Fela Anikulapo-Kuti

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)