Afrobeat, Fela and Beyond: Scenes, Style and Ideology
AFROBEAT, FELA AND BEYOND: SCENES, STYLE AND IDEOLOGY by Oyebade Ajibola Dosunmu BA, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 2001 MA, University of Pittsburgh, 2005 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2010 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Oyebade Ajibola Dosunmu It was defended on November 12, 2010 and approved by Jean-Jacques Sene, PhD, Department of History, Chatham University Laurence Glasco, PhD, Department of History Mary Lewis, PhD, Department of Music (Emerita) Nathan Davis, PhD, Department of Music Akin Euba, PhD, Department of Music ii Copyright © by Oyebade Dosunmu 2010 iii AFROBEAT, BEYOND FELA: SCENES, STYLE AND IDEOLOGY Oyebade Ajibola Dosunmu, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2010 Afrobeat first emerged in the late 1960s amid the rapidly changing postcolonial terrain of Lagos, Nigeria. Created by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (1938-1997), the genre blends scathing anti-establishment lyrics with Yoruba traditional music and Western forms, particularly jazz. Fela’s ideological dictum: “Music is the Weapon of the Future,” encapsulates his view of music as an oppositional tool, his enactment of which led to frequent violent confrontations with the Nigerian state. Throughout his lifetime, Fela held hegemonic sway over afrobeat’s stylistic and ideological trajectories. However, following his death, the genre has witnessed a global upsurge with protégés emerging in New York City, San Francisco, Paris, London and other cultural capitals of the world. In my dissertation, I chronicle afrobeat’s transnational networks and discuss processes of stylistic and ideological affiliation through which such networks have emerged.
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