HMV Magazine ranked him as #46 on a list of the 100 most influential musicians of the 20th century.
The musical style performed by Fela Kuti is called Afrobeat, which is essentially a fusion of jazz, funk, highlife, and traditional Yoruban chants and rhythms. It is characterized by having African-style percussion, vocals, and musical structure, along with jazzy, funky horn sections. The endless groove is also used, in which a base rhythm of drums, shekere, muted guitar, and bass guitar are repeated throughout the song. His band was notable for featuring two baritone saxophones, whereas most groups using this instrument only use one. This is a common technique in African and African-influenced musical styles, and can be seen in funk and hip-hop. Some elements often present in Fela's music are the call-and-response within the chorus and figurative but simple lyrics. Fela's songs were almost always over 10 minutes in length, some reaching the 20- or even 30-minute marks, while some unreleased tracks would last up to 45 minutes when performed live. This was one of many reasons that his music never reached a substantial degree of popularity outside of Africa. His songs were mostly sung in Nigerian pidgin, although he also performed a few songs in the Yoruba language. Fela's main instruments were the saxophone and the keyboards, but he also played the trumpet, guitar, and took the occasional drum solo. Fela refused to perform songs again after he had already recorded them, which also hindered his popularity outside Africa. Fela was known for his showmanship, and his concerts were often quite outlandish and wild. He referred to his stage act as the Underground Spiritual Game.
Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria, to a middle-class family. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was a feminist activist in the anti-colonial movement and his father, Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a Protestant minister and school Principal, was the first president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers. His brothers, Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti and Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti,both medical doctors, are both well known in Nigeria.
Fela was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but decided to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos, playing a style of music that he would later call Afrobeat. The style was a fusion of American Jazz, psychedelic rock, and Funk with West African Highlife. In 1961, Fela married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he would have three children (Femi, Yeni, and Sola). In 1963, Fela moved back to Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1969, Fela took the band to the United States. While there, Fela discovered the Black power movement through Sandra Smith (now Isidore)—a partisan of the Black Panther Party—which would heavily influence his music and political views and renamed the band Nigeria ’70. Soon, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was tipped off by a promoter that Fela and his band were in the US without work permits. The band then performed a quick recording session in Los Angeles that would later be released as The '69 Los Angeles Sessions.
Fela and his band, renamed Africa '70, returned to Nigeria. He then formed the Kalakuta Republic, a commune, a recording studio, and a home for many connected to the band that he later declared independent from the Nigerian state. Fela set up a nightclub in the Empire Hotel, named the Afro-Spot and then the Afrika Shrine, where he performed regularly. Fela also changed his middle name to Anikulapo (meaning "he who carries death in his pouch"), stating that his original middle name of Ransome was a slave name. The recordings continued, and the music became more politically motivated. Fela's music became very popular among the Nigerian public and Africans in general. In fact, he made the decision to sing in Pidgin English so that his music could be enjoyed by individuals all over Africa, where the local languages spoken are very diverse and numerous. As popular as Fela's music had become in Nigeria and elsewhere, it was also very unpopular with the ruling government, and raids on the Kalakuta Republic were frequent. In 1974 the police arrived with a search warrant and a cannabis joint, which they had intended to plant on Fela. He became wise to this and swallowed the joint. In response, the police took him into custody and waited to examine his feces. Fela enlisted the help of his prison mates and gave the police someone else's feces, and Fela was freed. He then recounted this tale in his release Expensive Shit (now released together with "He Miss Road" as Expensive Shit/He Miss Road).
In 1977 Fela and the Afrika ’70 released the hit album Zombie, a scathing attack on Nigerian soldiers using the zombie metaphor to describe the methods of the Nigerian military. The album was a smash hit with the people and infuriated the government, setting off a vicious attack against the Kalakuta Republic, during which one thousand soldiers attacked the commune. Fela was severely beaten, and his elderly mother was thrown from a window, causing fatal injuries. The Kalakuta Republic was burned, and Fela's studio, instruments, and master tapes were destroyed. Fela claimed that he would have been killed if it were not for the intervention of a commanding officer as he was being beaten. Fela's response to the attack was to deliver his mother's coffin to the main army barrack in Lagos and write two songs, "Coffin for Head of State" and "Unknown Soldier," referencing the official inquiry that claimed the commune had been destroyed by an unknown soldier.
Fela and his band then took residence in Crossroads Hotel as the Shrine had been destroyed along with his commune. In 1978 Fela married 27 women, many of whom were his dancers, composers, and singers to mark the anniversary of the attack on the Kalakuta Republic. Later, he was to adopt a rotation system of keeping only twelve simultaneous wives. The year was also marked by two notorious concerts, the first in Accra in which riots broke out during the song "Zombie," which led to Fela being banned from entering Ghana. The second was at the Berlin Jazz Festival after which most of Fela's musicians deserted him, due to rumors that Fela was planning to use the entirety of the proceeds to fund his presidential campaign.
Despite the massive setbacks, Fela was determined to come back. He formed his own political party, which he called 'Movement of the People'. In 1979 he put himself forward for President in Nigeria's first elections for more than a decade but his candidature was refused. At this time, Fela created a new band called Egypt 80 and continued to record albums and tour the country. He further infuriated the political establishment by dropping the names of ITT vice-president Moshood Abiola and then General Olusegun Obasanjo at the end of a hot-selling 25-minute political screed titled "I. T. T. (International Thief Thief)."
In 1984, he was again attacked by the Military government, who jailed him on a dubious charge of currency smuggling. His case was taken up by several human-rights groups, and after 20 months, he was released from prison by General Ibrahim Babangida. On his release he divorced his 12 remaining wives, saying that "marriage brings jealousy and selfishness." Once again, Fela continued to release albums with Egypt 80, made a number of successful tours of the United States and Europe and also continued to be politically active. In 1986, Fela performed in Giants Stadium in New Jersey as part of the Amnesty International Conspiracy of Hope concert, sharing the bill with Bono, Carlos Santana, and the Neville Brothers. In 1989, Fela & Egypt 80 released the anti-apartheid "Beasts of No Nation" album that depicts on its cover U.S. President Ronald Reagan, UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and South African Prime Minister P.W. Botha with fangs dripping blood.
His album output slowed in the 1990s, and eventually he stopped releasing albums altogether. The battle against military corruption in Nigeria was taking its toll, especially during the rise of dictator Sani Abacha. Rumors were also spreading that he was suffering from an illness for which he was refusing treatment. On 3 August 1997, Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, already a prominent AIDS activist and former Minister of Health, stunned the nation by announcing his younger brother's death a day earlier from Kaposi's sarcoma brought on by AIDS. (Their younger brother Beko was in jail at this time at the hand of Abacha for political activity). More than a million people attended Fela's funeral at the site of the old Shrine compound. A new Africa Shrine has opened since Fela's death in a different section of Lagos under the supervision of his son Femi Kuti.
Why Black Man Dey Suffer
Fela Kuti Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
used in some particular kind of shrines…
in my home town, Abeokuta City.
It goes like this:
Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje
Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje
Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje
Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje...
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
(Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje)
Why Blackman dey suffer today
Why Blackman dey suffer today
Why Blackman no get money today
Why Blackman no get money today
Why Blackman no go for moon today
Why Blackman no go for moon today
This is the reason why (tell me now)
This is the reason why (tell me again)
This is the reason why
We dey sit down for our landi jeje
We dey sit down for our landi jeje
We dey mind our business jeje
Some people come from far away land
Dem fight us and take our land
Dem take our people and spoil our towns
Na since then trouble starti o (hun, hun)
Na since then trouble starti o (one more time)
Na since then trouble starti o (hun)
Our riches dem take away to their land
In return dem give us their colony
Dem take our culture away from us
Dem give us dem culture we no understand
Black people we no know ourselves
We no know our ancestral heritage
We dey fight each other everyday
We're never together, we're never together at all
We're never together, we're never together at all
That is why Blackman dey suffer today
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
Tell me again;
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
They take our culture away;
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
They take our riches away;
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
They take our land from us;
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
They take our people away;
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
We have to think of time to come;
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
We have to think of our children to come;
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
We have to be together and unite;
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
That is why Blackman dey suffer today
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
That is why Blackman no go for moon today;
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
That is why Blackman no get money today;
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
That is why Blackman dey suffer
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
That is why Blackman dey suffer today
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
That is why Blackman dey suffer today
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
That is why Blackman dey suffer today
(That is why Blackman dey suffer today)
The lyrics of Fela Kuti's "Why Black Man Dey Suffer" are about the reasons why black people are still suffering today. The song starts with an introduction to the rhythm "Kanginni Koko", which is used in certain shrines in Abeokuta City. Through this rhythm, Fela is paying tribute to his hometown and its cultural traditions.
The first verse starts with the question of why black people are suffering today, why they don't have money or access to the latest technological advancements. Fela then explains the reason for this suffering, which is due to the colonial past of Africa. The Europeans took over Africa, robbed it of its resources, people, and culture, and left the continent in poverty and disarray. The heritage of black people was destroyed, replaced with the culture of the colonizers, and black people were left without a sense of self-identity.
The song ends with a call to action for black people to come together, unite, and think about the future. Fela is telling his fellow black people to make peace with their past, recognize their heritage, and start to work towards a better future where they no longer suffer.
Line by Line Meaning
This rhythm is called Kanginni Koko
used in some particular kind of shrines…
in my home town, Abeokuta City.
This song is a particular beat called Kanginni Koko that is played in special religious spaces in Abeokuta City, the town where the artist is from
Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje
Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje
Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje
Kanginni koko, kanginni je nje...
Repetition of the Kanginni Koko beat
Why Blackman dey suffer today
Why does the black man suffer today?
Why Blackman no get money today
Why does the black man not have money today?
Why Blackman no go for moon today
Why can't the black man go to the moon today?
This is the reason why (tell me now)
This is the explanation for why things are like this (please tell me now)
We dey sit down for our landi jeje
We dey mind our business jeje
We are sitting in our land and minding our own business peacefully
Some people come from far away land
Dem fight us and take our land
Dem take our people and spoil our towns
Some people from distant lands come and fight us, take our land, and harm our people and cities
Na since then trouble starti o (hun, hun)
That's when trouble started happening (yes, yes)
Our riches dem take away to their land
In return dem give us their colony
Dem take our culture away from us
Dem give us dem culture we no understand
They take our wealth to their land and in return, give us colonies. They also take our culture and give us one that we don't understand
Black people we no know ourselves
We no know our ancestral heritage
We dey fight each other everyday
Black people do not know themselves or their ancestral history, and we fight against one another each day
We're never together, we're never together at all
We are never united, never together at all
That is why Blackman dey suffer today
That is why the black man suffers today
They take our culture away;
They took our culture away
They take our riches away;
They took our wealth away
They take our land from us;
They took our land from us
They take our people away;
They took our people away
We have to think of time to come;
We need to think about the future
We have to think of our children to come;
We need to think about our future generations
We have to be together and unite;
We need to be united and come together
That is why Blackman dey suffer today
That is why the black man suffers today
That is why Blackman no go for moon today;
That is why the black man cannot go to the moon today
That is why Blackman no get money today;
That is why the black man does not have money today
That is why Blackman dey suffer
That is why the black man suffers
That is why Blackman dey suffer today
That is why the black man suffers today
That is why Blackman dey suffer today
That is why the black man suffers today
That is why Blackman dey suffer today
That is why the black man suffers today
That is why Blackman dey suffer today
That is why the black man suffers today
Writer(s): Kuti Fela Anikulapo
Contributed by Jack L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@chaossinbad
Paul McCartney interview brought me here
@solomongcfr
Me too 🎉
@SASHAVYBZPRODUCTIONS
Same
@babyfactory587
Lame
@patrickighalo1207
Same😂
@giuseppemazzini1064
Am In tears right now I listened to the worlds of the prophet fela anikolapkokuti may you pleasant soul rest in perfect and perfect peace of mind over there.
@emberrumoses3971
It hurts me so bad that after such knowledge in a song from Fela Kuti most Black people are still religious.. ABA MI EDA 4EVER..
@michellemykelhouse1590
Recalling never to place tradition before Scripture, truth beyond facts the etymon for black is white when referring to my nationality we are EBONY people, it's a bold face lie ill-fated educators regurgitated poison instilled in them in others to holocaust, smh
We're in the know now Christendom, Kitawala and Apostates can't romp with us because of Jehovah and Jesus and the Israelites real lived experiences they teach through His Word HALLELUJAH Aman
@akanfoyawu1072
Ase
@ucakpan
100% agree! We'll have to start learning our history and returning to our deities and ancestors. I am.