August 2, 1997, one of the greatest music legends in Nigeria, Fela
Anikulapo Kuti, passed on. He is dead, yes, but his memory still lives in the
minds of many.
In his lifetime, Fela’s travails were numerous. Chief among them
was the Kalakuta Invasion.
Number 14A Agege Motor Road, Lagos, used to be the domain of the
late afrobeat legend. It was at this place that Fela housed his family, aged
mother, children, women, fans and other dependants. It was his kingdom and Fela
was the king of the household, which he eventually named Kalakuta Republic.
At the Kalakuta Republic, there was peace, harmony and freedom.
Fela was the lord and master, but he governed his ‘republic’ with fairness,
equity and fair play.
But come 18 February 1977, there was mayhem, total mayhem!! Soldiers, in
hundreds, from Albati Barracks, Surulere, Lagos, invaded the ‘republic’
and within a twinkle of an eye, the kingdom was razed! It was the fall of
Kalakuta.
Fela’s women were reportedly raped and beaten while his aged
mother, Funmilayo, was thrown from the balcony to the ground, an incident which
allegedly led to her eventual death.
Fela was deeply hurt as he sustained several injuries. Fela also
hurt emotionally, not just because his republic was razed but he couldn’t
stomach watching the way his mother and his women were manhandled.
Though Kalakuta Republic was no more, it didn’t stop Fela. His
body was bruised but not ego, and certainly not his vocal chords. He still
sang, conscious and revolutionary songs that also kept those who hunted him to
keep hunting him.
Today, Fela is still loved even in death and his demise still
touches the hearts of people close to him. Travelling back time, the late
legend’s band leader, 80-year-old Chief Olalekan Animasaun, popularly known as
Baba Ani, who witnessed the episode, amidst tears, recounts the story of how
the KalaKuta Kingdom was brought down.
In an emotion-filled interview with ‘NONYE BEN-NWANKWO, Baba Ani
tells the stories of what happened during his time with the king of afro music,
Fela.
Since you were close to Fela, why did he declare a Kalakuta
Republic?
As an artiste, hardly would you do something and everybody would
understand it. Sometimes you put the artistic picture in you or what you
are doing. To me, he was just playing pranks on the government and telling them
they couldn’t just come to his domain and do what they liked. He used barbed
wire on his fence and electrified it so that if you weren’t welcomed, he would
put electric current on the barbed wire and it would shock the intruder.
But even with that, the armed forces came in when they wanted.
But did anybody try to discourage Fela when he was getting so
vocal with the government even prior to the Kalakuta invasion?
Oh yes! In fact, I in particular, tried to advise him so many
times. I would always discuss with him. But you see, when somebody is on earth
for a mission, there is nothing you would say to divert his attention from that
mission. To me, Fela was sent here to do certain things and he did all he could
before he left the world. Friends advised him and they also deserted him when
they couldn’t cope with him.
Can you give us an instance of one piece of advice you gave him?
Oh yes. When he was in his house at Gbemisola Street in Ikeja,
there was a day the police came and raided the place with the drug and law
enforcement people. They took everybody away. That time, Fela’s women were in
the habit of selling drinks, cigarettes, marijuana and some other stuff in the
compound. Every one of them had their table which they displayed their wares
for sale. After the raid and they were released, I went for a visit to Fela’s
house and I saw that those women had set up those wares again. The thing
annoyed me so I went up to Fela’s room. I and just few people were usually the
only ones allowed into Fela’s bedroom. I went into his room as usual; I had a
place I usually sat. He was always on his bed. So I told him what I observed in
the house. I asked him why he allowed his women to set up their wares again
given the fact that they were just released. He got annoyed. He got up from his
bed and was very furious. He said, ‘Baba Ani, do you want me to fight with you?
Do you now want me to be scared of the government?’ He started yabbing
me. Eventually, he asked me if I wasn’t going to take my stout drink. I told
him I would take. He called his boy on duty and told him to get me a bottle of
stout. It wasn’t as if we didn’t advise Fela but he had his own mind and he
knew what he wanted. He had his own focus and there was little anybody could do
about it.
Is there another example?
When we went to Berlin Jazz Festival in 1979, he had decided to
carry placards and also tell his dancers to carry placards at the event. We
went with his Ghanaian lawyer, Mr. Gardner. Fela was advised not to carry
placard. He agreed. But on the day of the show, suddenly, placards were ready
and he distributed them to his women and they raised them up during the performance.
But there was no trouble with the law enforcement agencies in Germany about
that.
What was written on the placard?
Just slogans about pan africanism, slogans condemning colonialism
and stuff like that. That was Fela for you. Then again, after the death of his
mother, he wanted to carry a mock coffin to Dodan Barracks, the seat of power
then. Some friends advised him not to do such. But he refused. He eventually
had his way.
Were you with Fela when Kalakuta was invaded by the soldiers many
years ago?
Not really; but I was on my way there. I wasn’t there with him at
that moment. In fact, it was in the evening that a neighbour, who was Fela’s
neighbour at 14A Agege Motor Road came to my house and told me about what was
happening at Fela’s house. She was living in a room and parlour next to Fela’s
house. So she called out to me shouting, ‘Baba Ani! Baba Ani! They have been
burning your house!’ I was confused. Which house? I hadn’t built any house
then. I just said ‘really’.
You didn’t believe her?
I did when it occurred to me she could be talking about Fela’s
house. I got up and I also told my wife to get up. We dressed up and we took a
taxi to Fela’s house. By the time we got to the railway crossing area, we saw
people putting their two hands on their heads as they were walking. It was a
sign of ‘I surrender’.
Did you still continue the journey?
Yes. By the time we got to a few yards to Fela’s house, I saw a
huge flame. The house was burning. The generator outside was burning. People
were just passing by quietly but with their hands still on their heads.
So who did you meet when you got there?
By the time I got to the house, they had carried all the occupants
of the house away. Some were in the hospital, some were in the police cell. In
fact, that had been the pattern. I never ran into any of the raids that were
carried out in the house. It was either the raid would have happened after I
had come and gone or it would have happened before my arrival. It
facilitated my ability to have kept the band going any of those days he was
incarcerated.
What was your first reaction when you got to the house and saw it
was invaded?
God! I felt very bad. I was very angry. I never thought that a
good government would have gone to that extent of doing such to a fellow
citizen even with all the civilisation and independence the country had got
then. Although Fela was counted an enemy of the government, to us and the
masses and even people outside the country, he was an eye-opener. He was a
revolutionary. He was just doing a job to open the eyes and minds of the people
to watch what was happening around us so we could be up and doing and do
something to better our lot. I felt very bad about it but there was nothing I could
do. Who I be?
When you got there, did you believe the women who claimed they
were also beaten and raped?
The women told me. They actually said they were raped. Some
of them actually claimed they were raped.
Talking about his mother, somebody actually said that Fela
exaggerated when he said that the soldiers threw his mother down from the
balcony during the Kalakuta invasion, do you think the person was right?
I must tell you that the claim is very difficult to dispute. The
woman sustained injuries. She was taken to the hospital. One of her legs
was in POP when she was in hospital. I believe she was manhandled a lot.
Fela took the Federal Government to court for the Kalakuta
invasion and he lost the case, how did he feel when he lost the case?
Naturally, he didn’t feel well about it. How could the court have
said the mayhem was caused by ‘unknown soldiers’? Were they not Nigerian
soldiers who were in Army uniform? Yet the court came to the conclusion that
the damage was done by ‘unknown soldiers.’ But you and I know it was done by
Nigerian soldiers. That made him to compose some of his songs including
Kalakuta Show and Unknown Soldier.
Would you say that his refusal to participate in FESTAC was the
reason he had problems with the leaders in Nigeria?
I would say it may have contributed. He was first of all co-opted
into the planning committee and he put his views across on how best the event
would roll. The military man in charge as the chairman of the meeting disagreed
with him and so Fela left the committee unceremoniously. That was one of the
major incidents. But that was not all. The problem was his stand about
pan-africanism, his stand against our rulers’ behaviour. They weren’t leaders,
they were rulers. His major problem was that he exposed the ills of the
society. He exposed the shortcomings of the rulers in power. He called them
vagabonds in power. That was his major problem.
But FESTAC was a huge event, didn’t you people advise him to have
a change of mind and be a part of it?
When you see somebody created to do things others cannot do, it is
usually difficult to convince such a person when he/she takes a stand.
When you know the man you are dealing with, you don’t even bother to appeal to
him. Whatever financial benefit he could have got from the event did not appeal
to him. Since we had stayed together for a long time, there was no way part of
his traits and way of life and ideology would not rub off on us. We also
shunned the rosy life. And actually, if you want to be on the side of the people,
you cannot expect to live a rosy life. This is the only house I have got. If we
had followed the government and collecting contracts from the government, I
probably would have owned more than 10 houses. You would have found so
many cars in my compound. We shunned such luxury because we wanted to be
on the side of the people and damn the consequences of doing that.
We learnt Fela was taken to the hospital after the invasion, how
long did he stay there?
He never stayed long. He just spent a few weeks in the hospital.
But did he really sustain injuries?
Oh yes he did! When he was released from the hospital, one leg and
one arm were in POP. But it didn’t deter him from coming for shows. He would
still come and he would perform, sing and play his sax even with one leg and
arm. He was still vocal, still on the side of the masses and attacking those
who were against the oppressed.
Would you remember Fela’s boy, Segun Adams? We learnt he was the
one that the soldiers was pursuing before they entered Kalakuta…
I used to know him but I have not seen him in a long while. He was
Fela’s driver and house help. He was also a body guard.
But Fela could have chased him away for being the cause of the
fracas with the soldiers…
Fela wasn’t like that. Already, he knew the people in government
were after him and they could do anything to get rid of him. The cause of the
clashes wasn’t such a heavy thing that could make the law enforcement agencies
take it up the way they did. They just looked for a way to nail him. Fela was not
a man that would drive his people away. He could scold anybody that did
something wrong. He could punish the person as well but he never drove anybody
away. But he allowed anybody who wanted to go away to do that and he still
welcomed back those who decided to come back eventually. The only thing was
that anybody that went away and came back would have been replaced by another
person. That meant the person would have to start again from the lower wrung of
the ladder.
Kalakuta invasion was a huge episode in the lives of Fela and his
household, weren’t you scared that such event might happen again and didn’t it
make you to be wary of Fela?
No way. By then, most of us had understood what was happening
between him and the government. We were prepared to go through the whole thing
with him. That was why I was with him till his death and that is why I am still
with his youngest son, Seun. There was never a time such thought came to my
mind. I got married in 1967. It didn’t matter to me much because we knew why Fela
was having problems and we were aware of the genuineness of his cause. We just
decided to stay put because it was a good cause. Fela would not go and play
during a marriage or naming ceremony.
How long did it take him to rebuild Kalakuta after it was burnt?
He didn’t rebuild it. He was never allowed to come back there. He
stayed at Jibowu (Lagos). One old man had a hotel there and he stayed in the
hotel. His mother was in the hotel too. That was where we played our music for
Sunday Jump. We eventually left for Ghana. From there, he went to live in
Ikeja. That time, he lived at a crescent in Ikeja just a few yards away from
his current residence before he passed on. His house then was under
construction, so he stayed with his friend, J.K. Briamah who is resident in
London now. It took him some years before he finished his house.
Do you think it was the Kalakuta incident that led to the death of
Fela’s mother?
When she was thrown from the balcony to the ground floor,
what did you expect? She was old. You can imagine what damage could be done to
her health. Those who claim she died as a result of that incident are not far
from the truth. She was very healthy before that incident and thereafter, she
was never the same until she died. More so, she didn’t live long after the
incident.
What was the band doing each time Fela was incarcerated?
We kept playing. After the Kalakuta inferno, those clubs we used
to perform at refused to let the band perform in their hotels. Nobody wanted to
offend the government. But when we parked to Ikeja and African Shrine was
established, anytime he was in prison, I was there to keep the band going. We
even went on a tour to the Eastern part of the country while he was
incarcerated. I led the band to the East. Some of our women who were very
fearful decided not to go with us. But those who wanted to go did that and we
made some money for the band without Fela. We kept the flag flying.
Was there ever a time you were picked up as well?
No. I was never picked up. The only time I had a problem with the
police was when (late Sunday) Adewusi was the police IG. He was a man of the
government and he tried what he could to get Fela and nail him. They couldn’t
get him in Lagos. We had an engagement at Ilorin Polytechnic in Kwara State.
The police followed us to the venue. Some of them were in mufti. But because of
the way Fela talked and he even announced their presence, they were afraid of
the students and their reaction, so they left us that night. But the following
day when we were coming back to Lagos, they went some miles outside Ilorin and
mounted a road block. We got there; they stopped the vehicle and started
searching. Unfortunately, one of us had a roll of marijuana in his hand and
when he saw the police, he dropped it under the seat. So when the police
searched the car, they eventually found the wrap of marijuana and they asked
for the owner. Four of us were sitting at the back seat behind the driver and
none of us was ready to disclose the owner, so they packed the four of us and
took us to Ilorin Police station. We stayed there for two or three days before
Fela’s lawyer came and bailed us out. Eventually, we appeared in court and the
lawyer argued the case and we were freed.
How did you feel when you heard the news that Fela was dead?
Ah! I felt very bad. Throughout the period of his sickness, I had
the premonition that he wasn’t going to make it. A few months before then, we
had noticed the signs that he was going. So when he eventually died, it didn’t
come to us as a surprise. But then, I didn’t feel fine about it. We had lost a
gem, a prophet (sobs). He suffered. He was killed for nothing. He died because
he was on the side of the masses. He would have lived a better life than what
happened to him. He was treated as a criminal. It is quite unfortunate. That is
the country we live in. Fela was not a criminal. He was a very accommodating
man. He accommodated people of all ethnic groups and even people who are not
Nigerians. I still miss him so much. I learnt a lot from him. I have never seen
a hardworking musician like Fela. He was courageous. He was disciplined. He
abhorred stealing and other vices. I learnt a lot from him. I thank God for the
time I spent with him. I am 80 years old . If not for the time I spent
with Fela, maybe I would have broken down now. The whole glory goes to God. But
Fela was really a wonderful person to me.
Which of the crises do you think got to him so badly?
It was the incident that led to his broken arms and legs. That
should be the Kalakuta invasion.
SOURCE:PUNCH
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