The biography of Fela Kuti, a tribute to his fighting spirit for the defense of the African people

the nigerian artist Where did you grow up? He was a tireless fighter for civil rights in Africa, and also, one of the biggest musical influences of the sixties and seventies with its afrobeat. Now he is remembered by the Mexican journalist moon sanctuarywho was responsible for publishing Fela Kuti. wild spirit. A book that collects the lifeline of the African singer-songwriter in the form of a biography.

feel where died in 1997 of complications related to HIV, which he developed to the stage of HOW. At his funeral, more than a million people gathered to say their final farewells. He even managed to bring together some police and military, who were responsible for giving him a hard time among many other anecdotes.

In the book, Moon collects Kuti’s key moments. Since October 15, 1938, the date on which he was born in the city of Lagos (Nigeria), until his glory years as a faithful representative of the afrobeatgoing through the repercussions it has had inside and outside the African continent, and the rawest episodes of its existence.

“Indomitable Spirit” takes on the task of portraying an artist stimulated by the ideas of black man’s liberation proclaimed by Malcolm X and the black panthersbut also because of the pan-Africanism of Kwame Nkrumah. But they also present the creator of a whole musical style, who was responsible for designing the African counter-culture until he was the founder of the commune. Republic of Kalakuta.

Moon It also reports on a singer-songwriter who fostered the creation of various projects, including the club The sanctuarythe newspaper DO News and the political party SWAB; the latter, as a propaganda platform in which This He promoted his ideas and his fight against the endemic evils that still plague Africa today, such as neocolonialism and corruption.

This he became a banner in the fight against the ills of his continent, an African territory plagued by religious struggles between Islam, Christianity and indigenous traditions. He was an artist who never stopped exploring a wide range of sounds. This is the only way to create a musical style that unites the roots of jazz with pop and other western rhythms.

His fight makes him a target and he is considered public enemy number one. Moon It tells of a man who was persecuted, tortured and imprisoned, but also of the repression suffered by those around him as friends, women and his own mother. wild spirit recounts that 1958 trip to London that Fela made to enroll in classical music studies.

While in English territory, he formed his first band. However, on his return he found a Africa consumed by flames and riots, a divided homeland that awakened in him a fighting instinct to defend his principles and those of his compatriots. Kuti would never have imagined that his fight would bear his name in other latitudes.

The book written by Moon Sanctuary it is a tribute to a character who has remained alive within the movements of the African counter-culture. The slogans that feel where he left his people as a legacy to this day they have kept the flame of a struggle that never ends.

This is not the first biography that Sanctuary did. The writer has extensive experience in the genre, in the eighties she was responsible for signing the biographies of Jam (1983), y Shock (1988). In 1990, her career took a turn when she became a record company promoter, which led her to work with Manu Chao, Fermin Muguruza there The enemies. In addition, she is the founder of the association Afrobeat Project.

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