New Nigeria museum honors late Afrobeat singer Fela Kuti

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“Just the sense of rhythm …all the different parts coming in then locking it together in a special way. I think that’s the type of thing that I was innately affected by,” said pop artist Santigold in an interview on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

The 2009 Broadway debut of the Tony-award winning Fela! musical introduced scores of Americans to Fela and his music. First Lady Michelle Obama gave the performance a standing ovation.

His iconic image is plastered on t-shirts, hats and murals, flags, cement walls and magazines. But along with his music, it was his undeniable fortitude and his commitment to stand for what he believed in that has earned the African maverick an international following.

That’s why he has even been dubbed the “Original Occupy Wall Streeter.”

Fela could have composed the anthem for the Occupy Wall Street movement that went global after a few hundred people staked out at Zuccoti Park in New York City’s financial district.

“Music is the weapon of the future,” Fela once said.

With his revolutionary lyrics immortalized in songs like International Thief Thief, Authority Stealing, and V.I.P. (vagabonds in power), Fela railed against the pillage of Africa’s mineral resources, the siphoning of public funds and neocolonialism.

Through his music, Fela advocated black consciousness and socio-political liberation. Arrested more than 150 times, jailed and beaten, Fela was a thorn in the side of Nigeria’s ruling elite, a maverick in every sense. He was also a tireless voice for the ailing masses of Nigeria’s populace who were oppressed in a crumbling political system of endemic corruption; a beacon for a people who had succumbed to a life of suffering and smiling.

Often described as the “Nigerian Bob Marley” and the “African James Brown,” Fela ignited a movement for Africans to protests against repressive regimes. His funky grooves, complex rhythms and brazen lyrics became his trademark. As Stevie Wonder once noted, to Fela, “the musical world owes a debt of gratitude.”