{"id":42467,"date":"2018-02-26T15:00:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T14:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/seun-kuti-talks-about-activism-and-what-inspired-his-new-album-black-times\/"},"modified":"2020-05-04T23:26:14","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T22:26:14","slug":"seun-kuti-talks-about-activism-and-what-inspired-his-new-album-black-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/seun-kuti-talks-about-activism-and-what-inspired-his-new-album-black-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Seun Kuti Talks About Activism and What Inspired His New Album, Black Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/h3>\n

Ahead of the release of his fourth album, here is the first part of our three-part interview with Seun Kuti.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Can you tell us about the cover of this new album? You look like “Seun Guevara.”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I tried to pay tribute to everybody. I had a cigar for Che Guevara, a beret for Sankara, and as for the glasses\u2014one eye is for Malcolm X and the other is for Lumumba. I just tried to pay as many tributes as possible. Oh yeah, the cigar looks good on me! I don\u2019t smoke cigars but after I looked at this picture, I thought that I should walk around with a cigar in my mouth, just for the aesthetic. [laughs<\/i>]<\/span><\/p>\n


\nYou quote the names of these leaders in your song \u201cLast Revolutionary.\u201d Why is it important to you to pay tribute to them?<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

The freedom that we enjoy in Africa today is a result of the dreams and ideology of these revolutionary leaders. <\/span><\/p>\n

Africa\u2019s rulers and elites, you know, these guys that do the walkaround as democratic leaders today, have betrayed them. They stole the power from these men. They stole Africa. They stole the Motherland from the very people that set it free. They betrayed the ideology and followed the capitalist and liberalist agenda, against the wishes and the well being of hundreds of millions of Motherland people. <\/span><\/p>\n

I mean, in all of Lagos, I don\u2019t think there is a N\u2019krumah avenue, or a N\u2019Krumah street or N\u2019Krumah statue. We are not being taught anything about Lumumba, Sankara, Sekou Tour\u00e9, Ben Bella, Abdel Nasser, or Malcolm X in our schools. All these men, and many others, who have sacrificed themselves for all of us in the Motherland, are being forgotten. That\u2019s not the right way to pay them back. I just wanted to pay homage to them in my music and maybe spark a conversation about them. Then, all Motherland people, young and old, can begin to remember the ideology that set us free or, at least, the ideology that gave us the little bit of freedom that we enjoy today. <\/span><\/p>\n


\nIn this very song, you say about Fela: \u201cFela no fight for nothing.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I think that what has been popularized about Fela is the genius of his music. Globally, many people are influenced by his music. Some are influenced by his messages, but a lot of people don\u2019t understand his message. Everything that Fela did, he did so that Motherland people all over the world could embrace the totality of their identity and achieve great things with Motherland solutions and within Motherland systems. I believe that Fela\u2019s legacy has gone a long way, but now it\u2019s time to pay close attention to his messages.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\nWh<\/span>o do you think are the \u201crevolutionaries\u201d today?<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Sings<\/i>] To be free, you and me, they\u2019ll never see the last revolutionary<\/i>\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

In the world today, I believe that every person that stands for fairness, and that stands on the side of humanity and nature, is a revolutionary. <\/span><\/p>\n

The elite that rule the world are ultimately violent people; violence is the only thing they control completely. It\u2019s impossible for them to win an ideological battle, so this is where we have to fight\u2014on the front where they are weak. We have to place the fight in the sphere of ideology and let humanity speak for itself. Their system will speak for itself as well, and the result will not be the same as their propaganda or their narrative. \u00a0Let\u2019s realize that 80% of the world live in hunger today. We\u2019ve been\u00a0living in this system for over a century and a half now, and it has kept 80% of humanity in hunger. Human rights are being abused daily and are covered up by excuses like \u201cstate security\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

People all over the world embrace what it means to be human, what it means to stand on the side of nature and humanity, and not on the side of the profit.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nPAM: And what about the title of the record, Black Times<\/i>?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The original title was supposed to be Struggle Sounds<\/i>, but since our deal with Sony didn\u2019t come through and I couldn\u2019t release the Struggle Sounds<\/i> EP with Sony, I had to change the title to Black Times<\/i>. It\u2019s still got the same spirit of the album. For me, it\u2019s a narrative on the Motherland perspective, about the Motherland people (Editor\u2019s note: all black people around the world). The whole album is dedicated to our struggle and what I believe should be our ultimate goal and destiny.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nPAM: When you say \u201cMotherland,\u201d do you mean Africa and all the diaspora?<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

Exactly. The Motherland is not just the continent; it is its people as well. It doesn\u2019t differentiate black people or indigenous people. I dream of a Motherland that represents all Motherland people, including those in Australia. There\u2019s no such thing as a singular \u201cAfrican government\u201d that can speak up about what\u2019s going on in West Papua and their people\u2019s struggle under the oppression of Indonesia (Editor\u2019s note: Western Papua has been occupied by Indonesia since 1962). What is anybody saying about that? Nobody is saying anything. No African government is speaking up for all the young people who are being shot like dogs in the streets of America\u2026nobody! If there was a Motherland government, they would understand that they have a responsibility to all these people and they would give them political backing when necessary. But this doesn\u2019t happen, because the African governments that exist do not really care about Motherland people\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Part 2:\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Seun Kuti, the politico-financial mafia and the African dream<\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n