Nigeria has many figures that help the country growing whether in the economics or the social. After the colonial period over, many things are not sorted and there are some problems that wait for someone to fix. In this article, I’ll talk about a person who used music to give power, inspiration, and awareness to the Nigerian, that every Nigerian and, of course, many people around the world recognize him. The great Fela Kuti.
Kuti was a Nigerian great musician. He could play many instruments as well as being able to pass his idea through his music and lyrics. He was the pioneer of ‘Afrobeat’ music genre. Meanwhile, he was a great human right activists. Therefore, he was a political mavericks due to his acting toward the Nigerian government.
Kuti was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria on October 15, 1938. His mother was a political activists too, and this directly affected his idea of Nigerian political. He moved to London to study music (but told his mother that he was going to study medicine.) Kuti graduated from Trinity College of Music; he studied classical music, especially in jazz.
His specialty in music led him cultivate his idea to others easily. He then introduced a new music genre, Afrobeat, to the public and soon being popular to the social. His music mainly about increasing social awareness for the Nigerian political. His music is very unique in the long length, as it is between 15 minutes to an hour.
He was first fight against the Nigerian military regime. His first album, Zombie, described how the military did to populace in a very bad ways. He then created some more songs in his own way with lyrics are related to the ‘dark’ side of Nigerian government. He was first charged with currency smuggling and then was proved by the Amnesty International that it was political motivated. And that was the only one kind of methods his oppose used to get rid of him.
His music and political activists gave him many harmed. He was arrested more than 200 times by Nigerian government. He was beatings in the jail so many times that left him famous scars. He then used pain to write more songs. He created approximately 50 albums before he died.
His personality is straightforward, courage, and sometime bizarre. He was a man who married to 27 woman in a day. This action lead to his dead in 1997. But many people who contact or talk to him said that he was a good man and friendliness. Controversy to the Nigerian broadcasting that said he used marijuana and had grotesque sex activities.
He was found dead in August 2, 1997 with HIV related disease at the age of 58. He was a very important person that over a million people attended his funeral. Even though he was died early but he had impressed the world with his music that can preach people to aware of themselves. Even after he died, the music committee awarded him with Kora award for his contributions to the music world. He was not a perfect guy, but his activities, his workings, and his remembrance will still exist in the world no matter what was going on.