By Toye Olori
LAGOS, Jan 12 1999 (IPS)

The property on which the late King of Afrobeat, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, used to perform his music has been repossessed by its owners following a 16-year court battle in the Nigerican commercial city of Lagos.

Last week (Dec 30) a group of bailiffs, accompanied by police, threw out musical instruments which included loud speakers, drums and amplifiers on the streets of Lagos as members of Kuti’s ‘Egypt 80 Band’ looked on helplessly.

The owners and the Kuti family had agreed, in an-out-of-court settlement in January 1998, for the ‘Egypt 80 Band’ to vacate the premise on Jan 31, but the owners allegedly ‘reneged on’ the agreement.

Bayo Binite, one of the owners, says the fight to re-possess the property from Kuti began 16 years ago. He says his brother, Michael Binite, who gave out the property to Kuti, did the musician a favour when the place was rented out to him in 1978. “That time nobody wanted Fela near him or her,” he says. “We gave him a place to perform, but today we cannot wait till January 31 to effect the court order,” he says.

Kuti, who died at the age of 59, had had bruises with the Nigerian military authorities because of his constant attacks on government through his music. His Lagos home, which he named “Kalakuta Republic”, was attacked and destroyed by the military in 1977, prompting friends to offer him the present place to help him continue to perform.

Since his death on Aug 2, 1997 of heart failure attributed to the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), many projects had sprang up in Kuti’s honour at the shrine. A tomb was being planned as a pilgrimage site for tourists and for Kuti’s fans from all over the world.

Only the white ‘cubicle’, located at the corner of the stage, has been left on the property by the bailiffs. The cubicle, where the Kuti used to perform libation and consult his ancestors before his musical shows on Saturdays, is widely believed by his fans to possess some supernatural powers.

“Nobody fit move near or remove that shrine except Fela… anyone who touches it die,” says a youngman in pidgin English used by Fela in his music.

The eviction caught Kuti’s fans, lawyers and ‘Egypt 80 Band’ unawares.

“We had made all plans to leave before January 31 but because of the new development the court might intervene again. We are likely to take them to court for damages and for disrupting our shows which should have come up on the new year eve and on January 1, 1999 at the shrine,” says Jide Ogunye, the late Musician’s lawyer.

Lekan Animashaun, leader of the group, agreed. “We have started looking for alternative venues. People have come up with proposals which we have rejected because we prefer a venue that will keep us in the midst of the masses,” he says.

Kuti’s eldest son, Femi, says the band must perform rituals to appease Kuti’s gods before the shrine could be moved to a new site. “It will be unwise to just move the shrine without first appeasing Fela Kuti’s gods,” he says.

Kuti’s alleged supernatural power, popularly known in Nigeria as “Abami Eda” (the strange being), has been attributed to the death of two of the prominent members of his family within one month of the legendary musician’s death.

Fela, who blended high-life, soul and jazz to form the Afrobeat music, had churned out more than 40 albums using his native Yoruba language and pidgin English, spoken in Nigeria and Anglophone West Africa.

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