Ibime:

Unknown soldier is my favourite, especially the part he starts lamenting how dem kill in mama.

semid4lyfe:

Hmmm. . .my favourite has to be Beast of no nation. He addressed so many issues in that song - his time in prison (and how the outside world isn't better IHO), Botha & the aparthield regime in South Africa, WAI in Nigeria, the UN (and it's hypocrisy) etc etc

I think Beast of no nation is Fela's best song "politically".  

Christains go dey yarn listen to every news

Ibime:

Unknown soldier is my favourite, especially the part he starts lamenting how dem kill in mama.

~Bluetooth:


the same old politicain wey spoil nigeria before,obasanjo carry all of them
All of them dey there o o
e no finish x6[/b]

Hi_Tek:

@ Pukkah,

Confusion Break Bone has an ominous warning for Nigeria. In it Fela said:

Many people dey say Nigeria don dey
But me as I see am
I know Nigeria go go down
How country go dey make money
Make people of country no see money

Hi_Tek:

One reason I respect Fela is that he was fearless. He will call you by name and bear the consequence.

NB: In "Coffin for Head of State", he mentioned Yar'adua several times. Some commenters on Youtube thought he was referring to Umaru Yar'adua. But he was actually referring to Umaru's elder brother Shehu who was a top military guy in the 70s and 80s.

Hi_Tek:

An American author who wrote a book on Fela argued that the soldiers did not really kill Fela's mother. According to him, she died months after they threw her from a second story window. In my opinion her death could reasonably be traced from that incident.

Hi_Tek:

"Authority Stealing" is one of Fela's songs that captured the essence of the endemic corruption in Nigeria. I have the lyrics somewhere and will post it once I find it.

Hi_Tek:

"Beast of No Nation" was a rare mention of apartheid South Africa by Fela. Throughout the struggle against apartheid, he never sang about it. Most musicians of that period had a "Free Mandela" song but not Fela.

His reason being that Nigeria had too many problems for him to worry about what was  happening in other countries. In fact he said that Nigerian leaders of that era were worse than apartheid South Africa. According to him, in apartheid South Africa, it was whites oppressing blacks but in Nigeria it was blacks oppressing blacks.

~Bluetooth:

All the problem of this world na him we dey carry for Africa
you no go ask me which one
Problems of inflation,problems of corruption
of mismanagement,stealing by government,na him we dey carry allover Africa
Now the latest one na him dey make laff
Austerity Austerity
na him dey make lafff,why i dey laff
man no fit cry austerity
who be our teacher na oyinbo
All of us dey for the first election and the second election for nigeria
And the second election na him worst past
baba nla nonsense x2
he pass rigging baba nla nonse
he pass corruption baba nla nonsense
which kind election be dis baba nla nonse
people no go vote
them come get big big numbers
thousands to thousands
milion to millions baba nla nonsense
which kind election be dis
Na democracy be dat o

Pukkah:

What of the inimitable[i] zombie?[/i]

~Bluetooth:

Yellow fever nkan ?

Hi_Tek:

"Yellow Fever" is really a social not a political song. It dealt mainly on the dangers of bleaching creams. Many people may not remember this, but a great number of Nigerian women were using bleaching creams back in the day.

~Bluetooth:

These days,politicians also bleach.eg Akala