Becoming Fela Kuti
Published: October 15, 2025
Duration: 55:36
Sharing an episode of the new podcast Fela Kuti: Fear No Man.When the world is on fire… what can music actually…do? Host Jad Abumrad recounts the true tale of one of the great political awakenings in music. Fela Kuti was a classically-trained Nigerian musician who traveled to America, only to return to Nigeria and transform his sound into a battering ram against the state. Doing so he created a new musical language of resistance called Afrobeat. But when the mix of art and activism got too hot, the state pulled out its guns, and literally opened fire.
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