Fela Kuti’s Legacy Renewed in New Biopic

During his life, Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, most known as Fela Kuti, or Fela, was a visionary within the music industry. A fascinating public figure, the musician and political activist has continued to captivate people even since his 1997 death. There have been biographies written about Fela Kuti, films made, and even a Broadway musical honoring his message and the legacy he left behind. Now, a new biopic about the iconic performer and human rights activist is in the works.

Fela Kuti was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, who is most known for his creation of the Afrobeat genre, something he gave name to and infused with political messages throughout his career. Afrobeat is a complex fusion of jazz, funk, psychedelic rock, and traditional West African chants and beats – Fela’s version of the genre resulted in energetic, instrumentally complex songs with repeated, groovy riffs, strong percussion, and a focus on vocals. Fela’s songs were primarily sung in Nigerian pidgin English, and he rotated between playing the saxophone, keyboards, trumpet, electric guitar, and drums.

One of the reason’s that Fela Kuti has remained such a significant and fascinating figure is because of the weight that both his art, and his activism carried, especially when intersecting. His music was his best political weapon; it allowed him to successfully transmit messages to his audience about freedom, equality, and social justice. Fela was also famously nonconforming to music industry standards. Biographical author Carlos Moore explains, “Fela refused to bow to the music industry’s preference for 3-minute tracks, nor did he buckle under entreaties to moderate his overwhelmingly political lyrics. He went down in 1997 still railing against the consumerist gimmicks that taint pop music, with the aim, he felt, of promoting and imposing homogeneous aesthetic standards worldwide, thereby inducing passivity.”

With such a tenacious and passionate spirit, it’s no wonder that this incredible figure has garnered so much attention throughout, and even after his life. The newest Fela Kuti film will be a biopic based off of Michael Veal’s 2000 book, “Fela: The Life and Times of An African Musical Icon,” which Nigerian poet Chris Abani is helping to draft into a motion picture screenplay.

Stay posted for more news about the film’s production progress!

Image: Marta Medel via Flickr CC