Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti: biography, age, family, net worth

All you need to know about Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti popularly known as Fela Kuti Let’s take a look at his Biography, Nationality, Career, Age, Net worth, Family.

ABOUT
Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti also known as Abami Eda was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, composer, political activist, and Pan-Africanist. He is regarded as the pioneer of Afrobeat, an African music genre that combines traditional Yoruba percussion and vocal styles with American funk and jazz.

EARLY LIFE
Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti was born (Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti) He was born into the Ransome-Kuti family, an upper-middle-class Nigerian Family, on 15 October 1938 in Abeokuta (the modern-day capital of Ogun State), which at the time was a city in the Bristish Colony of Nigeria. His mother, Chief Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was an anti-colonial feminist, and his father, Reverend Isreal oludotun Ransome-Kuti , was an Anglican  minister, school principal, and the first president of the Nigeria Union of Teachers. His brothers Beko Ransome-Kuti and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, both medical doctors, were well known nationally. Kuti was a first cousin once removed to the writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the first black African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, as they are both descendants of Josiah Kuti-Ransome, who is Kuti’s paternal grandfather and Soyinka’s maternal great-grandfather.

Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti

EDUCATION
Kuti attended Abeokuta Grammer School. In 1958, he was sent to London to study medicine but decided to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music, with the trumpet being his preferred instrument.

CAREER
Fela Kuti started his career through is education path, he was meant to go and study medicine but went to line of music in London. He formed the band Koola Lobitos and played a fusion of jazz and highlife. In 1960, Kuti married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he had three children (Femi, Yeni, and Sola).In 1963, Kuti moved back to the newly independent Federation of Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos, and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian broadcasting corporation . He played for some time with Victor Olaiya and his All-Stars.

In 1967, Kuti traveled to Ghana looking for a new musical direction. He called his style Afrobeat, a combination of highlife, funk, jazz, salsa, calypso and traditional Yoruba music. In 1969, Kuti took the band to the United States and spent ten months in Los Angeles. While there, he discovered the Black power movement through Sandra Smith (now known as Sandra Izsadore or Sandra Akanke Isidore), a partisan of the Black Panther Party. This experience heavily influenced his music and political views. He renamed the band Nigeria 70. Soon after, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was tipped off by a promoter that Kuti and his band were in the US without work permits. The band performed a quick recording session in Los Angeles that would later be released as The ‘69 Los Angeles Sessions.

After Kuti and his band returned to Nigeria, the group was renamed (the) Africa 70 as lyrical themes changed from love to social issues.He formed the Kalakuta Republic—a commune, recording studio, and home for many people connected to the band—which he later declared independent from the Nigerian state.

Kuti set up a nightclub in the Empire Hotel, first named the Afro-Spot and later the Afrika Shrine, where he both performed regularly and officiated at personalised Yoruba traditional ceremonies in honor of his nation’s ancestral faith. He also changed his name to Anikulapo (meaning “He who carries death in his pouch”, with the interpretation: “I will be the master of my own destiny and will decide when it is time for death to take me”). He stopped using the hyphenated surname “Ransome” because he considered it a slave name.

Kuti’s music was popular among the Nigerian public and Africans in general. He decided to sing in Pidgin English so that individuals all over Africa could enjoy his music, where the local languages they speak are diverse and numerous. As popular as Kuti’s music had become in Nigeria and elsewhere, it was unpopular with the ruling government, and raids on the Kalakuta Republic were frequent. During 1972, Ginger baker recorded Strata-various, with Kuti appearing alongside vocalist and guitarist Bobby Tench. Around this time, Kuti became even more involved with the Yoruba Region

In 1977, Kuti and Africa 70 released the album Zombie, which heavily criticized Nigerian soldiers, and used the zombie metaphor to describe the Nigerian military’s methods. The album was a massive success and infuriated the government, who raided the Kalakuta Republic with 1,000 soldiers. During the raid, Kuti was severely beaten, and his elderly mother was fatally injured after being thrown from a window. The commune was burnt down, and Kuti’s studio, instruments, and master tapes were destroyed. Kuti claimed that he would have been killed had it not been for a commanding officer’s intervention as he was being beaten. Kuti’s response to the attack was to deliver his mother’s coffin to the Dodan Barracks in Lagos, General Olusegun Obadanjo’s residence, and to write two songs, “Coffin for Head of State” and “Unknown Soldier,” referencing the official inquiry that claimed an unknown soldier had destroyed the commune.

Kuti and his band took up residence in Crossroads Hotel after the Shrine had been destroyed along with the commune. In 1978, he married 27 women: Kikelomo Oseyni, Folake Oladejo, Tejumade Adebiyi, Naa Lamiley, Sewaa Kuti, Omotola Osaeti, Omowunmi Oyedele, Alake Anikulapo Kuti, Shade Shodeinde, Adeola Williams, Najite Kuti, Emaruagheru Osawe, Kevwe Oghomienor, Ihase Anikulapo, Adejonwo Iyabode Ogunitro, Bose Anikulapo Kuti, Lara Anikulapo Kuti, Suru Eriomola, Tokunbo Akran, Funmi Kuti, Omowunmi Afesumo, Laide Anikulapo Kuti, Ronke Edason, Damiregba Anikulapo Kuti, Aduni Idowu, and Omolara Shosanya Remilekun Taylor. Many of them were dancers, composers, and singers with whom he worked. The marriage served not only to mark the anniversary of the attack on the Kalakuta Republic but also to protect Kuti and his wives from authorities’ false claims that Kuti was kidnapping women. Later, he adopted a rotation system of maintaining 12 simultaneous wives. There were also two concerts in the year: the first was in Accra, in which rioting broke out during the song “Zombie”, which caused Kuti to be banned from entering Ghana; the second was after the Berlin Jazz Festivalwhen most of Kuti’s musicians deserted him due to rumors that he planned to use all of the proceeds to fund his presidential campaign.

In 1983, Kuti formed his political party, which he called Movement of the People (MOP), to “clean up society like a mop”. MOP preached Nkrumahism and Africanism. In 1979, he nominated himself for president in Nigeria’s first elections in decades, but his candidature was refused. At this time, Kuti created a new band, Egypt 80, which reflected the view that Egyptian Civilization, knowledge, philosophy, mathematics, and religious systems are African and must be claimed as such. Kuti stated in an interview: “Stressing the point that I have to make Africans aware of the fact that Egyptian civilization belongs to the African. So that was the reason why I changed the name of my band to Egypt 80.” Kuti continued to record albums and tour the country. He further infuriated the political establishment by implicating ITT Corporation’s vice-president, Moshood Abiola, and Obasanjo in the popular 25-minute political screed entitled “I.T.T. (International Thief-Thief)”.

In 1984, Muhammadu Buhari’s government, of which Kuti was a vocal opponent, jailed him on a charge of currency smuggling. Amnesty International and others denounced the charges as politically motivated. Amnesty designated him a prosoner of conspiracy ,and other human rights groups also took up his case. After 20 months, General Ibrahim Babangida released him from prison. On his release, Kuti divorced his 12 remaining wives, citing “marriage brings jealousy and selfishness”.

Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti continued to release albums with Egypt 80 and toured in the United States and Europe while continuing to be politically active. In 1986 he performed in Giants Stadium in New Jersey as part of Amnesty International’s A Conspiracy of Hope concert along with Bono, Carlos Santana, and the Neville Brothers. In 1989, Kuti and Egypt 80 released the anti-apartheid album Beasts of No Nation that depicted U.S. President Ronald Reagan, UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and South African State President Pieter Willem Botha on its cover. The title of the composition evolved out of a statement by Botha: “This uprising (against the apartheid system) will bring out the beast in us.”

Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti album output slowed in the 1990s, and eventually, he ceased releasing albums altogether. On 21 January 1993, he and four members of Africa 70 were arrested and were later charged on 25 January for the murder of an electrician. Rumors also speculated that he was suffering from an illness for which he was refusing treatment. However, there had been no confirmed statement from Kuti about this speculation.

FELA KUTI MUSICAL TYPE
Kuti’s musical style is called Afrobeat. It is a style he largely created, and is a complex fusion of jazz, funk, highlife, psychedelic rock and traditional Nigerian, African chants and rhythms. Afrobeat also borrows heavily from the native “tinker pan”. Tony Allen (Kuti’s drummer of twenty years) was instrumental in the creation of Afrobeat. Kuti once stated that “there would be no Afrobeat without Tony Allen”.

Kuti’s band was notable for featuring two baritone saxophone when most groups only used one. This is a common technique in African and African-influenced musical styles and can be seen in funk and hip-hop. His bands sometimes performed with two bassists at the same time both playing interlocking melodies and rhythms. There were always two or more guitarists. The electric West African style guitar in Afrobeat bands is paramount but is used to give basic structure, playing a repeating chordal/melodic statement, riff, or groove.

Some elements often present in Kuti’s music are the call-and-response within the chorus and figurative but simple lyrics. His songs were also very long, at least 10–15 minutes in length, and many reached 20 or 30 minutes, while some unreleased tracks would last up to 45 minutes when performed live. Their length was one of many reasons that his music never reached a substantial degree of popularity outside Africa. His LP records frequently had one 30-minute track per side. Typically there is an “Instrumental Introduction” jam part of the song roughly 10–15 minutes long before Kuti starts singing the “main” part of the song, featuring his lyrics and singing, for another 10–15 minutes. On some recordings, his songs are divided into two parts: Part 1 being the instrumental, and Part 2 adding in vocals.

Kuti’s songs are mostly sung in Nigerian pidgin English, although he also performed a few songs in the Yoruba Language. His main instruments were the saxophone and the keyboards, but he also played the trumpet, electric guitar, and the occasional drum solo. Kuti refused to perform songs again after he had already recorded them, which hindered his popularity outside Africa.

Kuti was known for his showmanship, and his concerts were often outlandish and wild. He referred to his stage act as the “Underground Spiritual Game”. Many expected him to perform shows like those in the Western world, but during the 1980s, he was not interested in putting on a “show”. His European performance was a representation of what was relevant at the time and his other inspirations. He attempted to make a movie but lost all the materials to the fire that was set to his house by the military government in power. He thought that art, and thus his own music, should have political meaning

FAMILY
Dolapo Ransome Kuti is the eldest while Olikoye Ransome Kuti was the Second son and Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti was the last born of the family of three.

He was married to 27 wives on the same day, most of these woman were his singers and they had children with “Fela Kuti”

His popularly son whose name is “Femi Kuti” also has sibling whose name is “Seun Kuti”. Others are from their Step mothers named— Yeni Kuti, Kunle Anikulapo Kuti, Sola Kuti, Omosalewa Anikulapo Kuti, Motunrayo Anikulapo Kuti, Enitan Ransome-Kuti, Frances Kuboye Anikulapo Kuti, Gbogega Ransome-Kuti and Dotun Ransome-Kuti

PERSONAL LIFE
On 3 August 1997, Kuti’s brother Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, already a prominent AIDS activist and former Minister of Health, announced Kuti’s death the day before from complications related to AIDS. Kuti had been an AIDS denialist, and his widow maintained that he did not die of AIDS. His youngest son Seun took the role of leading Kuti’s former band Egypt 80. As of 2020, the band is still active, releasing music under the moniker Seun Kuti & Egypt 80.

Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti

POLITICAL VIEWS AND ACTIVISM
Kuti was highly engaged in political activism in Africa from the 1970s until his death. He criticized the corruption of Nigerian government officials and the mistreatment of Nigerian citizens. He spoke of colonialism as the root of the socio-economic and political problems that plagued the African people. Corruption was one of the worst political problems facing Africa in the 1970s and Nigeria was among the most corrupt countries. Its government rigged elections and performed coups that ultimately worsened poverty, economic inequality, unemployment, and political instability, further promoting corruption and crime. Kuti’s protest songs covered themes inspired by the realities of corruption and socio-economic inequality in Africa. Kuti’s political statements could be heard throughout Africa.

Kuti’s open vocalization of the violent and oppressive regime controlling Nigeria did not come without consequence. He was arrested on over 200 different occasions and spent time in jail, including his longest stint of 20 months after his arrest in 1984. On top of jail time, the corrupt government sent soldiers to beat Kuti, his family and friends, and destroy wherever he lived and whatever instruments or recordings he had.

In the 1970s, Kuti began to run outspoken political columns in the advertising space of daily and weekly newspapers such as The Daily Times and The Punch, bypassing editorial censorship in Nigeria’s predominantly state-controlled media. Published throughout the 1970s and early 1980s under the title “Chief Priest Say”, these columns were extensions of Kuti’s famous Yabi Sessions—consciousness-raising word-sound rituals, with himself as chief priest, conducted at his Lagos nightclub. Organized around a militantly Afrocentric rendering of history and the essence of black beauty, “Chief Priest Say” focused on the role of cultural hegemony in the continuing subjugation of Africans. Kuti addressed many topics, from fierce denunciations of the Nigerian Government’s criminal behavior, Islam and Christianity’s exploitative nature, and evil multinational corporations; to deconstructions of Western medicine, Black Muslims, sex, pollution, and poverty. “Chief Priest Say” was eventually canceled by The Daily Times and The Punch. Many have speculated that the paper’s editors were pressured to stop publication, including threats of violence.

ACHIEVEMENT
Fela Kuti achieved a whole lot of things before his death, which we can not finished stating it. But little of it is written below;

Kuti was part of an Afro-Centric consciousness movement that was founded on and delivered through his music.

Kuti was also an outspoken critic of the United States. At a meeting during his 1981 Amsterdam tour, he “complained about the psychological warfare that American organizations like ITT and the CIA waged against developing nations in terms of language”. Because terms such as Third World, undeveloped, or non aligned countries imply inferiority, Kuti felt they should not be used. And this made him a great man in the world.

LEGACY
Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti is remembered as an influential icon who voiced his opinions on matters that affected the nation through his music.

In 2003, the Black President exhibition debuted at the New Museum for Contemporary Art, New York, and featured concerts, symposia, films, and 39 international artists’ works.

NET WORTH
Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti net worth: Fela Kuti was a Nigerian musician, composer, and human rights activist who had a net worth of $5 million at the time of his death.