Yeni and Femi Anikulapo Kuti

   By Nehru Odeh

Remilekun, wife of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti is indeed assured of immortality. Twenty-three years after her demise, she has revealed all, including how she met her husband at a cousin’s birthday party in London in her dazzling memoir simply entitled “Mrs Kuti.”

The memoir, which she wrote at the height of Kalakuta Republic and in the heat of Fela’s incessant brush with agents of successive military regimes, was released by Ouida Books on Monday 13 January 2024.

Carol King reading an excerpt from the book

Yeni, her daughter aptly describes that chance meeting as Fela appearing to her like “a comet” in the Foreword, and it turns out to be not just the beginning of a rambunctious, rollercoaster affair, but also the genesis of a romance which defied all odds and defined the afrobeat era of the 60s, 70s, 80s and the 90s.

Still, the first dance they had at that party was indeed symbolic enough and a metaphor for the life of music,  razzmatazz and glamour that would define their relationship and the lives that their children Yeni, Femi and Sola would later live.

“As we sat watching the dancers, I got the strange feeling that someone was watching me,” Remi reminisces in the memoir.

“A glance around the room showed that everyone was concentrating on their enjoyment but the feeling persisted. My glance fell on the window, and there I saw a pair of eyes just staring at me. The owner was an exceedingly handsome young man, but never had I encountered such brazenness …”

Dr Olaokun Soyinka in conversation with Yeni and Femi

On another occasion, Remi writes about how Fela taught her how to dance at the teething stages of their relationship. “Immediately the fellow  came into the room, he  made a beeline to where I sat, held out his hand and said, ‘Let’s dance.’ I refused being that I didn’t know how. He ignored my statement and just grabbed my hand and said, ‘I’ll teach you.’

And then comes the love advance. “When I found Fela waiting for me at the foot of the stairs, I turned to go back up, only to find my way blocked by two young horrors. I was forced to sit and hear Fela out.

“Without hesitation, he said, ’I want you to be my girlfriend.’ I replied, ‘I’m too young for you. ‘I’m only eighteen.’ ‘Well,’ he declared, ‘that’s just right for me because I’m twenty-one.’ His logic had me cornered …’  Remi says, narrating how their affair began.

Those encounters indeed sum up the beginning of the relationship that forms the thrust of the book, the pages of which took more than two decades to assemble and compile.

Ms Sandra Oyewole

It was an evening of memories, nostalgia, fun and laughter. It was also an evening of emotions. Remi’s children. Yeni and Femi who were in conversation with Dr Olaokun Soyinka, got the hall roaring with endless laughter, what with their funny reminisces and fraternal missiles they fired at each other.

An argument that ran through the conversation was which between the two siblings was either Fela’s or Remi’s favourite, an argument in which neither of them capitulated.

And it gave the audience fodder for endless strings of laughter. Yet Olaokun had to intervene and pleaded with the audience not to ask more provocative questions and give the siblings ammunition for further warfare.

Made Kuti thrilled the audience at the beginning of the event with a spectacular jazz performance. Remi’s sister, Sonia, read an emotion-laden letter she had written to her. Carol King read excerpts from the book. Remi’s grandchild Demilade Anikulapo Kuti read a poem titled “Woman of Substance” which she dedicated to her. While Sandra Oyewole and Rolari Jacks paid fitting tributes to her

Made Kuti performing

However, Ms Lola Shoneyin, poet, writer and founder of Ouida Books set the ball rolling with a terse speech  “We have published a lot of books at Ouida, probably 50,  but this one was very, very special to us. Firstly, as the publisher we had to be very careful because we were working with our relatives here  So we didn’t want to offend anybody.  We wanted to get things right.

“And we are just supremely proud of the work that we have been able to do  We are proud of your mum and the work that she’s done,  the work that she did.  And there is something very moving about the fact that today, the 13th of January which is exactly 23 years since she passed, we are here celebrating this gift that she left for us. So I am very excited about the event,” Shoneyin enthused.

A very intriguing thing about the book is that it took the determination of  Yeni and Femi as well as the cooperation of Shoneyin and her husband Olaokun for the book to see the light of day. Fela’s children found it difficult to put the book together as many pages of the book were missing while Remi was still writing it.

The book presentation

“When she wrote this book I was reading it chapter by chapter. I was like ‘Mummy release this book. People need to know.’  If you go on the internet, there is nothing about my mother. But she was a very vital pillar in Fela’s life. We could have all ended up terrible because of Kalakuta but she was there praying. She was always prayerful for us.

“A lot of journalists came.  They took some chapters. As you know some chapters were missing. I was so angry because they never returned them,’ Femi reminisced.

However, Yeni put in, speaking about the efforts she and Femi put in to make sure the book came out. “On behalf of Femi and I, I would like to say this book is a long, long time coming. I remember when mummy started writing this book, Femi, who was mummy’s ‘golden child’ read and loved it. Mummy often begged me to read it but I would refuse and say I wasn’t interested in her Mills and Boon love stories, a decision I would later regret with all my heart.

“It was after she passed that I started reading it. I had so many questions, but it was too late for her to answer. That saddened me and again made me put off reading it. It is still so hard for me to read her words. Mummy had a tough childhood and grew to be a shy, beautiful young lady. She met Fela in London and fell in love. She dreamed of  a  quiet life  with him, but life with Fela was anything  but quiet,” Yeni said

Ms Lola Shoneyin

This brought to the fore some burning questions which rang throughout the event. How was Remi, who was shy and conservative able to cope with a liberal, bohemian artiste like Fela? How was she able to live through all his excesses and survive? What was her coping mechanism? However, both children, now successful adults in their rights, hinged it on the deep and undying love their mother had for Fela.

“I believe that she had told her body, that this man and no other man. So she knew what she was getting into. She was too honest to go against herself… But I don’t think she had a final regret as such.  Because she knew what she was getting into. And she allowed it.

“Probably she thought if she didn’t let this man have his way, she would be stopping his light from shining. So it was her duty I think as a wife, as somebody who truly loved him, to let him be. If you don’t let him be who he wants to be, then is that love? So you have to accept him, especially when he tells you who he is.

“When she was heartbroken many times, my sister would say ‘Why are you waiting over Fela? Why don’t you go and get another boyfriend.’ I would say ‘Don’t dare. Don’t dare.’ Because I understood the political implications of probably one of Fela’s enemies dating her,” Femi maintained.

The audience

Yeni, for her part, corroborated Femi when she said:  “I saw the love she had for my father. As a woman, it’s:s not possible. Like what Femi said, I would tell her, ‘Fine beautiful woman like you. If you go to Ikoyi Club, rich, rich men would chase you o.’  And she would say with her British accent, ‘Ah, look, Fela was the only man for me.’  I would say ‘Ah sorry I.’ My brother would say, ‘My mummy mustn’t go and meet another man.’

“She said Fela had told her when their relationship was about to start that he was going to have girlfriends. From what I saw she seemed to be okay with it.  Some of his girlfriends would still come and attack her. But Fela would always protect her,” said Yemi.

L-R,Yeni, Yemi Ransome- Kuti, Femi.

Femi also spoke about how their mother always defended Fela, making sure none of the children spoke ill of him, even when he refused to pay their school fees because of his opposition to education.

“And when we got back from school, she would say don’t let me ever hear you say it any day. No matter what we said, she would quickly erase it from our minds. Even as we were growing up, she tried to defend him, consciously or unconsciously. She would explain why he was locked up. She would explain the beatings. She would explain why it’s important he needs his family.

“So really a lot of people give Fela the credit. But, as Lola said, she was the secret pillar. If he didn’t hold Yeni, Sola and me together, today you would probably be saying Femi is a drug addict, and Yeni is a prostitute. And that is what the bourgeoisie or the elite government would have loved to say and bring Fela down.

“Every single one of Fela’s friends was chasing her. They would come to the house. When they leave mummy would tell us about it. Many musicians were chasing her. Many of them would be telling her bad things, that Fela had girlfriends.

“It got so painful that when Mummy, Nanny and Auntie Sonia meet and we hear them talking, we would be like, Can’t Fela see the pain that he is causing this family? But again, Mummy would be like, there is a bigger picture. Please see the bigger picture here. So we grew up seeing these things and respecting her integrity and defending her.

Rolari Jacks

Sandra Oyewole described her as a pragmatic woman who understood what was going on around her, evolved and adjusted to manage everything that was being thrown at her.

“It wasn’t easy, but she made it easy. From the eyes of a little girl going to my auntie’s house every week, she was then coming to our house every week what I saw was a profound, cool, beautiful woman,” Sandra maintained

“Auntie’s book was something we heard about from time immemorial.  She had been writing it from time immemorial. It’s a family folklore. Here we are today, 23 years after she died, to launch this book.  It has never been more important for the voice of the woman to be heard.

“Auntie was Fela’s wife. She took her vows very seriously. She took her marriage vows very seriously That’s what we heard, from the point where she entered, fell in love with him, married him till her dying days,” Sandra reminisced.

Mrs Yemisi Ransome-Kuti gave a moving speech extolling the virtues of Fela’s family for their strength of character and courage of conviction. She also stressed the need for unity in the family, praising Yeni for the great job she had been doing bringing the Fela family together.

The cutting of the birthday cake and photo sessions signified the end of a remarkable book launch, the celebration of a lady whom everyone agreed was a woman of substance but also the beginning of a new era on her journey into immortality.