Abstract
The respective research was conducted to assess how musicians promote and share political issues using their music. It sought to examine how music got used by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti to promote significant political issues in Africa. A literature review examines the intersection of music and politics in Africa, examining how music has been employed for various political purposes in Africa. Additionally, it gives a brief look into Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s biography and career pathways and a brief description of a theory that aids the research. Through the literature review, it was ascertained that music in Africa has been employed to promote various political issues dealing with liberation, patriotism, and political marginalisation. Also, it was discovered that Fela Anikulapo-Kuti employed his music to promote awareness of political issues in Africa due to his understanding of them.
Furthermore, a qualitative research method was employed with the textual analysis of three of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti's songs released during the peak and consistent period of his career. The textual analysis uncovered the subtleties and themes of the songs, and the discussion got carried out thematically.
This research revealed that Fela Anikulapo-Kuti utilised his music to share and promote significant political issues in Africa, such as political corruption, political leaders abusing their power, and political leaders abusing citizens' political rights.
Introduction
Individuals use music to promote significant political situations in a variety of ways and in different registers (Allen 2004). It is not uncommon for musicians all over the world to use their songs to promote critical political issues (Onyebadi 2018). The Jamaican singer Bob Marley epitomised this type of discourse (King and Jensen 1995).
Music has a strong influence on African politics, and it got used to mobilise people to fight for political freedom during the colonial and postcolonial periods (Onyebadi 2018). Grundlingh (2004) stated that songs delivered implicit and occasionally explicit anti-apartheid themes in South Africa, promoting political liberation as early as the 1930s and 1940s.
The ability to employ music to promote political issues impelled Fela Anikulapo-Kuti to lace his songs with political messages. Afro-beat is the musical genre with which Fela is associated, and he developed and articulated its lyricality while agitating against the repressive postcolonial state machinery, making it highly politicized (Sithole 2012).
Furthermore, this paper will examine how Fela Anikulapo-Kuti employed music to promote political concerns, relying on a textual examination of the lyrics of three of his songs.
Aims and Objectives
Aim
To assess how music got used by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti to promote and share significant political issues in Africa.
Objectives
· Examine how music in Africa has been used to promote and share political issues.
· A concise look into the life of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
· Conduct a detailed examination of three songs by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
Literature review
The Intersection of Music and Politics in Africa
Promoting and sharing political issues through music is a common occurrence in Africa (Onyebadi 2019). In Kenya, Mau Mau revolutionaries employed music to promote an important political issue, which was the political liberation of Kenya from imperial Britain (Gakahu 2017). Satti (2017) points out that in Sudan, Mohamed Wardi, a musician in the 1960s, utilised his music to promote political allegiance.
Nonetheless, Onyebadi (2018) pointed out that music with political overtones in Africa is not only utilised to promote positive things like political liberation, and allegiance, it has also been employed to promote negative things like political disenfranchisement. Simon Bikindi of Rwanda embedded anti-Tutsi rhetoric’s into his lyrics, promoting political disenfranchisement and genocide against the Tutsi people (Craig and Mkhize 2016).
Furthermore, promoting important political issues through music in Africa can lead to incarceration and harassment, as in the case of the Zaire musician Tabu Ley Rochereau, who got incarcerated for singing about political corruption in Zaire (Drewett and Cloonan 2006).
During the apartheid era in South Africa, Miriam Makeba used her music to condemn the government's persecution and murder of African activists and civilians (Adebayo 2017). Additionally, a few years of Africans being in charge of South Africa’s post-apartheid administration, music became the focal point for Afrikaners to promote their dissatisfaction with the current political situation in South Africa (Louw 2020).
Fela Anikulapo-Kuti
Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was born into a politically engaged household and underwent significant transformations during his lifetime (Afolayan and Falola 2022). Fela switched from classical music to Afrobeat music, which he created by fusing jazz, funk, and Ghanaian highlife music (Diamini 2003). Over the course of his career, Fela got arrested 200 times, including serving a 20-month stint in jail after his arrest in 1984 (Moore 2011).
Fela's inspiration for his song lyrics came from his understanding of Africa's political situation, and he drew heavily on age-old associations between music and change (Collins 2012). As argued by Onyebadi (2018), this phenomenon induced him to utilise his music as an instrument to promote awareness about the wrongdoings of politicians and Africa's broken political administration.
Additionally, not all of his song lyrics had political messages and were used to promote critical political issues in Africa (Afolayan and Falola 2022). As Moore (2011) pointed out, Fela released songs promoting the subjugation of women, exposing his contempt for women and patriarchal worldview.
Furthermore, in his bid to promote and share critical political issues, using his music, Fela adopted Creole, a regional variant of English, therefore, relating and engaging with a large community of everyday Africans (Veal 2000).
Methodology
Theory of methodology
According to (Mohajan 2018), all research projects must have a detailed and orderly methodology to be efficient and yield accurate findings. As a result of this phenomenon, a research methodology is required. Creswell and Creswell (2017) defined research methodology as a method of information gathering, processing, and interpretation used in research. Qualitative, quantitative, and a mixed form of both qualitative and quantitative are the three standard research methodologies (Williams 2017).
In order to analyse a complicated phenomenon and the significance of acts in a particular context (Querios et al. 2017), qualitative methodology is employed in this study. As a general principle, qualitative methodology refers to studying people's lives extensively using diverse research methodologies, such as detailed examinations, focus groups, scrutiny, and textual analysis (Hennink et al. 2020).
Framing theory
Accentuating particular realities whilst overlooking some aspects deemed irrelevant is framing (Nelson et al. 1997). As defined by Entman (1993 p.391), framing is “selecting some aspects of a perceived reality and making them more salient in a communicating text in a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and treatment recommendation”.
As stated by Onyebadi (2018), musicians use contents of their music to express their feelings about real situations in their society or country, emphasising the seriousness of those concerns and propagating and suggesting concepts and answers to their listeners. Framing theory conforms with the principles of this imparting network.
Approaches to framing can be episodic or thematic (lyengar and Simon 1993). Episodic framing takes "the form of a case study or event-oriented report and depicts public issues in terms of concrete instances" (Boukes 2022 p.375). Thematic framing is the depiction and layout of problems using knowledge about their systemic causes and dynamics while arranging them in a specific context (Zhang and Yin 2017). In relation to this research, the thematic framing approach is adopted to carry out the discussion the songs.
Due to the fact that promoting political issues through music was a common occurrence in Africa (Onyebadi 2019), African musicians employed their music to promote fundamental political situations in their society and emphasise the importance of those concerns. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti adopted this approach by utilising his music as an instrument to promote awareness of important political issues, such as the wrongdoings of political leaders, and Africa's broken political administration (Onyebadi 2018).
Choice text
This study looks at how Fela Anikulapo-Kuti used music to promote significant political concerns. In his distinguished career, Fela released over 25 songs (Afolayan and Falola 2022); nonetheless, only an in-depth textual analysis of the lyrics of three songs of his are given in this study. The songs selected are from Fela's peak and consistent period. The majority of Fela's song lyrics were written in English creole, which is widely understood in West Africa (ibid 2022). This writer, who is fluent in English creole, produced the translations.
Furthermore, the first song is "I.T.T (International thief thief)" released in 1980, a scathing criticism of political leaders in Africa. The second "V.I.P (Vagabonds in Power)" was released in 1979 and is a critique of the political leaders in Africa and the third "Beast of No Nation" was released in 1989. It promulgates the violation of citizens' human rights by political authorities. Additionally, this study adopts a thematic approach when discussing the songs.
Exploring textual analysis
As stated by McKee (2003), textual analysis entails examining, interpreting, and inferring meaning from a variety of texts, including cinema, musical songs, commercials, and inscriptions. For analysing short amounts of text, it's a high-quality tool (Fairclough 2003). Qualitative textual analysis is employed in this research.
A researcher employing textual analysis as a denoting and explanatory instrument risks misconstruing the songwriters' intended goals (Mckee 2003), yet as a methodology, it is reliable and relevant, particularly if the analyst relates not just to the words alone but also to the subtleties that highlight them (Bogue 2007). Additionally, it is critical to understand writings in the context of history and also their intended audiences (Onyebadi and Mbunyuza-Memani 2017).
Findings
The first song
[CHORUS]
Na true I want talk again o
If I dey lie o
Make Osiris punish me
Make Ifa dey punish me o
Make Edumare punish me o
Make the land dey punish me o
Make Edumare punish me o
I read dem for book ee-o
I see so myself ee-o
[English translation]
I want to say the truth again
If I am being dishonest
Osiris should punish me
Ifa should punish me
Edumare should punish me
Land should punish me
Edumare should punish me
I read about them in a book
I observed it myself
‘I.T.T. (International thief thief)’ lyrics (Genuis 1980)
“If I am being dishonest”, “Osiris”, “Ifa”, “Edumare”, “Land”, “Edumare” should punish me”. Here Fela is calling on African gods from different African pantheons to punish him if he is being dishonest, in order to prove to the audience, the authenticity of what is being said in the song.
[Fifth Verse]
I read about one of them inside book like that
Them call him name na I.T.T.
Them go dey cause confusion
Cause corruption (Corruption!)
Cause oppression (Oppression!)
Cause inflation (Inflation!)
[English translation]
I read about a particular one in a book and he was called I.T.T.
They would be causing confusion
Causing corruption (Corruption!)
Causing oppression (Oppression!)
Causing inflation (Inflation!)
‘I.T.T. (International thief thief)’ lyrics (Genius 1980)
Here, Fela invokes the first and third person pronouns “I” and “They” to differentiate between good and bad. Also, he uses “They” as pronoun objects to generalize the target, the political leaders, as having a collective quality of exploitation, duplicity, and covetousness through the suggestion “they would be causing confusion, corruption, oppression, and inflation”.
The second song
[Second verse]
Man get power
Him take am
Steal money
why?
[Chorus]
I don't know!
You don't know anything at all
You just my brother
[Third verse]
Him no know hungry people
Him no know jobless people
Him no know homeless people
Him no know suffering people
[English translation]
Leader has power
He uses it to
Steal money
why?
[Chorus]
I don't know!
You don't know anything at all
You just ignorant
He claims not to know individuals are hungry
He claims not to know individuals are jobless
He claims not to know individuals are homeless
He claims not to know individuals are suffering
‘V.I.P (Vagabonds in Power)’ lyrics (Genius 1979)
Fela employs singular pronouns "him" and "he" to refer to the leaders. The line, "You don't know anything at all, you are just ignorant”, comes after the chorus, "I don't know" in response to the question on why leaders use their power to steal money. Fela here presents himself as the harbinger of truth tasked with the job of conscientizing the masses who are ignorant of the activities and decisions that are taken by the political leaders that govern them. Furthermore, he goes on "He claims not to know people are hungry, jobless, homeless, and suffering", which serves as an answer to why leaders have power and enrich themselves. Explaining that they do not care about their constituents and power has given them the freedom to deny the existence of issues without repercussions.
[Chorus]
Him go dey ride best car
Him go dey chop best food
Him go dey live best house
Him go dey waka for road
You go dey commot for road for am
Him go dey steal money
Na "Vagabond in Power"!
[English translation]
He would be driving the best car
He would be eating the best food
He would be living in the best house
When he is passing by the road
You would have to exit the road for him
He would be stealing money
[Chorus]
They are "Vagabond’s in Power"!
‘V.I.P (Vagabonds in Power)’ lyrics (Genius 1979)
Singular pronouns "He" and "Him" here is still used to refer to the leaders, and the second-person pronoun "You" refers to the masses he seeks to conscientize. Fela goes on to spell out how the political leaders utilise their power to access certain privileges. He does this as he states, "He would be driving the best car, eating the best food, living in the best house". "When he is passing by the road, you would have to exit the road for him", here he is pointing out that the leaders use their power to break the laws, as they chance other road motorists on the way and do not wait gently in line during traffic. In this context, Fela changes "VIP" which means "Very Important Person", to "Vagabonds in Power" to emphasise what he thinks of political leaders in the society he lives in.
The third song
[First verse]
Basket mouth wan start to leak again oh
[Third verse]
The time wey I dey for prison
I call am inside world
The time wey I dey outside prison
I call am outside world
Na craze world, no be outside world
Craze world
No be outside police dey
Craze world
No be outside soldier dey
Craze world
[English translation]
Basket mouth would soon start leaking again oh
The time I was in prison
I labelled it inside world
The time I was out of prison
I labelled it outside world
It’s a crazy world, not outside world
Crazy world
Its outside the police are
Crazy world
Its outside the soldiers are
Crazy world
‘Beast of No Nation’ lyrics (Genius 1989)
The metaphor "Basket mouth" is employed here by Fela to refer to his truth-telling persona. Fela here has referred to the time he was free to live without being restricted and confined in a cell, as the "outside world" which he sums up as a "crazy world". He points to the existence of the police and soldiers, which are oppressive government authorities existing in the "outside world" where you are supposed to be free to live and free from abuse and harm. Usually, not being free to live and move around would be regarded as being or living outside of the world.
[Fourth verse]
No be outside dem kill dem students
Soweto
Craze world
Was it not outside students got killed
Soweto
Crazy world
[English translation]
Many leaders as you see them
Na different disguise dem dey oh
Animal in human skin
Human rights na my property
Dey wan dash us human rights
No be me dey talk, na Prime Minister
Botha dey talk ee-ooh
Him say, this uprising will bring out the beast in us
Many leaders as they are
They are wolf in a sheep clothing
Animal in human skin
Human rights is my property
They want to gift us human rights
It’s not me saying it, its Prime Minister Botha saying it
He said, this uprising will bring out the beast in us
‘Beast of No Nation’ lyrics (Genius 1989)
Fela mentions students getting killed in Soweto to understand further why he labelled the "outside world" a "crazy world". The students killed in Soweto were among thousands of primary and secondary school students shot dead by the ruthless apartheid South Africa police force during a peaceful protest in Soweto in South Africa (Brown 2016). The idiom "wolf in sheep's clothing" is employed to describe the character of leaders ruling in the context of his song. He refers to them as "Animal in human skin" to reiterate his point of them being wolfs in sheep's clothing. Cleverly using the pronouns "my" and "us", he indicates that he can also be a victim of abuse from political authorities beyond being a distant orator. Also, the third-person pronoun "They" is employed to target the politicians he is denouncing as they are guilty of the violation of the human rights of the citizens in their domain.
Fela makes the reference to “Prime Minister Botha”, as an example of a political leader guilty of human rights violation. “This uprising would bring out the beast in us” is a statement made by the apartheid government prime minister Willem Botha during anti-apartheid rallies and as a reaction to growing militancy among the black majority (Adebayo 2020). Botha was insinuating with the remark that if the movement against apartheid persisted, the government would respond by using force and violent suppression to end it (ibid 2020).
Discussion
This study adopts a thematic approach that depicts and layout problems while arranging them in a specific context (Zhang and Yin 2017) to discuss the analysed songs by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti promoting important political issues. Three themes, corruption, power, and abuse emerged from the textual analysis of the selected songs.
Corruption
Fela believed that African governments were corrupt. He used his songs to promote awareness about political corruption African leaders engage in, therefore continuing the trend of utilising African music for political purposes (Onyebadi 2019). The utilisation of his song to promote awareness of the corrupt practices of African leaders is evident in part of the lyrics of, "I.T.T. (International thief thief)" that promulgates how the leaders are causing corruption. It is also evident in part of the song lyrics of "V.I.P (Vagabonds in Power)", which points out that the corrupt government authorities are guilty of stealing money.
Power
As Fela did not shy away from preaching about the wrongdoings of politicians in Africa (Onyebadi 2018), he employed his music to promote awareness of what he believed was the misuse of power by African political leaders. As evident in the song "V.I.P (Vagabonds in power)", he talks about politicians' misuse of power, as they acquire exotic cars and houses and eat in the best restaurants. As they do this, they turn a blind eye to the material conditions of the people that they govern that are suffering, homeless and jobless.
Abuse
The abuse of human rights in the outside world made him label it a "crazy world" and induced him to promote awareness of this phenomenon, which is evident in the song lyrics of "Beast of no nation". As it was not uncommon for musicians in Africa who are critical of political leaders to get incarcerated (Drewett and Cloonan 2006), Fela was a victim of this phenomenon, and he spent months in jail (Moore 2011). Shedding light on what he experienced being in prison, which he called the "inside world" he pointed out that problems and sorrow do not exist in prison. While the "outside world", where you are supposed to be free from abuse and harm, is rife with abuse. Pointing out to the murder of students in the "outside world" killed in Soweto by the apartheid South African government (Brown 2016) that got condemned by Miriam Makeba, who used her songs to condemn the government's actions (Adebayo 2017).
Conclusion
The goal of this research was to assess how music got used by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti to promote awareness of important political issues in Africa. This research has examined how music in Africa has shared and promoted critical political issues. It has also given a brief look into the life of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and given a textual analysis of three of his songs. Throughout history, music in Africa has been employed to share and promote political issues deemed significant, whether for liberatory purposes, awareness purposes or to promote the political need for a group of politically disenfranchised people. Fela continued this trend with his music. The textual analysis of the three songs by Fela showed that he used his music to promote awareness of political issues, especially political corruption by the leaders, misuse of power by political leaders, and human rights abuse of the citizens by political leaders. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti did this by embedding pronouns, metaphors, and descriptive messages into his song lyrics.
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