{"id":22541,"date":"2019-03-19T12:24:48","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T10:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=22541"},"modified":"2020-04-27T03:36:02","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T02:36:02","slug":"fela-kuti-unknown-soldier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/fela-kuti-unknown-soldier\/","title":{"rendered":"How Unknown Soldier became Fela’s most emotional record"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

After that event, there was public outrage. People were asking:\u00a0<\/b>wetin dis Fela do?<\/i><\/b>\u00a0What they knew and what was true: Fela spoke against the government.<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n

The tales of Fela and his problematic relationship with the military government of the day is quite storied. In one of the most influential books he (Fela) ever read (<\/span>The Autobiography of Malcolm<\/span><\/i>\u00a0as told to Alex Haley), Malcolm wrote about how he\u2019d learnt early in his life that if you want something, you have to speak up for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fela Anikulapo Kuti was a speaker. In spite of the numerous attempts made to stifle his voice, he was buoyed by a clear identification of his mission. His music was protestant and stubborn, his voice rough and edgy yet sure, even in this tainted quality. Fela mounted the stage with the camaraderie of a public speaker, a preacher whose religion was \u2018truth\u2019. And from up there in the stage with his band and down to his audience, a vibration was shared. Fela sang like a burning man and in fact, he was, burned by the fires of oppression. And if he ever would see a Nigeria free from the mass looting, corrupt governments, dictatorship, militancy, mismanagement of public funds, he had to speak up and it was while in America did the fire first burn when he met an African \u2013 American woman named Sandra Isidore.<\/span><\/p>\n

A member of the Black Panther Party, Sandra, in an interview with Carlos Moore, Fela\u2019s friend and biographer, says there was something about Fela, whom after their early dates, began to introduce him to Black protest art: music, poetry, and the Black Movement. Throughout his life, even as Fela had affairs with other women, Sandra Isidore was the love of his life, the saving grace of his music.\u00a0<\/span>Woman, Lover, Friend<\/span><\/i>; the chapter dedicated to her on Fela<\/em><\/span>: This Bitch of A Life<\/em>\u00a0<\/b>was sweetly titled.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though Fela had some rather embarrassing views about the role of a woman, it is worthy to note that women played a major part in the development of his music and humanity. Sandra Isidore, his female band members (many of which he married) whom he fondly referred to as \u2018my queens\u2019 and most influential of the three groups, his mother, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti.<\/span><\/p>\n

A fierce agitator for women and human rights, apparently, her vigorous personality would later be born in her son. Throughout his life, the tireless nature of Fela\u2019s activism and music could be said to be an emulation of his mother\u2019s, whose name history remembers fondly, whose efforts to get women into the adult suffrage paid off. So, even with the early days of lashes and slaps, Fela knew there was something special about the woman he called mother and growing up to see the harsh reality of the world, respected and loved her even more.\u00a0
\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n


You could imagine what he must have felt when she was thrown down from a window on the first floor of the Kalakuta Republic. Apparently, the palaver had remotely started when a highly ranked military officer invited Fela to be part of the 1977 Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC). Initially coming in, he, Fela presented a nine-point program which aimed at inclusiveness. It was rejected. As an afterthought, the military government went to publicly rubbish the Fela name, saying he sought government money to buy instruments. Meanwhile, Fela was speaking his truth at the Afrikan Shrine as many black artists flew in from around the world to attend FESTAC. This brewed bad blood and it could be said to be a premeditated tragedy when some soldiers were beaten by some young people close to the Kalakuta Republic. It was the twelfth of February 1977.<\/span><\/p>\n

A week later, soldiers returned. \u201cOne thousand soldiers\u201d as sung by Fela in the song \u2018Unknown Soldier.\u2019 As employed in many of his songs, storytelling is the dominant device. The production \u2013 live and electric, throbbing with pain \u2013 serves as credible back story for the words being sung. When Fela shouts:\u00a0<\/span>look o! Look o!\u00a0<\/span><\/i>there\u2019s a trumpet which adds an urgency. The song is like a carefully written novel. There is no haste to arrive at the gore details of plunder and blood.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the early parts of the song, the trademark thunder of Fela\u2019s voice is dominant as the setting of doom is painted, the words<\/span>\u00a0\u2018left, right, left right\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/i>symbolizing the act of marching. There are observers, too, people are awed by the sheer amount of soldiers. This is the part where you know you\u2019ve entered into Fela terrain. Gripped by the music, and gripped by the story he tells. His voice is sure even in tragedy and as a musician and activist, this sets him out.\u00a0
<\/span><\/p>\n