The Afrobeat singer reflects on his late father’s personal life, challenging popular perceptions of his relationships and acknowledging his flaws.
Afrobeat singer Seun Kuti, the youngest son of the legendary Fela Kuti, has revealed shocking details about his late father and his wives.
Seun stated that his father’s relationships with his wives were far from the traditional image many Nigerians have come to believe.
He noted that while Fela remained an iconic figure, he was not without flaws, admitting that the music legend made several mistakes in his personal life.
Kuti said: “One of his mistakes was… I saw a girl online who was saying people were praising Fela. Didn’t he give his women AIDS? Didn’t Fela die of AIDS? They said Fela was giving his women HIV. I said, “Oh, Fela, did you see yourself?” If Fela had been a traditional man, as you all think, he would still be alive. And I will tell you something today about him that you might not have known.
“Fela’s women all had other men. I know this will give your bloggers something to say. Go and say this one. To all the ignorant fools, Fela did not keep his women to himself. Fela believed that, as he was free to sleep with all these women, they were also free to go and meet other men. ‘Just don’t bring them to my house.’ That was my father’s law.”
Additionally, Seun argued that people who strive to uplift others may make mistakes along the way, but those they support should, in turn, stand firmly by them.
He also noted that his late father, Fela Kuti, never had to go in search of women, despite being surrounded by many.
Fela famously married twenty-seven women in a single ceremony on 20 February 1978. The move marked the anniversary of an attack on his Kalakuta Republic compound and was intended to protect his female band members from harassment.
Beyond that historic event, he was also widely known to have had relationships with several other women in addition to those he married at once.
“Any woman he liked, he would bring home. It was his women who went outside to meet other men. So, nobody is perfect. If he had been traditional, he would have asked, ‘Where are you going?’ ‘I am the husband.’ Everybody makes mistakes. I do not worry about that. But Fela was a man who was on the side of life. It is not our place to point out his errors.
“He was on the side of life. Sowore is on the side of life. It is not your place to say he makes mistakes or to look for faults in him. You can support those people on the side of death who are killing us every day and destroying our lives so that they can earn points for death”, he said.
Seun last made headlines in January after clashing with Wizkid FC over comparisons between his late father and the “Ojuelegba” hitmaker.
