Lagos is in Afrobeat mode this week. Felabration, the annual tribute to Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, runs from October 12 to 18 at the New Afrika Shrine in Ikeja.
The headline slots stay in the family. Femi Kuti and The Positive Force, Made Kuti and Seun Kuti and the Egypt 80 as the main acts. Guest performers include the apala exponent Musiliu Haruna Ishola, Terry Apala, Atawewe and Ice Prince. Putting a roots-music veteran next to a contemporary rapper fits the spirit of the week, which has always treated Fela’s legacy as something that keeps moving rather than something to display behind glass.
The celebration is not starting today, said Fela’s eldest daughter,
Yeni Anikulapo-Kuti, who founded Felabration in 1998, and still co-manages the
Shrine with her brother Femi Kuti. According to her, the run-up began on
October 1 with an art competition at the Kalakuta Museum, followed by a dance
competition at the Shrine on October 3 and school debates on October 7. The
Dress Fela fashion show took place on October 10. That spread tells you what
Felabration really is: a festival of music, yes, but also of visual art, dance,
argument and style, the same mix that made Fela hard to pin down as a musician
or as a political voice.
The timing is deliberate. Fela’s birthday falls on October 15,
right in the middle of the week, and the nights around it are traditionally
among the biggest at the Shrine. The venue carries its own weight. Fela opened
the original Afrika Shrine in 1970, and it was burnt down in 1977 during a
military assault. Femi and Yeni built the New Afrika Shrine in Ikeja as a
monument to their father, and the site now hosts the festival every year.
Tourism is part of the story also. Yeni Kuti says Felabration
keeps drawing visitors from abroad, especially people of African descent, and
she sees that as an opportunity to show Nigerian culture to the world. For a
country looking for cultural exports beyond the usual streaming numbers, a
week-long festival that fills a Lagos venue with international guests is a
useful asset.
The festival is also a chance to revisit Fela’s catalogue and the
story of how his children turned a burnt-down venue into the centre of an
annual pilgrimage. Whatever the week brings on stage, the festival remains one
of the clearest reminders that Nigerian music is also Nigerian history.
If you plan to go, check
Felabration’s official social media pages for more details.
© Arts and Culture Place
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