Sikiru Ayinde Barrister is said to have named his new style of music after a mountain he saw on a poster: Mount Fuji in Japan.
The music he built, fuji, became one of the most popular genres in south-western Nigeria. Barrister, regarded as its pioneer, died in London on 16 December 2010, aged 62. His legacy runs through Yoruba popular music today.
From were to fuji
Fuji grew out of were, also called ajisari, songs sung by young Muslim men who went around neighbourhoods during Ramadan to wake people for the pre-dawn meal. Barrister sang were as a boy in Lagos.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he began to transform it, adding percussion and influences from apala, juju and Afrobeat. The result was fuji: a percussion-heavy, call-and-response music led by a singer who praises, preaches and entertains, backed by talking drums, shekere and other drums. Unlike juju, early fuji used few or no guitars.
Barrister
Sikiru Ololade Ayinde Balogun got the nickname “Barrister” early in life, and it stuck. He served in the Nigerian Army during the civil war before devoting himself to music. His band became one of the biggest acts in Nigeria, releasing many albums and playing at parties, weddings and naming ceremonies across the south-west.
His songs combined praise for patrons, Islamic themes, social commentary and humour. Fuji became closely associated with Yoruba Muslim communities, though its audience grew much wider.
K1 De Ultimate
Barrister’s best-known protégé and rival was Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, known as King Wasiu Ayinde or K1 De Ultimate, who became the dominant fuji star from the 1980s onward. Their rivalry, played out in songs and performances, kept fuji exciting, and K1 took it to new audiences, including high society parties and international tours.
Fuji today
Fuji remains hugely popular. Artists such as Pasuma and Saheed Osupa built major careers in it, and fuji rhythms and phrases appear in Nigerian hip-hop and Afrobeats. Street-pop stars regularly cite fuji influences, and collaborations between fuji and Afrobeats artists are common.
Death
Barrister died at St Mary’s Hospital in London in December 2010 after illness related to diabetes. His death was mourned across Nigeria, and fuji musicians paid tribute at events in Lagos.
He took songs meant to wake people before dawn in Ramadan and made them into music that keeps Lagos parties going long past midnight.
