Nigeria’s Afrobeats stars love to identify with Fela’s activism and music - but their tributes are becoming opportunistic and empty.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on Fela Kuti
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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?
Afrofusion is a music style that existed even before Burna Boy was born.
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.
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.
He played every venue that mattered, a global face of Afrobeat. Orlando Julius embodied the groove.
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.
Afrobeats emerged when West African pop music became cool. It has been boosted by the diaspora, big name collaborations and American culture.
Fela’s nomination and possible induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will come at a cost.
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.
Young Nigerians are protesting bad governance and police brutality. Where is the music to assist them?
How do elements of Fela Kuti’s music get reproduced by today’s pop musicians?
How do two artists from different ends of the world get inspired by the pioneer of Afrobeats?
Highlife champion Victor Olaiya will be missed for his affable personality and resplendent performance style.
The intertwining of the market, state and society has continued to see itself expressed through music in the DRC.
Music is an underutilised tool when it comes to steering curricula away from strictly Western and colonial models.
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.
The international community has failed to recognise the new political visions being articulated by young musicians and activists across Africa.
The search for old or new African sounds is based around a nostalgia culture that is endemic to Anglo-American popular music.
Top contributors
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Research Fellow, Rhodes University
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Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape Town
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Lecturer of English. PhD Candidate in Afrofuturism and African Studies, University of the Western Cape
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Professor of International Law, University of Pretoria
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Professor of Political Science and Africana Studies, Vassar College
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Five College Professor of Music at Mount Holyoke College and the Five College Consortium (Amherst, Hampshire, Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst), USA., Mount Holyoke College
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University of Lagos
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Professor of Marketing & Entrepreneurship, University of Kigali
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Visiting professor, Rhodes University
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Musician, Academic, Consultant, The University of Edinburgh
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Lecturer in Music, University of Nigeria
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Associate professor Music and Media, University of Gloucestershire
