Fela
Music Is the Weapon
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- $34.99
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- $34.99
Publisher Description
A spectacular graphic novel about the life and times of the legendary Fela Kuti—the Pan-African frontman, multi-instrumentalist, sociopolitical powerhouse, and father of Afrobeat.
In this bold and striking graphic novel, artist Jibola Fagbamiye and writer Conor McCreery team up to tell the remarkable origin story of one of Nigeria’s most famous sons, the King of Afrobeat, Fela Kuti, who rose to superstardom with his band Africa 70 in the 1970s, during a charged political period for his nation.
A once-in-a-lifetime musical talent who innovated the musical genre Afrobeat, Fela was also an outspoken critic of the Nigerian military regime. Fela focuses on a pivotal moment in his life, when he and his mother Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, the renowned Nigerian suffrage activist, were ruthlessly attacked in their own home by soldiers who suffered no repercussions for their violence. It also explores Fela’s complex relationship with women, including his mother and Sandra Izsadore, the American singer and activist who revitalize and inspired him. Over the course of his life, Fela married 27 women, fathered numerous children, and founded the Kalakuta Republic commune, where he and his band lived, declaring themselves independent from military rule.
As rich and original as its subject, Fela complements the historical with the surreal, featuring parallel dream world sequences, set between this realm and the next, in which Fela receives visions about his future and the dangerous path he will have to walk.
Chronicling Fela’s perilous journey to capture his destiny—to become the King of Afrobeat, and to advocate for Pan-African unity in the face of European imperialism and white supremacy—this masterful biographical graphic novel celebrates this enduring legend and his legacy, offering inspiration for our own troubled time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This rousing celebration of Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti (1938–1997)—Afrobeat star, truth-teller, commune leader, and frequent "rascal"—blends brisk biographical storytelling with urgent cultural and political history, gorgeous evocations of the power of music and dance, and bursts of bloody violence both factual and fantastical. Nigerian Canadian debut artist Fagbamiye and writer McCreery (Kill Shakespeare) mix documentary realism with a touch of the mystic even in staple music bio scenes of Fela playing to empty clubs in his early days or alienating key collaborators. More showstopping scenes capture Fela's reclamation of funk as an African expression when booing Nigerian crowds would have preferred to hear James Brown; his late 1960s radicalization in L.A., inspired by the Black Power movement and a lover; and his denunciations of corrupt Nigerian politicians from the stage of his polygamous commune in Lagos—which the Nigerian army eventually invades in a scene of nightmarish violence. Between the colorful escapades unfolds a layered exploration of cultural exchange between people of the African diaspora, and a robust portrayal of a charismatic yet flawed artist whose revolution kept dozens of "Queens" on a planned "sex schedule." Fagbamiye's Fela is a force for Pan-African unity and an all-too-human icon. The result is a graphic biography as outraged, outrageous, and swaggering as its subject.
