Q: How did you feel when Fela married his twenty-seven wives?
A: That didn’t worry me. It was that he didn’t come and tell me himself.
Q: He didn’t consult you before?
A: No, he told my children. Although he told them two weeks earlier, they didn’t tell me. That didn’t worry me because the girls had always been there, even more than what he married. So there wasn’t any problem over that.
Q: But why didn’t he consult you?
A: I sometimes feel Fela’s a little bit afraid of me. I really do. [Laughter.] He may never show it or admit it, but I feel it.
Q: So that gives you a certain leverage over him, doesn’t it?
A: I don’t think so. I don’t class it as anything other than that he knows me so well and he’s giving me extra respect for being what I am. I don’t think he gives me authority or power.
Q: How do you find life in Nigeria, not being a Nigerian by birth or culture?
A: By culture, not by birth. I think I’ve always felt at home there. There are things I don’t like which every Nigerian doesn’t like. But I like it. I’ve always wanted to come back. I had always wanted to. Of course, sometimes, you know. . . . Somebody asked me the other day, “How did I adapt to no lights, no water?” But when I got there, there were all those things. So, of course, I’m just treated like every other Nigerian. You grow up with it. It was a gradual thing, the lights and that. So I don’t say I’ve had to adapt to it anyway.
oldest son, Femi alto saxophonist with Egypt 80
Photo: Chico
Fela’s younger daughter, Sola
Fela with oldest daughter, Yeni, and son Kunle
Photo: André Bernabé
Lamiley
Photo: Raymond Sardaby
NAA LAMILEY
“You Must See Inside Fire
No Matter How Hot”
Tall, lean, languid, Naa Lamiley has the grace of the older assured woman. She’s constantly moving. Often caught slouching, hands in pockets, this only adds charm and youthfulness to her normally assured composure. Her slow, easy gait matches her deep sensuous voice. Lively, elegant, she likes telling stories which she vividly animates. A woman who likes to enjoy herself and for whom life is interesting. Dominant without appearing dominating, she has the inner strength of a woman who takes all things in her stride.
Born in Accra, Ghana, on 12 September 1949, to the Ga ethnic group, Naa Lamiley Lamptey was brought up in a strict Christian household. Although beaten severely by her mother, her father who “doesn’t beat anybody” didn’t care “about what you do provided you are happy doing it”. From a polygamous family, she is one of nine children born to her father’s two wives. After finishing secondary school up to Fifth Form, Naa Lamiley began working as museum technician for the Accra Museum. In 1973 she was granted a UNESCO fellowship to study museum techniques in Jos, Nigeria. The first of Fela’s two Ghanaian wives, she met Fela in Accra in 1971 and is thus considered one of the senior wives. Lamiley works as a disc-jockey at the Shrine.
Q: So you’ve known Fela since 1971? How did you meet him?
A: I met Fela in Accra while he was there on a trip. He came to play. Very fortunately we were one day standing at the gate by our house, near the street and the next thing we saw was this taxi that came and stopped. And I saw Fela inside with one other friend, Raymond Aziz, who I knew in Ghana very well.
Q: Did he talk to you?
A: He just say hello to everybody; greeted everybody.
Q: Had you ever heard his music before?
A: Yes. Well, I wasn’t familiar with the music at that time, at all. I just hear the music; and knew it was Fela’s music and that was all. It was when I went to Lagos that I started liking the music.
Q: OK. Now, seeing the man for the first time, what did you feel?
A: About him? I didn’t feel anything about him. I just saw him as any other man.
Q: When did you see him again?
A: It was after he left, that this boy who was friend to him, told me, “Fela says he likes you.” Then Fela invited us to where he was playing. We didn’t go, so he came to our house the next day again. So from there he keep coming to our house.
Q: Did he tell you he liked you?
A: [Laughter.] He has already told somebody. So when he keeps coming I believe the boy. I keep seeing him any time he comes to Accra. Any time. Whether on holiday, private visit, or if he comes to play.
Q: And you started liking him?
A: Yes. Because I didn’t meet him playing. When I met him, I met him as any other man. Then he keeps coming. Then one time, he invited me to come to stay in Lagos before 1975. But at that time, I was working and I didn’t know anything and I didn’t know how I can be on my own in another country.
Q: And what did Fela tell you?
A: He didn’t tell me anything.
Q: But, finally, you just decided to leave?
A: Until then, I stayed with him for about three to four years. ’71 I knew him. ’72 he has been home. ’73 he has been coming. Then in ’73 I had a fellowship from UNESCO to go to Jos to do museum techniques. So when I went, on my way to Jos, Fela picked me up at the airport in Ikeja. I had to leave the next day, so I left for Jos the next day.
Q: You spent the night with Fela?
A: Yes. We were at the Shrine and everything together. So I left him then in the morning to Jos. Then I kept coming from Jos whenever we are on holidays.
Q: You kept coming to see him?
A: To Lagos. He sends me a ticket to come to Lagos for a few days and go back after. So, during that time – coming from Jos to Lagos to meet him – I got close to him. So after I finished the course I stayed with him for about two weeks again in Lagos.
Q: By this time were you in love with him?
A: Yes. I’d got so close to him.
Q: What made you fall in love with him?
A: I just like him as any other man. I didn’t like him because of the music, because I didn’t understand his music at that time. He was speaking Yoruba, singing Yoruba music and pidgin. I didn’t understand pidgin at that time. So I just like him as any other man. Which means, if hadn’t been a musician, a popular man, anything he was, I would have still liked him.
Q: What is there so special about Fela, that makes him different from other men, for you?
A: Something special about him? There’s nothing special about him.
Q: Well, why do you stay with him then? Why are you his wife?
A: I like him as a man. Just like anybody who see a man and like him. If he is the type of man you like, you will be with him.
Q: When did you start living with Fela at Kalakuta?
A: I wasn’t living at Kalakuta. I was in the Crossroad Guest House, Ikorodu Road, a few yards from Kalakuta until the house was burnt down. After the house burnt down they came to live with me in my guest house. It was big enough for the whole group.
Q: So what did your parents think about you going to live with Fela?
A: Well, I didn’t tell my parents I was coming to stay. I always come whenever I have my annual leave, and go back. So I had my annual leave in September. When they knew I was staying with Fela, they disapproved. . . .
Q: What is it you don’t like in Fela?
A: There is only one thing I don’t like about him. When two of the wives are quarrelling, when you just support one, but not the other.
Q: What would you like him to do?
A: What I want him to do is just to look at the whole thing – whatever anybody tell anybody. If you have mouth to answer, you answer. That’s all. But if it comes to case – that is regulation in the house – you can’t say this to this one and that to that one. We can go to him for judgment. But when we are in that yabbis (or whatever they call it) exchanging words, he must just stay back and look at both of us. But at times, you say something and Fela will come back and tell you, “You are directing your speech to me, not to the person you were arguing with!” Whereas in your
own mind you think, “In my own mind, I am directing the speech to his other wife and not him.”
Q: Has Fela ever beaten you?
A: Three times he’s slapped me on my face. The first time was in Italy. It was nothing. Yes, twice in Lagos, once in Italy.
Q: Did you like the slapping?
A: No, I don’t like beating at all. How can I like that?
Q: Do you ever feel that Fela discriminates you as being Ghanaian from the other queens?
A: AT ALL!!! NEVER, EVER!!! To me, he even care about the Ghanaians more than the Nigerians.
Q: OK. Well, what is it you like most about Fela?
A: I just like him as a man who I want to marry and love.
Q: Well, you are already married to him. Do you want to give him babies?
A: If the baby comes, it’s good. If it doesn’t come, I can’t do anything. And he can’t do anything about it either. [Smiles.]
Q: Tell me something now, what is it that you want most in life? What would make you happy in life?
A: Happy in life? As I am now, I am happy. Because I am married to the person I want to be with.
Q: So you don’t want or need anything else?
A: I don’t want anything else. Anything that comes our way I take. What do I need? I don’t need anything? I have all I want.
Aduni
Photo: Bernard Matussière
ADUNI
“Sweet Thing Good to Own”
True to her name, Aduni has a disarming smile that sets off her almond-shaped eyes and high cheek-bones. An unusual and pleasant combination of features. Sometimes lively. Sometimes sullen and withdrawn, Aduni expresses either mood quite unexpectedly. But generally, she is both friendly and warm, and enjoys making friendships. Of medium height and a round slimness, she moves with the grace that befits her role as one of Fela’s four dancers.
Yoruba in origin, Aduni Idowu was born to a businessman father and a trader mother in Lagos, Nigeria. From a polygamous family, her father has two wives and two children. Completing her primary education in Kano, Northern Nigeria, and speaking Hausa as well as Yoruba, she was unable to continue any secondary education because of the Biafra war. She confesses that although she “don’t have brain for book”, she does have an exceptional talent for dancing. In 1971 she met Fela.
Q: How did you meet Fela?
A: I and my friends, you know, they come to me that we should go to Fela’s club. You know, to go and watch him. So we go there to watch the show and we see Fela. Then we like Fela now. Then Fela take us to his house with his Range-Rover at that time. So since that night I like Fela and since then I am with him.
Q: You made love to him that night, you mean?
A: No. I don’t make love with him. I said since that time I like him and I am staying in his house.
Q: Did he tell you to come and stay, or did you ask him to stay?
A: I just like to stay there because Fela don’t drive anybody.
Q: You went on your own?
A: Yes.
Q: Did your parents agree?
A: They agree.
Q: Why did you like him?
A: I just like his person. I like him, you know.
Q: What don’t you like about Fela?
A: That question is difficult for me. You say what?
Q: You know, the thing you no go like for Fela? No dey like for him, beat you, something?
A: I can’t say it’s only one time he beat me. Not only once-o. Many times.
Q: But you like it when he beats you?
A: I don’t like it-o.
Q: What else don’t you like?
A: [Laughing.] I don’t like Fela to beat me, but I like him. When he beat me I don’t like the beating. But I like him as my husband.
Q: How do you get along with the other wives?
A: I don’t fight with them. Something can bring our quarrel. We yab ourselves. Finish.
Q: Remi is 1961. You and Lamiley are 1971. That makes you the second or third oldest queen.
A: Yes, ending ’71, I enter Fela’s house.
Q: Are you a happy woman?
A: [Laughs.] Yes. But I want baby. Baby is number one.
Q: And what else do you want in life?
A: Many things. Good, good things, you know. Anything in this world that’s good.
Q: Like what?
A: I want many people to know me. And I want to have money in my hand. You know, to do anything I want to do for myself. To enjoy myself, you know. To live in life.
Q: What are your ambitions?
A: Ah-ah! Me, I no agree for that thing-o! Me I no dey do horrors for nobody. . . .
Q: I don’t mean that. I didn’t say you were “ambitious”.
A: Me, I only hear oyinbo language small-small-o!
Q: Well, what I meant was, what do you want in life?
A: Oooooooh, me?
Q: Yes, you.
A: I want be great woman. Dancer!
Q: Eh? You say you want to be a great woman?
A: Yes. I want many people to know me in this world.
Q: Why?
A: Why? I like people. I like meeting people. So I want many people to know me in this world.
Q: You want to be powerful?
A: Yes?
Q: A powerful woman? And how can you? As a famous dancer?
A: Ahuh. Yeah. They will know me. Everybody will know me, you know. I’m Fela’s dancer, so many people will know me in this world. Because when Fela travel I am with him, you know. Where Fela go, I go with him, you know. So I meet many people in this world. So I want to meet some more people.
Q: And if one day a man come up to you and say: “Here is plenty money. You are a good dancer. Come away from Fela. I will give you money for you to dance.” What would you say?
A: I can’t go because of money. Because I like Fela personally. That’s why I stay with him. And nobody can come and tell me that one. I won’t agree.
Q: You love Fela, then?
A: Yes.
Kevwe
Photo: Bernard Matussière
KEVWE
“Graciousness”
Only an inkling of her former vivacious and outgoing personality remains. Kevwe’s shattering and brutal experience at the hands of the soldiers who raided and set fire to Kalakuta in 1977 has indelibly left its mark. Three years ago, the breakdown came and she tried committing suicide. Fela had her attended to by herbalists. When that failed, she was sent back to her family where she stayed one year for treatment before rejoining Fela’s household again.
Usually keeping to herself now, her perpetually sad eyes stare into space. Occasionally she smiles … begins to sing with her soft, broken voice. Still one of Fela’s singers, she now lives on the fringes, isolated by the others who consider her “crazy”. It is not unusual that she will suddenly disappear from the household for days and weeks on end, only to return. What she wants most is “to be a housewife, a singer and just to take care of my family, my children”, for she would very much like having children with Fela.
Ethnically Itsekiri, Kevwe Oghomienor was born on 29 May 1956, in Jese, Sapele, Nigeria, to a polygamous family. Her father has two wives and seven children in all. Her parents, both teachers and of Christian belief, raised Kevwe strictly. Very young, she learned to play the piano in a religious context. When the family moved to Lagos in 1960, Kevwe continued her schooling up to Form Five. Desirous of becoming an artist, she left school, meeting Fela in 1972.
Q: Where did you meet Fela in 1972? In Lagos?
A: Yes.
Q: You went down to club?
A: No! I went down to his house with a girlfriend.
Q: He liked you or you liked him?
A: I liked him!
Q: And what did he say?
A: He decided to look after me.
Q: You told him, “I want to stay.”
A: Yes, I told him that. And I gave him a wrong name.
Q: Why?
A: I wanted to bear that n
ame. I didn’t fool him because at that time my parents were coming after me then.
Q: They were coming to take you back?
A: Yes, but I refused. They brought police but police didn’t find me. Then police came back again. I was hiding in house. So they did not find me.
Q: So, then you stayed on? Your parents gave up?
A: They gave up.
Q: Were you at Kalakuta when it was attacked?
A: Yes, I was there.
Q: What did they do to you?
A: They blind my eyes with gun. At first they came and shot house. I was bending down in the toilet, so as I heard the gunshot I just flew out in their midst. Then they give it to me. They beat me up, then they tear my pants. They took me. . . . Two soldiers, with heavy sticks … took me to room … put stick. . . . That’s when I started shouting, “Mama! Mama!” Then I fainted. They kept me between them. . . . My nose was bleeding. I fainted and then I couldn’t remember anything. When I woke up I saw myself on the floor with a girl called Kehinde. So I called her, “What’s going on?” She said, “Everything is. . . . They’re taking me to hospital.” I’m gonna be in hospital too. In a minute’s time they took her and she beside me. I was the last person they took. So they got stretcher and then they took me in ambulance.
Q: Fela told me that because of all that you fell very ill and he tried curing you with herbs. . . .
A: Yeah. But it didn’t help. I was still very sick. So he go send me to my mama’s.
Q: And what did your family do?
A: They take care of me altogether, all of them. They brought this woman doctor, a sort of herbalist, something like that. She taught me how to open my eyes. My eyes were closed completely. She was giving me herbs. She started curing me. For one year I couldn’t see. . . . Then I go back to Fela’s.
Q: What do you want to be in life?
A: I want to be a singer. [Starts to sing.] “There is a new world somewhere they call the Promised Land and I’ll be there someday if you hold my hand. . . .” I like singing. Before I was the favourite, but now it’s Funmilayo.
Fela Page 16