Fela: From West Africa to West Broadway

African Arts, Summer, 2004 by Kathleen Noss

Fela: From West Africa to West Broadway

Edited by Trevor Schoonmaker

Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2003. x 208 pp., 41 b/w 11 color illustrations, map, notes, timeline, index. $59.95 cloth, $19.95 paper.

Six years after his death, Fela Kuti continues to draw attention. In Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world, fans and critics still celebrate and argue about his music, his politics, his perseverance, and his defiance. This book is part of the larger Fela Project, a multimedia production that also includes the publication Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (2003) and an exhibition titled "Black President" which opened at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City in July, 2003.

The book is a compilation of essays, interviews, photographs, and cartoon illustrations that pay tribute to Fela's life. Editor Trevor Schoonmaker begins by remarking, "Mention the name Fela to someone who knew him and a passionate string of monikers and opinions will quickly follow. Prophet. Hero. Rock Star. Troublemaker. Trickster. Playboy. Rebel. Martyr. Visionary. Revolutionary. Baba ('father'). Chief Priest. Abami Eda ('the strange one') ... Black President, King of Afrobeat "(p. 1). An independent curator in New York, Schoonmaker is cofounder of a monthly Fela club night and director of the Fela Project. Most other contributors to the book knew Fela personally, and all have been deeply affected by his life and music. Through their essays, they reveal how they learned to better understand Fela, and how through Fela they have come to better understand themselves.

Schoonmaker's introduction provides a brief overview of Fela's life. Following this introduction are twelve essays, several only a few pages in length. The essays might be divided into two broad categories: essays that are primarily descriptive and those that are more analytical. The former outweigh the latter. Several essays are reprints of earlier newspaper or journal articles. Knox Robinson provides a sense of what it is like to emerge into Fela's world: his commune the Kalakuta Republic, modern-day Nigeria, and his music. Fela's friend and biographer Mabinuori Kayode Idowu (aka I.D.) describes his mother's confrontation with Fela about his influence on her son, Fela's clash with the Nigerian government during Festac '77, and Fela's controversial 1978 performance in Berlin. In two essays, Vivien Goldman tells about Ghanaian magician Professor Hindu, Fela's friend and advisor, reviving a dead man in London and explores the eroticism and meaning associated with Fela's dancers, his Queens. Ghariokwu Lemi describes his work as Fela's jacket artist, and John Collins presents the 1977 diary he kept while serving as "Inspector Reynolds" in Fela's biographical film Black President (damaged in the fire that destroyed Kalakuta and thus never released). Drawing upon his experiences growing up in Nigeria and as art editor and political cartoonist for the Lagos Daily Times, dele jegede uses his essay and cartoons to describe differing phases of Fela's musical development and influence in Nigeria. LaRay Denzer offers insight into the women who most impacted Fela's life: his mother, his first wife Remi, his African-American friend and lover Sandra Izsadore, and his Queens.

Among the most engaging contributions is that of Nkiru Nzegwu, who explains how she and her schoolgirl friends were able to appreciate Fela's music while recognizing his "false conception" (p. 141) of African women. Through a critical reading of songs such as "Lady," Nzegwu argues that Fela's model of the "African woman" reflects Western perspectives more than African traditions. Also more analytic are articles by Joseph Patel, Sola Olorunyomi, and Yomi Durotoye. Music critic Patel examines Fela's influence on hip hop, R&B, and Afro-house. He speaks about times when musicians have looked toward Fela and times when perhaps they should have. Olorunyomi takes readers into Fela's nightclub, the Shrine, and explores his performance as ritual. Finally, Durotoye draws upon Fela's lyrics to discuss phases in his "politics of resistance" (p. 179), from Fela's promotion of Black Pride in the early 1970s to his increasing opposition to the Nigerian government and to Christianity and Islam in the 1970s-80s.

Also included in the book are transcriptions of a 1983 interview with Fela by Barney Hoskyns and a 2002 interview with Fela's son Femi (also an internationally renowned musician) by Jerome Sandlarz. Fela responds to questions about racism, his spiritual beliefs, his musical influences, his wives, and Nigerian politics. Femi discusses his experiences as Fela's child, his perspectives on polygamy and pan-Africanism, and his efforts to carry on his father's legacy. In addition to a few photographs and cartoons included in the essays, the book features two sections of color and black-and-white photographs of Fela, his home, his performances, his family, and his funeral. The book concludes with two cartoon excerpts from the Nigerian Daily Times, a timeline of Fela's life, and a map of Nigeria.