Afrobeat Revolution

October 11th, 2011

The organically hypnotic vibrations of African musical beats have moved many for century’s. The Western Yoruba juju Sound beat into popular music in the 1970′s, fusing African percussion and chanting vocals with funk breaks, psychedelic rock riffs and jazz improvisation, Afrobeat’s colourfully passionate character and unpredictable polyrhythm’s have influenced musicians and become popular all over the globe.

The legend of the maverick pioneer of the afrobeat sound, Fela Kuti, sustains the sense of freedom and political revolution deep within the culture.
Nigeria was a marriage of hundreds of ethnic groups forced into coalition by the British Empire at the start of the 19th Century. In 1966 10′s of thousands of Igbo’s living in the north were massacred after an Igbo lead military coup was toppled by a counter-coup staged by Hausa-Fulani. With millions flooding to the east and Igbo leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declaring that his region would secede from Nigeria and become the republic of Biafran, civil war broke out. A year later Nigerian force’s became so frustrated about oil reserve’s not in their territory, that they seized a supply route to the east resulting in 10′s of thousands of Biafra’s starving to death.

Biafran forces surrendered in 1970, two months before Fela returned from America, having spent his time meeting Black Panthers, reading Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and listening to Nina Simone and the Last Poets.
Upon his return to Nigeria, Fela began adapting his black consciousness to African ears. In 1972 he began singing in the Pidgin English of Nigeria’s working class, a style that both politically aligned his elite status with the street and musically freed him to move around the rhythm.

By 1974 the government had decided that Fela was becoming to influential, and so began the arrests, clubbings and imprisonments. However the more the police tormented him, the more his heroic status grew. In 1974 he anointed the 14A Agege Motor road the Kalakuta Republic, the nickname of the police cell at Largos police HQ, proclaiming it an autonomous state and ringed the entire area with barbed wire. At the centre of Kalakuta was Fela’s house, where every night he would mount a donkey and lead his band Afrika 70 across the road to his venue the Shrine, surrounded by chanting and cheering fans.
What made him such a threat to the powers that be was the musical, tribal and sexual electricity of his political message. On the 12th of February 1977, a group of Kalakuti residents clashed with Ablti soldiers, which resulted in a young member of Fela’s entourage being severely beaten and carried back to Fela’s compound. Shortly after Fela refused to give the boy up to a group of soldiers demanding his arrest, around a thousand troops surrounded Kalakuta, holding signs urging residents to evacuate. The horrifying events which then took place moved at a disturbing pace. Rampaging through the compound, soldiers raped many women and beat many men.

Although Fela Kuti survived the attack, the Shrine was shut down and the government banned Afrika 70 from performance, forcing them to seek exile in Ghana. The drop of oil prices brought the Nigerian economy to its knees in 1979, which hit the music industry hard. The Country has not got much better since.
Post-Kalakuta Fela Kuti’s sound was never the same; however in his prime his political influence helped bring many confused Nigerians with conflicting cultures together in time’s of extreme suffering, and gave them hope and understanding, teaching them the values freedom and human rights. Whilst his musical influence will continue to inspire combinations of cultures for many years to come.
Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti on the 15th October 1938.

A huge thanks to Soundway records for introducing us to so many musical gems; Miles Cleret’s ambition to distinguish the blossoming music scenes of 1970s Nigeria has lent to an indispensable series of CD and LP compilations documenting the musical period. We highly recommend all of Soundway records releases, check them out.

Tags: African Afrobeat Funk Juju Pyschedelic