Fela Kuti

On February 1, Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì (15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997) was posthumously honoured with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The award recognised his contributions to global music and his pioneering role in the development of the Afrobeat genre. Kuti became the first African artist to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award since it was established in 1963. 

Kuti was a Nigerian musician and political activist. He is regarded as the principal innovator of Afrobeat, a Nigerian music genre that combines West African music with American funk and jazz. After early experiences abroad, he and his band Africa '70 (featuring drummer and musical director Tony Allen) shot to stardom in Nigeria during the 1970s, during which Kuti was an outspoken critic and target of Nigeria's military juntas. In 1970, he founded the Kalakuta Republic commune, which declared itself independent from military rule. The commune was destroyed in a 1978 army raid that injured Kuti and his mother, the latter fatally. 

Kuti continued to record and perform through the 1980s and 1990s. Since his death in 1997, reissues and compilations of his music have been overseen by his son, Femi Kuti.

(Source: Wikipedia accessed on 4 February 2026)

Selected publications

Afolayan, Adeshina, en Toyin Falola, Fela AniOlorunyomi, Sola, Afrobeat!: Fela and the imagined continent (1st print.; Trenton, NJ [etc: Africa World Press 2003).

kulapo-Kuti : Afrobeat, rebellion, and philosophy (New York, 2022).

Akinnola, Richard, Judge don beg me: the Odyssey of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s encounters with the law (Abuja, 2015).

Coker, Niyi, A study of the music and social criticism of African musician Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (Lewiston, 2004).

Collins, John, en Banning Eyre, Fela: Kalakuta Notes (New York, 2015).

Moore, Carlos, Fela: this bitch of a life (Chicago, 2009).

Nwafor, P. Chuka, Chinua Achebe and Fela Anikulapo Kuti: revolutionary consciousness in music and literature (Baltimore, 2012).

Oladipo-Ola, Jawi, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti: the primary man of an African personality  the narrative & screenplay (Osogbo, 2011).

Olaniyan, Tejumola, Arrest the music!: Fela and his rebel art & politics (Ibadan, 2009).

Olorunyomi, Sola, Afrobeat!: Fela and the imagined continent (Trenton, 2003).

Schoonmaker, Trevor, Fela: from West Africa to West Broadway (New York, 2003).

Films

Ashley, Edward Jaheed, and Fela, Fela-NYC: Fresh from Africa: Fela Kuti, live and vibrant in New York City (2010).

Marks, Dennis, Alan Yentob and Chris King, Fela Kuti and Egypt 80: live at Glastonbury 1981 (2002).

Tchal-Gadjieff, Stéphane, and Jean Jacques Flori, Fela Kuti: music is the weapon (2002).

I.T.T. (International Thief Thief), Pt. 1 & 2