“No agreement today, no agreement tomorrow/I no go agree make my brother hungry/Make I no talk.” – Fela

 

This is an interesting piece by John Dramani Mahama, the vice president of Ghana on Fela and his experiences during that era. It’s not often African vice presidents take up blogging gigs so let’s hear what he has to say. The full version of this is at the Roots (link below). We have provided you with an excerpt below.

Although we felt that we knew who we were, nobody could say for sure anymore what Africa was. The fervor of the postcolonial independence period had died down, and Africa’s future, which everyone had assumed would be bright, was now hanging in the balance. Fledgling democracies gave way to dictatorships as country after country experienced military coup after military coup.

Fela’s music addressed issues of corruption, military brutality, and social as well as economic justice and gave us an outlet for our outrage and frustrations. He sang about what so many people felt but were not able to express for fear of the consequences. His music turned him into an enemy of the state in Nigeria. He was harassed by the government and even jailed. For a period, Fela fled the country and sought refuge in Ghana, until the government here, which was growing increasingly uneasy with the rebellious nature of his music, ordered him to return to Nigeria

One of the biggest challenges to recovery that Nigeria and most other African nations have had to face has been the battle with HIV/AIDS. But even there, statistics show that Africans are winning. Jonathan and I are both in the United States this week, as are more than a dozen other African heads of state, to attend sessions at the United Nations High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS to figure out what additional steps we can take to further reduce the prevalence of the disease in our respective countries. The incidence of the disease and its related illnesses is relatively low in both Ghana and Nigeria, at less than 4 percent of their populations. But we can do better, and I believe that we will.

As I watched the immense talent that Sahr Ngaujah and the other cast members of Fela! displayed that evening in Lagos and was reminded of Fela’s outspokenness, I had to concede that if he were alive, he would still find plenty to sing about.

Head over to the Roots for the full version