Femi Kuti, Grammy-nominated Afrobeat legend and son of the creator of Afrobeat, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, has opened up about his unconventional relationship with his father while growing up.
Speaking at a Book Chat during the just-concluded Ake Arts and Books Festival, held at Bon Hotel, Ikeja GRA, Lagos, from November 20 to 22, Femi shared insights on how he learned from his father. The session focused on the memoir of Fela’s late wife, Remilekun Kuti, titled Mrs Kuti, and was hosted by award-winning poet Dami Ajayi.
Femi recalled that his father never formally taught him anything but expected him to know everything, including how to read. “He (Fela) expected me to know how to read. How is it possible to know how to read if am not taught? If I haven’t got any formal education of any sort, how can I read? But I had to read. ‘You should know,’ he would say. ‘Did you take your brain and put it in my head?’”
He explained the high expectations Fela had for those closest to him: “If you are Fela’s person you had to excel beyond reasonable doubt. You just had to know. So you couldn’t give excuses. If you are somebody he is not close to, he probably would give you an opportunity to explain yourself. But people close to him, it was like, ‘Why did I have to tell you. You should know. You must be getting A in my class,’ for instance, if he was a teacher.”
Femi also said he learned a lot simply by observing his father. “I learnt by just watching him. I would ask questions probably like ‘Are you not afraid to die?’ He would give me his answer. Because there were so many police raids, soldiers, beatings always etc. And I was living with him.”
He shared how Fela reacted to failure in a way that often left him conflicted. “And as I was growing up I would say ‘what’s wrong?’ Going to other people’s houses, children are getting along the conventional way. But if I failed, expecting a very harsh treatment, Fela would say, ‘Ah you failed, Well done.’ So I was in a big dilemma,” Femi revealed.
Made Kuti, Femi’s son and also an Afrobeat musician, supported his father’s account, explaining the unusual dynamics of their family. “I don’t want to interrupt because he is being modest. Fela did not teach him music. He taught himself everything. There was no conventional father-child relationship. And also he couldn’t call his father ‘father’. Fela had this serious idea of a kind of a communist environment within his household so much so that everybody, including his children had to call him ‘Fela,’” Made said.
