ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT / MUSIC-NIGERIA: ‘Fela is Alive!’

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Remi Oyo and Toye Olori

LAGOS, Jul 29 1997 (IPS) - The internationally acclaimed Afrobeat musician Fela Anikulapo-Kuti is alive! This statement has put to rest a recent press report that the musician had died, causing sadness among millions of fans.

The 59-year-old musician, according to reports is ill, but the West African regional newspaper ‘Daily Sketch’ jumped the gun and reported on its front page on Jul. 24 that the musician, who also is a social critic and political activist, was dead.

Quoting a radio report it had monitored, the paper said the Afrobeat musician died Wednesday. The newspaper carried a profile of the musician fondly known as ‘Abami Eda’, which means Mystery Man in Yoruba.

Two radio stations spent the better part of last Thursday playing Fela’s music as a tribute to the man credited with the creation of Afrobeat music when he formed his second band ‘Africa 70’. His first musical group ‘Koola Lobitos’ was formed in London in 1959.

Now, the newspaper and the radio stations are trying to make amends with the musician’s friends and family. The family has threatened to take the paper and the stations to court.

Nigeria’s media fraternity also has not been happy with the mistake.

“The goof is inexcusable… Relying on reports from radio without confirming from his ‘home cum club’ (called The Shrine), family sources such as the son, Femi, a prominent musician, from media colleagues or other musicians was not professional,” Tunde Awobiyi, General Secretary of the Nigerian Guild of Editors told IPS Monday.

“Although the ‘Sketch’ does not enjoy a strong national spread, the goof could be seen by media detractors as a sad commentary on the standard of journalism,” he added.

“Those calling for martial laws on the press could use this mistake to justify plans to introduce decrees establishing controversial bodies like the Press Court and the Mass Media Commission,” Awobiyi continued.

Dapo Aderogba, director of programmes at the Broadcasting Corporation in Oyo State told IPS that his station had believed the ‘Sketch’ report, and only found out after it had started broadcasting Fela’s death that the report was untrue.

“Because of that report, we promptly reversed our scheduled programmes and started playing from Fela’s estimated 40 albums,” Aderogba said. “We had to revert to our programmes after our independent checks showed that Fela was alive.”

According to the ‘Nigerian Tribune’, the musician was in a private hospital located in a rich neighbourhood on Victoria Island, near here, when the news of his death broke. He was being treated for an undisclosed ailment.

He moved out of the hospital following the newspaper’s discovery. It is widely speculated that the musician has the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

“Fela is alive,” was all his elder brother Olikoye said. But his eldest son, Femi, told the press: “When Fela is better, he will tell you what is wrong with him. It is not for us to disclose the ailment of a patient. It is not for us to do that”.

Although it is Fela’s music that has made him world famous, he comes from a rich lineage of achievers. His father was a well- known educationalist and his mother, Olufunmilayo, was one of the earliest fighters for independence.

His brother Olikoye Ransome-Kuti was minister of health in former president Ibrahim Babangida’s government, and his other brother Beko, also a medical doctor and chairman of the Campaign for Democracy, is serving a 15-year jail term for alleged complicity in a 1995 plot to oust the Nigerian head of state general Sani Abacha.

Fela’s fans eagerly wait to hear from the ailing musician who has more than 20 wives. When the musician finally makes a public appearance, then his wives and fans will be able to sing one of his own lyrics: “…Fela e don come again” (Fela has come again).