Every year, people from far and wide gather to celebrate the power of music and the late Afrobeat legend – Fela Anikulapo Kuti. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of his death, here are 3 reasons why Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s legacy will forever live on in our hearts:

1. Music

Fela Anikulapo Kuti pioneered Afrobeat – a complex fusion of Jazz, Funk, Ghanaian/Nigerian High-life, psychedelic rock and traditional West African chants and rhythms.

Fela was a skillful songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, whose music centered on themes like injustice, freedom, corruption and the general state of Nigeria.

His songs were mostly in pidgin English and Yoruba, and his music career spanned 3 decades.

He released over 200 songs and the popular include ‘Zombie’, ‘Water no get enemy’ and ‘Beast of no nation’.

Fela was known for his outlandish showmanship. He referred to his stage act as the ‘underground spiritual game’. Ara ra ra ra! Oro ro ro ro!


2. Felabration


Felabration is an annual festival of music and arts that celebrates the sound, life and times of Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

This week-long event in honor of Fela, draws in millions of fans, curious minds and music lovers to Lagos from different parts of the globe.

The musical cravings of all are satisfied through exciting lineups of both local and international artists.

This year’s Felabration is a special tribute festival as it marks Fela’s 20th memorial anniversary. It is themed ‘The Prophecy: Fela Lives’. Felabration 2017 will also feature in the Notting Hill Carnival and in many cities across the world.

3. Kalakuta Museum

A Prophet of a kind.. .
A legend in the mind.. .
A man heart of pain...
For a masses to gain....
A man of love..Yet hate by all,

What a Prophet?
He never have a religion,
His words are more of prophecy,
His lyrics are not just words,
His rhythm are not just drums,
His music are not just noise, but are
Voice for the voiceless and Hope for the hopelses.

His home he open for all,
Whether black or white,
Small or great, rich or poor,
His love for the down trodden is unfathomable,
His passion for justice is unequivocally,
His desire for equality is beyond this page,
His hatred for injustice is so emphatically,
His message for the religious slavery is undisputed,

His enemity with corrupt government is overwhelming,
His view on the looters call leaders is not bias,
How we wish he lives on, but he is a mortal
And all mortal must died, 20 years after is death,
More than 40years after his major song were released,
The songs are ever fresh every day,
Because he is a prophet...

Should we call him a Prophet?
Nope let call him a man who sees tomorrow..
He sees the fear in the masses faces to fight for freedom little wonder he sing "my people sef , dey fear too much"
He sings about "suffering and smilling" Imagine a graduate without work, imagine a worker without Salary after six months "suffering and Smiling.
Oh He sing about our present leader
He sings about $2.6billion missing today $26billion missing. What a Prophecy?

A medical student to be..
No he follow his calling the Underground Spiritually Game,
He taught it was just a music but he never knew,
His rhythm and rhymes will change the music world forever,
He never knew his music will be more deadly than pen, gun, bow and arrow,
He never knew through this music calling he will be famous than his Father,
For him it's just to sing, only did he know it's a Calling..
When He yield to his Calling a Prophet was born that beget a Prophecy...

Like the Prophet of old
His music turned him to Matyrs..
He was subjected to all form of inhumane,
He was beaten, he was batterd yet he never deter,
He called the enemy yet the people loves him the more
The more he was called the criminal, the more his Prophecy becoming so so Real....

How can I write about a man whose Prophecy outlive his reign..
How can I pen down the attributes of a Prophet whose Prophecy has been there before I was born,
Tell me how will I described a Prophet whose Prophecy is a thorn in the Flesh of our looters,
Tell me how will I script a Prophet who have no ministry but his message prick men's heart,
How I mean how a Prophet without religion but has so many disciples..

Little wonder
To many musicians he becomes their Legend,
To many learner he become their Mentor,
To many Looters he become a Thorn,
To many Afro he become their Beats,
To the truth Lovers the stage his not complete without His Rhythm..

His Prophecy like a still voice in the wind...
Was not bound by boundaries,
Was not cut by Culture,
Nor tame by Time,
Nor buried by Power,
Not even Fracture by Force,
The Content was not contain by Colour,
The lyrics hound by Race,
The message was not exterminate by Ethnicity.

No wonder his voice is heard from far and near echoing
Are ra ra Oro roo ro..
Welcome to the spiritual underground game.

@shopen