Fela Kuti birthday

This monday, on the 15th of October, it would be Fela Kutis birthday. Afrofunk asks, what he would sing about nowadays:

No doubt he would include many of the same themes that he addressed during his lifetime: the ongoing exploitation of Africa in general and Nigeria in particular by the wealthy and powerful, from London to Lagos, Washington to Kinshasha; the sorrowful indifference of the governments in industrialized nations to the poverty, inequality and suffering their development models bring to much of the world; the madness of the war in Iraq; the unending massacres in Darfur and Congo.

I think Fela would certainly still be addressing the agonizing persistence of torture and inhumanity in prisons around the world, as a victim of military brutality himself. And I hope he would have turned his immense charisma and musical power toward addressing AIDS prevention and education.

Read the full article on Afrofunk.
Photo by Antes Del Atardecer under cc license.