Fela Kuti: King of Afrobeat
The extraordinary life and legacy of Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti - maverick performer, musical pioneer, and a continuing inspiration across the world.
Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti was a maverick performer, a musical pioneer, and is a continuing inspiration across the world. But he was also a thorn in the side of the Nigeria鈥檚 successive military governments and a fearless activist for social justice.
Twenty years after his death, Peter Okwoche is joined by three people who all had personal experience of Fela Kuti, to discuss his complex and extraordinary life, musical legacy, and revolutionary political ideals - Dele Sosimi is a former member of Fela Kuti's band and now an acclaimed Afrobeat musician; Carlos Moore wrote the only authorised biography of Fela Kuti, Fela: This Bitch of a Life; and Jahman Anikulapo is a Nigerian arts journalist who followed Fela's career closely.
Photo: Fela Kuti, 1986, Credit: Associated Press
Last on
More episodes
Clip
-
![]()
Don鈥檛 get a note wrong!
Duration: 00:56
Links and Further Reading
Broadcasts
- Mon 2 Jan 2017 02:06GMT麻豆社 World Service except Americas and the Caribbean, Australasia & News Internet
- Mon 2 Jan 2017 04:06GMT麻豆社 World Service Australasia
- Mon 2 Jan 2017 05:06GMT麻豆社 World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Tue 3 Jan 2017 09:06GMT麻豆社 World Service except Americas and the Caribbean & News Internet
- Tue 3 Jan 2017 12:06GMT麻豆社 World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Tue 3 Jan 2017 23:06GMT麻豆社 World Service except News Internet
- Wed 4 Jan 2017 02:06GMT麻豆社 World Service Australasia
Featured in...
![]()
Music and musicians—The Forum
Why does the world sound like it does?
Do you use US dollars even though they are not your country鈥檚 official currency?
We would love to hear why for an upcoming Forum about the history of the dollar.
Podcast
-
![]()
The Forum
The programme that explains the present by exploring the past
