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African superstar, composer, singer, and musician, as well as mystic and political activist, Nigerian Fela Kuti, born in 1938, was controversy personified. He was swept to international celebrity on a wave of scandal and flamboyance, and when he died of AIDS in 1997, more than a million people attended his funeral. But what was he really like, this man who could as easily arouse violent hostility as he could unswerving loyalty?
Carlos Moore's unique biography, based on hours of conversation and told in Fela's first-person vernacular, reveals the icon's complex personality and tumultuous existence. Moore includes interviews with fifteen of his queens (wives); photos; and an updated discography.
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“Fela was an incredible pioneer. His rhythms and influence have been absorbed into so much of the music around today, and the musical world owes him a debt of gratitude.” —Stevie Wonder
“His music was exotic, royal, powerful, and captured the spirit of Mother Africa. He was respected and loved not only for his music but for his intellect and his dedication to African traditions. Fela was one of the most courageous individuals I have ever met." —Randy Weston
“An amazing musical genius with a boisterous sense of humor, Fela was an immovable rock in his fight against corruption. Surviving several immoral military regimes, it is a miracle that he died from natural causes rather than their torture.” —Hugh Masekela
“Fela's biography is important to us all now because it sounds like he is speaking to us from the world beyond. It goes with our aphorism which says that 'Fela Lives.' He lives in the minds and hearts of us all who knew and loved him and to whom he imparted so much knowledge and joy. I personally look forward to reading this book once again, as it provides so much understanding into the mind of such a GREAT MAN.” —Femi Kuti
“The most charismatic musician to have emerged from Africa in the past 40 years.” —Telegraph
“Africa’s most important musical export.” —Africa Music
“[H]e has influenced music in Africa more than anyone else." —Guardian
“[T]he most influential and significant musician ever to emerge from Africa." —Time Out
About the Author
Carlos Moore is a political scientist and an ethnologist. He is an honorary research fellow at the School for Graduate Studies and Research of the University of the West Indies–Kingston and the author of Pichón: Race and Revolution in Castro's Cuba. Gilberto Gil is a composer, a bandleader, a singer, and a guitarist and has served as the Brazilian minister of culture since 2003. Margaret Busby is a writer, a critic, a broadcaster, and the editor of Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writing by Women of African Descent.
Product Details
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Chicago Review Press; 1st pr of this edition (May 1, 2009)
FELA is a biography of the Nigerian musician and political activist Fela Kuti, originally published in 1982. The Cuban ethnologist Carlos Moore spent hours interviewing Fela and produced an overview of Fela's life and values that Fela authorized. Generally the biography proceeds in the first person, a sign that it was transcribed from interviews.
Moore's biography doesn't speak much of Fela's music, but rather Fela's life and times, especially his numerous run-ins with Nigeria's military regime. There is some good coverage of his formative years, namely his early studies in England, his 1960s doldrums, and his trip to the United States that changed everything.
The term "authorized biography" might lead on to expect that sordid and risque details are left out, but Fela was so sexually flamboyant that he insisted Moore cover his relationships with women in depth. The singer believed in free love and would bed any groupie who came to his compound, usually enjoying multiple women a day. A few years before, Fela had infamously married 27 female members of his entourage and he invited Moore to interview the 15 "queens" who now remained with him. While Fela's lack of restraint and misogynism are appalling, one does have to admire the tenacity of these women who stayed with their man through parental disapproval, beatings by police and soldiers and imprisonment.
The 1982 text has been left unchanged, but Moore has added a poignant epilogue that describes Fela's deterioration over the 1980s and 1990s. First, Fela became increasingly paranoid, believing that spirits were talking to him and that close friends were CIA agents out to get him.... Some of his longtime associates left him at this point, and his musicianship suffered, though ironically this is when he was in the greatest demand by international music labels. Then, multiple imprisonments, the regime of Sani Abacha and AIDS managed to silence him over his last years. In compiling a Fela discography and reading critical commentary, I had been puzzled by the obscurity of his late career, and Moore's biography explains why Fela's Seventies achievements form the core of his output.
All in all, as a Fela Kuti fan, I found Moore's biography informative and enjoyable. It could have used more discussion of Fela's music (there's nothing here about his relationship with his band members or stylistic evolution), but it was certainly still worthwhile.Read more ›
This is one of the better biography's I've read about an Afrakan.This book talk's to the people who knew Fela. Who lived in the Kalakuta Republic house. I actually read this book may be twenty years ago, because of my interest in Fela and his music. My original copy got ripped off, and this is a "must have" book to try and understand this great musician and human being. Hrw
This was a down to earth book.... I enjoyed it very much, and have been a fan of Fela's music for at least 20 years.. A good book about an outstanding Artist......behind the scenes of the problems in Nigeria and how Fela's life and the times, influenced his music....
The book, a very quick read, was interesting coming from first person interviews. Unfortunately, more insight into the why of Fela's motives were not presented
My sister is "hooked" on FELA. She's seen the play twice and will be seeing it again for the third time, sometimes in December or January, (whenever it comes back to the Washington, DC area. She's purchased his t-shirt, CD and wanted his book. I purchased the book just before her birthday and it arrived on time. Well, needless to say, "she's a happy camper." Thanks!
This autobiography by Fela was very touching and at the same time interesting. it combines a lot of things. fela as a musicia, fela as an activist, fela growing up. Fela may be dead but his legacy will never die
Thanks to the author of this book I learnt some interesting things about Fela, i.e., Fela thought, concerning the Biafran war, that the Nigerian government was wrong. He thought the Biafrans (my group at the time) were right to secede. His logic is that we were right to secede because secession is what could have brought Africa together at that time. From secession we could come together again. But by not seceding, we are put together by force, which makes sense to me. I also learnt other interesting things about Fela, but I am giving this book a 1 because of his misogynistic- and anti-homosexual views. If you read the section on women in this book you'll find that he is possibly the greatest misogynist that ever lived. In his words, women love to be slept with. In case you didn't understand, he is saying that we are sluts. The summary is that he spent too much time demonizing women and homosexuals, but particularly women (he writes about homosexuals briefly). He was also against singing and writing love songs to women (I believe his only attempt was My Lady Fustration, and in my opinion it was horrible...if anyone is wondering it's not on my ipod). He believes that equality between male and female can never be because the man must dominate and that women should be passive and this passiveness will help her to take care of the house. He also believes that it's part of the natural order for women to be submissive to men. He doesn't believe in women's liberation because he feels we don't do men's jobs like building roads. He feels women should be housewives: keep the home smooth, the children happy, and the husband happy. In addition, between the African christian woman and the African muslim woman he feels the African muslim woman is much more together because they don't argue in the house.... To them, the man is always right. He is completely against women's liberation because he thinks it's against the natural order of the world. He said it comes from European religions, which didn't teach them properly because they teach that man and woman are equal in the house, for better or worse. He's against monogamy. In this book, he says that a man with many wives is natural while the reverse is not. He believes that 9yr old girls are ready for sex. About homosexuality, he believes that the only kind of sexuality that's against nature is homosexuality because it doesn't create life. In addition, he believes the cause of homosexuality is pollution, environment, and religion. He also thinks it's caused by too many chemical foods, not enough natural foods, and pollution. I do not think it's fair to put down anyone unless they deserve it. I am what some might call a male daughter, so this also applies to me. I really don't know how I could have tolerated someone like Fela Kuti as long as I did. Honestly, I love that he sang against European cultural imperialism, but maybe I didn't have enough self-love to have kept such a misogynistic and homophobic person. It is only fitting that his wives contributed to his final exit (in the book he said he died before and returned), but R.I.P Fela Kuti many of the things he sang about in terms of what we currently face in Africa today he was able to see way ahead of time. He definitely deserves recognition for this and for inventing a beautiful and original genre called Afrobeat. One more thing, there are instances of Fela beating his wives when they were not ready to rehearse. Some of them actually said this, but they still loved him regardless. I didn't buy this book. I borrowed it from a library, which is great 'cause, having read it, it's not a book that I will gladly own because of the reasons that I discussed above: sexism and anti-homosexuality.Read more ›
