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The Cosmopolitan Nativist: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and the Antinomies of Postcolonial Modernity

2001; Indiana University Press; Volume: 32; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/ral.2001.0059

1527-2044

Tejúmólá Ọláníyan,

Asian Studies and History

Even in death, the Nigerian Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (1938-97) remains, without doubt, Africa's most controversial popular musician, and the one with perhaps the largest following outside the continent. Today, no reputable online compact disc store is without a generous sample of the musician's recordings, many of which appear to be no more than opportunistic compilations designed to cash in on the renewed popular interest in the musician since his death. Fela, as his fans call him, is renowned for his distinctive "Afrobeat" sound (itself a masterly blend of diverse forms), his politically charged lyrics and anti-establishment politics, his offbeat charismatic figure, his many encounters with the Nigerian authorities leading to his repeated harassments, prosecutions, and imprisonments, and his general flamboyantly nonconformist lifestyle. Such a spectacular figure is already a sure candidate for uncomplicated and one-dimensional appropriations, especially given the pressures of "watered-down" labeling demanded by mass culture marketing, not to say marketers. In any case, the point could be made in the latter's defense that those cash-and-carry profiles in popular encyclopedias and "world beat" pamphlets pretend to no higher purpose than advertisement, that plainly motivated and unashamedly biased genre of persuasion. But even otherwise useful studies have been understandably awed by this or that particular side of Fela, sacrificing a much more robust assessment as a result (Grass, Stanovsky, Idowu).