Finding Fela: My Strange Journey to Meet the AfroBeat King in Lagos

by Dan Dinello

"Finding Fela" is my personal memoir of a journey to Lagos, Nigeria, to film the legendary African musician and political firebrand Fela Kuti, the "Black President." In 1983, Fela was Africa’s best-known performer: he mixed radical politics and pop music as they have rarely been mixed before. As a white man from Chicago, I experienced extreme culture shock and even got arrested and jailed. Eventually, I lived near Fela's commune, talked with him several times, became friends with many of his followers, and saw him perform at his Lagos club, The Shrine. Now deceased, Fela was the focus of a recent Broadway musical Fela!

Genres: Music

35 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 31, 2011

Reviews

[Abdul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short ebook that details author’s journey to Lagos, Nigeria to see Afrobeat King Fela Kuti. It was extremely short and thin on vivid details. I wish the author’s experiences were more richly described in order to give one a better sense of what he saw and heard. Sadly there are too few books about the life and times of Fela Kuti. I wish the author had done more to shed light on this extraordinary musician.