Fela Anikulapo’s son, Femi, tells OLUFEMI ATOYEBI and GBENGA ADENIJI what people didn’t know about the late Afrobeat musician
Why did your father choose a controversial lifestyle?
It
was because he was too honest about his way of life. He liked women and
he did not hide it. He liked to smoke marijuana and he did it in the
open. Many people like women but they do it secretly. There are so many
brothels all around the world but Fela never patronised them, many
people go there to pay for sex.
You will be shocked to know the
number of people that smoke marijuana in Nigeria and all over the world.
I hope you know that some countries are legalising the smoking of
marijuana now. He was truthful about his way of life while many of us
are hypocritical about ours. Many people were envious that he was too
honest and bold and that was why there were so many controversies about
his life.
Most of his friends who are highly-placed admire women
even girls young enough to be their daughters. They leave their
matrimonial homes to meet them secretly. Some of them hide in hotels to
do what they cannot do in the open. Many of them smoke but they are not
brave enough to say they smoke. All the call girls you see on Allen
Avenue, who picks them? Fela never did.
How was he able to manage his many wives?
It
was very stressful for him. Do not forget that he divorced all of them.
They were not faithful to him. When he decided to marry them, he did so
for a reason. He said they had been with him in difficult times. They
endured police harassment and beating. But they never left. Though they
were very loyal to him, they still had a bad image in the public because
people were calling them prostitutes.
He felt that the best way
to protect them was to marry them. They became Fela’s queens, so the
society had to respect them. I believe he loved them and he was already
sleeping with them before he married them. It was not really a big deal
to anybody that knew them. For instance, my mother knew this was
happening so it was not a hidden thing. The big deal was how he was able
to convince the 27 of them to marry him same day.
Did Fela talk you into music?
He
did not influence me as such. I always knew I would go into music. It
was just a question of how and when. He was however a big motivation in
my life because every child wants to be like his or her father. The son
of a plumber will want to be like his father, especially if he is
learning the trade early. If the son loves the father, he will want to
emulate him. I am not a different son. I love my father and wanted to
do what he was doing. The only question hanging over that ambition was
whether I could fulfil that ambition perfectly.
How did he punish any of his children who misbehaved?
He beat us. In fact, I was the one who got the most beating in the house when we were young.
Can you remember things you did that made him beat you?
I
stole my mother’s £1 to buy chewing gum one day. You can imagine how
many wraps of chewing gum that money would buy. They were not less than
100. My friend convinced me to go and steal the money but we were caught
while chewing the gum. When my father asked me where I got the money
from, I was speechless. I was still thinking of what to say when he
started beating me with his hand. He then warned me never to steal
again.
He also beat me when he caught me with cigarette in 1969.
My mother used to smoke and he saw me put the cigarette in my mouth. I
did not really smoke the cigarette because it was not lit, I only put it
in my mouth but it angered him when he saw what I did. He beat me again
and warned me not to touch cigarette again.
Why do you think it has been difficult to replicate Fela’s style of music?
It
is so because the foundation of the band was truthful. He was not
pretentious. He really believed in what he was saying. Despite all the
police harassment, he was not moved. Many people would have gone to seek
political asylum in another country but Fela did not do that. He had so
many opportunities outside Nigeria and he would have taken advantage of
them to run away from his enemies. These are the things that every
generation admires in him.
What are those things you imbibed from your father?
I
may not be able to mention them. In the way I deal with people, I am
very truthful. If I say I am going to do something, I would do it. But I
am more of my mother than my father. My elder sister has more of my
father than I do. I am more of a practical person. If I plan to do
something, I will think of the consequences. My father would never weigh
any decision before executing it. If he planned to go to Dodan
Barracks, he would just go there. As for me, I make plans before I do
anything. My father would not write a Will. But because I know that I
could get killed, I had written my Will a long ago.
I know that
in a divorce case, my wife could claim one third of my property, so I
would not go into wedlock. The most important thing to me right now are
my children. Now, I will not play to the gallery. I will not say because
people love me, they must come first before my family. Who are my
family? My children of course. So, whether you love me or not, I will
let you know that my children come before you, take it or leave it. I
live this way because I learnt from my father’s life, the decisions he
took and the consequences. When you learn from someone, you don’t have
to do what he did. Fela did what he did for his own reasons. I cannot
criticise why he did what he did.
Also, we must remember the
stardom. Nobody was as big as my father. He had over 100 people around
him daily when he became a star. I cannot live like that because I don’t
want too many people around me. I saw what people did to him. It was
too much. I can keep the Afrika Shrine open to everybody but not my
house.
If you come to my home,
you will only see me, my kids and may be my girlfriend. Sometimes, my
friends visit but I don’t keep a crowd around for any reason, my father
did. I like women but I saw the harassment he went through with 27
wives. It is not that I don’t want 27 wives but I know what will happen
because of what happened to my father. I can’t tell a woman that I will
be faithful in our relationship. That was part of the problem of my
marriage. I cannot be faithful. I will not lie about that. It is not
that I cannot be faithful, but I cannot start my relationship by saying I
am going to be faithful till death do us part. There are possibilities
that if another woman comes and I like her, I cannot give the assurance
that I will not have an affair with her. I have no intention whatsoever
tobring all of them under one roof. My intention now is to cater for my
children and do my job to the best of my ability.
Did Fela have any special food?
He
ate any food. He liked cakes and ice cream too. I don’t like cakes. I
can eat ice cream and chocolate once in a while but my father loved them
all. If somebody is celebrating and there is a cake, I can take a
little piece not to offend my host. My father could die for cakes. If
you visited him and looked inside his refrigerator, you would see lots
of cake in it.
Your father did not hide his hatred for western medicine. Is it the same with you?
I
grew up not liking tablets too. I grew up to be a traditionalist like
my dad. But I later realised that there are too many fake traditional
medicine in our society. The government must understand that many of
these herbs are claiming the lives of our people. We must ask ourselves
which of the herbs has been scientifically proven to cure malaria and
the ailment they claim to cure. I once had malaria and I drank herbs but
I was not cured. I felt very uncomfortable. I will not say that herb
does not work because Africa believes in it. It is a fact that we did
survive before orthodox medicine came.
There was African
traditional medicine, but where is it today? Everywhere, you will see
people hawking herbs, saying it work for this and that. People buy them
and mix with hot drinks. Really, when you are mixing alcohol with herbs,
you are damaging your liver. While you think you are curing one thing,
if it does work, you are damaging another thing in your body. Until we
have concrete fact to say something works for the body, we will be
deceiving ourselves.
Why do you think Fela hated former President Olusegun Obasanjo?
Olusegun
Obasanjo was a bad leader. He did not do well for Nigeria. He ruled
this country three times but has nothing to show for it. They called the
soldiers that burnt Kalakuta Republic and killed my grandmother unknown
soldiers. The Federal Government is yet to apologise for their action
against the Kuti family. Whether they like it or not, Fela was one of
the biggest stars from Africa. As the days go by, people are beginning
to understand the importance of his music. The Lagos State Government is
building a museum in his honour. The family does not have that kind of
money to build a museum. It is not the governor’s money but the state
government money. But the governor took the decision on behalf of the
people.
Another museum is also being built Ogun State. Governors
are beginning to understand that Kuti’s name cannot be swept under the
carpet. The family has done so much for Nigeria and the world. Many
people are playing afrobeat style of music today because Fela invented
it. Some people are saying he did not start it. But the question is: Who
started it and stood firm using the music creatively? Fela stood for
many great things and his contribution to the society cannot be pushed
aside.
Did he have time to take the family out for leisure?
In
1967, I remember that he took us to Onikan swimming pool and also
Federal Palace Hotel. That was the first and last outing for fun with
us. He always made it clear that he was not a conventional father. He
did not want us to go to school not because he did not like education,
but because he believed that education was colonial. He believed that it
was structured to show that Europe is supreme and Africa is not good.
Even when he took me out of school in my fourth year in secondary
school, I had acquired vast knowledge about the outside world through
the books I read at home. I was known as a professor in the Kalakuta
Republic. I read books such as Blackman and Walter Rodney’s How Europe
Underdeveloped Africa. I read so much that I even found there was a
Pharaoh Kuti in Egypt. I wondered if this Egyptian Pharaoh Kuti was in
any way related to the Kuti family in Nigeria. My father said we are
probably related.
Which school were you attending before Fela made that decision?
I
was studying at Baptist Academy and he withdrew me from there when
Obasanjo deployed soldiers to the school. I later went to Igbobi
College and spent a year. He advised me to leave the school in form
four. Many believed I would become a nonentity because of his action.
There was disagreement within the family, my mother was against it, but
my dad stood his ground. She wondered why my dad took me out of school
when he went to one of the best schools in the UK.
She also said
since he did not teach me music how then would I be great in life? My
father told her not to worry that I would be great. I was not happy too
and did not speak to him for six years. He told me that he was confident
that I would be great. I did not know what he saw in me. The day my
album, Wonder Wonder, became popular and I was becoming a household name
in Nigeria, he called our family members and told them that the same
boy he withdrew from school had become a successful musician.
At
that time, it was only my father and King Sunny Ade that were travelling
abroad frequently for musical concerts. But I suddenly started
travelling abroad more than the two of them because I was becoming known
more outside the country.
Will I do the same for my son? No. He
will get a good education. I will let him understand street life which I
grew up to know so that he will have a feel of it, but he must be
formally educated.
Where were you when soldiers invaded Kalakuta Republic?
I
was coming back from the school when I saw the soldiers. They wanted to
arrest me. But I managed to escape through a place called Alagbole
behind Kalakuta. I ran and went to pick my younger sister at Mary
Magdalene Primary School. We then crossed over the railway and went
home.
Is there anything you miss about Fela?
I miss
his being a grandfather. I think he would have been a fantastic
grandfather. He had already been showing the signs with my sister’s
daughter and my son. He died in 1997 and my son was born in 1995. I know
that what he was not able to do for us, he would have done for our
children if he were still alive.
Rea
d interview on his decisions about women
I will never get married again says FEMI KUTI « – The Nigerian News + Entertainment gist http:///2013/04/01/i-will-never-get-married-again-says-femi-kuti/
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