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. Using the conceptual tool of genre as social process, I combine archival and ethnographic data collected during several months of fieldwork in the United States and Nigeria, in order to argue the conditionality of genre definitions and boundaries. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ........................................................................................................................................ X 1.0 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 AIMS OF THE STUDY ..................................................................................................... 7 1.2 STATE OF RESEARCH .................................................................................................... 8 1.3 SCOPE AND ETHNOGRAPHIC DATA .......................................................................... 11 1.4 METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................... 13 1.4.1 Multi-sited ethnography ................................................................................ 13 1.4.2 Modes of construction in multisited fieldwork ........................................... 13 1.4.2.1 Follow the people ................................................................................. 14 1.4.2.2 Follow the thing ................................................................................... 14 1.4.2.3 Follow the biography ........................................................................... 14 1.4.3 The baseline .................................................................................................... 15 1.5 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................................................... 16 1.5.1 Genre in popular music studies ..................................................................... 16 1.5.2 A general framework of genre ..................................................................... 18 1.5.3 Scenes, style, ideology................................................................................... 19 2.0 SCENES AND NETWORKS ........................................................................................... 21 v 2.1 POPULAR MUSIC IN LAGOS: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXTS................................. 22 2.1.1 Lagos ............................................................................................................... 23 2.1.2 Precursors and Prototypes ............................................................................ 27 2.1.3 Highlife ............................................................................................................ 30 2.1.4 Crisis ................................................................................................................ 35 2.1.5 Hepcats and Soul Explosion .......................................................................... 39 2.2 BIRTH OF AFROBEAT ......................................................................................... 43 2.3 THE LAGOS AFROBEAT SCENE, POST-FELA ..................................................... 49 2.3.1 In the field: FELABRATION at the New Afrika Shrine .................................. 51 2.4 WESTWARD MIGRATIONS ................................................................................. 57 2.4.1 Antibalas ......................................................................................................... 66 2.4.2 In the field: afrobeat party in New York City ............................................... 71 2.5 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 78 3.0 MUSICAL STYLE .......................................................................................................... 80 3.1 STYLE, GENRE: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? ............................................................... 81 3.2 THE FORMATIVE STAGE: EVOLUTION OF STYLE ............................................. 82 3.2.1 Koola Lobitos: ................................................................................................. 83 3.2.1.1 “Bonfo” .................................................................................................. 84 3.2.1.2 “Fere” .................................................................................................... 87 3.2.1.3 “Ololufe” (Lover) ................................................................................. 90 3.2.2 Nigeria ’70: .................................................................................................... 103 3.2.2.1 “My Lady Frustration” ....................................................................... 103 vi 3.2.2.2 London Scene ..................................................................................... 110 3.2.3 Africa ’70 ....................................................................................................... 111 3.2.3.1 “Jeun ko ku” (Chop and Die) ............................................................. 111 3.2.4 Egypt ’80: ...................................................................................................... 117 3.3 SUBSEQUENT STAGE: CONTEMPORARY NEGOTIATIONS ............................ 128 3.3.1 Constructing afrobeat’s canon ................................................................... 128 3.3.2 Authenticity and transgression .................................................................. 134 3.4 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................... 138 4.0 IDEOLOGY .................................................................................................................. 140 4.1 IDEOLOGY AND GENRE FORMATION ...................................................................... 141 4.1.1 Fela as afrobeat’s chief ideologue .............................................................. 142 4.1.2 Ecology of ideologies ................................................................................... 143 4.1.2.1 Black Nationalism ............................................................................... 144 4.1.2.2 Lower Class Partisanship ................................................................... 146 4.1.2.3 Libertinism .......................................................................................... 147 4.1.3 “Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense:” Fela, Pedagogy, Partisan Politics and Democracy ......................................................................................................... 148 4.1.3.1 Colonial pedagogies ........................................................................... 151 4.1.3.2 The chaotic new guard ...................................................................... 154 4.1.3.3 Musical analysis .................................................................................. 158 4.2 IDEOLOGY IN CONTEMPORARY AFROBEAT SCENES .................................... 166 4.2.1 In the field: Encounter with a “Felasopher” .............................................. 166 vii 4.2.2 “Post-Fela” Lagos ......................................................................................... 168 4.2.2.1 Femi Kuti ............................................................................................. 173 4.2.3 New York City and other scenes in the US ................................................. 176 4.2.3.1 In the field: Antibalas at the “Black Cat” .......................................... 178 4.2.3.2 Politics of the groove ........................................................................ 182 4.3 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................