For the fifty-eight years he lived on earth, the Fela Kuti mystique kept the world on the edge of their seats. There was always something out of the ordinary in everything he did. From the rebel streak in him, which was constantly dramatised, to the zombifying lyrics in his music, which constantly gave successive Nigerian military governments the jitters, and, of course, his harem of wives, which exaggerated his machismo, Fela Kuti symbolized a cat with nine lives, and, certainly, a cat that touched many lives in Nigeria and beyond.

If you think you have heard everything about the Afrobeat maestro, who, contrary to his parents’ advice for him to study medicine in London, chose to study music at the Trinity College of Music, you could just be like a nitwit whose idea of scientific grandeur is only limited to the gigantic Egyptian pyramid.
Needless to say, you need to read the latest book on Fela, Kalakuta Diaries, written by his erstwhile PRO, Uwa Erhabor, presented to the public early this week at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, Lagos.
Unlike other books on Fela that has dwelled on his stage performances, interpretation of his lyrics and political activism, Kalakuta Diaries recounts the untold story of life in Fela’s Kalakuta Republic, his symbolic free world, where those in military fatigue weren’t welcome and even some sane citizens could be charged for jaywalking. Kalakuta Diaries tells stories of the seamy side of life in Fela’s iconoclastic home and lot more.
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It could be outlawed elsewhere, but smoking of weeds wasn’t in his republic – of course he prefers to call it “African grass” – and if you couldn’t charge cows and goats for grazing on grass, why should you charge Fela for feasting on nature’s grassy environment?
That was his contention, but the Nigerian government didn’t just buy into his grassy defence. Marijuana has been outlawed in Nigeria for many decades, and Fela wasn’t to be treated like a scared cow. On many occasions, the minions of the law were after the Afrobeat king, and the lead-up to his arrest and arraignment in court was always melodramatic.

Read full story here:http:///entertainment/life-in-fela-kuti.html

Might be a good read but the cover is ugly

ijebabe: Might be a good read but the cover is ugly

don't judge the book by it's cover o! May have an internal beauty anyway. A white pap comes out of a black earthen pot.

I did say it might be a good read. I'm only stating the obvious. Out of all the cover ideas, this one won