Yeni, daughter of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, tells us about her father, siblings and growing up.
The annual show you conceived, Felabration, is getting more recognition than when it started years ago…
The
committee of Felebration is mostly family and friends. The friends are
the genuine fans of Fela. We are all dedicated and we put in our all. We
put in our money. The person who decorates the stage does that because
of the love for Fela. Felabration is getting bigger than the dream I
had. It is getting much more powerful. We did envisage that it would be
big. The show is not about me. It is not about the Kutis. It is a
Nigerian and even an African thing. Felabration was my idea but I called
in friends because I knew I couldn’t do it alone. But now, it has grown
so big. People have already started calling me to perform at the show.
Most Nigerian artistes still see Fela as their father. They perform at
Felabration for free. We can’t even afford to pay them but they still
come. We have had KSA here. He didn’t ask for a dime and he enjoyed
himself. The biggest Nigerian artistes have played here and they don’t
ask for anything. But I would even love a situation where we could even
start paying artistes. We may not afford their normal performance fee,
but at least, we could be able to give them even if it is N1m, as a
thank you fee for the support they have been giving us.
Do you still miss your father?
I
miss him a lot, especially when things happen and I want to talk to him
about those things. I remember when we were opening the museum, I had
to go to his room and sort out his clothes. It was a very emotional time
for me.
Even with the fact that he married so many other wives apart from your mother, you still love him…
We
were very close. Remember I was his first child and first daughter. He
didn’t have so many kids. We were just seven. Most of the other kids
came much later after me, Femi and Sola who came from the same mother.
The three of us are even close in our ages. The next sibling is like 10
or 11 years younger than I am. We are much older than the rest so the
three of us had time to bond. Looking at his marriage now from an older
person’s perspective, I can imagine what my mum went through. But back
then, to me it was exciting that my father was marrying so many wives.
Are there times you wished you were not a Kuti, given the fact that your father was surrounded by a lot of controversies?
Never!
I am proud of my heritage. I am proud of my name. I am proud of the
legacy of my family. We are now talking to Ogun State Government. They
want to establish a museum on the Kuti family and not just on Fela. The
only fly in the ointment for me is when I ask myself if I would be able
to achieve what the Kutis have achieved. Will I be able to live up to
this legacy? My grandfather, my father, my uncles, they were all strong
people. I am already 52, so I have this fear that I might not be able to
meet up.
How come the museum in Lagos State is not functional yet?
We
are still looking for sponsors to finish it fully. Lagos State
Government gave us part of the money. We are talking to other sponsors.
We are not fully operational. We just opened it for people to go there
and look around. We are not charging money right now. We need a lot of
funds to open the souvenir shops. The museum is a lovely place. I am so
proud of it.
How would one describe you- a singer, dancer or just Fela’s daughter?
I
am Fela’s daughter, but I hate it when people introduce me as Fela’s
daughter. If you just introduce me as such, then it means I haven’t
really done anything in life. So my claim to fame is just that I am
Fela’s child. Is that an achievement? I don’t really like it when I am
introduced as that. In fact, I don’t just know how anybody should
introduce me. Just call me Yeni Kuti. I have danced, I have
choreographed, and I have performed. I no longer dance on stage anymore
anyway.
So you never sang?
I was just a back-up singer.
Was it by choice that you never became a singer?
Yes. I don’t like my voice.
How was it like growing up with a father that everybody knew?
That
is what I find most fascinating. I will never forget when my father
died. When we laid him in state and people were coming to see his
corpse, I saw a lot of children coming with their mothers to see Fela’s
corpse. I didn’t want that. I tried to stop them. One woman almost
fought me when I tried to stop her kid from seeing Fela’s body. I
apologised to her and I left them. I eventually understood that Fela
was not for us alone. He wasn’t just for Nigerians but for Africans.
Lagos State didn’t do a disservice to Nigerians by giving them a Fela
museum.
How come you don’t perm your hair
This
is really my natural hair. I now wear a scarf to cover the roots in
front because they have turned grey. My father didn’t approve of us to
perm our hair. You wouldn’t want to perm your hair and get into trouble.
I had to develop a style I was comfortable with. I learnt how to style
my hair on my own. I remember when my father died, I wanted to perm my
hair but then again, I felt it would have been an abuse of his memory,
so I didn’t do it again. I don’t relax my hair but I touch it up a
little to strengthen it. I don’t wear hair extensions. I don’t wear
artificial nails. My nails are no longer growing because of my age. I
don’t wear fake stuff. The make-up I wear is enough ‘fake’ for me.
Do you think your father would be proud of you wherever he is?
I
am sure he would be proud of me. He was proud of us before he died. He
came to watch our shows before he died. He was proud of my brother,
Femi. He knew we were hardworking. I think it was our choreography that
made him to start teaching his dancers choreography himself. He was
using an outside choreographer but towards the end of his life, he
started doing it himself and I am sure it was our choreography that
inspired him. He must have seen how we were doing it. There was a time I
wanted to be his choreographer, but the politics with his wives was too
much and I didn’t bother again.
Did your father’s name make you so arrogant when you were growing up?
No
way! We were even bullied. You know that my father didn’t have money
when we were growing up. We stayed at home a lot because our father
couldn’t afford to pay our school fees. In those days, artistes didn’t
have money; they lived from hand to mouth. And then, Fela wasn’t playing
popular songs. We couldn’t afford to go to school all the time. I
remember in school then, we were so much bullied by other kids. They
used to laugh at us that our father didn’t have money. We used to cry a
lot then. But it worked in our favour. That was why Femi, Sola and I
became very close. We only had ourselves. We stuck together. It was us
against the rest of the world.
Did it continue even when you got to secondary school?
It
even got worse. My father had money then but he was in and out of
trouble. He would be in jail today, tomorrow police would come and raid
the house. It was very bad. I remember when he would be going for
judgment for his ‘igbo’ case. I would be praying all day in
school so that my father would not be jailed. People kind of liked us
when we were in secondary school. I had a lot of school daughters
probably because of my father’s name but it didn’t make me proud. I
remember the first time my father was locked up. I saw him behind bars
and I started crying. He was telling me to stop crying. He was even
excited that he was in jail.
So there were times your father’s name worked against you?
Oh
yes. We were bullied and then loved and then it got to a stage where
our friends’ parents didn’t want us to associate with their kids. I will
never forget one of Femi’s girlfriends. He liked her and she too liked
him. But her father found out and warned his daughter severely that he
didn’t want to see Fela’s son in his house. When Fela married 27 wives, I
remember these three half-caste children. I had a boyfriend who was
dating one of these half-caste children as well. The half caste kids
were so mean to us then. They would see us and mock us, that our father
couldn’t afford to buy good clothes for us; all he knew was to go and
marry 27 wives. It hurt us so bad. Then again, I got victimised by the
police.
Really?
Oh
yes. There was this guy back then that took me to a Japanese
restaurant. The food was even horrible. After the dinner, he said he
couldn’t take me home. I was living at Somolu then. He took me to a taxi
park and I took a cab to the house. I got home and I told everybody
about the date and that I was taken to a Japanese restaurant for the
first time in my life. I went to work the following day. The guy came to
the office that morning and said he just wanted to see me. I saw him
off and just a few minutes later, two men walked into the office and
said they were looking for Yeni. I told them my name was Yeni. They said
I was the one they were looking for and that they were arresting me for
armed robbery.
Why?
I
still do not understand. That was how they took me to Panti police
station. Apparently, after the guy dropped me off that night, robbers
visited him in his house. Policemen asked him the names of the people he
saw earlier that night and he mentioned my name among others. And just
because I was Fela’s daughter, they said I was the armed robber. My
colleagues had to call my mother and also my father, which was a big
mistake.
Why do you say so?
When
my father got to the station, the story changed. He was already very
unpopular with the police. Fela used the opportunity to call a press
conference and said that his daughter was being victimised because of
him. It was awful. I cried all day. I was put behind the counter.
Eventually, they brought me out that day. But my point is that it was so
unfair. There was nothing to tie me to a crime, but just because I was
Fela’s daughter, I was arrested. But now, it is a totally different
transition. Being Fela’s daughter, being a Kuti is a thing of pride.
People want to be associated with the name. I have been through so many
transitions in all these 52 years of my life. Now, we have gained
acceptance.
Don’t you feel perturbed regarding the stigma that is associated with the African Shrine as a place for hoodlums and igbo smokers?
There
is no way we are going to give this place another name out of the moon.
This is African Shrine and it is our heritage. People have just
labelled this place as a place where hoodlums stay and smoke igbo.’Foreigners
come into the country and wish to come to The Shrine but our people
tell them that this place is very dangerous. The allegation is so
baseless. Has anybody come here and experienced any armed robbery
attack? For the ‘igbo’, we have tried to eradicate it. We don’t allow it
to be sold inside the shrine. We even work with National Drug Law
Enforcement Agency.
Do you encourage igbo smokers?
Smoking igbo
is just like a legacy that my father left behind. He didn’t deny the
fact that he smoked and he even smoked it openly. I know that smoking
‘igbo’ doesn’t make you a bad person. My father smoked it and he wasn’t a
bad person.
Do you smoke ‘igbo’?
No,
I don’t. I don’t know how it happened, but most of my staff don’t
smoke. I can categorically say that 95 per cent of the members of my
staff do not smoke igbo. I would leave the rest five per cent for
some who may be hiding it or who would even want to experiment. I don’t
know how it happened that way, because when they came for the job, I
didn’t ask if they smoke igbo or not. People even find it strange when you go to Femi’s show and none of the musician is smoking igbo.
I still don’t judge people that smoke in a negative way because I don’t
have anything against it. My father smoked it and he achieved so many
things more than the people who don’t smoke it.
Did you ever try stopping your father from smoking igbo?
Oh
yes. When we were growing up, my father didn’t smoke cigarette, let
alone ‘igbo’. He didn’t drink either. It was my mother who smoked
cigarettes. But he went to America and by the time he came back, he was
smoking. I didn’t know at first. Eventually, he became free with it and
started smoking it openly. Our friends then used to say that people who
smoke would go to hell. We were against smokers. I would feel so bad
because I would say my father would go to hell. But I didn’t know how to
tell him to quit smoking. One day, I came home with one of my friends
from school and I was praying my father wouldn’t be holding a ‘joint’.
We got home and indeed, Fela was holding his ‘joint’. I took it from
him. God! You need to see the kind of warning he gave me. He almost
beat the living daylight out of me. He screamed! He asked me how I
dared remove his igbo from his hand. He asked me if I was
alright. That was the first and last time I tried stopping him from
smoking. That warning was enough to teach me to mind my own business and
which I did.
Would you have wished your marriage didn’t have a problem?
I
don’t dwell on regrets. To regret anything will take you back instead
of forward. You will not be able to live to your full capacity. If
something happens to me, I don’t bother dwelling on it. I will not look
at my marriage now and say that I regret that it didn’t work out. We are
still friends. How can I regret when I have a beautiful child that came
out of the marriage? I am proud of my daughter. She works in England. I
am a happy person.
At 52, do we see you getting married again?
I
don’t really talk about my personal life. I am in a relationship and I
am very happy in it. We are not discussing marriage and we have decided
that we are very happy. Why would we want to spoil what we have? I am
okay with my life the way it is.
What do you hope to achieve in future?
I
want to be very comfortable. I don’t want to be as rich as the Nigerian
criminals who steal millions and billions. I don’t need more than I
actually need to be comfortable. A lot of people are greedy. I am not
greedy. I am hoping to be recognised for my dancing abilities in the
next five years. I will keep dancing unless my body cannot carry it
again. I may not be dancing on the stage again. Dancing will keep me
trim. I hope the Shrine will be the ‘Mecca’ of African music in future.
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