Download or read book A Study of the Music and Social Criticism of African Musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti written by Niyi Coker and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fela written by Michael Veal and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Musician, political critic, and hedonist, international superstar Fela Anikulapo-Kuti created a sensation throughout his career. In his own country of Nigeria he was simultaneously adulated and loathed, often by the same people at the same time. His outspoken political views and advocacy of marijuana smoking and sexual promiscuity offended many, even as his musical brilliance enthralled them. In his creation of afrobeat, he melded African traditions with African American and Afro-Caribbean influences to revolutionize world music. Although harassed, beaten, and jailed by Nigerian authorities, he continued his outspoken and derisive criticism of political corruption at home and economic exploitation from abroad. A volatile mixture of personal characteristics -- charisma, musical talent, maverick lifestyle, populist ideology, and persistence in the face of persecution -- made him a legend throughout Africa and the world. Celebrated during the 1970s as a musical innovator and spokesman for the continent's oppressed masses, he enjoyed worldwide celebrity during the 1980s and was recognized in the 1990s as a major pioneer and elder statesman of African music. By the time of his death in 1997 from AIDS-related complications, Fela had become something of a Nigerian institution. In Africa, the idea of transnational alliance, once thought to be outmoded, has gained new currency. In African America, during a period of increasing social conservatism and ethnic polarization, Africa has re-emerged as a symbol of cultural affirmation. At such an historical moment, Fela's music offers a perspective on race, class, and nation on both sides of the Atlantic. As Professor Veal demonstrates, over three decades Fela synthesized a unique musical language while also clearing -- if only temporarily -- a space for popular political dissent and a type of counter-cultural expression rarely seen in West Africa. In the midst of political turmoil in Africa, as well as renewal of pro-African cultural nationalism throughout the diaspora, Fela's political music functions as a post-colonial art form that uses cross-cultural exchange to voice a unique and powerful African essentialism.
Download or read book Arrest the Music written by Tejumola Olaniyan and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2004-10-29 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Olaniyan has given us a profound and beautifully integrated book which culminates in a persuasive interpretation of the relationship between Fela's apparently incompatible presentational selves.... The book's accessible and evocative prose is in itself a kind of homage to Fela's continual ability to seduce and astonish.... This is such an attractive book you feel like... ransacking your collection for Fela tapes." -- Karin Barber "... an indispensable companion to Fela's music and a rich source of information for studies in modern African popular music." -- Akin Euba Arrest the Music! is a lively musical study of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, one of Africa's most recognizable, popular, and controversial musicians. The flamboyant originator of the "Afrobeat" sound and self-proclaimed voice of the voiceless, Fela used music, sharp-tongued lyrics, and derisive humor to challenge the shortcomings of Nigerian and postcolonial African states. Looking at the social context, instrumentation, lyrics, visual art, people, and organizations through which Fela produced his music, Tejumola Olaniyan offers a wider, more suggestive perspective on Fela and his impact on listeners in all parts of the world. Placing Fela front and center, Olaniyan underscores important social issues such as authenticity, racial and cultural identity, the relationship of popular culture to radical politics, and the meaning of postcolonialism, nationalism, and globalism in contemporary Africa. Readers interested in music, culture, society, and politics, whether or not they know Fela and his music, will find this work invaluable for understanding the career of an African superstar and the politics of popular culture in contemporary Africa. African Expressive Cultures -- Patrick McNaughton, general editor
Download or read book Fela Anikulapo Kuti written by Adeshina Afolayan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2022-01-13 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Fela written by Trevor Schoonmaker and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2003-07-04 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection is one of two publications in the Fela Project.
Download or read book Afrobeat written by Sola Olorunyomi and published by Africa Research and Publications. This book was released on 2003 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the seventies, as signs of decay began to show in the capitalist experiment of the newly independent African countries, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti tore his way into popular culture with his signature blend of ethno-traditional music and jazz, drawing lyrics from the flipside of neo-colonial society and his own experience in London and America in the sixties. Afrobeat was born. A dynamic mode of expression in the social history of post-independent West Africa, Afrobeat comprises the lives, loves and politics of a people born to resist.
Download or read book Queens of Afrobeat written by Dotun Ayobade and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2024-06-18 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Queens of Afrobeat, the women of Afrobeat music—a unique blend of jazz, soul, highlife, and West African rhythms—are finally given the recognition they deserve. This extensive study takes a multifaceted view of the storied lives of the women behind Fela Kuti's activist music. Dotun Ayobade's wide-ranging research pulls from interviews with surviving queens, ethnographic narratives, the exploration of newspaper archives, and close readings of album covers, photographs, and promotional materials to help us see and understand the women who surrounded Fela Kuti on stage and in everyday life. Not only were these artists crucial performers and backup singers for Kuti's most important compositions, they also played key roles in his activism and campaigns of social protest against the Nigerian government in the 1970s. Drawing on previously untapped material, Queens of Afrobeat weaves together an intricate narrative of women's participation in popular music. The stories of these remarkable women transform and uniquely personalize our understanding of the politics and performance of one of the major modern musical traditions in Africa.
Download or read book The Routledge History of Social Protest in Popular Music written by Jonathan C. Friedman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-04 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The major objective of this collection of 28 essays is to analyze the trends, musical formats, and rhetorical devices used in popular music to illuminate the human condition. By comparing and contrasting musical offerings in a number of countries and in different contexts from the 19th century until today, The Routledge History of Social Protest in Popular Music aims to be a probing introduction to the history of social protest music, ideal for popular music studies and history and sociology of music courses.
Download or read book Fela Anikulapo Kuti s Sorrow Tears and Blood written by Stephanie Shonekan and published by . This book was released on 2025-08-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sorrow Tears and Blood offers a glimpse into the complicated social, cultural, and political phenomenon that is Nigeria. Though Nigeria is the most populous African country, and sometimes called the “Giant of Africa,” Fela's album sheds a sharp light on the reasons why Nigeria has not lived up to its potential. While the text primarily hovers over 1977 (the year of the album's release) as a critical cultural moment in Nigerian history, it also explores the album in the context of a wider look at how colonialism and its aftermath impacted the social, political, and economic environment in Nigeria, and how Western imperialism continues to affect Nigerian identity and life. As we reflect on the results of the most recent Nigerian presidential elections of February 2023, and on the tense political climate that led up to and ensued from the elections, Sorrow Tears and Blood offers a rich sonic and lyrical landscape in which to interrogate the potency of Fela's message for generations to come.
Download or read book The Ikoyi Prison Narratives The Spiritualism and Political Philosophy of Fela Kuti written by Majemite Jaboro and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2012-07-10 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Afrobeat. Politics. Spirits. August 2 1997. Africa's foremost musician, the mysterious and magical Fela Anikulapo Kuti dies from AIDS complications. He had invented a new musical genre called Afrobeat which was a fusion of African rhythms, jazz and funk. In his music heavily laced with politics and spirituality, he probed possibilities and reflected on our existence. The author took down notes when Fela and four other members of the Afrika 70 Organisation were charged with murder in 1993.
Download or read book Oxford Bibliographies written by and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fela written by John Collins and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A vibrant and multifaceted portrait of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti . . . and his role as a giant of modern African music.” —Michael E. Veal, author of Dub Fela: Kalakuta Notes is an evocative account of Fela Kuti—the Afrobeat superstar who took African music into the arena of direct action. With his antiestablishment songs, he dedicated himself to Pan-Africanism and the down-trodden Nigerian masses, or “sufferheads.” In the 1970s, the British/Ghanaian musician and author John Collins met and worked with Fela in Ghana and Nigeria. Kalakuta Notes includes a diary that Collins kept in 1977 when he acted in Fela’s autobiographical film, Black President. The book offers revealing interviews with Fela by the author, as well as with band members, friends, and colleagues. For this second edition, Collins has expanded the original introduction by providing needed context for popular music in Africa in the 1960s and the influences on the artist’s music and politics. In a new concluding chapter, Collins reflects on the legacy of Fela: the spread of Afrobeat, Fela’s musical children, Fela’s Shrine and Kalakuta House, and the annual Felabration. As the dust settles over Fela’s fiery, creative, and controversial career, his Afrobeat groove and political message live on in Kalakuta Notes. A new foreword by Banning Eyre, an up-to-date discography by Ronnie Graham, a timeline, historical photographs, and snapshots by the author are also featured. “As multilayered and significant a document as the singer’s musical contributions. It is a crucial testament about one of the world’s most outspoken and radical artists, and gives deep insight into his life, music and struggles against oppression and mediocrity.” —Journal of World Popular Music
Download or read book Humanism in the Music of Fela and the Dehumanization of the Nigerian Proletariat Class written by Philip Edema and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2023-09-21 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2023 in the subject African Studies - African diaspora, , course: African Political Philosophy, language: English, abstract: It is an indisputable fact that the myriad of problems in Nigeria today in the areas of politics, religion, security and economy are a reflection of dearth of good governance. There have been conceited efforts by pundits on means that could bring about a viable polity yet to no avail. The liberals have called for restructuring, while the radicals believe it is outright dissolution of the Union that can ameliorate the pauperisation, exploitation and crass dehumanisation of the citizenry. However, these suggestions have not addressed the trajectory of the problem, thereby, making them limited in addressing the issues. This paper, therefore, examines the contributions of the famous Nigerian Afrobeat music maestro, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, especially as it concerns the dehumanisation of the proletariat class by the elites in Nigeria. The song, "Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense" among others in Fela’s musical repertoire, was purposefully selected to interrogate the problematic. More so, the research adopted the hermeneutic, analytic, critical and reconstructive methods of philosophy in achieving its aim. While the method of hermeneutics helped in decoding and applying the deeply embedded messages in Fela’s music, the analytic method aided in clarifying concepts like humanism, governance, exploitation, dehumanisation, and oppression. The critical method was employed to examine hitherto attempts on same issue and finally the method of reconstruction helped to situate Fela’s relevance and efforts in addressing the issue of dearth of good governance in Nigeria. The work concluded that it is only when the political leadership responds to Fela’s call for class deconstruction would Nigeria witness the kind of governance that would transform the quality of lives of the citizenry.
Download or read book Fela Anikulapo Kuti written by Jawi Oladipo-Ola and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2011 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fela Anikulapo-Kutiís universal ideas were fresh as dawn. His compositions were sophisticated, a highly 'musical construction'. From 1987, Fela was the only band in the world with two bass guitars in glissade, a form where the music slides between two notes in which all intermediate notes are played. Fela's behaviour was not extreme, when you eliminate his excesses, his socio-political musings indicate a complete intellectual capacity. He chewed up all books by great Africanists and his thoughts went deeper with his analytical mind. His music was opened to the power of the written word and it was the dawn of awareness for Fela's musical orientation, the beginning of his "Felasophy"; a total reawakening into the inhumanity against humanity. He felt for Africa and their wretched lives. Every successive government in Nigeria kicked Fela and through multiple detentions they almost broke his spirit, however during these times he wrote, composed and arranged the best music of his career. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti: The Primary Man Of An African Personality is a dramatic presentation of "Felasophy". It chronicles the music, politics, life and courage of the legendary Afro-beat activist who died on August 2, 1997.
Download or read book Education Creativity and Economic Empowerment in Africa written by T. Falola and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-08-20 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Education and the arts offer multiple, mutually clarifying lenses through which to examine and understand issues of poverty and empowerment. Here, both are combined in a fascinating look at how these two often overlooked elements promote social equality and cultivate personal agency across Africa's diverse political-economic landscapes.
Download or read book New Black and African Writing Volume 2 written by Charles Smith and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2015-10-08 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW BLACK AND AFRICAN WRITING Vol. 2 is our concluding edition of a series that has featured many critical entries and reviews on canonical African fiction, poetry, drama and non-fiction. This second edition explores intricacies of relationships and associations, the recurrent tropes for the interpretation and understanding of historical connections, and the shaping of thought brought into fictional and cultural renditions that are evolving and continually reassessed although around the periphery of older canons. The quest for a meaningful heuristic for approaching contemporary arts is almost totally redefined by the contributions of eminent scholars of our time whose balancing and correspondence create room for complementarity of values and toward cultural understanding and value appreciation in contemporary society.
Download or read book Arrest the Music written by Tejumola Olaniyan and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
