Mr. Jahman Anikulapo, former Editor of the Guardian Newspaper and cultural activist, believed late Afrobeat maestro, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, committed class suicide by aligning himself with the poor.
Mr. Anikulapo made this assertion yesterday while speaking at a book presentation on Fela.
The book titled, “Fela Yesterday’s Message As Today’s Reality,” is written by Lanre Arogundade, the Executive Director, International Press Centre (IPC).
According to Anikulapo who was one of the guest speakers at the event Fela, who qualified as an ‘ajebutter’ had no business fighting for the poor.
“I believe he committed class suicide. He shouldn’t have been with the class he was fighting for. He came from a bourgeois background, yet, he aligned with the poor and fought for them,” he said.
Anikulapo also noted that Fela was “disciplined, engaging, humble and humane. He showed that you can be popular but humane.”
He said the Afrobeat legend with the lyrics of his songs and his music, gave the template for restructuring Nigeria. “Fela fought for restructuring without shouting restructuring. He fought for restructuring but not the way it is conceived today. Fela showed that what must be restructured is the humongous monster called poverty.”
He further described Fela as a cultural phenomenon of the 21st century who changed the cultural orientation of the Nigerian youths and beyond.
“Fela opened the vista of political consciousness of the youths, not just to accept the norm but to query things and query the leaders.”
He, however, lamented that the consciousness of the youths have not been sufficiently aroused and urged the youths to take education seriously. “Get education so as to be able to challenge the system because you cannot challenge a system you have not studied,” he admonished the youths.
Mr. Anikulapo described Arogundade’s book as a worthy contribution to all the other literatures on Fela.
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In his own contributions, Dr. Kunle Ajibade, another former Editor of the Guardian Newspaper, noted that Fela by who he was awakened the inert consciousness of individuals.
He described Fela as a hero whom the youths of today ought to emulate.
Dr. Ajibade who lamented the disappearance of history from the school curriculum expressed hope that the promise to return it would happen in no distant time.
He also canvassed the return of books like ‘Zambia shall be free,’ ‘Tell Freedom,’ and literature on people like Fidel Castro, among other, to schools, saying “heroism can only happen when you have heroes to learn from.”
For Mr. Odia Ofeimun, a poet and literary icon, Fela completely gave expression to the way people felt about the society in the 60s and beyond.
He reiterated Fela’s humble and humane spirit which propelled him to fight for the poor and downtrodden.
His words; “Fela did not care about the poor because he was poor, he didn’t take a turn that will favour his bourgeoisie background. He simply would not accept injustice.
“He did not encourage the poor to wallow in their poverty but propagated the means of lifting them out of it,” he said.
Ofeimun spoke further, “What was good about Fela was not that he was always right, but he continually widened the centre so that right or wrong, you knew you had the right to have a say in the way things should be done in the society.”
He also reiterated the need to celebrate the heroes who have laid the foundation on which we stand today.
The author of the book, Mr. Arogundade, said the book was an expression of his personal encounters with Fela and how they shaped his life.
He also noted that the book was his contribution to the immortalisation of the legend.
Notable personalities present at the event, which took place at the Kalakuta museum, Ikeja, included; Mr. Yinka Odumakin, the National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mr. Benson Idonije, a writer, Mr. Kayode Komolafe, Deputy Managing Director, THISDAY Newspapers Group, Mr. Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, a lawyer, Dr. Qasim Akinreti, Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Lagos, among others.
