Fela Kuti's Birthday v The Jazz Cafe
It is very difficult to put into words the significance and stature of an individual like Fela Kuti, and his contribution to music, politics and culture across the twentieth century.
A pioneer of afrobeat – a genre of which he was at the forefront – Fela gifted the world with songs such as “Beasts of No Nation”, “Zombie” and “Water Get No Enemy”, and his fighting spirit lives on through his sons Femi and Seun, who continue to carry the torch of his beloved afrobeat with Fela’s band Egypt 80.
To celebrate the day that would have been his 80th birthday, we have invited Fela’s former bandmate Bukky Leo and his Black Egypt collective to retell many of the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist’s stories, and in doing so honouring the life and legacy of an icon that has given us so much.