Artistes celebrate Fela’s posthumous birthday at Felabration

Fuji musician Abass Akande, aka Obesere, and Afrobeat singer Femi Kuti serenaded fans at the New Afrika Shrine on Thursday as part of Felabration 2026 to mark the 88th posthumous birthday of Nigerian music icon Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

Felabration is an annual music and cultural festival held in Nigeria to celebrate the life, music, and legacy of Fela, who was known for using music to criticise corruption, military rule, social injustice, and political oppression in Nigeria.

Femi, Fela’s eldest son, Obesere, street-pop singer Okafor Uchenna Victor, popularly known as Mr Real and all-female band Cultured Female Percussionist, were among the artists who performed in honour of the late music icon at Thursday’s Felabration show, which also featured music and dance competitions.

Speaking to OkayAfrica about his father, Femi acknowledged that Fela was not a conventional father who was always present in his children’s lives. However, he said he now believes his father’s absence may have been an attempt to shield them from the Nigerian authorities following the military regime’s killing of their grandmother.

“The older I get, he was not the conventional father. He was there with you to do your homework. He was everybody’s father. The deeper I think about it, I think this was a way of probably protecting his children from the danger he was facing,” Femi said.

He added, “Probably if he showed the Nigerian authorities that he loved his children, probably if they had harmed one of us like his mother, that could have been completely devastating. So probably he just said this is my home and I am everybody’s father, I am for everybody so we had to share him with the whole world. But the deeper I looked into his eyes, I did see love.”

During his lifetime, Fela was imprisoned several times, largely due to his confrontations with the Nigerian authorities. He died on August 3, 1997 from heart failure due to reported complications with AIDS.