Afrobeat pioneer, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti is currently topping the voting chart for the 2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees for possible induction.
He has now polled close to 70,000 votes, leading American music stars, Jay Z, Tina Turner, Mary J. Blige, amongst others.
Eelive.ng had reported that Fela is contending for the induction alongside 15 other music icons. Seven out of the Nominees are on the ballot for the first time, including Fela, Foo Fighters, The Go-Go’s, Iron Maiden, JAY-Z, and Dionne Warwick.
According to the organisers, those with the highest votes will be announced in May 2021, and consequently be inducted at a ceremony in the fall in Cleveland, Ohio, United States.
Below are however 10 things you should know about Fela:
- Fela dropped his original surname Ransome-Kuti because felt ‘Ransome’ was a slave name. He adopted a Yoruba name Anikulapo which means “He who has death in his pocket.”
- He formed his first band Koola Lobitos in 1963. The name was later changed Nigeria ’70 Afrika 70 and later to Egypt 80 Band.
- When he returned to Nigeria in 1963, Fela trained with the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation as a radio producer.
- He formed Movement of the People, a political party in 1979. He sought to contest for the presidency that year. But he was rejected.
- Fela and Nigeria’s first Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka are cousins. His younger brother Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti was also a notable political and human rights activist before his death.
- His mother Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti was instrumental to the abolition of the separate taxes for women in 1953.
- In 1984, a documentary film titled “Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense” inspired by his life was aired by the BBC.
- The late Afrobeat king was banned from Ghana in 1978 after a riot broke out during his concert in Accra while he was performing the song “Zombie”.
- In 1978, Fela was named in the Guinness book of record for marrying 27 women in a single wedding ceremony.
- His father Israel Ransome Kuti was a founding member of both the Nigerian Union of Teachers and Nigerian Union of Students.