Good things about Nigeria #2

Fela Kuti

They have just finished a huge celebration of the life and music of Fela at the Barbican Centre in London. Fela's music is like Miles or Coltrane - it is music of the spheres and of the firmament. Millions of people turned out for his funeral a decade ago in Lagos. Millions more now have his compositions burned into the hard drive of their musical being. Fela's music is perhaps the first African classical music of modernity - huge multilayered experiments in sonic communication. In Nigeria, Fela's music remains celebrated by the underdogs and politely ignored by the ascendant classes. Fela will be danced to in a 1000 years time, if there are still humans then.