A Critique of the Political Philosophy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti

Abstract

I have argued that since Plato, the main task of political philosophy is to prescribe how the ideal state ought to be attained. Several postcolonial thinkers, activists and theoreticians, notably, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti attempted a prescription of the ideal state suitable for Africa. Thus Fela’s political philosophy could be summed up as follows: the realisation of Africa’s cultural independence, the unification of continental Africa under democratic governance and Africa’s return to the traditional communalism of its ancestors. Noble as Fela’s political philosophy may seem, nonetheless, it is replete with some discrepancies. The central objective of this dissertation was to elucidate some of the contradictions inherent in Fela’s political philosophy. First, Fela’s glorification of traditional African communal past was not borne out of the facts, since such past had been altered by years of acculturation. Besides, such idealisation of Africa’s past veiled Fela from seeing that as a result of the Islamic and Euro-Christian imprint, Africa had moved beyond the communal stage. Again, the political kingdom as advocated by Fela was necessary but not sufficient for other independences economic and social. More so, Fela’s denunciation of Islam and Christianity for their role in the enslavement and colonisation of Africa was emotional rather than logical. The socio-political divisions among states and empires in what is now geographically Africa were exploited by the slave masters and colonial powers. He again presented a simplistic solution to the triple heritage problem in Africa arising from the Islamic and Euro-Christian influences, since he failed to realise that such influences had taken root. Last but not the least, Fela’s contravention of existing morality and the excessive use of marijuana appeared not to have given him much room and space to coherently develop an ideology for his political philosophy.