Fela never taught me anything – Femi Kuti

Femi Kuti, Grammy-nominated Afrobeat legend and son of the creator of the Afrobeat genre, Fela Anikulapo Kuti has opened up about the unconventional relationship between him and his father while growing up

According to Femi, his father never taught him anything but expected him to know everything, including how to read. He also said he learnt by simply watching him.

Femi made this known at a Book Chat at the just concluded Ake Arts and Books Festival which held at Bon Hotel, Ikeja GRA, Lagos, between November 20 and 22. The Book Chat was centred on late Fela’s wife, Remilekun Kuti’s memoir simply titled: Mrs Kuti. It was hosted by award-winning poet, Dami Ajayi.

“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?’

“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.

“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.

Femi also said Fela had an uncanny way of congratulating him whenever he failed at school and expecting a harsh treatment. And that put him in a dilemma.

“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, Afrobeat musician and Femi’s son, who was also on the panel, also lent credence to his father’s remarks, saying Femi couldn’t call Fela ‘father’ but called him ‘Fela’ because of the unconventional father-son relationship between them.

“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.