Thread: Fela comes alive on DStv

Fans of Afrobeat icon Fela Anikulapo-Kuti are in for a jolly good show tomorrow. It’s a special programme detailing the life and times of the musician who passed away in 1997. Tagged Fela Kuti: Music is the Weapon, the musical programme will be aired on Mnet from 6p.m. and is bound to be interesting.

In the same vein, Fela’s son, Femi will also come charging straight from the shrine on the same channel on Sunday, March 22. His documentary is dubbed Femi Kuti: Live at the shrine.

Fela is remembered as one of the biggest human rights activists as well as political mavericks of his time and has left a legacy of using music to unite people.

Born October 15, 1938, to an activist mother and a Reverend father, Fela travelled to London at age 20 to study medicine but ended up studying music at the Trinity College of Music. While there, he formed a band and came up with a style of music that was a fusion of jazz, rock and funk with a West African flavour. Throughout his illustrious career, Fela continued to mesmerize audiences around the world.

Between 1980 and 1986 Fela and his Egypt 80 had global success. The group toured America and Europe performing at one of the world’s biggest concerts, Amnesty International with Bono, Carlos Santana and the Neville Brothers and in the same period released Beasts of No Nation. Fela passed on in 1997 but his legacy would live and be carried on by his son, Femi, who having spent much of his youth with his father and having become a member of his group showed the same strong commitment to social causes and a strong affinity towards music as Fela.

Viewers have been assured that both documentaries will capture Fela and Femi’s experiences through interviews, street scenes and the music they are known for.

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