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Fela: Life And Times Of An African | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Veal
Publisher: Temple University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $32.95
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 41607
Media: Paperback
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 7.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 1566397650
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.63092
EAN: 9781566397650
ASIN: 1566397650
Publication Date: May 17, 2000
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Book Description
Why black people suffer today
Why black people don't have money today
Why black people haven't travelled to the moon today
THIS is the reason why:
We were in our homeland, without troubles
We were minding our own business
Some people came from a faraway land
They fought us and took our land
They took our people as slaves and destroyed our towns
Our troubles started at that time Our riches they took away to their land
In return they gave us their colony
They took our culture away from us
They gave us their culture which we don't understand
Black people, we don't know ourselves
We don't know our ancestral heritage
We fight each other every day
We are never together at all —
THAT is why black people suffer today Musician, political critic, and hedonist, international superstar Fela Anikulapo-Kuti created a sensation throughout his career. In his own country of Nigeria he was simultaneously adulated and loathed, often by the same people at the same time. His outspoken political views and advocacy of marijuana smoking and sexual promiscuity offended many, even as his musical brilliance enthralled them. In his creation of afrobeat, he melded African traditions with African-American and Afro-Caribbean influences to revolutionize world music. Although harassed, beaten, and jailed by Nigerian authorities, he continued his outspoken and derisive criticism of political corruption at home and economic exploitation from abroad. A volatile mixture of personal characteristics—charisma, musical talent, maverick lifestyle, populist ideology, and persistence in the face of persecution—made him a legend throughout Africa and the world. Celebrated during the 1970's as a musical innovator and spokesman for the continent's oppressed masses, he enjoyed worldwide celebrity during the 1980's and was recognized in the 1990's as a major pioneer and elder statesman of African music. By the time of his death in 1997 from AIDS-related complications, Fela had become something of a Nigerian institution. In Africa, the idea of transnational alliance, once thought to be outmoded, has gained new currency. In African-America, during a period of increasing social conservatism and ethnic polarization, Africa has re-emerged as a symbol of cultural affirmation. At such a historical moment, Fela's music offers a perspective on race, class, and nation on both sides of the Atlantic. As Professor Veal demonstrates, over three decades Fela synthesized a unique musical language while also clearing—if only temporarily—a space for popular political dissent and a type of counter-cultural expression rarely seen in West Africa. In the midst of political turmoil in Africa, as well as renewal of pro-African cultural nationalism throughout the diaspora, Fela's political music functions as a post-colonial art form that uses cross-cultural exchange to voice a unique and powerful African essentialism.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense September 7, 2000
Arash Saedinia (Los Angeles, CA)
32 out of 34 found this review helpful
A timely exploration of the father of Afro-beat. Veal, who we learn had occasion to play with Fela and spent time at the Shrine, is obviously a fan of the music and his enthusiasm is palpable. Veal's work is distinguished on many levels. As an ethnomusicologist, Veal offers rigorous descriptions and insights into the compositional aspects of Fela's work. We are given the specifics of Fela's innovations and refinements with Afro-beat. Veal locates Fela's accomplishments within the context of its forbears (E.T. Mensah, James Brown, John Coltrane, etc.)and 20th century African/Afrodiaporic music in general. From Nkrumah to Obasanjo, Veal's discussion of Nigerian/African culture and politics is well researched and thoughtful. There are great nuggets of biographical information from Fela's brief feud with Paul McCartney to November 14th, "Fela Day" in Berkeley (go figure). Veal offers a wealth of information on Fela's family and the impact his parents (his mother in particular) had on his musical and political development. We get the blow-by-blow account of Fela's confrontations with the Nigerian authorities (often, as with the Kalakuta Massacre, in harrowing detail). On the critical throretical tip, Veal 'samples' Gilroy, Jameson, Fanon, Spivak (and others), engaging in a extended discussion of Fela's compositions as postcolonial 'texts.' Though at times distractingly academic, Veal is rigorous in his deconstruction of Fela and gender, the "specific symbolic and psychological functions" of strategic historical essentialism, mysticism, etc., avoiding the cheap and oversimplistic assessments that often surround the man (often, as Veal notes, in service of hegemonic notions of "civilization"). There is much I loved about this book: the bits about Fela's "punk" approach, the rejoinder to jazzbo(zos) and their complaints about the lack of technical virtuosity in Fela's playing, the similarities between Fela's work and blaxploitation cinema, the Yoruban (tragic) basis of his music, his later compositions as underrated "African symphonies." Veal isn't afraid to write about Fela's misguided relationship with Professor Hindu, the emptiness of Fela's vaguely anarchic rhetoric as a concrete political agenda (Fela wasn't kidding about his aspirations), the problematics of Fela's lifestyle (too much pot, rampant and unprotected sex) and the effect of his lifestyle on his wives. I would have liked to have seen more on the parallels between Fela's development of Afro-beat and the stylistic exchanges with the J.B.s, and the Afrodiasporic interchanges that led to the development of hip-hop and modern dancehall. More on Dennis Bovell's involvement with Fela and more than passing reference to the Biafran conflict. The passage on Fela's continuing influence (and the intense rediscovery taking place as we speak by a new generation of musicians and music lovers) is all too brief. But these are minor quibbles. Veal has written a marvelous book on a man who was, by turns, confrontational, generous, autocratic, wild, and always brilliant. Essential reading on an essential figure. Long live Fela!
 It's about time! August 1, 2000
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
Fela is almost as important as Bob Marley in the world of black music, but no one has really written a serious book about him until now, and Michael Veal's book is an excellent one in my opinion. Sometimes it's a bit academic but it still provides a lot of detail on Fela's entire life, on the music of his entire career, and all of the Nigerian political backgound, which is substantial. I love Fela's music and I knew he was a legend, but I never quite realized how he put his life on the line to make the music he made and say the things he said, and how heavy it became between him and the Nigerian government. And I also never realized how crazy he was - not surprising considering the fact that he was a brilliant (insane?) artist, and also considering how heavy things became as time went on. That this man managed to survive as long as he did and turn out so much great music is nothing short of miraculous! I think the book is an invaluable document of the political and musical legacy of the 1960s as it developed in Africa during the 1970s and 1980s. I learned a lot about Africa, not only musically but culturally and politically too.
An excellent biography of a great African musician August 20, 2000
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book is possibly the best biography of any African musician I have read (I've also read biographies/autobiographies of Franco, Miriam Makeba, Manu Dibango and a different one on Fela). If all you know of Fela Kuti is the sensationalized stuff (i.e. 27 wives, pot smoking, etc.), it would make sense to publish this alongside all the cheap and easy bios of other controversial pop stars. But when you really get into the Fela story it is complex, encompassing Nigerian music, Nigerian and African politics, and the influence of African-American culture and politics in Africa. I think the author has done an admirable job and produced an African biography that will stand the test of time.
Everybody Say YEAH YEAH!! October 17, 2001
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
First I 'd like to thank Michael Veal for the work he did on this book. It is the best book I have read so far. My parents are Nigerian, however I have lived in the US all my life. I have always been a big fan of Fela (introduced to his music by my Dad), but never fully understood the reason he did some things he did, or some of his lyrics. Now I do. The book is really deep-rooted, cutting across all boudries, giving me an insight into Nigeria and the man called FELA in a way nobody has ever been able to. This book has changed my attitude towards life forever. May God bless Fela, and may he rest in peace forever!
A Masterpice on a Musical Icon December 10, 2002
Ademola Soremekun (London, United Kingdom)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Michael - has managed to do what very authors have been able to do with Fela's Biography....lay down a balanced view point of the great but yet very complicated man. This book here caputres not just the actions but the Philosophy behind such actions. What i found very informative about this book is the amount of education I received on the History of African music - it kinda sets you on the right track to research more. Fela was no doubt a legend during and after his lifetime and Mr veal captured that well. I very good read - a must read for any african/african american youth.
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