By Osagie Alonge
It’s the evening of Thursday, June 16, 2011. It’s past 6pm and I’m still at work. For the last hour and a half, I haven’t really concentrated on what I’m doing; My mind is on where I’m going tonight: The New Afrika Shrine to watch the legendary Femi Kuti celebrate his 49th birthday.
I quickly left the newsroom, straight out of the office premise and waved down a motorbike at the bus stop, ‘take me to the shrine’, I simply instructed, expecting him to know my destination and oh yes he did.
I hop on and as he swerves almost recklessly through the building traffic, I cross my fingers hoping to have not missed any part of Femi’s celebration as the party was meant to start at exactly 6PM.
I got to the New Afrika Shrine situated on 1 NERDC Road, Agidingbi Ikeja at about 6:15PM and as usual the never-ending party was living up to its moniker. I met my very good friend and relative to the Kuti family Kole at the entrance and he ushered me in.
This wasn’t my first time at the Shrine but as usual, anytime I stepped into the shrine, I always had a ‘first time’ experience. The smoke which oozed from different blunts of burning marijuana sticks filled the air and formed a mini cloud hovering over us. It was a festive period as usual; there were all kind of drinks available, girls dressed in skimpy clothes, mini-food stands, and a suya spot. Like I said, morning, afternoon, night, the shrine which was built and completed on Friday, October 13, 2000 is a never ending party.
I’m here to interview an Afrobeat legend, the son of the iconic social rebel Fela Anikulapo Kuti. There was no time for games. ‘Kole please take me upstairs, I want to see Uncle Femi and Aunty Yeni’, I requested. So we manoeuvred (yes, the shrine is quite big, as big as six plots but there was a huge crowd here today) through the area, I ask Kole why there are so many people here, the weekend is not yet here but you’d think there’s a Goodluck Lunch meeting, or Friday night rendezvous going on. ‘Seun (Kuti) is in Canada, so his fans are here too’ Kole tells me. Through the crowd we went, snooker games were going on, others seated, chatting while they smoked and drank, laughter filled the air and mixed with the smoke, a resident deejay played songs from the sixties, even the security guards joked with customers, it looked quite peaceful.
I got to the backstage area and up I went. Climbing the stairs, I saw pictures of the Kuti family hung by the walls, pictures of Femi on tour, with Alicia Keys, another with Angelina Kidjo, it looked like a living memorial. In as much as I wanted to see Femi for the second time (I had been here before, just for a casual visit and I was warmly welcomed), I thought of saying hello to Yeni Kuti a.k.a YK Power (she must have been handed the nickname due to her manly and brave approach towards tough situations). ‘YK Power is in Gambia, she had to attend to some matters’, Kole said. I was going to miss her humorous sarcasms and down-to-earth opinions for that night. I slowly walked towards Femi’s room; and there he was dressed in a simple black tee and his characteristic Ankara trousers, chatting with a guest, glass of champagne in his right hand and a smile on his face.
We had met before, Femi had told me stories of his trip to France last year, I remember Yeni always teasing him, he would respond with only two words ‘YK Power!’. So meeting him again was special but this time, I would save my star struck attitude for another day. I would get straight to the point and get my interview.
‘Good evening sir and happy birthday’, I said as I pulled out my recorder.
‘How are you, you have come to interview abi? As you can see, I’ve been having a good time drinking and I’m preparing for tonight’s show so please go and have some food and drinks’, Femi jokingly jabbed me.
I still got to ask my questions and he gladly answered. Only a handful of people were upstairs with us, a few extended family members and well wishers, his dancers, Yeni’s close friend and a few others. Femi’s personal room looks like any other performers room; a tad disorganized with clothes on a bed with clean but rumpled bed sheets, glass with light bulbs lit around it, the window blinds were made of tie and dye, paintings hung everywhere, a TV on the dressing table, the air-conditioning was on but the door was left wide open. He just sat comfortably in a cane chair with a smile on his face. His son Made sat on his father’s bed, gentle as ever. I wave at him and as usual he replies with a shy ‘Hi’.
I move over to Yeni’s room which most times served as a guest room. Moving over, I passed the mini-office where the Shrine’s manager Mr.Sunday sat working on a PC. Yeni’s room is much bigger, brighter and more accommodating. Maybe it was the walls that were painted blue or the blue rug, or the brown flower pots in the corners of the room or the fact that it had its own bathroom…it was just a relaxation spot, little wonder Femi came trotting in a few minutes later. I could have sworn that Yeni’s dressing table couldn’t accommodate one more item because it was filled with all sorts – a TV, a file container, a couple of awards, birthday cards, champagne bottles, pictures, more pictures and plenty trinkets.
Femi sat down and chatted some more, he was never uptight, maybe because he had not put down that glass of champagne he had been drinking. Unlike what I’ve repeatedly heard, I never saw Femi smoking all through my visit. The bathroom was a make shift bar for the night, all sorts of drinks emerged from there. The funny thing is that the sanity upstairs was the total opposite of what was going on downstairs but I guess everybody loved it that way.
The Positive Force band, Femi’s music house came on stage and started warming up for the night by serenading the crowd with throwback songs from the ‘90s. This was around 11:30PM. Femi stepped on stage at 12 midnight, the crowd paid more attention now, people shouted and whistled hard ‘Shoki Shoki!’ people chanted. Femi still had the smile on his face, he paused and looked into the crowd, resumed on the double layered keyboard and played away. Femi continued on his sax and drove the crowd crazy. His performance went into the early hours of the morning, performing songs likes ‘Wonder wonder’, ‘Sorry sorry’, ‘Eh oh’ and other classic Afrobeat tunes. In between performances, Femi would talk to the crowd and jeer them up by rebuking those who didn’t want well for the country. He chastised the EFCC for the recent arrest of former speaker Dimeji Bankole, asking why it took them so long to make the arrest.
I shuttled from upstairs down to right in front of the stage to catch a feel of both sides. I saw Made peeping from upstairs as the female dancers seductively danced with his father. I went back upstairs and asked him ‘Do you really like Afrobeat music?’, he responded with a nod.
It was magical; his dancers moved their body like they were made of rubber, the drummer hit the skin of the drums so hard, you’d think he would tear them open, the syncing of the guitarist and bass player was on point. Femi ended the night’s show on an impressive high by blowing his sax for 15 minutes straight.
He called it a night by saying the usual ‘arararara’, the crowd responded ‘ororororo’…
