Fela Kuti: Fear No Man

Episode 11: Endless Returns

Date: December 10, 2025
Host: Jad Abumrad (Higher Ground)

Episode Overview

This episode investigates the role of art—specifically Fela Kuti's music—as a tool of resistance and a force for change amid cycles of brutality and unrest in Nigeria. Through gripping oral histories and personal accounts, host Jad Abumrad connects the circular, unending grooves of Afrobeat to Nigeria’s own spiraling history of political repression, youth uprising, and state violence. The story centers on the 2020 #EndSARS protests against police brutality, the trauma of loss, and questions about the enduring and haunted power of Fela's art to inspire, rally, and ultimately, to bring hope—or hard truth.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Spiral of Time: Music as Metaphor (00:36–05:37)

• Jad Abumrad introduces the episode's central image: the spiral or loop, as found in Fela's music and in Nigerian history.
  • "You listen to these Fela songs and you hear a groove that just repeats and repeats and repeats... finally you give in. You fall into a trance where you let go... and you just lose time." (01:28–01:41)
• Contrasts Western notions of linear progress with Nigeria's "circular" experience of political and personal history.
• At Nikkei Art Gallery, Jad observes how the same leaders return in different eras, paralleling the repetitive grooves of Afrobeat:
  • "It's the same man. Again and again, history stubbornly repeating like that ostinato." (04:42)

2. The EndSARS Movement and Personal Loss (05:42–12:45)

• Obianuju Iloaya recounts her bond with her brother Chijoke, his 2012 abduction by SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad), and her family's desperate search for him.
• Exposes systemic police corruption: extortion, torture, and killings, as corroborated by Human Rights Watch's Enieti Eweng (09:32).
• Obianuju’s family's trauma: Selling land to bribe SARS, fruitless legal efforts, and searching rivers for Chijoke's body.
  • "He had to swim in the river... turning the bodies... just looking out for that mark." (11:33–11:43)
• Eight years in limbo, with activism and hope kept alive despite immense loss.

3. Viral Outrage to Mass Protest: #EndSARS Ignites (12:45–19:05)

• Rinu Adwalla ("Savvy Renu") describes seeing viral videos of SARS abuses in 2020, sparking her to organize protests:
  • "I felt an obligation to do something." (14:32)
• She and others commit to a multi-day occupation outside Lagos police HQ; Rinu hides her protest involvement from her parents out of fear.
• Fela’s music becomes the protest soundtrack:
  • "That was a song that I can't even forget, not even in my dreams." (Rinu, on Fela's "Suffering and Smiling," 17:27–17:39)
• Fela’s decades-old lyrics resonate with perfectly with present injustices, blurring generational gaps.

4. Fela Kuti: The Living Reference Point (19:05–23:31)

• Protesters, musicians, and editors narrate how Fela's music animates and legitimizes protest across Nigeria.
  • "When government is going bad, he's the reference point. Anytime they protest, it's his music they play." (Fela Kuti, quoted by his daughter, 20:02)
• DJ Switch and Tammy McKinday recall hearing "Zombie" and "Beasts of No Nation," realizing that the problems Fela named remain:
  • "Everything he was saying, how many years ago is what we're still [dealing with]." (DJ Switch, 22:08)
• Protesters feel generations above them urging caution, but Fela’s voice alone seems to stand with today's youth.

5. The Lekki Toll Gate Massacre: Witness and Aftermath (23:31–35:09)

• October 20, 2020: Protesters barricade Lekki Toll Gate, a key Lagos artery.
  • DJ Switch is present, DJing, when security cameras are disabled and the lights suddenly go out.
  • "Those lights went off and just chaos." (Tammy, 24:52)
• Shooting begins. DJ Switch live-streams as soldiers open fire:
  • "They are shooting us. They are shooting us." (Protester, 26:45)
• DJ Switch recounts the trauma and chaos, witnessing people shot next to her, trying to tend to wounds live on camera:
  • "People were bleeding out. We just have to help." (DJ Switch, 31:04)
• Human Rights Watch investigates conflicting accounts, confirms deaths, but numbers remain uncertain.

6. Repression and Exile (35:09–37:36)

• DJ Switch flees into hiding after government officials deny the massacre and accuse her of fabricating footage. She loses her home, career, and sense of belonging:
  • "Everything I have worked for in my life, I lost it." (33:29)
• DJ Switch’s emotional aftermath, wrestling with the legacy and cost of activism:
  • "There are days that I say yes, and there are days that I say no... But more recently, I think I'd say yes, I'd do it again..." (36:37)

7. Grieving and Moving Forward (37:36–40:56)

• Obianuju attends a candlelight vigil for victims—her first true moment of mourning for her brother:
  • "It was an opportunity for me to accept that... he may never come back. For me to cry for losing my friend." (Obianuju, 39:03)
• Allowing open grief helps lift her from limbo, contrasting her family's years of denial.

8. The Aftermath: Loops, Reforms, Unchanged Reality (40:56–41:52)

• SARS is officially disbanded; promises of reform follow. But human rights abuses and new waves of protest in 2024 demonstrate little systemic change.
• Fela continues to serve as a reference point—even as his symbolism risks "flattening" the complexities of his life and movement.

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• Fela Kuti (quoted): "The secret of life is to have no fear." (00:27)
• Jad Abumrad: "History stubbornly repeating like that ostinato..." (04:42)
• Obianuju Iloaya: "He was my Superman." (06:24)
• DJ Switch: "I was almost certain I'm going to die here today. This is the end. Let me just document this..." (26:21)
• DJ Switch: "If I have any regrets in my life... it's that I don't know that boy. I don't know who he is. I don't know his name." (29:55)
• Tammy McKinday: "Even knowing that the dictator that [Fela] was talking about is the person who's actually our president—it's kind of scary." (22:01)
• Obianuju Iloaya: "At that point, it was an opportunity for me to accept that he may never come back. For me to cry for losing my friend." (39:03)
• Jad Abumrad: "A lot gets skipped over when you flatten a person into a symbol. A lot of messy stuff." (41:33)
• DJ Switch: "I don't feel like I've been left behind, but I feel like I've been left behind. It's not anybody's fault—of course, the world should move on." (35:37)

Important Timestamps

• 00:36–05:37 — Introduction to episode themes: loops, time, and Nigeria’s history
• 05:42–12:45 — Obianuju Iloaya’s account of her brother and SARS’s crimes
• 12:45–19:05 — Birth of the 2020 EndSARS movement; Fela’s music as protest rallying cry
• 19:05–23:31 — Fela as generational reference point during protests
• 23:31–35:09 — The Lekki Toll Gate massacre, DJ Switch’s livestream and trauma
• 35:09–37:36 — Aftermath: DJ Switch in hiding, cost of activism
• 37:36–40:56 — Candlelight vigils; the personal power of grief and acknowledgment
• 40:56–41:52 — Official response, superficial reforms, continued cycles
• 41:52–End — Reflection on Fela’s symbolic legacy and the need to confront unfinished history

Tone and Style

The episode is urgent, poetic, and immersive—fusing oral histories, lived trauma, and incisive storytelling. Jad’s narrative oscillates between the personal and the political, using music and lived soundscapes to deepen the resonance of each account. The language oscillates between the informal ("Oh, man, Jad. My brain is fried. I'm tired." — DJ Switch, 34:52) and the reflective, reverent, especially around Fela’s continued presence.

Summary

"Endless Returns" is a moving, sometimes harrowing, exploration of generational struggle in Nigeria and the role of Fela Kuti’s music in resisting state violence and sparking hope. By threading together the stories of survivors, activists, and artists—most notably in the context of the 2020 EndSARS protests—the episode transposes the loops of Afrobeat onto the real, repeating cycles of repression and uprising in Nigerian life. For every step forward, the story shows, there is a risk of being pulled back—and yet, inspired by Fela, people keep stepping forward.