Fela Anikulapo-Kuti: Afrobeat, Rebellion, and Philosophy

Description

Fela Anikulapo Kuti was the Afrobeat music maestro whose life and time provide the lens through which we can outline the postcolonial trajectory of the Nigerian state as well as the dynamics of most other African states. Through the Afrobeat music, Fela did not only challenge consecutive governments in Nigeria, but his rebellious Afrobeat lyrics facilitate a philosophical subtext that enriches the more intellectual Afrocentric discourses. Afrobeat and the philosophy of blackism that Fela enunciated place him right beside Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah, Marcus Garvey, and all the others who champion a black and African mode of being in the world. This book traces the emergence of Fela on the music scene, the cultural and political backgrounds that made Afrobeat possible, and the philosophical elements that not only contributed to the formation of Fela's blackism, but what constitutes Fela's philosophical sensibility too.

Adeshina Afolayan is a senior lecturer of philosophy at University of Ibadan, Nigeria. His areas of specialization include African philosophy, political philosophy and cultural studies. He is the editor of Auteuring Nollywood (2014), author of Philosophy and National Development in Nigeria (2018), the coeditor of the Palgrave Handbook of African Philosophy (2017), and the coeditor of Pentecostalism and Politics in Africa (2018). Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. He has several books to his credit, cutting across history, cultural studies, and African studies. Professor Falola holds 7 honorary doctorates, several prestigious lifetime career awards (including the Distinguished Africanist Award from the African Studies Association). A total of 9 Fetschriften have been written in his honour on the creation of the construction of the subaltern. He served as Vice President of UNESCO's International Scientific Committee, Slave Route Project from 2011 - 2015 and currently on the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellows Programme and the International Committee of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute at UNISA.

Fela will remain an enigma for generations to come. New and fresh studies about his "strange-beingness", and his illustrious career, even with all the controversies, will also continue to emerge. Afolayan and Falola provide deep insight on our subject while also making the text accessible, even to popular readers - Fela's primary constituency, whose struggles and experiences provided the bases for his life choices and framed the revolutionary contemplations in his body of works. The authors propose a forward-looking approach to the study of Fela's life, music, activism, and philosophy. Clearly, this is a book that deserves attention for things yet unsaid and even unknowable about 'Abami Eda', Fela! -- Jahman Oladejo Anikulapo, journalist, executive program director, Culture Advocates Caucus, Lagos, Nigeria This book offers a deep dive into the implications of Fela's political philosophy, including his personal relationships and the embodied intervention of Afrobeat music and dance itself. This important work succeeds in placing Fela where he truly belongs, among thinkers and revolutionaries such as Fanon, Malcolm X, Bob Marley, and Kwame Nkrumah. -- Sarah Politz, Assistant Professor of Music, University of Florida, author of Transforming Vodun: Musical Change and Postcolonial Healing in Benin's Jazz and Brass Band Music (forthcoming) This provocative and very readable book is the most rigorous and learned attempt yet to understand Fela not just as an artist, but as a political philosopher shaped by his time and place. As the musician's posthumous reputation continues to grow, Afolayan and Falola do not merely celebrate Fela and his concept of blackism, but also engage critically with his apparent blind spots and inconsistencies as a thinker and performer, particularly in matters of gender and sexuality. Stimulating reading for historians of pan-African thought as well as Fela enthusiasts. -- David Pier, Associate Professor of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, author of Ugandan Music in the Marketing Era (2015)