talk about a stoned black mofo..
whilst crawling through the web today, came across this article about a guy called fela kuti. here is an interesting excerpt.
"The fumes in the room were getting thick. I was trying not to look at his wives, nor seem that I was deliberately not looking at them. Also in 1978, to mark the anniversary of the pillage of Kalakuta, he married 27 of his dancers simultaneously. Fela claimed this was a traditional Yoruba ceremony, although some priests disputed this, pointing out that no bride prices were paid, and there is a suggestion that some sort of immigration scam was also involved. It was certainly a fabulous publicity stunt, although as DJ Rita Ray, who now runs a Fela-inspired club called Shrine in London, points out, 'Dancers weren't held in high esteem, so his argument was that he was making them respectable. He was wild, but very progressive.'
In our meeting, I asked him about the importance of sex. 'Sex is one of the most important things in life, man. It's Christianity and Islam that have made sex immoral. People should be proud to say, "I had a fantastic fuck last night." When a minister in Britain has an affair he loses his job. If a minister in Africa fucks 400 women no one will even notice him, you know.'
In songs such as 'Lady' and 'Mattress' the impression he gave was that women were inferior. 'I'm not saying that women should not be political leaders,' he said. 'Women can do what they want - but once she's married in Africa she can't do anything against her husband's will. If a woman doesn't like a man she should find another - that's why polygamy is so fantastic ... An African man should not do anything called housework or cooking ...' But, Fela, cooking can be fun, I persisted. 'I can cook, I had to as a student in London. But if I have a party and do cooking, people call me a 'Less Man'. I don't see why I should go against the cultural values of my people.'
So what is the gay scene like in Lagos? 'I've seen a few boys behave like sissies, you know. I found they had gone to England and been corrupted. If you are gay in Africa no one must know about it - they will stone you to death, man.'
Fela claimed Aids was a 'white man's disease', but he caught the virus and died from complications on 2 August, 1997, at the age of 58. At the time we met, 12 of his 27 wives remained - he told me he employed a rota system to keep them satisfied - but following a 27-month jail sentence that began later that year (on a trumped up charge of currency smuggling) he divorced them all. 'Marriage brings jealousy and selfishnessness,' he was quoted as saying. His manager, Rikki Stein, maintains 'sex was where his inspiration came from, and considering the number of great albums he made ... In the Eighties, on tour, I witnessed fur-wrapped beauties queuing up for their turn ...'
Fela's last song had been called 'C.S.A.S (Condom Scallywag and Scatter )', which described the use of condoms as 'un-African'. To the end, Fela refused to be tested to determine the cause of his weight loss and skin lesions. After much discussion among the family after his death, his brother, Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti, publicly disclosed the cause, paradoxically enabling, as one commentator put it, 'Aids awareness in Nigeria to leave the dark ages'. In that sense, Fela's death helped save a lot of lives, although it's impossible to know how many women he himself put in mortal danger by his wilful denial of his disease. Stein says 'one or two women in Fela's entourage became ill, though I don't know whether it had anything to do with Fela. All the rest are still going strong, as I understand it. They say it was Aids. I say that he died of one beating too many. He was a giant of a man, but a man nevertheless.' It might otherwise be observed that it was a wilful contrariness - the same impulse that always animated Fela - that ultimately killed him. "
"The fumes in the room were getting thick. I was trying not to look at his wives, nor seem that I was deliberately not looking at them. Also in 1978, to mark the anniversary of the pillage of Kalakuta, he married 27 of his dancers simultaneously. Fela claimed this was a traditional Yoruba ceremony, although some priests disputed this, pointing out that no bride prices were paid, and there is a suggestion that some sort of immigration scam was also involved. It was certainly a fabulous publicity stunt, although as DJ Rita Ray, who now runs a Fela-inspired club called Shrine in London, points out, 'Dancers weren't held in high esteem, so his argument was that he was making them respectable. He was wild, but very progressive.'
In our meeting, I asked him about the importance of sex. 'Sex is one of the most important things in life, man. It's Christianity and Islam that have made sex immoral. People should be proud to say, "I had a fantastic fuck last night." When a minister in Britain has an affair he loses his job. If a minister in Africa fucks 400 women no one will even notice him, you know.'
In songs such as 'Lady' and 'Mattress' the impression he gave was that women were inferior. 'I'm not saying that women should not be political leaders,' he said. 'Women can do what they want - but once she's married in Africa she can't do anything against her husband's will. If a woman doesn't like a man she should find another - that's why polygamy is so fantastic ... An African man should not do anything called housework or cooking ...' But, Fela, cooking can be fun, I persisted. 'I can cook, I had to as a student in London. But if I have a party and do cooking, people call me a 'Less Man'. I don't see why I should go against the cultural values of my people.'
So what is the gay scene like in Lagos? 'I've seen a few boys behave like sissies, you know. I found they had gone to England and been corrupted. If you are gay in Africa no one must know about it - they will stone you to death, man.'
Fela claimed Aids was a 'white man's disease', but he caught the virus and died from complications on 2 August, 1997, at the age of 58. At the time we met, 12 of his 27 wives remained - he told me he employed a rota system to keep them satisfied - but following a 27-month jail sentence that began later that year (on a trumped up charge of currency smuggling) he divorced them all. 'Marriage brings jealousy and selfishnessness,' he was quoted as saying. His manager, Rikki Stein, maintains 'sex was where his inspiration came from, and considering the number of great albums he made ... In the Eighties, on tour, I witnessed fur-wrapped beauties queuing up for their turn ...'
Fela's last song had been called 'C.S.A.S (Condom Scallywag and Scatter )', which described the use of condoms as 'un-African'. To the end, Fela refused to be tested to determine the cause of his weight loss and skin lesions. After much discussion among the family after his death, his brother, Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti, publicly disclosed the cause, paradoxically enabling, as one commentator put it, 'Aids awareness in Nigeria to leave the dark ages'. In that sense, Fela's death helped save a lot of lives, although it's impossible to know how many women he himself put in mortal danger by his wilful denial of his disease. Stein says 'one or two women in Fela's entourage became ill, though I don't know whether it had anything to do with Fela. All the rest are still going strong, as I understand it. They say it was Aids. I say that he died of one beating too many. He was a giant of a man, but a man nevertheless.' It might otherwise be observed that it was a wilful contrariness - the same impulse that always animated Fela - that ultimately killed him. "
