Global Hit

Fela Kuti

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Despite its mainstream theatrical reputation, the credo on Broadway really continues to be anything goes. Broadway’s musical subjects have been as varied as Thomas Jefferson, Jesus Christ, and P.T. Barnum. And so why not a musical about Nigerian afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo Kuti? Marco Werman reports.

Marco Werman’s special Global Hit podcast: Fela Kuti (8 minutes):

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Read the Transcript
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MARCO WERMAN:  I’m Marco Werman, this is the World.  Broadways’ musical subjects have been as varied as Thomas Jefferson, Jesus Christ and P.T. Barnum and so why not a musical about Nigerian afro beat pioneer Fela Anikulapo Kuti?  Well, for starters, Fela is nowhere near as well known as those other guys.  But the review for Fela the Musical have been enthusiastic and shows are selling out so apparently those in the know and those not want a two and a half hour afrobeat and history experience.  The idea of the show is simple.  The audience is transported back to an evening in the mid-seventies at Fela’s nightclub, the Shrine, in Lagos.  It’s uncanny how much this recreates the actual fever at the Shrine and the large weight of that illusion is carried on the shoulder of Sahr Ngaujah.  He’s the actor you’re hearing there who primary takes on the role of Fela Kuti.  Sahr Ngaujah joins us from the studios of the Argot Network in New York.  Thanks for being here.

SAHR NGAUJAH:  Yeah, my pleasure.

WERMAN:  Now, you were born in the United States to an American mother and a Sierra Leonian dad.  When did you first become aware of Fela?

NGAUJAH:  I was around six or seven years old, actually.  My father was a DJ in Atlanta at the time and he was playing house parties, club parties, but African parties all over the city.  For Nigerians, Guynan, Sierra Leoneans, Ethiopians, you name it and he made it a particular point to really explain to me like this guy, he’s a very important composer.  At the time we really just talked about the music, but there was one day ITT was on, you know, International Thief-Thief and then explained to me how Fela kind of brought these two meanings together and layered the meanings.  I was probably just seven years old and it really just blew me away.  It had a really big impression on me.

WERMAN:  What did you think of initially playing the title role in a Broadway, well at the time and off-Broadway, musical about Fela.  I mean he’s not really Broadway material.

NGAUJAH:  Yeah, I was really excited, man.  When they called me and they said hey, Bill wants you to read some things for him.

WERMAN:  Bill T. Jones?

NGAUJAH:  At the time it was impossible, yeah, Bill T. Jones.  Of course I was really excited because Fela is such an icon.  I’ve been aware of his music all my life, but of course there’s so many details to his life that I had no clue about.  So then I began to start doing a deeper research.  The more I looked, the more excited I became.

WERMAN:  Were you just like watching every documentary made about Fela Kuti and just kind of consuming everything about him?

NGAUJAH:  Yeah, yeah.  I just ate as much of Fela Kuti as I could.

WERMAN:  How do you do Fela?  What is your main motivator?  Before you hit the stage, where do you go, what do you do to be him?

NGAUJAH:  Oh well, quite practically, every night there’s a quiet space that I have to find before jumping in front of a few thousand people to shake out whatever Fela had going on in his day in their face.

WERMAN:  Well, let’s check out your and the band’s interpretation of the Fela’s classic, Zombie.  Sahr Ngaujah is singing the Fela classic, Zombie, in the Broadway show Fela.  Now Sahr, for you to play the role of a musical political activist isn’t a huge stretch.  I mean you wrote a theater piece called Conversations with Ice which deals with the global diamonds and Sierra Leone’s child soldiers and the connections to bling and the hip-hop world.  That sounds like a lot to bite off.

NGAUJAH:  Yeah, my family is from Sierra Leone and I grew up in hip-hop culture in the States, so to speak.  I mean, the genesis of that piece was born in 1999 when the rebels, RUF, stormed Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.  At the time I was living in Atlanta and I’ll never forget this one particular night, which was preceded by a week or weeks of phone calls from our family who were on the run, fleeing to Gheny, to refugee camps, fleeing into Freetown.  I spoke to my father on the phone and he told me the latest and I cut on the news.  So after I cut the television off, I cut on the radio and it so happened that two blocks from my house there was this diamond party happening.

WERMAN:  What’s a diamond party?

NGAUJAH:  I don’t know if they still go on.

WERMAN:  Kind of like a Tupperware party?

NGAUJAH:  Well I don’t know if it’s really – - it’s kind of like a Tupperware party, though, in a sense.  People are partying, but what the guy said on the interview was like, you know you got to be iced out to winter and there’s a free diamond give away at the end of the night.  And it was like, okay.  So you just had to be iced out to get into the party and at the end of the party they’re going to give away a free diamond.  Granted, this is like late 90′s, like ’99, the height of bling.  Of course there were a lot of diamonds coming out of Sierra Leone at the time as well.  It really just sent my mind spinning and I began to write a collection of short stories called Refracting, which eventually turned into this piece, Conversations with Ice, that I wrote and directed in Amsterdam.

WERMAN:  Sahr, Fela’s youngest son, Shayman Kuti has come to see the show.  Did he speak to you afterwards about what he saw in your playing his dad?  That must have been kind of weird and wonderful.

NGAUJAH:  We had a blast.  It was weird, man.  It was weird and wonderful, man.  All of those Kuti’s, they put such a huge smile on my face.  The funniest thing though is Shayman, we would go out, maybe to a club or something.  Maybe he offers to buy me a drink or I offer to buy him a drink and he says yeah okay, thanks dad.  He really made me laugh when he said that, but I guess at the end of the day for me, it just made me feel good that he was happy with the work.  And the same with Yenny and Kunlei who came out for opening night.

WERMAN:  Yeah, the other siblings.

NGAUJAH:  Yeah, it was really rich too, to spend time with all of those cats.

WERMAN:  A lot of people who adore Fela have gone to see the show, but there are many more people who don’t know Fela who have gone to see the Broadway musical.  What for you is the best thing about seeing these American audiences at this critically acclaimed show who are encountering Fela for the first time?

NGAUJAH:  The best thing about it, I feel like he represents courage and originality.  I feel it’s important right now in America because we, America has just come out of a heavy period where fear was projected in such a heavy way.  I think now is an important time for people to have any sort of image or figure to associate with that idea, especially if it’s one who is projecting that idea over a fresh beat.

WERMAN:  Sahr Ngaujah is cast in the role of Fela in the relatively new Broadway musical of the same name.  Really good to speak with you Sahr.  Thanks a lot.

NGAUJAH:  Hey cheers, man.  My pleasure.

WERMAN:  Music there from the current Broadway hit Fela.  And you can find out more about the continuing legacy of Fela Kuti on a new TV series that I’m hosting on PBS, Soundtracks, Music without Borders.  The first episode airs tonight.  Check your local listings.  There’s more information as well as audio and video from Soundtracks at the world dot org.  From the Nan and Bill Harris at WGBH, I’m Marco Werman.  Thank you for listening.

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