Customer Reviews

Fela: Life And Times Of An African

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A timely exploration of the father of Afro-beat. Veal, who we learn had occasion to play with Fela and spent time at the Shrine, is obviously a fan of the music and his enthusiasm is palpable. Veal's work is distinguished on many levels. As an ethnomusicologist, Veal offers rigorous descriptions and insights into the compositional aspects of Fela's work. We are given the specifics of Fela's innovations and refinements with Afro-beat. Veal locates Fela's accomplishments within the context of its forbears (E.T. Mensah, James Brown, John Coltrane, etc.)and 20th century African/Afrodiaporic music in general. From Nkrumah to Obasanjo, Veal's discussion of Nigerian/African culture and politics is well researched and thoughtful. There are great nuggets of biographical information from Fela's brief feud with Paul McCartney to November 14th, "Fela Day" in Berkeley (go figure). Veal offers a wealth of information on Fela's family and the impact his parents (his mother in particular) had on his musical and political development. We get the blow-by-blow account of Fela's confrontations with the Nigerian authorities (often, as with the Kalakuta Massacre, in harrowing detail). On the critical throretical tip, Veal 'samples' Gilroy, Jameson, Fanon, Spivak (and others), engaging in a extended discussion of Fela's compositions as postcolonial 'texts.' Though at times distractingly academic, Veal is rigorous in his deconstruction of Fela and gender, the "specific symbolic and psychological functions" of strategic historical essentialism, mysticism, etc., avoiding the cheap and oversimplistic assessments that often surround the man (often, as Veal notes, in service of hegemonic notions of "civilization"). There is much I loved about this book: the bits about Fela's "punk" approach, the rejoinder to jazzbo(zos) and their complaints about the lack of technical virtuosity in Fela's playing, the similarities between Fela's work and blaxploitation cinema, the Yoruban (tragic) basis of his music, his later compositions as underrated "African symphonies." Veal isn't afraid to write about Fela's misguided relationship with Professor Hindu, the emptiness of Fela's vaguely anarchic rhetoric as a concrete political agenda (Fela wasn't kidding about his aspirations), the problematics of Fela's lifestyle (too much pot, rampant and unprotected sex) and the effect of his lifestyle on his wives. I would have liked to have seen more on the parallels between Fela's development of Afro-beat and the stylistic exchanges with the J.B.s, and the Afrodiasporic interchanges that led to the development of hip-hop and modern dancehall. More on Dennis Bovell's involvement with Fela and more than passing reference to the Biafran conflict. The passage on Fela's continuing influence (and the intense rediscovery taking place as we speak by a new generation of musicians and music lovers) is all too brief. But these are minor quibbles. Veal has written a marvelous book on a man who was, by turns, confrontational, generous, autocratic, wild, and always brilliant. Essential reading on an essential figure. Long live Fela!

Fela is almost as important as Bob Marley in the world of black music, but no one has really written a serious book about him until now, and Michael Veal's book is an excellent one in my opinion. Sometimes it's a bit academic but it still provides a lot of detail on Fela's entire life, on the music of his entire career, and all of the Nigerian political backgound, which is substantial. I love Fela's music and I knew he was a legend, but I never quite realized how he put his life on the line to make the music he made and say the things he said, and how heavy it became between him and the Nigerian government. And I also never realized how crazy he was - not surprising considering the fact that he was a brilliant (insane?) artist, and also considering how heavy things became as time went on. That this man managed to survive as long as he did and turn out so much great music is nothing short of miraculous! I think the book is an invaluable document of the political and musical legacy of the 1960s as it developed in Africa during the 1970s and 1980s. I learned a lot about Africa, not only musically but culturally and politically too.

This book is possibly the best biography of any African musician I have read (I've also read biographies/autobiographies of Franco, Miriam Makeba, Manu Dibango and a different one on Fela). If all you know of Fela Kuti is the sensationalized stuff (i.e. 27 wives, pot smoking, etc.), it would make sense to publish this alongside all the cheap and easy bios of other controversial pop stars. But when you really get into the Fela story it is complex, encompassing Nigerian music, Nigerian and African politics, and the influence of African-American culture and politics in Africa. I think the author has done an admirable job and produced an African biography that will stand the test of time.

I have mixed feelings about this book and while any book about Fela Kuti is to be welcomed, I don't think this is the definitive one and I do think that Fela's legacy deserves better.

There is no doubt that the author is probably the most well informed of all those who have written about this iconic figure, the man who was the most important musician ever to come out of Africa. The research is unquestionably thorough and there is as much detail as any admirer would wish to know. The problem, for me, is that any biographer should be invisible in the work he's writing. Michael Veal, unfortunately, isn't and at times his presence looms larger than the subject of his book.

Throughout the narrative there are long sections where the author writes an analysis of Fela and his relationship to the African experience. These passages are written in the most stilted and uncomfortable academic manner. The effect of this is to give the impression that the work is a cut and paste job between outside sources and one of the author's academic theses, an impression which renders the book an uncomfortable mix of good biography and dull collegiate essaying. There were times when reading these sections I wondered just what Fela would have made of this awkward literary style - and I suspect he would have been dismissive and written a song which parodied it.

The other fault with the book is the distinct lack of objectivity from the author. That Michael Veal is in awe of the man is not in doubt, but awe is not the best starting place for a biography. The dichotomy of the contrasting aspects of Fela's personality is acknowledged on many occasions, but there is absolutely no attempt to analyse the negative aspects of his character. There is no examination of how Fela's stance in representing the poor and downtrodden contrasts with his ill treatment of his band members, there is no analysis of how, later in life such a forceful personality came under the influence of such an obvious charlatan as Dr Hindu and there is no mention, whatsoever, of the violence and brutality meted out by Fela's own people to those who lived in his commune. Details of which are well documented by other authors and numerous journalists. A biography should look at all aspects of the subject's life and this one fails the reader with excessive bias and a lack of balance.

Michael Veal's involvement in maintaining interest in Fela and his music is to be welcomed. His active support in the ten years since the death of this icon and his involvement in facilitating the current availability of much of Fela's early, and more obscure work, is nothing short of admirable. Perhaps the final step would be a wholesale edit of this biography to produce a balanced and more readable work. Then, perhaps, we would have the definitive story of Fela Kuti.

Michael - has managed to do what very authors have been able to do with Fela's Biography....lay down a balanced view point of the great but yet very complicated man. This book here caputres not just the actions but the Philosophy behind such actions. What i found very informative about this book is the amount of education I received on the History of African music - it kinda sets you on the right track to research more. Fela was no doubt a legend during and after his lifetime and Mr veal captured that well. I very good read - a must read for any african/african american youth.

Fela was a true artist - a man committed to his music, who was intelligent and aware enough to see the disgrace of what his country had become. Despite beatings, arrests and the murder of his mother, he simply refused to remain silent about what was going on in Nigeria and Africa.

But if his music was merely okay, he'd be a footnote in music history. As it was, Fela produced some of the most challenging, abrasive, rhythmic and simply awesome music ever produced.

I thought that it would be impossible for a book to capture and explain this truly wild soul - but this one did a very good job. Amazingly, it began life as an academic paper. "Amazingly" because it is vibrant, detailed and completely entertaining.

I have just finished this book and it was a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening read. To be sure, this is an academic book, and it reads like one. But Veal is an excellent writer and his tone is appropriate for the depth he brings to his subject. This book takes the reader on a rich journey through about 50 years of African popular music. But it also does much more than that. I learned a huge amount about Fela's roots, the political background of his family, and the cultural and political backdrop of post-independence Nigeria. Since I am interested in African music and African culture, I read this book alongside Karl Meier's "This House Has Fallen" and they made perfect sense together. I really understood Fela as an embodiment of Nigeria's triumphs and tragedies.

The review by "spice-the-cat" leaves me baffled. It doesn't sound as if this reviewer has read the same book as the rest of us. Yes, Veal does take an admiring stance on Fela, but throughout the book he also takes Fela to task for all of his inconsistencies. There are several sections that examine the inconsistent and problematic aspects of Fela's behaviour toward women. Fela's poor treatment of his musicians is touched on several times. There is an entire chapter devoted to the theme of Fela's privileged origins, the de facto class advantage it gave him over the musicians, women and other members of his "Kalakuta" commune, and his abuse of this advantage. The physical "discipline" meted out to commune members is also chronicled several times (chapter five and seven), and again, Veal takes a clearly critical stance. Fela's relationship with the "magician" Professor Hindu is presented in a way that reveals it to be fraudulent and delusional. Veal's way of highlighting these points is not polemical or simplistically judgmental. He presents all of the available evidence, pro and con, and allows the reader to draw his/her own conclusions. I think this approach is appropriate for such a controversial, complex and hotly-contested figure as Fela. I agree with the other reviews on this site, all of which praise the book's objectivity.

As far as the academic tone of the book, I think it is great to have a topic in black/African popular music treated with the seriousness that it deserves. This ultimately does justice to the subject.

I urge anyone interested in African music to read this book!

First I 'd like to thank Michael Veal for the work he did on this book. It is the best book I have read so far. My parents are Nigerian, however I have lived in the US all my life. I have always been a big fan of Fela (introduced to his music by my Dad), but never fully understood the reason he did some things he did, or some of his lyrics. Now I do. The book is really deep-rooted, cutting across all boudries, giving me an insight into Nigeria and the man called FELA in a way nobody has ever been able to. This book has changed my attitude towards life forever. May God bless Fela, and may he rest in peace forever!