Today makes it twenty years since Fela Anikulapo Kuti died.
I was a little girl in Boarding school back then when the news broke. We watched in awe from my House Mistress' Television as people thronged the African Shrine or was it the Gbemisola Street Ikeja, residence now in their numbers as they paid their last homage to the musical legend. The good thing about creatives is that they do not die a total death.
Their works outlive them. Two decades on, Fela's songs sounds anew. Shows portraying his musical dexterity dominated Broadway in New York. The Fela show sold out internationally.
Also, Fela's messages in the music he made are almost prophetic. His social consciousness was second to none. Sad that the things he had against the Government of his time are still being dealt with in the Nigeria of today. His songs remain evergreen.
Highly educated, Fela encapsulates the word 'woke' like the greats of that time like Chinua Achebe and Ngugi Wa Thiongo, he dropped his English name as an act of defiance to white supremacy. There can never be another Fela, Abami Eda lives on.
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