Popular Nigerian musician, Seun Kuti who is also the son of the famous Afrobeat pioneer, Fela Kuti, has described Nigeria’s current socioeconomic realities as reflective of lawlessness and disorderliness.
The activist stated this during the Toyin Falola Interview Series. In the series, Professor Toyin Falola, alongside a panel of eminent Africans, interviews politicians, policymakers, scholars whose work and research are particularly relevant for the African continent and its peoples including the Diaspora. Religion, culture, politics, women’s rights, history, development are discussed during the interviews.
In this edition, the panel included Dr. Sola Olorunyomi, Tobi Oluwatola, Rinu Oduola, Chido Onumah, among others.
According to Kuti, “we all know that law and order have completely broken down in Nigeria. Everybody is provides everything for themselves. We are our own local government; you take care of your debts, light, water, security; everything is your business. My own security is very important to me; I have a little girl, she’s eight and I have her mother. Therefore, I’m extra protective of my space. If my home is invaded illegally without a warrant, I have to assume my life is at risk and take whatever measures I can to protect myself and my family. That’s not activism, but self protection.
Speaking on the various sources of influence which guide his choices, the Afrobeat enthusiast added that “I watch TV a lot, actually. I am a TV guy. I see my reading habit as work. I don’t relax when I read. I stopped reading fiction novels when I was 22. The last fiction novel I read was ‘Game of Thrones’. I stopped because, in my own existence, I have only learnt the imperialist education. We, as Africans, when we key into this curriculum and system of education, we become like them (the Europeans).
The Europeans are imperialists. They designed an education to create more people like them. So, everyone thinks like them, validates their position in their mind because there’s nothing that controls a man more than his desires. The desire your mind gives you is the kind of person you’ll be.
When we realise we’ve been through the education of our oppressors, we are the conquered. That is where you get the contradiction of the oppressed people, where oppressed people instead of using the power to free their people from oppression, it’s still the educational system. Many of the things we’ve been indoctrinated with are detrimental to our wellbeing, development and all roundness as African people. I see it as unlearning and relearning, not only enough to know that what I’ve been taught is fake, now I have to learn what I was supposed to have known like my history, politics, why I am here and also understand what drives the people that have created the world we live in. All these questions are now re-opened for examinations.”
While canvassing for the complete overhaul of Nigeria’s education system, he argued that “What is missing is a complete decolonisation, where we are able to Pan-Africanise our education so that Africans are raided with a spirit of liberation, understanding their situation that the world is not finished. The education we get is deficit; it makes us feel this world is finished; like it’s the best humanity can do. Just 70 years ago, no African was homeless, but today, the majority of us live on the streets. Definitely, the world has been better for African people before, so what have we done wrong and what can we do now? These questions are not raised through our education.
“It’s important we decolonise and Pan-Africanise our educational system. When a 10-year-old child can recognise all the plants around and know their functions and then he becomes a doctor, we do not value that as education. But we value labeling the plants, leaves as the new education that we must have as African people.
“So many books have helped me in this journey and the greatest one is written by Dr Marinba Ani called “Yurugu: An African-Centred Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behaviour.” These are deep questions that must be asked by African people today if we are going to have a renaissance to create a new world for our future and children.”
Taking a swipe at Africa’s political elite, the musician opined that “African professionals and political elite have not given Africans the opportunity to fulfill their full potential because they themselves must remember they are either directly descendants of slave traders or completely consumed by the spirits. The spirits are the ones that say European things are more valuable than African people. These Africans with these spirits are the ones controlling Africa, who worship European things. These people have created an Africa where if a man wants to earn a good living, there’s no such programme in Africa for you.
“They don’t want us to believe we can build, so they create a society where the best minds must migrate to achieve their full potential. The weakness is the fact that they believe that migration is the end goal itself. Our success and migration should be for us to achieve our ultimate goals, which are to organise ourselves, come back and change the situation of the motherland.”
On the role of women in African development, Seun used his grandmother, Funmilayo Ransom-Kuti as springboard.
According to him, “Definitely, the seeds of revolutionary thoughts and ideology were definitely planted in my father by his mother. Even the house that was burnt down was a gift from my grandmother to my father. She was in the house because she gave him the house. Not only is she Fela’s number one enabler, she was the “tree behind his compound”. She gave him all the courage he needed. My dad never recovered from his mother’s death. Her death increased his spirituality; he delved more into spiritualism.
“For history purposes, my grandmother achieved a lot for Nigeria. I won’t say Funmilayo was an activist; she was a revolutionary and I think there’s a big difference between both.
Although they said it was Fela that the military went to attack that day but it’s weird that she was the only one that died.
For me, it’s not a coincidence that the attack happened in the height of the cold war when America was just rebuilding her relationship with the rest of the world and where there was also the Biafra, Soviet Union war. Funmilayo was the last strong socialist in Africa, a confidante of Chairman Mao, the first black woman to visit China.
Funmilayo, therefore, was also a huge target. They had killed every other socialist at the time and she was the last standing socialist.
We must understand Nigeria’s position in the global politics of the cold war. Being a victim of both international and national oppressors, she was to be erased totally.
Her global movement was being taught internationally in schools, but in Nigeria she’s reduced to driving a car. We should know we are all trapped in this facade. One day, the nation will understand that it must know its people and we will do our diligent work on all these.”
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