Detailed Episode Summary

Podcast: Fela Kuti: Fear No Man
Host: Jad Abumrad
Episode 5: Trickster Makes the World
Release Date: October 29, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode explores Fela Kuti’s persona and influence through the archetype of the “Trickster”—the irreverent, boundary-breaking figure present in cultures around the world. The episode examines how Fela adopted trickster tactics in his music and activism, provoking the status quo and creating new cultural paradigms. By intertwining tales of Fela’s life with myth, contemporary music industry woes, and interviews with global luminaries, the show investigates the transformative—and sometimes dangerous—power of art.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Trickster Archetype and Fela’s Inheritance

• Jad Abumrad & Ben Adair open by connecting Fela’s musical subversiveness to his mother’s influence—her defiance and humor as a model. [00:28–00:57]
  • Stephanie Shonekan’s scholarship is credited for illuminating how Fela channeled maternal influences into dazzling, mischievous resistance.
• Fela is contextualized as a Yoruba “trickster” (specifically, the deity Eshu), who exposes the multiple sides of reality.
  • Quote (Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate): “Eshu is a mischievous deity, but at the same time a deadly serious deity” [01:55]
  • Chief Nikkei Orkendai displays a two-faced Eshu statuette at her Lagos gallery, drawing a parallel to Fela’s many layered persona. [03:23]

2. Fela’s Humor & Defiant Wit

• Musician Saul Williams and other guests discuss Fela’s humor as both provocation and survival:
  • “We can’t talk about Fela without thinking about the provocation and the trickster gods that have trickster spirits.” – Saul Williams [04:24]
• The production team likens Fela’s constant cat-and-mouse escapades with the authorities to classic Looney Tunes—playful, but with lethal stakes. [04:55–05:05]
• The idea is offered that American cartoons perhaps unconsciously channel trickster deities like Eshu.

3. Anecdote #1: “Expensive Shit”—Turning Oppression into Absurdism

• The well-known story behind “Expensive Shit” is recounted with lively input from Questlove and Hanif Abdurraqib. [05:50–11:00]
  • In 1974’s oppressive climate, Fela is set up by police with a planted joint; he eats it to destroy evidence.
  • Police await a stool sample; through prisoners’ cooperation and his mother’s help he avoids incrimination.
  • He responds by recording “Expensive Shit,” satirizing both the literal event and the state’s absurdities.
  • Quote (Fela via John Collins): “I have death in my pouch. I can’t die, they can’t kill me.” [03:37]
• Hanif Abdurraqib summarizes: “He released that song with the threat of violence hanging right over his head.” [12:58]
• Saul Williams references Maya Angelou: “Anything an artist writes should be written with the urgency of what they would write if someone were holding a gun in their mouth.” [13:04]
• Discussion of how, in Fela’s case, this “urgency” was not metaphorical.

4. Anecdote #2: The “Shit Boys” and Corporate Confrontation

• Fela battles Decca Records over unpaid royalties by occupying their offices with his family. [15:03–16:52]
  • Chief Taiwo Lijiadu describes how Fela destroyed exploitative contracts and lived in solidarity with other artists.
• After being forcibly removed by thugs allegedly sent by Decca’s president, M.K.O. Abiola, Fela responds symbolically:
  • In the dead of night, Fela and companions dump buckets of human excrement at Abiola’s mansion, leaving a note: “From the Shit Boys. You give us shit, I give you shit.” [21:03]
  • Fela simultaneously releases a song, “Give Me Shit, I Give You Shit,” referencing the event.
• Fela is later jailed (spuriously, accused of car theft)—the pattern of provocation and reprisal repeats.
  • Quote (Femi Kuti): “There is an endurance that comes with doing what Fela did for as long as he did. And I think that endurance comes with the audacity of knowing that you have something that can’t be taken.” [23:43]

5. Confrontation as Creative Catalyst (“Infinity Loop”)

• Fela’s cycle: Raid → Song → More Raids → More Art. [24:02–24:11]
  • Not just cause and effect—his trickster creativity becomes a structural, generative process outlasting the regime.
• Hanif Abdurraqib reflects on how confrontation, when constructive, can be “a springboard to something greater.” [25:18]

6. The Creative Process Under Siege

• Fela’s children and wives describe his method: periods of trance-like withdrawal (marked by teeth clicking) followed by furious composition, often after an attack. [26:48–27:49]
• This act of world-building is likened to trickster myths (e.g., Raven stealing daylight)—the artist as creator of new realities out of chaos. [28:19]

7. Anecdote #3: Kalakuta Raid and the Power of Song

• After police tear-gas his compound in 1974, Fela is detained for three days. John Collins, present at the scene, describes the aftermath:
  • Fela’s triumphant return from jail is marked by a spontaneous mass march of thousands, a testament to his symbolic power. [31:01]
  • He turns the ordeal into the song “Kalakuta Show,” offering the public both catharsis and a new language for resistance.
  • Fela is described as having coined enduring terms: "Beasts of No Nation," "everything go scatter," "government magic," "army arrangement," "colonial mentality," etc., all still widely used in Nigeria as shorthand for social critique. [32:37–33:51]

8. What Makes Fela’s Protest Music Different?

• Jad interrogates what sets Fela’s work apart from other political art.
• Barack Obama is interviewed: [35:07]
  • Quote (Obama): “There’s no protest song that can’t be packaged and commercialized... That’s one of the challenges for artists today, the capacity of the corporations that own the music industry to commodify even protest music.”
• Fela’s refusal to be commodified:
  • Songs are too long for radio. He declines to perform old hits live—“I don’t play sounds on record, okay? So don’t make noise, please. Okay?” [36:24]
  • He routes profit toward social change rather than personal gain.
  • Quote (Fela, 1988): “I didn’t want to participate in the madness of commercialism. I didn’t want to participate in the madness of gimmicks... I do not want African music to belong to the fashion where music comes and goes, because where African music goes, it stays.” [37:05]

9. Foreshadowing Moral Complexities

• The episode ends by signaling a shift in focus to less romantic chapters of Fela’s life, especially his relationships with women. [37:38–38:08]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Eshu is a mischievous deity, but at the same time a deadly serious deity.” – Wole Soyinka [01:55]
• “I have death in my pouch. I can’t die, they can’t kill me.” – Fela, recalled by John Collins [03:37]
• “He released that song with the threat of violence hanging right over his head.” – Hanif Abdurraqib [12:58]
• “Anything an artist writes should be written with the urgency of what they would write if someone were holding a gun in their mouth.” – Quoting Maya Angelou, referenced by Saul Williams [13:04]
• “From the Shit Boys. You give us shit, I give you shit.” – Note left for M.K.O. Abiola [21:03]
• “There is an endurance that comes with doing what Fela did for as long as he did. And I think that endurance comes with the audacity of knowing that you have something that can’t be taken.” – Femi Kuti [23:43]
• “It’s like an infinity loop. He creates under siege; the music reflects the frustrations with creating under siege... The government reacts to that by placing him under further siege.” – Discussion between Ben Adair & Chad Abumrad [24:11]
• “We have poets who write about—I've forgotten which poet—‘the center cannot hold.’ But Fela just says, ‘everything go scatter.’ Everybody knows what he means.” – John Collins [32:37]
• “There’s no protest song that can’t be packaged and commercialized... That’s one of the challenges for artists today.” – Barack Obama [35:24]
• “I didn’t want to participate in the madness of commercialism. I didn’t want to participate in the madness of gimmicks.” – Fela, 1988 [37:05]

Key Timestamps

• 00:28–00:57: Fela’s mother’s influence and the roots of his tricksterism.
• 01:55: Wole Soyinka on Eshu, the Yoruba trickster god.
• 03:37: Iconic Fela quote: “I have death in my pouch.”
• 05:50–11:04: The “Expensive Shit” story—defiance, creativity, humor under duress.
• 13:04: Maya Angelou quote on artistic urgency.
• 15:03–21:13: Decca occupation, “Shit Boys” caper, and Fela’s pointed response in song and action.
• 23:43: Femi Kuti on the endurance and audacity of Fela’s activism.
• 24:10–24:29: The raid-song-infinity-loop and its political/cultural impact.
• 25:18: On confrontation as a springboard for change (Hanif Abdurraqib).
• 26:48–27:49: Family recollections of Fela’s creative trances post-crisis.
• 28:19: Trickster myth analogies—Fela as cultural world-builder.
• 31:01–32:59: Kalakuta raid, mass march, and Fela as a living symbol and lexicon creator.
• 35:24: Barack Obama on protest music and commodification.
• 37:05: Fela’s philosophy of “African music that stays.”
• 37:38–38:08: Preview of next episode’s focus on Fela’s complicated personal life.

Tone & Language

• Wry, candid, and richly anecdotal, with a mix of reverence and irreverence—the episode mirrors Fela’s own spirit as much as it analyzes it.
• Frequent use of direct quotations, lively banter, and music to immerse listeners in Fela’s world.
• Serious political critique is delivered with wit and a sense of ongoing, necessary mischief.

Conclusion

“Trickster Makes the World” elucidates how Fela Kuti wielded the power of the trickster archetype to subvert authority and reimagine social reality. Through stories of audacious humor, symbolic revenge, and creative resistance, Fela emerges not just as a revolutionary artist but as a mythic figure—teaching that the act of making art can, at its most fearless, change laws, inspire masses, and challenge the architecture of power itself.

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