Aside from birthing eight children, Fela is mostly known for birthing the Afrobeat music genre that Nigerians use to dominate the world today. He pioneered Afrobeats and inadvertently birthed the present crop of Nigerian musicians we experience today. Out of his eight children, three of them continued his musical legacy and strictly kept up the practice done in his Kalakuta shrine.
Fela wasn’t only a musician, neither was he just an activist. He was an undiluted traditional man who used his newly created genre of music to fight against the oppressive antics of Nigerian politicians in his day.
3 Children of Fela Kuti Who Still Upholds His Music and the Kalakuta Shrine
His musical efforts for activism saw his mother pay the ultimate price with her life, as Nigerian soldiers ordered by the furious government raided her home and threw her down from her upstairs apartment.
Fela eventually succumbed to death too at the age of 58, but three of his children continue perpetuating his unique sound of music along with his traditional practice at the Kalakuta shrine to this day. Let’s take a look at them.
Yeni Kuti
Omoyeni Anikulapo-Kuti, fondly referred to as Yeni Kuti is the eldest child of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Born in 1961, she opted to join her father’s Egypt 80 band in the eighties as one of his singers and dancers.
After Fela passed away in 1977, Yeni Kuti hasn’t forgotten all her experiences with her father as one of his dancers and singers. She has channeled much of her strength and resources towards preserving the practice of her father’s Kalakuta Shrine by co-founding the New Afrikan Shrine, an open-air entertainment hub.
Femi Kuti
Olufela Olufemi Anikulapo-Kuti was born a year after Yeni Kuti in 1962. As a youth, he joined the Egypt 80 band to perform alongside his father, taking the already popular sound of his father a notch further with his original, artistic spin.
Though he left his father’s band to create his own band called “Positive Force,” he continues to skilfully trumpet his father’s style of Afrobeat in the New Afrikan Shrine he co-directs with his elder sister, Yeni Kuti.
Seun Kuti
The youngest son of Fela, Oluseun Anikulapo-Kuti, was born in 1983 to his mother, Fehintola Anikulapo-Kuti, who served as a dancer and singer in Fela’s Egypt 80 and Afrika 70 band.
Seun started making his appearance on the Egypt 80 band at the tender age of eight. Seeing how skillful he was with the instrument at such a young age and knowing Femi left to form his own band, Fela handed over the Egypt 80 band to Seun Kuti before passing away.
Narrating his father’s words towards the end of his life, Seun said that Fela admitted that the Egypt 80 band was the most important thing to him and he wanted Seun to keep it going.
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Seun eventually lived up to his child prodigy’s status when his album, Black Times, which was released under Egypt 80 snagged a Grammy award.
Like his father, Seun believes that music is supposed to be a tool for motivation and advocating for a noble cause, not just for mere entertainment.
