Freedom, Good Governance and Nationalism in Fela Anikulapo’s Music

Ogunjimi, M.O. (2019) Freedom, Good Governance and Nationalism in Fela Anikulapo’s Music. In: 6th Annual Conference of the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria, September 4th to 5th 2019., Nigeria.

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Abstract

The use of music to fight for freedom and to call for good governance has been the hallmark of musicians that are nationalism inclined. It becomes expedient for musicians like FelaAnikulapoKuti to communicate through Afro music about many national policies made by national leaders which have put people under another kind of colonisation. A prophetic music such as that of Fela still captures the current situation in this present political dispensation despite the fact the songs have been sung decades from now. Indeed, music plays a huge role in human life and in communicating the wrongs of the governance for correction. This paper examines selected albums of Fela Anikulapo Kuti. It discusses how the songs in his albums have revealed the evil in governance and projected the corrupt practices in government as well as how these have contributed to the downturn of Nigerian’s government overtime. Using the Social Critic Theory as modified by Benson (2013), complemented with the content analysis method, the study investigates how music served as medium of communication on freedom and need for good governance in the past and present political administrationsusingsurvey design interpretive hermeneutics approach. Findings reveal that Fela’s music was impactful in the areas of political protest, mobilisation and radicalisation of policy formulation. Fela’s music career as observed in this study, evolved through Liberal and the Revolutionary thematic categorisations. This study concludes that, music served as medium of communication on freedom and need for good governance in the past and present political administrations and that Fela’s music has served as a clarion call to people who are victims of Nigeria’s political maladministration.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects: M Music and Books on Music > M Music
M Music and Books on Music > ML Literature of music
M Music and Books on Music > MT Musical instruction and study
Divisions: Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > School of Art
Depositing User: Mr Taiwo Egbeyemi
Date Deposited: 08 Feb 2022 08:58
Last Modified: 08 Feb 2022 08:58
URI: http://eprints.federalpolyilaro.edu.ng/id/eprint/1816

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