“Sorrow, Tears, and Blood”: Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Protest in Nigeria

Abstract

This chapter examines the protest music of Fela Anikulapo Kuti (1938-1997), variously described as Africa’s “most controversial musician” and “most challenging and charismatic popular music performer.”1 He assumed multiple and often contradictory identities, ranging from rebel, martyr, visionary, revolutionary, and hero, to playboy, rock star, social pervert, troublemaker, and trickster.2 Scholars from the humanities and social science have adopted diverse approaches in studying his music and career. Indeed, he is arguably Africa’s most studied musical artiste of the twentieth century.3 Fela’s protest music is grounded in the idiom and realities of Africa’s post-colonial challenges of underdevelopment, corruption, military dictatorship, and abuse of rights-to mention but a few. A dogged fighter to the core, he spent the last twenty-five years of his musical career exposing-through music-the impact of neo-colonialism on Africa’s development, while situating Africa and Africans within global politics and cultural production. In fact, he believed in the power of music in instilling political correctness and sparking a revolution.4 Fela did not just criticize African leaders and Western collaborators for their leadership ineptitude: he launched an unsuccessful and unpopular bid to become Nigeria’s president during the 1970s and 1980s.