Arts + Culture
Fela! on Broadway: how Fela Kuti’s story reached New York’s stages
The musical Fela!, directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, opened on Broadway in 2009. Built around Fela…
Fela Kuti
Music
Geraldo Pino: the Sierra Leonean soul bandleader who changed West African music
Geraldo Pino and his band the Heartbeats brought James Brown-style soul to Freetown, Accra and Lagos in the…
Music
Made Kuti: Fela’s grandson and the third generation of Afrobeat
Made Kuti, son of Femi Kuti and grandson of Fela Kuti, released his debut album For(e)ward in 2021…
Music
Seun Kuti and Egypt 80: the youngest son who kept Fela’s band alive
After Fela Kuti died in 1997, his youngest son Seun took over leadership of his father's band, Egypt…
Arts + Culture
Six Grammy nominations and a new Shrine: Femi Kuti’s decades out of his father’s shadow
Femi Kuti, Fela's eldest son, formed his band Positive Force in 1986 and opened the New Afrika Shrine…
Arts + Culture
They called him the evil genius of highlife: Victor Olaiya, the trumpeter who gave Fela a job
Victor Abimbola Olaiya, the Nigerian trumpeter known as the evil genius of highlife, was born on 31 December…
Arts + Culture
“Zombie no go walk unless you tell am to walk”: the Fela song that Nigeria’s soldiers never forgave
Fela Kuti's Zombie, released in Nigeria in 1976 by Coconut Records, mocked soldiers who obey orders without thinking.…
Arts + Culture
“Without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat”: the drummer who built Fela’s rhythm
Tony Allen, the Lagos-born drummer, created the rhythmic foundation of Afrobeat with Fela Kuti in the Africa 70…
Arts + Culture
Cream’s drummer drove across the Sahara to Lagos and played with Fela: Ginger Baker’s African years
In the early 1970s, Ginger Baker, the drummer of Cream, drove a Land Rover across the Sahara to…
Arts + Culture
Paul McCartney flew to Lagos in 1973 to record Band on the Run. Fela accused him of coming to steal African music
In August 1973, Paul McCartney and Wings recorded most of Band on the Run at EMI's studio in…