![]() Na Poi and Mattress, two well-known early songs by Fela, were clear and deliberate confrontations in their own time. That art is confrontational is not an assumption of the overtly political in art. ![]() It is helpful for me to start by addressing ideas of art as confrontation, the very nature of an art that is praised and vilified, depending on the political and social state of a community and its people. As it is, we have his music and the memories. By now Fela would be the elder statesman of the African music world, with awards and accolades galore. I can only imagine what the music would be like by now – not to mention the generations of musicians who would have emerged out of the freedom and inspiration of the Shrine, Fela’s music venue in Lagos. So, considering the delights of possibility, let us assume Fela is still alive, making music. It is well within the realm of possibility that he would still be alive if not for the maltreatment meted out by the Nigerian state and the lack of standard antiretroviral therapy. Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti would have been 78 this year.
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