“I cannot be faithful to one woman, that was the problem of my marriage” – Femi Kuti

In a recent interview with Punch Newspapers, Femi
Kuti, son of legendary afrobeat saxophonist, Fela,
spoke candidly on marriage, music and more.
Excerpts:
Why did your father choose a controversial
lifestyle?
It was because he was too honest about his way of
life. He liked women and he did not hide it. He liked
to smoke marijuana and he did it in the open. Many
people like women but they do it secretly. There are
so many brothels all around the world but Fela never
patronised them, many people go there to pay for
sex.
You will be shocked to know the number of people
that smoke marijuana in Nigeria and all over the
world. I hope you know that some countries are
legalising the smoking of marijuana now. He was
truthful about his way of life while many of us are
hypocritical about ours. Many people were envious
that he was too honest and bold and that was why
there were so many controversies about his life.
Most of his friends who are highly-placed admire
women even girls young enough to be their
daughters. They leave their matrimonial homes to
meet them secretly. Some of them hide in hotels to
do what they cannot do in the open. Many of them
smoke but they are not brave enough to say they
smoke. All the call girls you see on Allen Avenue, who
picks them? Fela never did.
How was he able to manage his many wives?
It was very stressful for him. Do not forget that he
divorced all of them. They were not faithful to him.
When he decided to marry them, he did so for a
reason. He said they had been with him in difficult
times. They endured police harassment and beating.
But they never left. Though they were very loyal to
him, they still had a bad image in the public because
people were calling them prostitutes.
He felt that the best way to protect them was to
marry them. They became Fela’s queens, so the
society had to respect them. I believe he loved them
and he was already sleeping with them before he
married them. It was not really a big deal to anybody
that knew them. For instance, my mother knew this
was happening so it was not a hidden thing. The big
deal was how he was able to convince the 27 of them
to marry him same day.
Did Fela talk you into music?
He did not influence me as such. I always knew I
would go into music. It was just a question of how
and when. He was however a big motivation in my
life because every child wants to be like his or her
father. The son of a plumber will want to be like his
father, especially if he is learning the trade early. If
the son loves the father, he will want to emulate him.
I am not a different son. I love my father and wanted
to do what he was doing. The only question hanging
over that ambition was whether I could fulfil that
ambition perfectly.
How did he punish any of his children who
misbehaved?
He beat us. In fact, I was the one who got the most
beating in the house when we were young.
Can you remember things you did that made him
beat you?
I stole my mother’s £1 to buy chewing gum one day.
You can imagine how many wraps of chewing gum
that money would buy. They were not less than 100.
My friend convinced me to go and steal the money
but we were caught while chewing the gum. When my
father asked me where I got the money from, I was
speechless. I was still thinking of what to say when he
started beating me with his hand. He then warned me
never to steal again.
He also beat me when he caught me with cigarette in
1969. My mother used to smoke and he saw me put
the cigarette in my mouth. I did not really smoke the
cigarette because it was not lit, I only put it in my
mouth but it angered him when he saw what I did. He
beat me again and warned me not to touch cigarette
again.
Why do you think it has been difficult to replicate
Fela’s style of music?
It is so because the foundation of the band was
truthful. He was not pretentious. He really believed in
what he was saying. Despite all the police
harassment, he was not moved. Many people would
have gone to seek political asylum in another country
but Fela did not do that. He had so many
opportunities outside Nigeria and he would have
taken advantage of them to run away from his
enemies. These are the things that every generation
admires in him.
What are those things you imbibed from your
father?
I may not be able to mention them. In the way I deal
with people, I am very truthful. If I say I am going to
do something, I would do it. But I am more of my
mother than my father. My elder sister has more of
my father than I do. I am more of a practical person.
If I plan to do something, I will think of the
consequences. My father would never weigh any
decision before executing it. If he planned to go to
Dodan Barracks, he would just go there. As for me, I
make plans before I do anything. My father would not
write a Will. But because I know that I could get
killed, I had written my Will a long ago.
I know that in a divorce case, my wife could claim
one third of my property, so I would not go into
wedlock. The most important thing to me right now
are my children. Now, I will not play to the gallery. I
will not say because people love me, they must come
first before my family. Who are my family? My
children of course. So, whether you love me or not, I
will let you know that my children come before you,
take it or leave it. I live this way because I learnt from
my father’s life, the decisions he took and the
consequences. When you learn from someone, you
don’t have to do what he did. Fela did what he did for
his own reasons. I cannot criticise why he did what he
did.
Also, we must remember the stardom. Nobody was as
big as my father. He had over 100 people around him
daily when he became a star. I cannot live like that
because I don’t want too many people around me. I
saw what people did to him. It was too much. I can
keep the Afrika Shrine open to everybody but not my
house.
If you come to my home, you will only see me, my
kids and may be my girlfriend. Sometimes, my friends
visit but I don’t keep a crowd around for any reason,
my father did. I like women but I saw the harassment
he went through with 27 wives. It is not that I don’t
want 27 wives but I know what will happen because
of what happened to my father. I can’t tell a woman
that I will be faithful in our relationship. That was
part of the problem of my marriage. I cannot be
faithful. I will not lie about that. It is not that I cannot
be faithful, but I cannot start my relationship by
saying I am going to be faithful till death do us part.
There are possibilities that if another woman comes
and I like her, I cannot give the assurance that I will
not have an affair with her. I have no intention
whatsoever to bring all of them under one roof. My
intention now is to cater for my children and do my
job to the best of my ability.
Did Fela have any special food?
He ate any food. He liked cakes and ice cream too. I
don’t like cakes. I can eat ice cream and chocolate
once in a while but my father loved them all. If
somebody is celebrating and there is a cake, I can
take a little piece not to offend my host. My father
could die for cakes. If you visited him and looked
inside his refrigerator, you would see lots of cake in
it.
Your father did not hide his hatred for western
medicine. Is it the same with you?
I grew up not liking tablets too. I grew up to be a
traditionalist like my dad. But I later realised that
there are too many fake traditional medicine in our
society. The government must understand that many
of these herbs are claiming the lives of our people.
We must ask ourselves which of the herbs has been
scientifically proven to cure malaria and the ailment
they claim to cure. I once had malaria and I drank
herbs but I was not cured. I felt very uncomfortable. I
will not say that herb does not work because Africa
believes in it. It is a fact that we did survive before
orthodox medicine came.
There was African traditional medicine, but where is it
today? Everywhere, you will see people hawking
herbs, saying it work for this and that. People buy
them and mix with hot drinks. Really, when you are
mixing alcohol with herbs, you are damaging your
liver. While you think you are curing one thing, if it
does work, you are damaging another thing in your
body. Until we have concrete fact to say something
works for the body, we will be deceiving ourselves.
Why do you think Fela hated former President
Olusegun Obasanjo?
Olusegun Obasanjo was a bad leader. He did not do
well for Nigeria. He ruled this country three times but
has nothing to show for it. They called the soldiers
that burnt Kalakuta Republic and killed my
grandmother unknown soldiers. The Federal
Government is yet to apologise for their action against
the Kuti family. Whether they like it or not, Fela was
one of the biggest stars from Africa. As the days go
by, people are beginning to understand the
importance of his music. The Lagos State Government
is building a museum in his honour. The family does
not have that kind of money to build a museum. It is
not the governor’s money but the state government
money. But the governor took the decision on behalf
of the people.
Another museum is also being built Ogun State.
Governors are beginning to understand that Kuti’s
name cannot be swept under the carpet. The family
has done so much for Nigeria and the world. Many
people are playing afrobeat style of music today
because Fela invented it. Some people are saying he
did not start it. But the question is: Who started it and
stood firm using the music creatively? Fela stood for
many great things and his contribution to the society
cannot be pushed aside.
Did he have time to take the family out for
leisure?
In 1967, I remember that he took us to Onikan
swimming pool and also Federal Palace Hotel. That
was the first and last outing for fun with us. He
always made it clear that he was not a conventional
father. He did not want us to go to school not because
he did not like education, but because he believed
that education was colonial. He believed that it was
structured to show that Europe is supreme and Africa
is not good. Even when he took me out of school in
my fourth year in secondary school, I had acquired
vast knowledge about the outside world through the
books I read at home. I was known as a professor in
the Kalakuta Republic. I read books such as Blackman
and Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped
Africa. I read so much that I even found there was a
Pharaoh Kuti in Egypt. I wondered if this Egyptian
Pharaoh Kuti was in any way related to the Kuti
family in Nigeria. My father said we are probably
related.
Which school were you attending before Fela made
that decision?
I was studying at Baptist Academy and he withdrew
me from there when Obasanjo deployed soldiers to
the school. I later went to Igbobi College and spent a
year. He advised me to leave the school in form four.
Many believed I would become a nonentity because
of his action. There was disagreement within the
family, my mother was against it, but my dad stood
his ground. She wondered why my dad took me out of
school when he went to one of the best schools in
the UK.
She also said since he did not teach me music how
then would I be great in life? My father told her not
to worry that I would be great. I was not happy too
and did not speak to him for six years. He told me
that he was confident that I would be great. I did not
know what he saw in me. The day my album, Wonder
Wonder, became popular and I was becoming a
household name in Nigeria, he called our family
members and told them that the same boy he
withdrew from school had become a successful
musician.
At that time, it was only my father and King Sunny
Ade that were travelling abroad frequently for musical
concerts. But I suddenly started travelling abroad
more than the two of them because I was becoming
known more outside the country.
Will I do the same for my son? No. He will get a good
education. I will let him understand street life which I
grew up to know so that he will have a feel of it, but
he must be formally educated.
Where were you when soldiers invaded Kalakuta
Republic?
I was coming back from the school when I saw the
soldiers. They wanted to arrest me. But I managed to
escape through a place called Alagbole behind
Kalakuta. I ran and went to pick my younger sister at
Mary Magdalene Primary School. We then crossed
over the railway and went home.
Is there anything you miss about Fela?
I miss his being a grandfather. I think he would have
been a fantastic grandfather. He had already been
showing the signs with my sister’s daughter and my
son. He died in 1997 and my son was born in 1995. I
know that what he was not able to do for us, he
would have done for our children if he were still alive.