People celebrating Fela would’ve gotten him arrested if he was still alive – Burna Boy
Ace Nigerian musician, Damini Ogulu, popularly known as Burna Boy, has said it is good that late Afrobeats pioneer, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti didn’t exist in this generation because he would have been criticised by most of the people revering him today.
The Grammy winner stated this in a recent interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in New York, adding that those who are celebrating the music legend would have also called for his arrest.
Burna Boy said the period in which Fela existed and dominated the music scene was good for him because it offered him the opportunity to pass on the kind of messages his songs carried.
He said: “What I have realised is that the times are really funny. Fela in his time was going through things that, if he was here today, it might have been a whole different feeling like a whole bunch of people from Nigeria who you see today celebrating Fela, are the same people that would have been tagging the police to go and arrest Fela if there was Twitter then.
“So, at the end of the day, I feel like God doesn’t make mistakes. You know what I mean like the times are just perfect for everyone, you know. If he [Fela] was here today, like his career started now, he may not have the space to explore that [his conscious creativity] because there is too much in this day and age that it just doesn’t interlock with the spirits. Right now, spirituality is almost non-existent.
“Now, it [the society] is just mostly run by stupidity and ignorance. It was still the same back then [during Fela’s era] but it wasn’t as amplified or accessed [as it is today]. Now, everything is defined by stupidity and ignorance.
“I’m grateful for the fact that he [Fela] existed in his time so that we can get an experience of the true organic nature of what he was, the essence of what he stood for and the messages he passed across to us.”
In similar news…
Fela’s daughter and dancer, Yeni Kuti has said she is glad her father died several decades ago.
She said that most of the things he stood against and sang about on his songs started happening in the country and got worse. The Afrobeats pioneer died in August 1997.
According to her, Fela would have died as a result of the numerous problems bedeviling Nigeria if he were still alive to witness and experience it all.
Speaking during an interview with media personality Chude Jideonwo, Yeni claimed Nigerians did not realize the importance of her father until he was no more.
When asked why she thinks change happened, she said; “I think ‘their eyes are now clear, suffer don hook us for Nigeria. We have seen that there was at least one person who was singing about the abuse and fighting it.
“Fela used to take out an advert on Daily Times that later became Punch, every Saturday. He would tag it ‘Chief Priest says’, and he will write something about Nigeria. He had a printing press, where he would print and yab all of them. Of course, it took death for them to realize they had lost something important.”
