“Music is the weapon”: Fela Kuti’s enduring message of hope
Artists have been using music as a method of political activism since its very earliest origins, but few have done so with quite as much impact as Fela Kuti. Not only did the Nigerian songwriter blaze a trail for all future styles of Afrobeat and West African music, but he did so in ways which rebelled against the oppressive authority of the Nigerian state. Ever since Kuti first burst onto the airwaves, people everywhere have held up his joy and expressionism as a stunning example of art and music combating violence. As the songwriter himself put it, “Music is the weapon.”
Kuti was brought into the world in 1938 while Nigeria was still firmly under the cosh of British colonial forces. Life under a colonial power taught the budding young songwriter the power of resistance from a very early age, as he witnessed the horrific realities of colonial rule in everyday life. Even when Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960, the lasting effects of hundreds of years of colonial rule did not vanish immediately. In fact, the post-independence period was among the most turbulent times in the West African nation, almost by design.
It was also during this time that Fela Kuti was constructing his musical revolution. After studying music in London during the late 1950s, the songwriter devised a defiant new style of music, dubbed Afrobeat, which combined elements of Western jazz and funk with traditional West African music styles like highlife and traditional Yoruba folk. Throughout the 1960s, Kuti continued to hone his musical skills, becoming radicalised by the influence of the civil rights movement and Black Panther Party while in America.
While Kuti was travelling through the UK and the USA, his homeland was ravaged by power struggles punctuated by coups, dictators, and military juntas. By the time the songwriter returned home in 1970, his country was recovering from a civil war and coming to terms with its new leader, the military dictator General Gowon. Military rule would come to define the leadership of Nigeria over the next decades, something which Kuti could not abide.
Forming his own haven away from the authoritarian rule of Gowon and his successors, Kuti provided near-constant social commentary on the political turbulence of Nigeria, with the nation’s military a regular target for his criticism.
His unwavering duty to criticise the dictatorship and stand up for the unrepresented in Nigeria quickly brought Kuti a lot of attention from the state, who took every opportunity to intimidate, threaten, and punish the artist. The most prominent example of this came in 1977 when hundreds of soldiers raided his Kalakuta Republic commune. During the raid, Kuti’s mother was thrown from a window by the soldiers, ultimately leading to her death. In response, the songwriter penned ‘Zombie’, his stunning indictment of military rule.
Yet, despite the horrific treatment faced by Kuti at the hands of the military dictatorship, the songwriter never backed down. “Music is the weapon,” he boldly declared, “Music is the weapon of the future.” This message of hope and peaceful resistance remains as powerful today as it did back in the 1970s. Even when the songwriter was consistently met with violence and subjugation, he chose to use music and art as his method of revolution, not guns, bombs, or bloodshed.
Fela Kuti passed away in 1997 at the age of only 58, but his influence over music and activism remains incredibly strong. Not only are there multiple modern artists paying homage to his pioneering style of Afrobeat, but his political defiance and messages of hope continue to inspire creation and rebellion. His son, Seun Kuti, who still tours with Egypt 80, has since updated his father’s words, telling audiences, “Music is the weapon, but not the battle,” adding a new layer of prominence to the timeless message of hope from Fela Kuti.
