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FESTAC 77, FELA and the revealation By Wale Ajibade Dr



That festival scared the Western world, and they made sure that it never happened again, and they also made sure that there is no tangible record of it for the contemporary and posterity. This is what Fela knew, and this is what he tried to warn us about. Fela was a member of the board of the FESTAC organizing committee along with famous Nigerian performers like Ogunde and several others, and he, as well as Ogunde, resigned shortly before the festival began on January 15, 1977. There is much speculation about why Fela or Ogunde left, like the article shared said. Fela Kuti was initially part of the FESTAC 77 (held from Jan. 77 to Feb. 77) Planning Committee; however, he clashed with the Chairman (Maj. Gen. I.B. Haruna), who rejected Fela's 9-point program for making FESTAC 77 more meaningful. Following the rejection, Fela announced in July 1976 that he was no longer supporting FESTAC 77, calling it a "huge joke." Nevertheless, the truth is far more sinister. Fela's nine-point proposal included Nigerian government support for artists and that a partnership with the government must exist for artists to promote solidarity of society. Chairman (Maj-Gen I.B. Haruna) rejected Fela's proposal. Fela was already annoyed with Obasanjo and was never a fan of the military government. He expected that the head of state was going to appoint an artist or someone who understands performing arts to chair the committee.


He protested the appointment of a military man with little or no understanding of arts. He made a case for the importance of the festival to the African world. But FESTAC in Nigeria was not Obasanjo's idea. It was Gowon's. Nigeria's oil was booming then, money floating everywhere. One Naira was worth 3 or more dollars. So Gowon commissioned the building of the iconic FESTAC theater at Onikan, Lagos, in 1975. They commissioned a new modern residential community called FESTAV Village. But Murtala was angry at Gowon overspending and led a coup to remove Gowon in 1976. For those who remember these aspects of Nigeria/African history, Murtala was enjoying then the populism that Ibrahim Traore is experiencing now. Then came Dimka out of nowhere and killed Murtala just 6 months after he took office. This is how Obasanjo became head of state.



So Fela's problem in this case was not initially with the military per se. The military had been running the county for 10 years by 1976. Fela was already politically deviant to military government. His mother is one of the founding members of the country's independence. He believed in democracy. He had already founded the Kalakuta Republic commune, a utopia that declared itself independent from military rule by 1970. The name Kalakuta" was a mockery of a prison cell named "Calcutta."that Fela inhabited. Fela spent time in prison in 1974 on suspicion of possessing weed. He was held in a communal cell, which his fellow prisoners jokingly called Kalakuta Republic. TThe name was originally derived from the infamous Black Hole of Calcutta dungeon.—In Swahili, kalakuta means “rascal.” The tag had a ring to it, which appealed to Fela.


In as much as he hated military rule, his anger was about nepotism and misappropriation. The military person was not flexible to ideas that the committee was giving. He found the military-appointed chair, Haruna, to be uncompromising. This would later be expressed in his song, titled Zombie, which was released during FESTAC. The art was too important to FELA, and he thought it would have been important to have appointed someone who has an understanding of the value of art and the historical value of what was about to unfold, not just a randomly nepotistically selected military appointee. He and Ogunde resigned on these conditions. The FESTAC produced two books. I loved these books so much. I bought about 50 of each of the books when I was younger and took them to Vienna. I gave some out and sold some. The rest were lost during a disastrous experience I encountered around that time. But the book survived, and I still have it. One is the Black Book titled FESTAC, and the other is the Brown Book titled FESTAC as well. Fela co-authored the Brown book, which was a criticism of the lack of preparedness of the Nigerian government and mismanagement of the FESTAC. This is how Fela started to criticize the Nigerian government. His first critique of the military was the song called Zombie, which he had already done in 1976 to mocks the Nigerian army and police as decerebrated robot-soldiers, bunch of zombiesIn regards to FESTAC. Fela did not go to perform as scheduled, though there were rumors that he was paid before the event was to take Meanwhile, the shrine was opened and bubbling. All the international attendees were coming. The party was happening.


The FESTAC ended on February 12, and Fela's home was raided on February 18, 1977. Rumor has it that there was an incident with some of the members of the Kalakuta Republic having an issue with a police officer who tried to arrest him. The people there barred the policeman, and he went back to call for backup. When the news got to the precinct, they were all happy because that was the chance they had been waiting for to get back at Fela. They called the officer in charge, who called his superior, who called another superior, until a decision was reached to send in the army. Apparently the thinking must have been if Kalakuta Republic is an independent country, then the Nigerian military had to invade. When they got to Kalakuta and tried to come in, they got electric shocks because the walls were electrified. Then they could not enter, so they had to send an order for a necessary power outage in the area. This was when they were able to break in and started to wreak havoc. They raped, looted hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, stole valuables, beat, killed, vandalized, broke Fela's leg, and threw Fela's mother out of the window from the second floor. This woman was a treasure to Nigeria. But the soldiers were a special unit; they had no respect for anyone in the house. Fela had foreign guests at the house when they came; there were press people there. They raped the girls and then rounded up everyone, and they set the Kalakuta ablaze to cover their tracks before they took them all to jail."


When they got out of jail, Fela released Sorrow, Tears, and Blood. He also sued the federal government, whose defense was, We don't know what happened; we did not send the soldiers; we did not know the soldiers. Fela's mother died on April 13, 1978. And in 1979, Fea released Unknown Soldiers.


Nevertheless, history has come to prove that Fela was right. The Nigerian military government lost all the archives of the FESTAC. They had nothing to show for it. The level of incompetence is as it was, grandiose. Nigeria's problem is very complicated and very unique. The impact of the problems caused by ethnocentrism.


Fela Anikulapo Kuti remains the most critical politically focused artist in African music history, and this was the focal point for his musical and political development. In fact, it was his way of life. He lived in this music and sacrificed everything. Then he called me Hitila (Hitler) and thought it was funny. 

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