EP59: Fela Kuti "Zombie"

Dave! In our theme of heavy, we are going to go to the Dark Continent.

We're heading to Africa, ladies and gentlemen.

We're talking about Philip Kuti.

And there's a lot of heaviness there.

So in preparing for this episode, I wanted to talk a little bit about

the

musical styles of Africa.

and immediately fell down five rabbit holes this is as a phd conversation that is not i'm not going to do justice and it can't fit into a corner of a cultural corner suffice it to say beautiful rich history of music very uplifting and jubilant and you should check out african music especially west african

music

But tonight what I wanted to bring up as a prelude to our conversation about this song that we're going to talk about is our artist du jour, Fela Kuti, was as much activist as a musician.

And it's not hyperbole to say he was equal parts.

He was definitely using music as a podium for his activism and his activism as a stage for his music.

So they were very intertwined.

Tonight I want to talk, I want to just give some background on Philip Kuti's activism.

Maybe if we have time, another couple of topics.

But raised in an upper middle class family.

He was a son of a Nigerian, he was raised in Nigeria.

His mother was a women's rights activist, and his father was an Anglican minister, who was also very active in the anti-colonial movement in Nigeria, which was prominent at this time.

He studied at Trinity College of Music in London, and plays in bands, and in 1963 he moves back to the newly independent Federation of Nigeria.

plays with various bands and artists.

In 1969, he takes the band to the United States and spends 10 months in L.A.

While there, he discovered the Black Power Movement through a woman named Sandra Smith, who's a partisan of the Black Panther Party, and this experience heavily influenced his music and political views.

After Trudy and his band returned to Nigeria, the group was renamed the Africa 70, Africa 1970, His lyrical themes changed from love and social issues, from love to social issues.

This time he forms the Kalakuta Republic, which is a commune, a recording studio, and a home for many of the people connected to the band, which he later declared independent from the Nigerian state.

This would have repercussions.