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- [00:13]
Id
I discovered something special. I was so proud to be part of that movement. Here was something new that was galvanizing us. It was the turning point in my life.
- [00:25]
Lemmy
The secret of life is to have no fear. We all have to understand that.
- [00:33]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
This is Fela Kuti. Fear no man. I'm Jad Abumrad. Chapter seven, Teacher, Don't Teach Me Nonsense. In this chapter, if a man wants.
- [00:45]
Duro
To enslave you forever, he will never tell you the truth about your forefathers.
- [00:51]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Fela expands. He becomes something much more than a musician. He becomes a teacher, politician, maybe president. Okay, so after Fela has the whole Sandra Isadore experience, you've been doing all.
- [01:14]
Duro
This and you singing about some soup.
- [01:17]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
1969, L.A. i said, why would you do that when you can use your music to add, educate people, uplift people. Fela comes back to Nigeria in 1970, determined to do that. Releases this fire hose of music. 27 albums, hit, hit, hit, hit, hit. What does it mean to him at that moment to educate and uplift.
- [01:43]
Lemmy
In.
- [01:43]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
That torrent of music? It's quite clear. You see this obsession take hold. What is he most concerned about? Not the government, actually. It's seeing his fellow Nigerians bleach their skin. It's seeing his fellow Nigerians go off to Europe and come back with an inferiority complex. It's seeing them dress up like Englishmen as he used to. He becomes consumed with the project of decolonizing the minds of the people around him, doing to them what Sandra did to him. Now imagine you are 18 and you bump into him at this moment in this chapter. We're going to watch that happen because what does it actually mean to decolonize a mind? It's one of those funny words that obscures the thing it's actually saying. It's not really a deleting of something, although maybe kind of it's more a filling in, a remaking, a re. Hyphen minding. Because the three guys that we're going to introduce you to, they are of course, Nigerian. And let me put it this way, it may not come as a surprise that, like, when I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, I learned almost nothing about the continent of Africa. Not surprising. But what. What is surprising, I think, is that the three guys you're about to meet who would become Fela's political lieutenants, his campaign staff, his publishers, they didn't know shit either.
- [03:12]
Duro
Nothing.
- [03:13]
Lemmy
Nothing at all.
- [03:14]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Did they teach you anything about modern history, political history, anything?
- [03:18]
Id
Nothing.
- [03:19]
Duro
And at that time, we go to.
- [03:21]
Lemmy
School, we can't speak our language in class, you get punished. You have to speak only English language.
- [03:27]
Duro
We had American teachers and so on.
- [03:30]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Take Duro and Lemmy. Duro the musician and Lemmy the artist. Those are the first two people I want you to meet.
- [03:36]
Lemmy
My name is Larryoku Lemi. I was born, bred and buttered in Lagos.
- [03:40]
Duro
My name is Duro Ikum, the band leader of the Age of Aquarius band.
- [03:47]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Duro and Lemmy walk into our story in 1973. They were 17, 18. Interesting time in Nigeria, Lagos. The city was exploding in size. Oil trade was bringing in money. Young people everywhere were flocking to the city. At that point, the British had been gone for 13 years. But there was a new outside force rushing in to fill the void.
- [04:08]
Duro
Myself and Lemmy, we live in the same house and we share a lot of things. I mean, we finished school, high school, almost the same time. Like we had a lot of interest in Western musicians. Like, I mean, pinups from these magazines. Michael Jackson, David Bowie. And we cut them and just put them in our rooms. Those are the pictures we see that excite us. We don't see any African musicians.
- [04:40]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Both Duro and Lemmy were obsessed with American pop culture. For Lemmy, his dad, he insisted that.
- [04:46]
Lemmy
I'd be an engineer, but I was born with art.
- [04:51]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
He would practice drawing American movie posters.
- [04:54]
Lemmy
I was a neighbor, the next building to my parents place. He commissioned me to do the poster of Bruce Lee's film Enter the Dragon. It was a blockbuster movie. It was a big hit in Nigeria too.
- [05:09]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Meanwhile, Duro had taken up with the piano.
- [05:12]
Duro
First of, I come from a very musical family. My father was a choir master in an Anglican church. And I joined the choir when I was about three years old. And at the age of five I became a chorister in the church. In fact, I sang songs like the Hallelujah Chorus when I was about nine years old with my father. Hallelujah. But when I told my parents let me study music, they refused. I started studying music by myself. Like what American songs?
- [05:58]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
I think he's referring to an old Civil war song called Old Joe, but I'm not sure.
- [06:02]
Duro
In fact, I played the American anthem for my training because the book that I.
- [06:06]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
No way.
- [06:06]
Duro
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [06:09]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Wow. Wow. So you guys really were like, flooded with America.
- [06:22]
Duro
Completely.
- [06:23]
Id
Completely.
- [06:23]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Listening to Durow play the same national anthem that I was made to sing every day in Nashville was revealingly confusing. He's in Nigeria, which is a former British colony, singing a song of American independence. And all of it, the hymns the anthems, the David Bowie songs, the Bruce Lee trailers. It created a kind of noise, a seductive noise, even a beautiful noise. But it was so loud that it covered up the place they were actually from. Now I want to introduce you to.
- [06:56]
Duro
The third Three is a number that.
- [06:58]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Has a balance and final member of the group.
- [07:01]
Id
My name is Mabinuri Kayode Idou, but everybody calls me id. Like your identity card.
- [07:10]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
If Duro is the musician and Lemmy is the artist, ID is the philosopher. This is really id's story in a way. We met ID at his apartment in Paris.
- [07:20]
Lemmy
He.
- [07:20]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
He's lived there for years. You can hear the slightest French accent in his voice.
- [07:24]
Id
In 1974, I was a young sales agent in Lagos. I had just finished my West African school certificate examination.
- [07:35]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
After school wrapped, Id was supposed to go to university to study philosophy. But he had this little six month period.
- [07:42]
Id
I had six months in front of me without doing nothing.
- [07:47]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
So he convinces his mom to let him get a job in Lagos. She puts him in touch with an.
- [07:51]
Lemmy
Uncle who hooks him up with his gig selling cosmetics.
- [07:54]
Id
You know, body creams, uncle cream, body lotions and all that.
- [07:59]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
As far as summer jobs go, this was a pretty good one. He had a driver who would take him to each neighborhood and he would basically sell door to door.
- [08:06]
Id
I always dressed in tie.
- [08:09]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
And he found that he had a talent for convincing people to buy creams and stuff.
- [08:13]
Id
I was earning 19 pounds, which was big money for a younger, a young man. At that time I didn't have no rent to pay because I was living with an uncle.
- [08:24]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
So his plan was save up some.
- [08:25]
Id
Money, go to school, graduate and work for the system.
- [08:30]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
To be what?
- [08:31]
Id
A lecturer? Professor? That was my idea. But in between this time, there was a man called Fela Kuti.
- [08:41]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
When you are king of African music.
- [08:42]
Id
You are the king.
- [08:44]
Duro
Because music, he's the king of all professions.
- [08:51]
Id
I mean, from the images of him we saw on television, I always thought he was a giant figure, like Michael Jordan, you know, and the reputation he.
- [09:03]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Had in that cab going around selling cosmetics. Id would hear Fela's songs on the radio. He would read about fellow's clashes with the government in the paper. And he just became very curious, like, who is this guy? Because stars were almost always from other places. This was the one Nigerian person who seemed to loom as large as all those American stars who dominated Nigerian TV and radio. What drew you to the shrine initially? Was it the.
- [09:32]
Id
It was the rebellion.
- [09:34]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Id says he was not particularly rebellious or political himself at this point. At all. But Fela's name had just been all over the papers. A part of the Nigerian press deliberately.
- [09:45]
Duro
Attempts to portray Fela as Public enemy number one.
- [09:49]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
1974. This is the year the military regime declared a war on indecency. Sent over 70 troops into his compound, beat everybody up and then he was back performing just a few days later, all wrapped in bandages and releasing songs about the raid.
- [10:05]
Id
At this time, my curiosity was more like, what is really pushing this guy, motivating him to face a military regime? I was like going every, every night to the Shrine. The music was, it was different, the groove was different.
- [10:22]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
And on one of those visits to.
- [10:24]
Id
The shrine, everybody's talking, drinking a beer, smoking, smoking some ganja, three lively people talking amongst themselves. When I arrived in front of the stair, I had someone call out my name, Idaho. Of course it was Duro Ikujenyo.
- [10:39]
Duro
We're always on the shrine. That's where I met Id.
- [10:43]
Id
Duro was one of my ex schoolmates.
- [10:47]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
It had only been a few months since Id last saw Duro, but he could tell immediately that something had changed. He had like a different swagger.
- [10:54]
Id
I saw this young guy that had just graduated from high school together calling me, come, come, come over and then giving me a place to sit. The place was like reserved for close associates of Fell friends of Fela. So I was like, what the are you doing here? I come here regularly to learn from Fela, to hear him his message. He said, I did meet my friend.
- [11:22]
Lemmy
Garyokulemi, graphic designer and illustrator.
- [11:25]
Id
He's the one that is just started to do the album cover for Fela. I mean, I was like impressed by their proximity to Fella. And what did, let me say, ah, Id, if you want to meet Fela one on one, you can come with us after the concert to his house.
- [11:46]
Duro
Wow.
- [11:46]
Id
The time went like that. When Fella came on stage, the only thing I kept saying to me, I'm going to meet you after the concert.
- [11:53]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
In my head at 10:30pm Concert finishes.
- [11:59]
Id
And I saw all the entourage surrounding him, walking with him. Duro and Lemmy, they said, come with us.
- [12:05]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Cut to Fellas Compound, which was just down the street from the club. There were scantily clad women musicians smoking. Everybody was lounging around. Id tried to play it cool.
- [12:19]
Id
My friends sat down, sat down next to them and I saw Fela at this time pulling down his pants, his trousers.
- [12:27]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
He stripped down to his purple undies, basically his uniform when he wasn't on stage, I was shaking. Lemmy remembers the first time he saw.
- [12:35]
Lemmy
That his briefs were drooping very low, so all his public hair was exposed. I was so. I was so scared, you know.
- [12:45]
Id
And while he was doing it, he looked at everybody around him like that, his eyes bloodshot. And his eyes came to me, you know, and he said, young man, have we met before? I was lost of words that he even noticed me. So I stuttered. I stuttered. I said, no, sir. Because he asked me, he said, young man, have we met before? And by respect in Africa, the education they give you is that when another person addresses you, you say, sir, madame. I said, no, sir to fella. And he blew up.
- [13:19]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
He blew up just by saying no, sir.
- [13:21]
Id
No sir. I said, never in this house anybody addresses me as sir. My name is Fela. He started to really blast me. You see, this is what I hate about the colonial education they are giving our youths in Nigeria today. They make you fear your older folks instead of opening your mind freely to discuss with them. Because of the sir, Madame, respect. He went on like that, and he was like talking for more than two hours.
- [13:51]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
And all you said was sir, just.
- [13:53]
Id
For calling him sir. Call me Fella. I'm equal to you. He went on and on and on and on.
- [14:01]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
You must have been petrified a little.
- [14:03]
Id
Bit at the beginning. But with the. With the argument he was putting forward, I was like, wow. And then boom, he stopped. Hello, Heidi. What are your plans for the future? So I said, oh, fellow, my idea is to go to the university to either study philosophy or history. And he said, oh, you want to study Socrates, Aristotle? I thought I was like, on familiar grounds. I said, oh, yes, I want to study Aristotle. And he said, why? I said, oh, fellow, how can you ask me a question like that? Everybody in this world knows that the Greeks were the major philosophers of the world. He said, who told you that? I said, oh, come on, fella. I mean, all the books are saying it. And he said, have you ever read the contrary that these guys learned everything they knew from black Egyptians? I said, no. He called Aham, the guy that used to take care of his room. Aham. Go to my bedside. Bring me those two books. Next to my bed, De Gallic brought two books. The First Black man of the Nile, written by Yusuf Ben Johannan.
- [15:21]
Duro
There is no such thing as Greek philosophy. When a university speak about Greek philosophy, they're a bunch of damn liars.
- [15:29]
Id
And I was like, shocked. I said, what is all this story about? I feel like I borrow this book, say, take. Go and learn your history.
- [15:44]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Hey, everybody, what if you had a magic power where you could find whatever it is you're looking for in any given moment right away. Parking spot right there. Holiday gift shopping. Done. Pants that actually fit. Boom. Imagine how much time you would save. While you may never instantly find these things, if you are hiring you, you can find qualified candidates right away time and time again with ZipRecruiter and today you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com Fela ZipRecruiter's seemingly magic technology matches you with top talent fast. And that is why ZipRecruiter is the number one rated hiring site based on G2. Want to know right away how many qualified candidates are in your area? Look no further than ZipRecruiter. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And right now you can try it for free@ziprecruiter.com Fela Again, that's ziprecruiter.com Fela ZipRecruiter the smartest way to hire this is Fela Kuti. Fear no man I said what is.
- [16:45]
Id
All this story about? I feel like I borrowed this book said take go and learn your history now.
- [16:51]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
History. ID Duro and Lemmy were educated by British Christian missionaries, which is still true for many Nigerians, but particularly Those born before 1960. The first wave of British colonization starting in the early 1800s consisted mainly of British Christian missionaries coming to Nigeria, wanting to save souls, quote unquote, and then setting up these schools. And these schools did teach academic subjects like, you know, science, math, but when it came to history, it was history according to the Bible. So ID grew up learning about Adam and Eve. But as for that vast expanse of time, 100,000 years or whatever it is between Adam and Eve and Jesus, all he was told is that somewhere in there there were the Greeks, they invented philosophy, everything else not so important.
- [17:40]
Id
Apart from telling us civilization, taking the black people out of their barbaric culture, teaching them the civilized way, these are the standard education in my head. And here was a book Fela gave Black man of the night that is talking about for the 5,000 years of human evolution.
- [18:01]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
The book made the argument that prior to the Greeks there were African civilizations with massive libraries filled with thousands of scrolls. And much of what we call European intellectual history came from that.
- [18:13]
Id
I started to read this new thing and it blew up my mind. The second book, Stolen Legacy by George G.M.
- [18:23]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
James, this book took the argument even farther. It said that Alexander the great in the 4th century BC. He's rampaging his way through Egypt, conquering everything in his path. His teacher Aristotle is with him. At some point they get to the great royal libraries of Egypt. Alexander ransacks them, takes all the scrolls, gives them to Aristotle so that Aristotle can pass it off as his own. Ever wonderful how Aristotle could have written so many books. 200 different treatises on everything from metaphysics to biology to math to animals. It's because he stole it all. That's the argument. They took all the stuff.
- [19:07]
Id
That was how Greek domination started in Egypt.
- [19:11]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
So this book makes the argument that everything that we think of as classic Greek philosophy was actually stolen from the libraries of Egypt?
- [19:20]
Id
Exactly.
- [19:21]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
We'll examine that claim in a second. But the short of it is that Id, when he read this stuff, went to Lemi Enduro and was like, we have to talk about this.
- [19:30]
Lemmy
I will say, gorging all this information, you know, you know, very voraciously, because we are hungry.
- [19:36]
Id
It became a kind of book club. But, you know, and the good thing is, like the three of us were living just very close to each other.
- [19:43]
Lemmy
Id's uncle was staying just next street to us. Can you imagine?
- [19:48]
Id
We would like go to work early in the morning from our homes. We fix a meeting at 3, 4 in the afternoon to meet in Fela's house.
- [19:57]
Lemmy
We were able to go out together every day. Every day.
- [20:01]
Id
Me, I will start reading Black man.
- [20:02]
Lemmy
Up the Nile, one of the books by Lopsarampa.
- [20:05]
Id
Lemmy and Duro will be reading Stolen Legacy.
- [20:08]
Duro
Lemmy pass it to me and I pass it to id.
- [20:11]
Id
And when I finish, exchange with them. And every day, Fela's house became a kind of meeting point for us.
- [20:18]
Lemmy
He would bring a book, particular book, and say, go and read this book.
- [20:22]
Duro
Fela now gave us books. There's so many, many books that Fela started giving us.
- [20:27]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Lemmy showed us a picture of the three of them with Fela from around this time, probably 1974. Duraud the musician, is sitting next to Lemmy the artist on the couch. Fela is opposite them. He is in his purple undies as per usual. And he's got a kind of Socrates vibe. In this picture. What I mean is Socrates in his dialogues with Plato, apparently Plato would have a thought. Socrates would then ask him a question which subtly challenged that thought. Plato would go, huh? I've never thought of it that way. That's what comes to mind when you look at this picture.
- [20:57]
Lemmy
You see both of us are pointing the same direction. That's why I Tell people we're sharing a moment.
- [21:01]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Duro is beside Lemmy, holding his chin, leaning in.
- [21:04]
Lemmy
And Fella was like our champion. He was our leader.
- [21:08]
Id
This was like the turning point. I said, shit, Socrates. Why should I study Socrates? This was the beginning that was saying, is it worth it to go to the university?
- [21:20]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Before we go any further, those books that Fellah gave them that make the claim that the Greeks stole Egyptian culture, not everybody agrees on the facts of those claims. We spoke to one guy, a historian and journalist, Howard French. He wrote the books Born in Blackness and the Second Emancipation. He told us that some of the details of those claims are hard to substantiate. However, the larger truth is there that the foundation for a lot of what the Greeks believed came from Egypt and what is clear is that for Deroux, Lemy and Aydi, the effect that those ideas had on them was profound.
- [21:54]
Id
The funny thing at that, at the beginning, I was obliged to hide my tie.
- [21:59]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
If you remember, he had to wear.
- [22:01]
Id
A tie for his job selling cosmetics because Fela had just released an album titled Gentleman At All, At All Gentleman. Fella was making a mockery of black people dressed in suit and ties. I like I know what to wear but my friends don't know but my friends don't know.
- [22:41]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Id says he would go to work in his Thai and then just before walking back into Fela's house, he would hide the tie so that Fela wouldn't see it. And one day at the shrine, while Fela was playing that song, it just hit him, like, what am I doing?
- [22:58]
Id
It wasn't Fela that told me. I heard what he sang. Simple.
- [23:02]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
So Id started going to work with no tie.
- [23:04]
Id
And then I changed my style. I started to wear African dashiki.
- [23:08]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
And he was promptly fired. At the next book club, he told.
- [23:12]
Id
Fela, this is putting petrol into fire.
- [23:16]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
The next day, fela drove to ID's work, got out of the car, was mobbed by fans, 2, 300 guys.
- [23:23]
Id
He arrived in front of my office. My security was so stunned, he opened the whole gate for everybody to call.
- [23:32]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
So Id ends up quitting his job, quitting his plans to study philosophy at a formal university. He begins to think of Fela's compound, Kalakura Republic, as its own kind of university. While all that was happening for him, a similar transformation was underway with Lemy and Durou. In Durou's case, it was for music.
- [23:51]
Duro
When we knew Fela, Fela used to go to jazz clubs in Lagos to play with the jazz musicians, horn players, trumpets. This first Time I heard jazz in.
- [24:01]
Lemmy
My life.
- [24:04]
Duro
Jazz sounded very, very awkward to what I've been hearing. I'm used to hearing hymns and things, but, yeah, I mean, jazz was like. It sent me confused, you know? Yeah. So that. That influenced me to start to think completely different from the American tunes, American tutorial that I had. So I started listening to jazz and I started knowing names like Colonious Monk, you know. Exactly. Yeah.
- [25:00]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
So. Wow.
- [25:01]
Duro
Yeah. So the first song.
- [25:02]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
I love. I love. I have to tell you, I love the sound of that piano, but you need to get that piano tuned. Yeah, that piano is.
- [25:08]
Duro
It's a stingway.
- [25:10]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
I regret saying that. His piano is just fine. Duro now leads a band called the Age of Aquarius, and he plays all around Legos. So that was him. For Lemmy, his transformation had to do with art. If you remember, Lemmy's dad was like, you need to be an engineer. Lemmy was leaning toward art, but wasn't really confident. Then he bumps into Fela, and pretty soon he's making an album cover for him. But at that point, he still didn't really believe that making art is a thing you could actually do with your life. It felt more like a side project that he was doing on the way to being the engineer his dad wanted him to be. How do any of us start to actually buy into the idea that we can be who we want? Not who they want, but who we want? How does that happen? Sometimes it is the smallest act of noticing that can shift a mind. 1974, a few days after that terrible raid where police had stormed Fela's compound, thrown in tear gas, beaten him with batons. Fela was in a hospital room. His head was in a bandage. I think one of his limbs was broken. Lemmy and some friends went to visit him in the hospital room. At this point, Lemmy was still kind of the new kid. The room was crowded. There were like 20 adults in this tiny room.
- [26:25]
Lemmy
We started inching our way in the crowd to get closer to the bed so Fela can notice us. So by the time we got close enough, Fela looked at me and he said. He pointed and said, the artist.
- [26:38]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Ah.
- [26:40]
Lemmy
Everybody in the room just turned. They started looking at me like, who is this boy? You know? He said, the artist. That was the moment, spiritually, that I connected to my role.
- [26:51]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
That's interesting. It's almost like a wizard with a magic wand saying, yes, you are an artist.
- [26:57]
Lemmy
Exactly. So I had goosebumps. That's why I said, he's my master.
- [27:01]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
From that point, On Lemmy started calling himself an artist, which felt strange at first, then a little less strange, then just a fact. Eventually he decided to go to art school.
- [27:12]
Lemmy
So I was so happy. So Fela said, let me sit down. He sat me down. He said, if you go to university to study art, they will teach you European art, Italian art, and if you are a good student, you get lost, you lose your identity and your originality. He said, I would advise go and buy books on art, study on your own and take elements that is suitable for you. About three days after I went to buy the first book, give me a second, I'll show you the book. I still have it. I show it.
- [27:43]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Okay.
- [27:48]
Lemmy
Here we are.
- [27:49]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Here, here, here.
- [27:51]
Duro
This is the book.
- [27:52]
Lemmy
Picture Picture History of World Art.
- [27:55]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Picture History of World Art, huh?
- [27:57]
Lemmy
Yeah.
- [27:58]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
That's a big one.
- [27:59]
Lemmy
Yeah. So that, that was the first book I bought based on Fella's advice to study on my own.
- [28:27]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
We should mention that fellow was not just doing this for lemmy Duro and ID. He was clearly at this point in the mid-70s, trying to get something much broader happening. We talked to a lot of people who told us stories of how he would go from one college campus to the next to the next, trying to recruit people.
- [28:44]
Dotun Ayubade
My dad was a Fela buff, and half of my childhood was spent listening to how great Fela was and how he was the greatest artist and intellectual that Nigeria ever produced.
- [28:54]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Dotun Ayubade, one of our advisors.
- [28:56]
Dotun Ayubade
This is how my dad narrated it. Fela would come to campus with tons of books, offload those books on the trunk of his car.
- [29:02]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Fela bought this car. I can't forget it.
- [29:05]
Duro
My name is.
- [29:08]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
I was born in Lagos, 1963. It was a Toyota and it was.
- [29:13]
Id
Red, you know, like Ferrari red.
- [29:15]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
And anytime Fela was coming to visit from a mile away, he would actually be pressing down on his horn.
- [29:21]
Duro
So everybody knew Fela was coming to the area. So we children would rush out to.
- [29:25]
Id
Watch him, you know, and they would.
- [29:27]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Sit on top of the bonnet of the car.
- [29:29]
Dotun Ayubade
Fela would offload those books on the trunk of his car and then just brag that none of your professors have these books and these are the books you should be reading.
- [29:44]
Fela Kuti
Lecture.
- [29:45]
Lemmy
I be decent making a.
- [29:47]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Teaching me.
- [29:48]
Lemmy
Oh.
- [30:14]
Id
When I got sacked from the job, I got to Fela's house that day with Lemmy. As usual, we met at three in the afternoon. Fela asked me, what are your plans for the future? Fantastic question. I said, fela, I want to be a writer. Ah. I want to be a writer, we need to create a youth movement. We need to mobilize this, our youth, you know, to be able to be conscious of this new knowledge that we were discovering. He said, come and see me tomorrow at this at 11. The three of you, come and see me tomorrow at 11. We did not know what was going on in his head.
- [30:53]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
He didn't say anything. He just said, come and see me.
- [30:55]
Id
Just say, come and see me tomorrow. You scaled the sheer cliff face, battling frostbite, running low on oxygen. The wind pierced your skin and every inch was agony. You reached heights no other human had.
- [31:24]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Before.
- [31:27]
Id
While getting nowhere at airport security. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover BEST SELLING action TITLES unaudible.
- [31:38]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
This is Velakuti Fear no man. Back to the story. He didn't say anything. He just said, come and see me.
- [31:44]
Id
Just say, come and see me tomorrow. At 11, the three of us, we arrived in his house. He was already dressed, waiting for us. We got into the car. We arrived at a company called RT Briscoe. We drove in to their showroom. The sales representative. Ah, fellow, what can I do for you? I felt, I said, I want to buy one of your printing machines. Ah, that one can print between 80 and 100,000 copies. How much is it? And the guy said, US$40,000. He signed the check on the spot. While we were driving back home, he said, Id, let me, you have your machine. Get to work. I was so stunned.
- [32:26]
Lemmy
So now the intention was to like replace the boy Scout that the colonialists set up. Boy Scout and Boy's Brigade. We started thinking of what to call our own. And we came up eventually with the Young African Pioneers. Young African Pioneers.
- [32:43]
Duro
Young African Pioneers.
- [32:44]
Lemmy
Yap in pidgin English, YAB is to lampoon. Fellow likes to say yabis. So YAP sounded more like yab, you understand? So we set up the organization. FELA funded it.
- [32:57]
Duro
First thing we did was that myself, Lemmy and id, we started writing the YAP news.
- [33:02]
Id
I had a typewriter where I could write stories.
- [33:08]
Lemmy
So the first YAP newsletter we are distributing for free. For free.
- [33:11]
Id
We print 100,000 copies. We circulate 100,000 copies. For example, this is. This is the, this huge demand removal of Cornell Tafar while we were in.
- [33:23]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Paris, Idaho showed us one of the issues. It's sort of half Wall Street Journal, half zine. You have these cartoons.
- [33:30]
Id
Let me design this.
- [33:32]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Oh, wow. Right next to big journalistic exposes.
- [33:36]
Id
We always say the things that other newspapers cannot print. We. We can print the truth.
- [33:42]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
He Published accounts of secret government meetings called for the removal of public officials.
- [33:47]
Id
So really exposed to Nigerians that we are not compromising.
- [33:51]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
And on every page.
- [33:52]
Id
YAP needs you register today very quickly.
- [33:57]
Lemmy
We had thousands of members, almost like.
- [33:59]
Id
10 to 20,000 registered members.
- [34:04]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
And that was just the beginning.
- [34:05]
Lemmy
The YAP thing eventually metamorphosed into MOP. Movement of the people.
- [34:12]
Duro
Movement of the people. Creation of the Movement of the people.
- [34:14]
Id
We are beginning to build the young guys of Nigeria not to be afraid of the military anymore.
- [34:21]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
It's funny, I get the sense that this was a moment when he really was transitioning from being a rock star, so to speak, to becoming a politician.
- [34:30]
Id
Voila.
- [34:31]
Duro
You imagine Felicia, with all this place filled up with people. It's amazing. It's amazing.
- [34:38]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
When we were in Lagos, Duro gave us a tour of Tafabalewa Square.
- [34:42]
Lemmy
It's like this massive stadium, three football fields.
- [34:45]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Yeah, that's about right. It was the spot where in 1979, with I.D. duro and Lemmy at his side, Fela announced his intention to run for president.
- [34:55]
Duro
We call it the Black President.
- [34:57]
Id
Black President.
- [34:58]
Lemmy
Black President.
- [34:59]
Id
You can see these are all you see. This is where the public was carrying him at the Tafa Baliwa Square.
- [35:05]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Wow. You see him, he's crowd surfing.
- [35:08]
Id
Yeah, they just. They just lift him off his feet.
- [35:11]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Just imagine crowd surfing on tens of thousands of people. But what really hit me, I have to be honest, is not this. It was actually something that happened a couple years before this moment. In preparation for a fellow running for president. Duro Lemianaid wrote this manifesto.
- [35:27]
Id
Put my good glasses on.
- [35:30]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Okay, so here it is.
- [35:31]
Id
Okay. Preambo. The Program of the Movement of the People. This preamble presents the general program for the implementation of the manifesto of the Movement of the People.
- [35:44]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
It's about a 30 page document that tries to reimagine everything about Nigerian society.
- [35:50]
Id
Economic, cultural, social, political, ideological.
- [35:55]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
It gets deep in the weeds on farm settlements, how to reimagine the agricultural system, the transportation system. And you know, some of the ideas are a stretch. It's idealistic, like any manifesto. But I find this one kind of moving. Here you have these three kids who are right at the edge of adulthood and they're looking backwards at the past and they're seeing it for what it is. And they're saying, we don't want that anymore. This, this is the world we want.
- [36:24]
Id
Essential major programs. A must as basic rights of the people of a rehabilitation of NEPA. NEPA is the National Electric Power Authority to provide light 24 hours of the day.
- [36:38]
Duro
B.
- [36:39]
Id
The provision of water for all. C Free education as a reality and not a propaganda.
- [36:47]
Unknown Interviewer
Our education must relate to our environment. Nigerians shall know what they belong to this land through the mass media and school. The MOP shall instill into all Nigerians this sense of belongingness. MOP is therefore going to institutionalize that African and Nigerian languages be first place in our educational system.
- [37:09]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Any films which portray black and African.
- [37:12]
Unknown Interviewer
People with disrespect and contempt shall be banned. We also propose a system where the merits of man will not depend on his tribe or class. We, we are Nigerians and everyone owes a duty to Nigeria and Africa. Movement of the People MOP want to put on record that we are a movement with a mission. And that is to free Nigeria from the colonial economic system which we are practicing today. And thus is the beginning of the struggle for our second independence.
- [37:40]
Id
I discovered something special. I was so proud to be part of that movement. Here was something new that was galvanizing us. For me, sense of belonging was clear.
- [37:55]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
I could see it as you're talking.
- [37:56]
Id
Yeah, a sense of belonging was clear. It was the turning point in my life.
- [38:02]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
Despite everything that would happen. The thing I am left with after interviewing Duro, ID and Lemmy is how they sound when they return to this moment in their lives. They're all in their 60s and 70s now, but when they talk about this period, they sound youthful. Their voices change. When they laugh, they laugh like 18 year olds. Like the boys that they were when the revolution still seemed possible.
- [38:31]
Fela Kuti
My school, Crista School.
- [38:35]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
As we were putting this story together, ID pointed us toward an interview where a student at Lagos University pulled Fela aside after one of his lectures and did an interview. It's a really terrible recording because I think there was music playing right where they were standing. But she asked him some questions.
- [38:50]
Unknown Interviewer
Apart from your immediate family, who. Who is the person that you hold.
- [38:56]
Lemmy
In very high esteem?
- [38:59]
Fela Kuti
Oh, there are some young boys, very young boys.
- [39:05]
Duro
I call.
- [39:05]
Fela Kuti
One is called it. One is called Duration. One is called Fermi F2. These three young boys have been with me for a long time. They're very vast in their knowledge and everything. I pick them. Yeah. I trust them publicly for now.
- [39:21]
Duro
Trust them completely.
- [39:22]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
It's hard to hear that last bit.
- [39:24]
Fela Kuti
I trust them completely. For now.
- [39:28]
Duro
Trust them completely.
- [39:30]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
I trust them completely. For now. I trust them completely. For Id, that connects in his mind to another moment. This one road trip they took.
- [39:39]
Id
We went for a lecture at the University of Nigeria in the east.
- [39:43]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
They drove for hours with the windows down, the boys in Fela passing stories back and forth. A few hours into the drive, he says, they pulled over for a pit stop. They leaned against the car, chatting.
- [39:53]
Id
We had been reminiscing about the past. We were talking about all the beautiful experiences we had and all the bad experiences we had. A fellow turned to me, said aidi, if you guys ever leave me. And he never completed the statement.
- [40:15]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
ID wasn't sure what to make of that. Here they were stirring up this massive national youth movement. Why would he leave? But within a few months, everything would come crashing down.
- [40:27]
Id
For three years this statement rested in my head. We have fellows, said id, if you yak boys ever leave me. But he never completed it.
- [40:55]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
In an upcoming chapter, we will complete that sentence this has been a Higher Ground and Audible Original Produced by Audible Higher Ground Audio Western Sound and Talkhouse series was created and executive produced by me, Jad Abumrad, Ben Adair and Ian Wheeler. Written and hosted by yours truly, Higher Ground Executive Producer producers were Nick White, Mukta Mohan and Dan Fearman. Jen 11 was creative executive and Corinne Gilliard Fisher was Executive producer. Executive producers for Audible were Ann Hepperman, Glenn Pogue and Nick d'. Angelo. Our senior producer was Gofan Utubele. Ruby Heron Walsh was lead producer and researcher. Our producers were Fefe Odudu and Polua Kemi Aladiosoi. Ben Adair was our editor with editing Health Carla Murthy. Consulting producers were Bolu Babalola, Dotun Ayubade, Hanif Abdurraqib, Michael Veal, Moses Uchunu and Judith Byfield. Big gratitude to Fouad Lual, Chika, Ihirim Moore and Esther Eze from Archive NG that's a R C H I V I dot ng they created an archive of Nigerian newspapers for us. Thank you to Duro Ikujenu in his band Age of Aquarius. Search up Duro and the Age of Aquarius to hear his new record which is out now. Huge thanks to ID for all of his research and connections and help with these stories. Our fact checker was Jamila Wilkinson. Alex McInnis was the mix engineer. Also special thanks to Knitting Factory Records and BMG to the Kuti Family, Yenny, Femi Shayun and Maday to Melissa o' Donnell to Inside Projects and Maggie Taylor. And big thanks to Carla Murthy, Leah Friedman and Shoshana Scholar. The head of Creative Development at Audible is Kate Navin, Chief Content Officer Rachel Giazza. Copyright 2025 by Higher Ground Audio, LLC. Sound Recording. Copyright 2025 by Higher Ground AudioSci, LLC.
- [42:59]
Dallas Taylor
I'm Dallas Taylor, host of 20,000 Hz, a lovingly crafted podcast about the amazing world of sound. From music and video games to science and history, the world of sound is full of great stories. The TIE Fighter was made with a car passing by a microphone on wet pavement, and then layered on top of that are these elephant growls.
- [43:26]
Narrator (Jad Abumrad)
You can choose between snares, you can start chopping up the Amen break and.
- [43:30]
Id
Rearranging the individual beats into other configurations.
- [43:35]
Dallas Taylor
And this barely scratches the surface. We've also revealed the hidden stories behind the most iconic sounds to ever be created to unlock your sonic world, follow 20,000Hz right here in your podcast player.