti had warned us beforehand, that Femi Kuti took punctuality seriously. Femi Kuti was found in his makeshift room at the African shrine with saxophone in hand, looking exhausted, as he had just completed hours of rehearsal with his band. On sensing our presence, he looks up, gives us a small, though tired smile and says- ‘You guys had better hurry up and set up because once it’s a minute past 5pm, I won’t do the interview’.
This sense of punctuality is quite an unexpected quality for a man whose late father was known to hardly ever keep to time and as Femi Kuti settled down for the interview, it was hard to believe that this energetic man, looking as fit as ever, will be clocking 50, next year. And where other celebrities have ascended to heights and lost all traces of humility, Femi Kuti comes across as genuine, free-spirited and accessible (well, kind of).
As a musician, human rights activist, with notable international award nominations to his name, Femi Kuti shares with us, his journey into fame. He starts at the very beginning, giving credit to the one man, his father, who laid the foundation…
Please give us an insight into your background?
I was born in 1962, June 16 in England. I was brought back immediately. I have been here all my life. I attended Mary Magdalene primary school, Moluka primary school, went to about three or four primary schools. Went to Baptist Academy, then I changed over to Igbogbi college. My father withdrew me from school in protest for other students because Obasanjo put soldiers in school at that time. I was very happy sha.
You contradict yourself here because in previous interviews, you mentioned you really wanted to get back in school but your father never allowed you to?
No. I said today, I understand how important education is for my son so I encourage him to go to school. As a young boy out of 10 children, may be five or six don’t want to go to school so we all don’t want to go to school at a point. It is very important for parents to make their children see the importance of going to school. We have to understand we cannot compare education of today with education in my father’s time. My father went through Abeokuta Grammar School, went to England, came back, came to Nigeria, saw what was going on, probably, he did not see…and then he was talking about effects of colonialism on our people. He didn’t want his children to have that kind of ‘colo mentality’ with this kind of colonial education so he was very much against this kind of education.
See how well you have turned out. Looking at you, hearing the way you talk, nobody would believe you never had a formal education?
Yes, that’s from my mother and father too. He spoke very good English and you know kids pick up very fast. If you put a kid in a house where there is an Igbo man, Yoruba, Hausa, Calabar man, you’ll be surprised by the time he is 15, he will speak all those languages. My mother, coming from a very English background, spoke very fluent English so we the children picked up fast. Now when I left school, my father didn’t take me out of school to become a lay about. I left school to study music so I joined his band and he made sure I was reading books on autobiography of Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, how Europe developed Africa. Very big books like ‘Black man of the night’, ‘Stolen legacy’, Miles David. I was also watching a lot of movies on the slave trade, anything that has to do with the slave trade, African history or the slave era or what colonialism did to Africa. All these I try to pass on to my children as well so I didn’t just drop out to be roaming Lagos.
Looking back, don’t you have any regrets that you never had a formal education?
I think the only regret I could possibly have is that I wish he taught me music. I had to teach myself how to read and write music so I’m very bad at it. Now, only I can understand what I’m saying. My father was classically trained, you see. When parents teach their kids, their kids grasp faster so if he had the time to be with his kids, I think probably I will have no problem reading or writing music. I even criticize that aspect of my life. However, people say probably I wouldn’t be doing the kind of numbers I am doing today, probably my numbers would be boring, probably I wouldn’t have the kind of energy I have, probably all that frustration in my life is what brought about the Femi Kuti of today. When I look at it objectively I really can’t complain, probably if I studied music, I probably would be playing classical music, it probably would be of no interest to my people today so I was forced to find my way, I was forced to study jazz, the lay man’s way. I probably would have been very arrogant if I had gone to the school of music, you never know how I would have turned out. I probably would have turned out very good but I cannot complain. I asked my father that same question before he died that he could have taught us. He then asked me a question-‘are you famous?’. ‘Wonder wonder‘ had come out, I was very famous. ‘Are you making money?’ I was starting to make money. ‘Can you feed your family?’ I was feeding my family. All the credentials to be a successful man, I was starting to have and so he said, he rests his case.
He definitely was a great man. The regret I have is that I never got a chance to meet him?
Yes, he was a great man. He is the kind of person you meet and in the few minutes you spend with him, you learn so much. You become very African conscious, you will want to know more about your people, and you’ll appreciate the culture. He had that kind of aura, this African thing about him that would surely make you proud.
Now, I’m sure it was very difficult for you to break out being a legend’s son. Did you feel the pressure? Everyone surely had expectations where you were concerned, so how did you break out? How were you able to make people see you for you and recognize you had your own talent?
It was more of vexation than frustration. I was so young. I left my father in 1986 to start my own band – Positive Force. I led his own band for two years where he was jailed by Idiagbon and Buhari, that was between 1984 to 1986. I learnt so much in the six years I was in his band so after he came out, I was already very frustrated and wanted to do my thing and I felt like I was imprisoned in his home. By the time he came out, I was so independent minded that to start taking instructions from anybody was now difficult and I was very time conscious. My father would say okay, he is calling rehearsals by five and he might turn up at 11 in the night. I had moved to my mother’s house by then so one day out of frustration, I told my sister that I needed to break out on my own. I couldn’t live under the same roof anymore and my sister was like ‘no, you have to spend time to…’. I then told my sister that okay, I was not doing again. My whole house just went ‘eh…you can’t, we are going to drag you back’ and I still said no, I was not going and everybody was saying ‘you are going crazy o, you won’t go back?’.
It was a very big deal because in Africa, to fight your father or to be against your father and a father like Fela, everybody turned against me. It was instant hatred, even the press. Maybe one or two members of press supported me. I mean, we’ll have a concert; only three people would come to my show. Between 1986 and 1991, it was impossible to survive. I got my first international break in 1988. In 1988, I was going to disband because we were making no money. My mother who financed my band had spent all her money and she was completely broke now. My younger sister and I had a big fight because she said I should go and be a fisherman (laughs). Just the week we were about to disband, this Frenchman comes and says-‘oh, I want to take you to France’. This was our break. We had this cultural exchange between Nigeria and France and I was chosen to represent Nigeria. That was my first break. Then in 1989, the Swiss government did the same kind of exchange. I quickly made contacts in France and Germany and we were set to go on a tour.
By 1991, my father and I settled and I decided to play in the shrine. Everybody just came to see the guy they had ignored for years. They wanted to see what I was about and my father too was shocked because I had a very big hit in the shrine titled ‘mind your own business’. My father was very impressed when ’wonder, wonder’ then came out in 1994 and it was a massive hit in Nigeria.
Yes, ‘wonder, wonder’ was one of my favourites way back then.
You must have been very young, then (laughs)
What is your greatest achievement so far in your music career?
I think the greatest thing I could have done is building a shrine. The old shrine was taken from us. When my father died, there was so much stress, it was unbelievable and then, I lost my sister and cousin. I was then heading my own section of my mother’s side of the family, everyone was relying on me for so much, I had to keep on touring, we had nowhere to play.
It must have been a very trying time. How then did you come out of it?
We coped. I think when a man’s back is to the wall you have to survive and it was a time when everything was just wrong. No, I wouldn’t say wrong – I think just stressful. Fela was dead, my sister was dead, and I had to keep making money. The government wasn’t on our side, they had just taken the shrine from us. Fela’s fans insisted we had to do something and we went; what are we going to do, what’s your problem? We had to look for land. We had a very good friend – Ine, who found us this land and quickly when we licensed my father’s catalogue, I convinced my mother to give us her side of the money instead of building a house. She wanted to move to England but I convinced my mother that the greatest thing we could do as Fela’s kids was to build a shrine so, I managed to convince her and she gave us the money to build the shrine. We then bought the land and quickly built the shrine so, if I had to weigh everything I would say the best thing I could have done is building the shrine. Musically now, I won the world music awards for ‘bang, bang, bang’ in 2000, and then had Grammy nominations came. Also, the KORA Awards was a very big deal because I was the first Nigerian to win the award. I didn’t know much about the award so when I won it, I didn’t feel it was a big deal. So when we arrived at the airport and saw thousands of Nigerians come to welcome me, I was quite embarrassed. They walked with me from the airport all the way to my father’s house so, that was a great night.
I’m sure your father would have been very proud of you if he were alive. Now, looking back at those trying times, if you could change just one thing, what would that be?
I would wish my father were still alive, I would wish my sister were also alive. I wish my father were alive because I would have loved Omorinmade, my first son to meet him because kids need their grandparents. There is so much a father can tell his children about their grandparents but it’s still better for the grandparents to be there. Omorinmade missed that. My sister’s daughter met my father for she was old enough then to still remember many encounters they had together.
Are there any of your kids now, following in your footsteps in the area of music?
’Made is but I want him to go to the university to study music very well. He already has played with me at age nine. At five, he was already playing. At nine, he was touring with me but I stopped it because he was now moving too much into the night business and leaving his education behind and I think education is very important especially for the future because of the computers. He is going to need to meet classical musicians; jazz musicians and I want him to be able to address them musically. I don’t want him to struggle like I have struggled. For instance, if an artist has to do one hour, I have to do four hours to meet up with international standards. I’m not complaining but I think I could have found it a lot easier. Made might not find it as easy as myself. I probably was just lucky, he might not have that kind of luck, I’m not ready to take that risk with him, I will not take that risk with any of my kids so I believe all of them might go into music, I have that feeling. There is Omorinmade, there is Ayomide, there is Tunmise, there is Lade and I have a new born baby coming very soon. I would like all of them to be in the art business, if not play music on stage as performing artists.
Hearing you talk, I can tell you are very passionate about your kids. You are, aren’t you?
They come before anything for me.
Now, we know you are a man of the people but some of your music counterparts are supporting some politicians. You have chosen to stay out of all that. Why is that? Were you even offered in the first place?
First, they didn’t offer me because they would know the answer I would give them. Now, a friend asked me that question a few days ago. He asked why I was sitting on the wall and refused to take a political stand. I told him I already am taking a political standing. Now, with the kind of background I have, if I am seen supporting any political candidate and I am not hundred percent sure that the government is not corrupt; that they are not for the people, not doing the things for the people, how could I jeopardize my heritage? I don’t want to be seen as saying this person I put my support, did one or two things wrong. I think it’s very important for me to take that back seat and watch so I can always criticize. We have to look at it from this point of view; it is our right to have electricity, it is our right to have good education, equal education for all our people. That means the carpenter’s son, the plumber’s son should be able to have the kind of education that rich kids have because that plumber’s son could become a pilot, could become a doctor and save lives. If he is therefore not given that opportunity to have good education, he could become a nuisance to the society. It is our right to have all these things; health care, good roads so if the President or Governor is performing his duties, why am I supposed to sing his praises? He is not using his money, he is using the state’s money, he is using our taxpayer’s money. Am I supposed to sing his praises for doing his duty? Now, as an artist if I go somewhere and perform badly, that might be the end of my career. It is my duty to perform every night to the best of my ability, there is no compromise. It is the duty of the doctor to save lives and when he fumbles, they can seize his license. There is nothing like praises.
Therefore you are saying your ability should speak for you?
Yes, you cannot sing a leader’s praise. First of all, that leader is a public servant. He is not doing the country a favour by performing his duties. Now, nobody begged him or her to go into public office. They beg. These leaders beg us. ‘Please vote for me. If you vote for me, I will give you light, I will do this for you.’ When we finally vote, the first thing they do is to put the soldiers in front of us, they put the police in front of us, and we cannot see them again. They oppress us. They steal all the money. We complain. It’s now fifty years in the country, we have no electricity, how can we sing their praises. It is our right to have all these basic amenities in our country so to sing any leader’s praise is totally out of the question.
Despite the public awareness of all you have said, we still have so many reputable Nigerian artists endorsing politicians with their songs, what do you have to say about that?
It is not my duty to criticize those artists. Maybe that is the way they are earning a living. They must be paid very well. I’m sure anybody singing Jonathan or Fashola’s praise; they must pay them very well. They won’t do it for free. Now, when you can’t make money selling your albums looking at our music industry, the artists must make money doing things like that so, I won’t be the one to criticize especially young boys and girls who have to survive. Now, if they have to survive this way instead of being criminals, I will support them. I think I have a duty to my fans, family, myself, my children to stand firm, as long as I don’t compromise. As I’m clocking fifty next year, it will be on record that Fela didn’t compromise. It will be referenced in the future so no matter how much suffering I go through, I still have to maintain integrity of what we stand for.
So you think a good name is definitely better than all the wealth you could possibly get?
Yes, when you spoil your name, there is no amount of money that can save you. There was a time Abacha tried to trick some artists to play for him. Many of the artists fell for the trick. They approached me then and I refused to go. Now, many of those artists regret doing that performance today. That money was big money. Abacha’s wife called me to do something for her as well. At that time she called me, Bamaiyi jailed my father. I nearly did that performance because it was something for children so you see, it was a sensitive matter and I was going to do it but Bamaiyi jailed my father and I said to myself this government has arrested my father, how can my father be in jail and his son be seen to play. Now, Sunny Okosun, Onyeka Onwenu, Christy Essien did that performance but I had to withdraw. The money was very good. I needed that money badly, then. It could have paid my rent, I could have bought a car, I could have paid my son’s school fees, I could have been quite comfortable but my father was in jail. Now there was no way, there was no amount of money they could have given me, for me to see my father in jail and bastardize that for any amount of money so I am that kind of person that weighs what is on the ground before making any decision.
Wow, I have learnt so much from you already and could spend the entire day talking with you but we have to cut it short somewhere. Now, Felabration is done annually, what do you have in store for us this year?
We are doing everything. I’m more of a supporter in the background. I don’t interfere in the decisions the committee makes because I think as an artist, I shouldn’t be involved or interfere. Probably if I influence many things, Seun and I could still be fighting so I like to obey tradition and culture. I see my sister as the eldest of the family so if she says the family is going in a certain direction, I will listen to her. If she tells me, she wants the family to be friends I have to respect her decision. Even if she is one month older than I am, I have to respect her because if I don’t give her my respect, I will never get my respect. She therefore says this is what we are going to do this year. If I have any objections, I will table my objections and voice my fears, if any. I also help by using my experience as performing artist by giving them contacts of the people I know like Awilo, who is a friend of mine. For instance, I met King Sunny Ade in America nobody could get in touch with him in Nigeria. I happened to be on tour at the same venue with him and my sister called me and told me they needed to get King Sunny Ade and since I was there with him I made the connection and he honoured my invitation and played for free so I used my influence in that regard. They could call me that they need to get in touch with a certain artiste that this artiste has a lot of respect for you, so I could do that, I mean help make that connection.
Fela on Broadway is debuting in Nigeria this year, 2011. Could you please shed more light on that?
I was probably the only one fighting for Fela! to come to Nigeria, not even to Nigeria particularly to the shrine. When it was held in Broadway and became successful, I protested by not going to watch it. Now the guy – Steve Hendel, who is putting a lot of money behind the programme, came to my hotel room in New York and said ‘you have to come and watch this’, the cast want you there, everybody wants you there. How can you Fela’s son not come and watch it? I said for only one reason and I told you from day one – yes, Fela on Broadway is great but it is of no significance to me if Fela doesn’t come to the shrine. I think it’s very important to pay homage to the shrine so he promised to bring it to the shrine. That was the promise he gave me before I went to watch the performance in Broadway, then I went to watch it in England to remind him of his promise to bring it to the shrine. I think they had done a deal with some people in Nigeria to bring it here.
Now, I don’t care where it goes, it has to come to the shrine because Fela is our father. It’s very important for the shrine, it’s very important for Fela’s spirit, it’s very important for the struggle, It’s very important for what Fela stood for. I think, it coming to the shrine is more of a blessing for us, for the people of Nigeria, those that have been following what Fela has been saying, for the future especially very important. If Fela on Broadway comes here, we’ll have more of a… I won’t say political stand- more of a social standing to demand for more things because when I started fighting for it everybody said they could never bring it here. I said I don’t care if they don’t bring it here but I will stand firm- it must come to the shrine. Everybody thought I would lose the battle but I have won the battle, it is coming here and it must come to the shrine first, before it goes anywhere. When it then comes here, we as a family would recognize it. Not that we don’t recognize it but that means that they have given us our heritage, they haven’t taken it from Africa.
We have to understand this Nigeria should present Fela to the world. It is a shame that the world is presenting Fela to Nigerians. Now in the papers, I read that Nigerians are complaining that the play is too American, the play is too this, the play is too that, they are missing the point. First, the point is Americans appreciated this man. They saw justice in taking this man and presenting him to their people. They were not presenting Fela on Broadway to Nigeria or to Nigerians in America. They wanted the average American to understand the political activist- FelaAnikulapo-Kuti. His story is fascinating. This man married twenty seven wives in one day. The average American would say-‘twenty seven wives in one day? Damn’. They would be freaked out. So, they wanted to take this man and present to the American public. If they take this man and present him the Nigerian way to the American public, the average American isn’t going to understand what they are saying because they speak like- ‘hey men, damn shit’. If we speak like the Nigerians to the Americans, the Americans would go- ‘what did you say?’ That play, they would never understand so, they are taking these Nigerians and presenting them to the American public. Now, when you watch it from a neutral man’s angle, you will cry when you watch that performance. You’ll be fascinated. You’ll experience all the emotions you can think of and you’ll go- wow! If you watch it from a critical Nigerian perspective, you’ll say – ‘eh, the cast are not Nigerians’. You’ll be criticizing it foolishly. This is a man they have taken and showcased in away the average person will understand.
What legacy would you like to leave behind?
Legacy ke! I don’t think about that. It’s really not about that for me. If I meet my father or my mother or people I admire when I die. I want to go into heaven and meet these people with my head up. I want them to see me and say wow, you did well. Now, how did I do well? The only way to do well is to live a very honest life, a righteous life, full of virtue, I must be as humble as possible, I must not be a leader of others but a leader of myself and I must practise what I truly believe in. I think when a man or woman does all this, every other thing is irrelevant. When you walk that path of righteousness, it’s not about your legacy. It’s about what you want to take with you when you die. I want to take with me, the good times I’ve shared. I want to leave behind the good times I’ve shared with my loved ones as well- my son, my sister. Probably If I die today, I will be a content person. I cherish those moments- joking with my sister, those moments that we share, joking with my son, kissing him, him telling me daddy, I love you, seeing the little ones, those moments are so precious to me. They mean more than anything else to me so, the legacy I will leave… I think I’ve done enough work in my life. My father was a big name and nobody expected me to be where I am today. Many people wrote me off long before I started. To be nominated for the Grammys, from Lagos at the shrine, it’s a big deal. To win the world music awards, to win the KORA. To be nominated for so many awards, worldwide, I think I’m quite a content person.
You definitely are. Now, many have lost hope in Nigeria. What do you have to say to people like that? Do you believe we should still have that hope of a greater Nigeria?
I would not want us to look at it from that perspective. I want us to always look at it from the point of view as Africans. I think we are missing the point and we are missing the point because we have not understood the slave trade, we have not understood the gravity of the name Nigeria on our heads. It’s a colonial name given to us by the British. Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Cameroun- all these are colonial structures. As Africans, we have to understand these are colonial structures that were put to always keep us separated. In these colonial structures, we created colonial structures in the colonial structures- Akwa Ibom, Ogun, Edo, Kaduna. We broke up these colonial structures into so many structures, so we are forever divided and they still want more states.
We should be thinking as Africans. When we think as Africans understanding the slave trade, understanding what our ancestors went through, then we would be thinking about love, we‘d care. Nigerians don’t even know what is going on in Benin republic, we don’t care. In Lagos, we don’t care, except we have family in Ogun state. The news does not give us or tell us what is going on anywhere except it’s Government’s news or the Governor’s news. They don’t give us the news of Nigeria, per say. If CNN doesn’t tell us there is a war in Rwanda, we would never know but it is our duty as Africans to be concerned with South Africans, Zimbabweans. It’s very important for us to want to know. We want to travel there. We ought to know and be a part of all these other communities in Africa before we are concerned about Europe or America. Our priorities are wrong as Africans. We look up to Europeans and Americans. All we all want to do is go to America, first. ‘Ah you haven’t gone to Yankee? Ah, emí Londoner’. Our priorities, everything is wrong. We need to think Africa, first and foremost. Now, will Africa get it right? I believe Africa will get it right in the long run. Will the colonial structure- Nigeria, get it right? Definitely, we will get it right one day. I don’t believe we will in my lifetime, though but if there wasn’t a Marcus Garvey, nobody will know anything about Africa. If Fela did not stand firm, nobody… Many Nigerians are enlightened today, as a result.
The human rights came to Nigeria because of Fela. There are political activists because of Fela.Not all these existed in the 70’s so, when Fela stood firm and was pointing his fingers at the military and everybody was criticizing him for smoking Igbo, wearing pant but despite all these, Fela still stood firm. Who stood firm against corruption? Fela’s name will come up. Who stood firm fighting for the masses of this country? Fela’s name will come up first, worldwide because he stood firm as an African. Now, it was because of him, amnesty came to Nigeria. He exposed the criminal acts in our prisons where lots of boys and girls are just locked up awaiting trial. They die awaiting trial. It was because of his music that we could see that when Bode George spent only two years for stealing all that money he stole…where is the justice? If our house-help steals only ten thousand naira, he will die in Kirikiri o, that’s if he even manages to get to Kirikiri. You just try to steal one thousand naira at Ikeja bus stop, they will lynch you there and that’s just for one thousand naira. Yet, these people are stealing billions and billions of our money that could go for education, so many things that could make our lives more comfortable. Will it change? Definitely, it will change. In my lifetime, I don’t think so but if I don’t stand firm, if I don’t believe in these principles, if I don’t teach my son, if I am not an inspiration to the younger ones, then as an individual, I have failed as well. I do believe, maybe in about 50 years, Africa will be the envy of the world.
Courtesy:Thenetng.
