Introduction

Fela Anikulapo Kuti is a Nigerian musician, artist and activist. Fela is famous for his dedication
to challenging the systems of oppression created by the colonial endeavor in Nigeria. Fela critiqued the
Nigerian socio-eco-political and religious ruling class for their exploitation of the African Land and
bodies. Through his music, he consistently vocalized his resistance to the violence of imperialism and
capitalism in Nigeria and the African continent. Fela also challenged the Nigerian individual to examine
how they are complicit in their own oppression, encouraging them to fight back and resist the growing
pervasiveness of western ideologies that sought to disconnect them from their roots and authentic sense of
self.

For Fela, it was important that the African man, the African individual is actively seeking self-
autonomy and independence of action and thought. Fela was a freedom fighter. He advocated actively for
the freedom to be, to think and to live African. Fela’s legacy continues to inspire and motivate
generations of Nigerians who are continuously engaging with unlearning ideas rooted in western ideology
and imperialism. Fela provides many Nigerians with a reference in language, lifestyle, and artistic
expression of what it means to interrogate and engage with African identity in a post-colonial world.

Fela and women in the Nigerian consciousness

“Men and women are on two different levels. You can say different wavelengths. Man, Woman. Two
points that can never meet, Women have different feelings than me. It’s simple as that. You can’t compare
them. Equality between male and female? No! Never! Impossible! Can never be! It seems that the man
must dominate.”

This quote is from Fela’s autobiography, “Fela: This bitch of a life”. While Fela actively resisted
imperial, capitalistic and governmental oppression, he did not hold the same perspective regarding
patriarchal oppression and violence. Fela was vocally anti-feminist.
Fela’s perspective on this issue was a reflection of the Nigerian society. I do not aim to critique
Fela as an individual. His life manifests as the life of one man, but also as a mirror of the collective
Nigerian psyche. What Fela accepts or resists, exists to show what the Nigerian society intends to project
on the bodies and minds of men and women who live in this society. The stories around Fela and his life,
creates an avenue for exploring and engaging with ideas of femininity, creativity and revolution within
the Nigerian consciousness.
 I thank Fela for living his life loudly because it gives us the gift of having this conversation on a
collective level; Fela, a reflection of the many faces of our collective reality trough space and time.

When people speak about Fela, they usually mention that he was always surrounded by women.
In February 1978, Fela married 27 beautiful women in his home, Kalakuta. At the time, within the
Nigerian consciousness, and in the words of Fela, this was a display of his power as a man.

Fela, as a Nigerian man, believed in the subjugation of women relative to the men. His
understanding was that men were to dominate over women, because they are more physically able than
women are. In the 0s, the women liberation movement was gaining ground in the West. For Fela, the
Kalakuta queens, and many Nigerians, the idea of women wanting to be like men, act like men, and do
the things that men do, was a perplexing proposition. Men and women are clearly not the same, so why
would women want to be like men?

The Nigerian society as whole is quite comfortable and familiar with the objectification and
hyper sexualization of women and their bodies. The language of women as items to be owned, used and
controlled by men is normal and accessible. Most Nigerian men have been socialized to understand and
interact with women as people who exist to please and serve them, usually as sexual objects.

Fela was honest about being drawn to women because of sex and sexuality. He thought ‘they
were sexy and fuckable. That’s what attracts [him] to a woman first.”

So, for Fela, for men, it is enough to have domination over the bodies of women and children
because you are more powerful than they are. There is the relationship that men and women have to
power. The more physical strength you are able to amass, the more domination you should be allowed to
have, especially over bodies who do not possess this kind of power. There is also the expectation of
women in society serve men, to serve their husbands. The erotic is reduced to its expression in the
physical form. It becomes about what the woman’s body can do for the man, and there is a resistance to
explore this beyond the physical and materialistic.
 On Freedom

Look at fence them break

Look at gate them fall,
Look at girls them run,
Look at head them break,
Look at blood them flow…

Before you address/ fight the tyrant that is outside of you; make peace with the dictator that is
within you. For they are one and the same. Fela was resisting the violence of colonialism, imperialism,
and Christianity on the psyche of Indigenous Africans. In a twisted way, Fela was passionate about
violence.
Fela’s fight for freedom constantly put those around him, especially the Kalakuta queens in
harm’s way. In the 80’s Kalakuta was constantly being raided by the Nigerian military. During these
raids, women were made to endure mental, emotional and physical abuse. These women had bottles
broken on their heads, they were stabbed, molested and stripped naked. Many spent weeks injured in
prison. It wasn’t an easy or comfortable life with Fela during this time.

This aspect of the Kalakuta experience was not fun. This has become the underlying energy that
has surrounded activism and revolution in Nigeria; the energy of violence. I think this is a distortion.
Popular ideas of revolution that are centered around violence makes it hard for us to imagine that change,
creativity and peace could be invoked without pain, brutality and destruction.

Sitting in the energy of violent resistance disconnects us from healthy ways of finding peace
within ourselves that we cannot fathom finding peace in the collective without hurting ourselves in the
process. Our freedom and our chains sing the same song: violence. When we meet the oppression we
hate with resistance, it produces violence. There is a collective need to move through the energy of
resistance to transcendence. Love activates the magic of transcendence.
 The Erotic as power

“You see in England your society has reached a stage where music can be an instrument for enjoyment;
you can sing about love; you can sing about who you are going to go to bed with next. But in my society,
there is no music for enjoyment, there is only struggle for people to exist. Art has to be about what is
happening at a particular time of people’s development, or underdevelopment, so far as Africa is
concerned, music cannot be for enjoyment, it has to be for revolution”

In many ways, Fela is right, expect for his inability to understand that love is the revolution that
we seek. Revolution does not need to be painful; activism can be pleasurable. While there is a limit to
physical prowess, love and creativity are dynamic, limitless and abundant resources that we can call on
for transformation and change both on the individual and collective level.

Fela did not believe in love. Men, believe in power. Their disbelief of love, their refusal to
acknowledge love, subconsciously or consciously, may blind them to the power of love. There is a
Nigerian saying that says that women have unseen power. There is the power of deep enjoyment. The
power of pleasure and freedom to transform and change. All these women, when asked, said that they.
Loved Fela.
The erotic and sensual is a powerful tool for transformation and change. In patriarchal societies,
the intentional suppression of the erotic, is an intentional process that is rooted in a fear of its
revolutionary capabilities. The erotic, the feminine, is reduced to the sexual, making it easy to
misunderstand the power of revolutionary love. Love is reduced to the satisfaction of bodily impulses
and the expressions that are centered in feeling, and in the heart are collapsed.
I believe that our desire- the parts of ourselves that imagine and articulate our pleasures, are the
sources of the creative intention and capacity to resist oppression, seek liberation and manifest
empowered, pleasurable lives. In re-examining our relationship to pleasure, we can imagine possibilities
of invoking love in all aspects of our lives including our activism. Seeking pleasure, an easier life, a more
enjoyable life should not be seen as a sign of weakness but as a sign of strength.
We fight to feel good. We transcend oppression by choosing to feel good. By consciously making
choices that lead us to more pleasurable, more comfortable experiences. The power of the erotic goes
beyond the physical. The idea that the women have “hidden” power and there is the popular
understanding that this sort of power is hidden behind a man. This is not the case. The power is hidden
within the woman. It is the power of pleasure, creativity and imagination. The Kalakuta queens make a
case for power that is not seen, not heard, but equally as impactful and transformative. Bravery that is
subtle and soft yet true and equally needed and expected.

Beyond Muses for Men

“In the past women were relegated to the background in Nigerian society, but now they realize that they
have as much right to work and to social responsibility as men. In the past our men believed the wife
should stick to the kitchen, but now we are telling our men we no longer want to be at home. Women have
been playing important roles in every aspect of life here. It is only this industry that has a shortage of
female artists.”

The Lijadu sisters, who were also trying to make a living as performers were speaking to the lack
of visible male performers. This is ironic because most of the Kalakuta queens themselves were aspiring
artists. Instead of focusing their energy and organizing around themselves and other women, these female
artists were essentially acting as groupies to Fela.
Every queen was expected to work. And whatever job they hold- whether as a singer, dancer,
disc-jockey, cashier, or other- it is expected to be well done. They got paid an average of thirty-five Naira
a week. Privileges of life at Kalakuta were not of a material kind although some queens do aspire to fame
and riches. Other queens, however, are into studying subjects as varied as astrology, traditional medicine,
politics, African history, philosophy and traditional ways. Most of the queens would be content with just
being good housewives and bearing children for Fela.
These women at the time, compared to the average Nigerian woman express themselves with
uniqueness and specificity. These women stood out in style, as creatives in their own right.
This is also a critique of modern feminism, that articulates equality of the sexes as an endeavor
that champions for women to be powerful in the same way that men are instead of cultivating more of an
inner feminine strength or healing the wounded feminine that believes that she is not powerful without the
masculine. That believes that she exists to serve the agenda and whims of the masculine. That chooses not
to uses their femininity and an activating creative force with full agency, but uses it as a means to seek
protection of men from the oppression of a patriarchal society. In patriarchal societies, the masculine has
tricked the feminine into giving their power away.

Collective freedom happens when we choose to free ourselves and also support others on our
journey to freedom.