Original version

BBC World Service Australasia

The Forum

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

The programme that explains the present by exploring the past

The programme that explains the present by exploring the past.

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

The Forum: Fela Kuti: King of Afrobeat

Discussion & Talk

Fela Kuti in 1986, Credit: Associated Press

31/12/2016 GMT

Fela Kuti: King of Afrobeat

BBC World Service - The Forum, Fela Kuti: King of Afrobeat

The life and legacy of Fela Kuti, Nigeria’s maverick musical pioneer

The extraordinary life and legacy of Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti - maverick performer, musical pioneer, and a continuing inspiration across the world.

Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti was a maverick performer, a musical pioneer, and is a continuing inspiration across the world. But he was also a thorn in the side of the Nigeria’s successive military governments and a fearless activist for social justice. 

Twenty years after his death, Peter Okwoche is joined by three people who all had personal experience of Fela Kuti, to discuss his complex and extraordinary life, musical legacy, and revolutionary political ideals - Dele Sosimi is a former member of Fela Kuti's band and now an acclaimed Afrobeat musician; Carlos Moore wrote the only authorised biography of Fela Kuti, Fela: This Bitch of a Life; and Jahman Anikulapo is a Nigerian arts journalist who followed Fela's career closely.

Photo: Fela Kuti, 1986, Credit: Associated Press

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Forum

Fela Kuti: King of Afrobeat

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Australasia

About BBC World Service