Adesola Osakalumi in Fela! the musical. Photo / Supplied
Adesola Osakalumi in Fela! the musical. Photo / Supplied
Graham Reid talks to a man who brings an African musical firebrand to life
When the Nigerian military raided the compound of the outspoken activist and musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti in 1977, they beat him senseless, destroyed his famous nightclub The Shrine and threw his 82-year old mother to her death from an upstairs window.
Yet Kuti - who died of Aids-related illnesses in 97 - just kept coming back, presenting and recording his incendiary music which challenged the government, corrupt officials and, on typically lengthy pieces like International Thief Thief aka ITT - the companies moving into Nigeria to exploit its oil reserves and economy.
Kuti's music was a blend of James Brown funk, big horns and rolling African rhythms. He is widely credited as being the creator - along with long-standing band members such as drummer Tony Allen - of Afrobeat and, as with Bob Marley in reggae, he took his unique music and politics onto the world stage.
And now his life and music is on the literal stage, because in 2009 an off-Broadway production Fela! opened on Broadway (where it picked up Tony awards) and finally went around the world, even to Fela Kuti's resurrected Shrine in a different part of Lagos which the current government turns a blind-eye to and allows to exist as a tourist attraction.
A concert version of that Broadway production comes to Auckland for the Arts Festival and the man playing Kuti is Adesola Osakalumi, someone born for the part.
His father ran the Africa 1 Dance Company in New York, his mother was the dance captain and he sang, became a dancer and choreographer ... and grew up hearing Kuti's music because his dad and uncle founded Makossa Records in the early 70s which released Kuti's music outside of Nigeria.
"They gave me some good insight," says Osakalumi, "but we didn't discuss him a lot. Some things I took away was how committed, brash and outspoken Fela was to make the music he made and do the work he did as an activist.
Fela! the musical. Photo / Supplied
"To live the lifestyle he led you had to have conviction and passion, and that came across very clearly."
Kuti came from an upper-middleclass family, went to London in the late 50s to study medicine but immediately fell in with musicians and a decade later - in the volatile times of radical black politics - was equally inspired by the Black Panthers and James Brown. He amalgamated message with music and created Afrobeat. The Fela! production coming to Auckland blends music with projections of documentary excerpts to reveal the man as much as his music.
Setting the show in Kuti's Shrine allows it to be a natural musical extension of his story, and Osakalumi - who started as a cast player, Kuti understudy and occasional lead - says performing in the actual club in Lagos before family members such as Kuti's musician sons Femi and Seun was nerve-wracking but elevating.
"It was a nightclub with a lot of energy. It's vibrant and exciting but at the same time relaxed. Everyone just felt so honoured to be bringing the show to his home, like a full-circle moment.
"Some people were saying 'Fela is alive' when we played and they were correct. Because Femi and Seun and the family are still here and the music is still active in the legacy. His music lives on."
The production does sidestep some of Kuti's less savory pronouncements - he had an ambiguous view of women to say the least and made some bluntly disparaging remarks about homosexuals.
"Yes, he did. The show doesn't go into those things. I think there was a a decision made early on about that. Bill T. Jones, our original choreographer and director who is gay, I presume made choices about how much of the story they could tell, and the length too.
"I heard the off-Broadway version was over three hours when it started and that's just not going to work in terms of Broadway theatre storytelling.
"They cut things out, but I believe you can go to the show and see he had a lot of layers. Fela was charming and charismatic, but he was also volatile and aggressive. I don't think those things are not in the show because they were trying to sanitise him, the choices were made by the creative team to do a show that was entertaining.
"When we were in his hometown among his own countrymen, many of whom knew him, we went to his home, and one thing that makes this show so interesting is you are playing someone who actually lived. He's not just a figment of the imagination.
"His work affected so many people and I feel a responsibility to portray him and his legacy in a very dynamic way.
"In [songs like the anti-globalisation ITT] it's amazing to see how prescient he was.
"It's a black show, of course, an African show. But it's also a global and human show because everyone understands oppression and can relate to an underdog. Everyone can relate to a person standing up for what he believes despite the opposition. That's just as potent and powerful as where he came from and his background.
"That's why people not familiar with his music will go to the show not knowing anything about this man but then do some research and come back and look at it through more informed eyes.
"Here's a man who turned down many opportunities to relocate from Nigeria and live a much more comfortable life.
"But he remained a man of the people. There's something to be said about that."
Who: Singer, dancer and lead actor Adesola Osakalumi What: Fela! The Concert Where: Civic Theatre, March 19-22, 7.30pm
