
After a successful run on Broadway where it garnered two Emmys, the musical
Fela! has now started a national tour. I missed it during a trip to New York earlier in the year (tickets were too difficult to obtain), so I was thrilled to hear that it was coming to DC. Based on the life of Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, the musical recounts how he developed his popular Afrobeat sound and used music to protest the corrupt Nigerian government. After the mass popularity of songs like “Zombie,” which lampooned the methods of the military, the government felt so threatened that in 1977 it attacked Kuti’s commune, beating men and women and killing his mother.
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Tags: culture, great music, history, politics by Jon O
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