Fela Kuti: the Abeokuta-born creator of Afrobeat, now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
He blended highlife, jazz, funk and Yoruba rhythms into a new sound and sang in Pidgin so all of Africa could follow. His music still fills the New Afrika Shrine every October.
Lire cet article en français →
Lagos — Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta on 15 October 1938. His mother was the women's rights campaigner Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, and his father, an Anglican minister and school principal, was the first president of the Nigeria Union of Teachers. The Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka was his cousin.
From London to the Shrine
In 1958 he went to London to study at Trinity College of Music, with the trumpet as his instrument, and formed Koola Lobitos, playing a fusion of jazz and highlife. Back in Nigeria he trained as a radio producer and developed the sound he called Afrobeat, mixing apala, funk, jazz, highlife, salsa, calypso and traditional Yoruba music.
With his band Africa '70, featuring drummer and musical director Tony Allen, he became a star in the 1970s. He sang in Pidgin English so that listeners across a continent of many languages could understand him, and used his songs to speak about the issues facing his country. He performed regularly at his own club, the Afrika Shrine in Lagos.
A living legacy
Fela died in 1997. His son Femi oversees reissues of his music, and his youngest son Seun leads his former band as Seun Kuti & Egypt 80. Since 1998, the Felabration festival, an idea of his daughter Yeni, has been held each year at the New Afrika Shrine to mark his birthday.
His music inspired artists including Talking Heads, and a stage musical about his life, Fela!, became a hit in New York. In 2026 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Background: Wikipedia.
