Femi Kuti on Afrobeat, protest and his legendary father: 'The trumpet felt like an Uzi'

Femi Kuti learnt early on that his name spelt trouble. “In school, I was on the field fighting every day because the children of the rich would say things against my father,” he tells Big Issue when we meet at his Glasgow hotel. “Then the teachers that didn’t like my father would beat me. I got the beating of my life in school. I can still remember faces. I can never forget.”

His father was Fela Kuti, the Nigerian bandleader and activist who popularised Afrobeat, a feverish blend of US funk, blues and jazz with salsa, Ghanian highlife and the percussive traditional music of the Yoruba region. From the early 70s, Fela and his band Africa 70 hosted all-night jam sessions at The Shrine, his Lagos nightclub, which attracted the biggest stars on the planet, including Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, all looking to grab hold of some of Fela’s wild stardust.

Get the latest news and insight into how the Big Issue magazine is made by signing up for the Inside Big Issue newsletter

Fela’s albums spoke truth to power while moving hips, with lyrics that railed against the Nigerian government’s corruption and human rights abuses. This was protest music that truly connected with people and Fela paid the price. He was arrested more than 200 times, routinely suffering broken bones at the hands of the police.

In 1978, his mother, Chief Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti – a human rights activist who led protests against British colonialists – was thrown out of a window following a military raid on her home and died from her injuries. Fela’s response was to deliver her coffin to the main army barracks in Lagos.

Undeterred, the young Femi Kuti was determined to join the family business but wasn’t supported as he’d hoped. “The first time I picked up a trumpet, I was eight,” Femi says. “It was about passion. I wanted to be a musician. Why didn’t my father get me a teacher? Why didn’t he teach me? It’s such a difficult thought to overcome, it’s made me work so much harder to establish my sound, my being, my person.”

At 15, Femi began teaching himself saxophone and two years later, in 1979, joined Fela’s new band, Egypt 80. His apprenticeship included tours of the US and Europe while his father’s vocal opposition to the Nigerian government drew intense scrutiny at home. In 1984, Fela was jailed on a dubious charge of currency smuggling. Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience and he was freed after 20 months. 

Femi broke free to form Positive Force in 1986. Today he says it’s the most significant decision of his life. “If I didn’t make that move then, I’d have been very unhappy, because I would have not lived my life. I would have been lost in all the chaos and I’d never have answered to myself, to my inner being. A lot of people, the bright ones, said, ‘Wow, that was the bravest move.’ In my culture, you don’t disobey any father, let alone mine.”

• Inside Public Record, a joyful celebration of the sound of Sunderland: ‘We’re all in it together’
• Self Esteem and Julie Hesmondhalgh on self-doubt, sisterhood and fighting back in dark times
• Saxophonist Alabaster DePlume: ‘I want to make music that the world invents a special insult for’

Femi Kuti faced a backlash in Nigeria, initially echoed by his father. But Europe embraced him and through constant touring, he built an audience of his own. In 1995, his relentlessly funky call for African unity, “Wonder Wonder” was a global hit, though back home, some were still unconvinced.

“Everybody was on Fela’s case, saying that I will be a failure,” he says. “When I became successful on my own terms, Fela said, ‘Didn’t I say he’d make something out of himself?’ When ‘Wonder Wonder’ was big, everyone believed Fela wrote it, but when Shoki Shoki [1998 album] came out, Fela was dead, so they couldn’t say that any more.”

Fela died in 1997 from heart failure due to complications from AIDS. Now head of the family, Femi toured harder to make ends meet. In 2000, with his sister Yeni, he opened the New Afrika Shrine where Fela’s legendary club once stood – the new club was subject to years of  police raids. Femi’s music became more political. In the early 2000s, he picked up the trumpet again. 

“I was very angry,” he says. “I was touring and could not understand why Europe was progressing and Africa, especially Nigeria, was getting worse. The trumpet felt like an Uzi [mimes firing off a round]. I couldn’t pick up a gun, so I saw the trumpet as that. 

“I was like, ‘What the hell is going on? Why can’t everybody see this corruption? Why are people so compromised?’ Corruption isn’t an African problem, it’s universal. So audiences anywhere in the world can relate to what I’m saying.”

In 2021, Femi Kuti and his son Mane released the joint album Legacy+. “It’s always been my wish that my son will be a better musician than I,” he says. “If he’s not, I’ve failed. I should be teaching him everything I know. Arm him, because he’s going to have a big battle.”

Femi’s explosive new album Journey Through Life continues the fight, taking aim at “liars, hypocrites, pretenders” on the tough groove of “Politics Don Expose Them” and exposing the failings of 21st-century Nigerian politics on “After 24 Years”. But though the pace rarely drops, songs such as “Work on Myself” and the joyful title track explore new lyrical territory, emphasising the importance of family and community, while reflecting on personal growth.

“At the end of your life, you’ll be either very lonely or what is most important to you will all be around you,” he says. “There’s nothing more important than family in your old age, so I’m making the most of it.

“Life is about self-development; how one can make oneself better. We don’t have that much time and every day is a challenge. Your thoughts, the way you relate to other people, your discipline in your profession, how to be good with your children – it’s trying to understand where we’re at and help us to manoeuvre this path, this journey in life. I’m not talking religion, I’m talking about spirituality and morals – how to be a truly good person.”

A few hours after our interview, Femi and his astonishing band play Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall, an all-seated venue built for classical concerts. Within a few songs, the crowd are on their feet, the aisles packed with dancers of all ages. The softly spoken, immaculately dressed elder statesman of African music who Big Issue met earlier has been transformed into a magnetic, rabble-rousing frontman. Where does it all come from?

“Maybe it’s all the chaos in my life. Maybe the audience feel that energy, or see the desperation, anger. Maybe they’re working nine to five trying to make ends meet, they hear somebody struggling, and they identify with it. I believe all this energy in the music comes from the mind of the composer. If your life is not chaotic, you have a very cool, calm sound… I have found my sound.”

Journey Through Life by Femi Kuti is out now on Partisan Records.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. Big Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine or get the app from the App Store or Google Play.