At least a million mourners turned up for the funeral of Nigerian musician, and voice of the downtrodden, Fela Kuti, his manager Rikki Stein remembers. “The road was filled with people as far as the eye could see,” he says looking back to that August day in Lagos in 1997. The King of Afrobeat, who was revered by the people but feared by those in charge, had died at 58, reportedly of complications from Aids.
But Stein believes that Fela, who had been repeatedly arrested for speaking out against successive military regimes, actually passed away because of a much deeper cause. “Fela died of one beating too many. His body was covered in scars and his mind and spirit had to cope with 200 arrests.
The system can only take so much,” Stein tells the BBC in an interview to mark the publication of his memoir – in part about his 15 years managing arguably Nigeria’s most influential musician. Throughout his long career Fela defiantly criticised those in charge, notably a succession of military rulers, lampooning them in albums such as Coffin for Head of State. His music had the power to grab people from the inside and help them start to imagine another world.
“I was gob-smacked,” Stein, now 81, says as he talks about first coming across Fela’s albums in the 1970s. “The music spoke to me in a way I’d never encountered, exuding warmth, intimacy, excitement and a constant feeling of anticipation. Every word spoke directly to my inner being, vividly describing life unde.