Award-winning stage musical on the 'father of afrobeat' heads to
Lagos, a move welcomed by his eldest daughter, Yeni
David Smith in Lagos
guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 March 2011 12.57 GMT
Fela! will also be staged at the New Africa Shrine, a club in Lagos,
Nigeria, modelled on the late singer's spiritual home. Photograph:
Sunday Alamba/AP
Pretentious it isn't. Beneath the giant corrugated iron roof is a
shabby stage, a sprawl of picnic tables and market stalls, and young
Nigerians playing pool or leaning at a bar watching West Bromwich
Albion.
But look closer in one corner and a collection of artefacts point to
the significance of this rundown corner of Lagos: a colourful costume,
musical instruments, photographs, wind chimes and symbols of earth,
water, wind and fire. This is the New Africa Shrine, a club modelled
on the spiritual home of the late Fela Kuti, a Nigerian musical and
political revolutionary.
The 'father of afrobeat' – a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythms –
is the subject of Fela!, a musical that has won audiences, acclaim and
awards on Broadway and at the National Theatre in London. It was
announced this week that Fela! is coming home to Nigeria, primarily at
Lagos's Eko hotel but also in a performance at the New Africa Shrine.
While Fela's eldest child, Yeni Kuti, is delighted to welcome the
show, whose executive producers include the rapper Jay-Z and actors
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, she says its popularity is in sharp
contrast to the Nigerian government's "betrayal" of her father's
legacy.
"He's an inventor of music," she said, wearing a colourful headband,
butterfly pattern earrings, gold bracelets and rings, and a striped
blouse. "That's why it pains me when the government doesn't give him
his recognition because they're not being fair. They should be proud."
Yeni, 49, sitting in a dressing room amid artworks, trophies and
mirrors at the venue, which she co-owns, added: "They are failing
because they don't want to face the truth. If they wanted to do
Nigeria well, the way they are supposed to do it, they should not be
shying away from keeping a memory like Fela's alive.
"My nephew had a common entrance exam in school and the question was
this: which of these five people was not a national hero? The answer
was Fela. That was common entrance. How do you think I feel? I think
they are arseholes. How can you have an exam like that?"
Fela's protest songs, such as Zombie and International Thief Thief,
raged against government and corporate corruption, looting and
exploitation of Nigeria's poor. The military regime, incensed when
Fela declared his compound the "independent Kalakuta Republic",
launched an assault involving hundreds of soldiers in which Fela's
mother was thrown from a window.
Yeni, semi-retired from her brother Femi Kuti's band, said: "Fela was
fighting for the masses, for the people of Nigeria. Everything Fela
sang about, it's not going to affect you if you are rich, you can
afford to buy a yacht or go abroad three or four times a year. It's
the people who have to stay here and have to eat here that it really
affects.
"They respected the fact that Fela could have left Nigeria any time to
go and make a career for himself anywhere. But he didn't. He stayed
here and fought, and people respected that and admired him for it.
Beating or no beating, he would talk about it, no nonsense."
Fela, who conducted media interviews wearing only his underpants, died
in 1997 from an Aids-related illness. He was known for his love of
drugs and women, once marrying his 27 dancers and singers in a single
ceremony, although only 10 are shown in the musical "because we
couldn't afford 27", director and choreographer Bill T Jones has said.
Yeni, who organises an annual "Felebration" at the shrine, defended
her father's attitude towards women. "I would prefer the person who is
honest and says look: 'I want my plenty mistresses or my plenty
wives', rather than 'I would be deceiving you, you are my wife,
darling I'm going for a conference, inside the plane with me is my
girlfriend one, two, three, four, or however many'. There are many men
that do it, even white men.
"So we have now learned that the male has a polygamous nature. Who is
better, the one that is truthful about it or the one that is dishonest
and has many mistresses all over the place?"
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011
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