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Nigeria’s Afrobeats stars love to identify with Fela’s activism and music - but their tributes are becoming opportunistic and empty.
Burna Boy promotes his new album Love, Damini in the US.
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With his new album Love, Damini he has conquered the world. But how much of his creative soul does he have left?
Burna Boy performs in Glastonbury, England, 2022.
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Afrofusion is a music style that existed even before Burna Boy was born.
Nigerian musician Fela Kuti and his band in Harlem, New York, 1989.
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Nigerian popular music - Afrobeats - is storming the world’s stages. But it’s just the latest stage in a vibrant century of recorded music in the country.
Orlando Julius (left) on stage with his wife, the dancer and singer Latoya Aduke.
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The man who taught Fela Kuti a thing or two has been all but erased from formal music history. He deserves much better treatment in death.
Musician Orlando Julius with his wife, dancer Latoya Aduke Ekemode.
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He played every venue that mattered, a global face of Afrobeat. Orlando Julius embodied the groove.
Made Kuti performs in Lagos in 2021.
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Of a record nine nominees, seven are from West Africa. The global rise of Afrobeats music owes its soul to Nigeria’s iconic star Fela Kuti.
Tems performs in London in 2021.
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Afrobeats emerged when West African pop music became cool. It has been boosted by the diaspora, big name collaborations and American culture.
Nigerian musician Fela Kuti performs in Chicago in the US.
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Fela’s nomination and possible induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will come at a cost.
Femi Kuti performing in Mexico City in 2019.
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The truth remains that no artist through Nigeria’s postcolonial years has contributed close to what Fela did – and continues to do - for human rights and social justice.
Nigerian rapper Falz sings in his home studio in Lagos.
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Young Nigerians are protesting bad governance and police brutality. Where is the music to assist them?
The cast of Fela! performs during the 64th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in 2010 in New York City.
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How do elements of Fela Kuti’s music get reproduced by today’s pop musicians?
Fela Kuti, 1990.
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How do two artists from different ends of the world get inspired by the pioneer of Afrobeats?
Victor Olaiya’s Papingo Davalaya album was released in 1986.
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Highlife champion Victor Olaiya will be missed for his affable personality and resplendent performance style.
Lexxus Legal is a hip-hop artist and at the forefront of the activist movement in the DRC.
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The intertwining of the market, state and society has continued to see itself expressed through music in the DRC.
Kendrick Lamar performing in Portugal.
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Music is an underutilised tool when it comes to steering curricula away from strictly Western and colonial models.
From Fela Kuti’s album, ‘Beast of No Nation’.
Beast of No Nation LP.
Fela Kuti’s critically engaging lyrics, and his intense and methodical delivery, provide an important window to exposing students to critical understanding of the global system.
Keur Gui - Thiat, left, and Kilifeu, right.
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The international community has failed to recognise the new political visions being articulated by young musicians and activists across Africa.
Nigerian 80s artist William Onyeabor.
Luaka Bop
The search for old or new African sounds is based around a nostalgia culture that is endemic to Anglo-American popular music.