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’s 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
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Don’t get a note wrong!
Duration: 00:56
Links and Further Reading
Broadcasts
- Mon 2 Jan 201702:06GMTBBC World Service except Americas and the Caribbean, Australasia & News Internet
- Mon 2 Jan 201704:06GMTBBC World Service Australasia
- Mon 2 Jan 201705:06GMTBBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Tue 3 Jan 201709:06GMTBBC World Service except Americas and the Caribbean & News Internet
- Tue 3 Jan 201712:06GMTBBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Tue 3 Jan 201723:06GMTBBC World Service except News Internet
- Wed 4 Jan 201702:06GMTBBC World Service Australasia
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