Fela! on Broadway

Every time I am in Times Square, I see an ad for the new musical Fela! Previously, I had little knowledge of the musical. All I knew was that it was produced by J-Zay and Jada Pinkett-Smith, as is emblazoned across the tops of many of the giant posters in the theatre district. However, after reading Lipsitz article “Diasporic Noise: History, Hip-Hop, and the Post-Colonial Politics of Sound” it occurred to me that the musical Fela! is probably about activist Fela Kuti, and after a visit to the show’s website, my thoughts were confirmed. Fela Kuti was a sort of radical political figure in Nigeria because he created the “Afro-beat music subculture” (Lipsitz 513). Fela lived in Los Angeles for several years and saw how African Americans were keeping their African roots alive, that Black Americans had formed their own African diaspora in America and were trying to keep the culture of their relatives and ancestors alive and thriving. He then went back to Nigeria and instilled in the people there what he had learned in America. And now his story is told eights times a week at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre to audiences from all over the world.

In a “behind the scenes” clip (link below), the choreographer/director Bill T. Jones and Carols Moore, who is writing a biography of Fela Kuti, discuss how the show truly resonates with Fela’s real story, with his music, and with the message that he was trying to convey to his people about black revolution. In the Lipsitz article, Fela is quoted as saying while living in America, “I realized I had no country. I decided to come back and try to make my country African” (514). He alludes to the fact that there has almost been a sense of the loss of cultural identity for his people, that they live in Africa but have lost the meaning and the pride and the feeling behind being African. Carlos Moore says that the Broadway show is about “bringing forward these beliefs in a way that our whole public could understand what this man was about”. The show is being used as a vessel to communicate the changes that this man tried to instill in his culture, by reviving it, embracing it, and creating his own subculture that was about using that pride in the African culture to make music, that was “about creating and being creative” (Moore). Furthermore, Bill T. Jones says “yes, he is a man from 1978, but we all know that he’s really speaking to us in 2009, 2010”.

I think what is most interesting about the fact that this man’s story has been made into a Broadway musical is that it resonates so completely with what he was trying to do through his efforts. In the clip, Moore discusses how the world is like a bubble and Fela “was always poking it”, trying to get people to “wake-up”. And what better way to poke the bubble than by putting his story and his efforts on an international stage? Also, it is fascinating to consider that diaspora is about the dispersion of peoples, but also hopefully the retention of their culture wherever they may be or whatever time period they may be living in. The musical is dispersing information, disseminating the story of this man who was able to have a real effect on Nigerian culture. But the show is also making a statement about keeping one’s culture alive, that physical displacement does not have to mean cultural displacement.

http://www.felaonbroadway.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6294aCmfIHo&feature=player_embedded#!