Q: But you really liked the man?
A: I like him. Yeh!
Q: Because he sent for you?
A: Not only that. I’d been hearing of him from school.
Q: Did you live around where he used to live?
A: Not very far. So, one day I went to his house with my friends. He entertained us. From there we went to his Shrine. Since then I decided going there with my friends. From there, he said he liked me.
Q: He told you that in Shrine?
A: No, in his house.
Q: Oh, you start going to house now?
A: Yes. I did not fall in love immediately, like that. It was about three or four days before I fell finally for him. So, then I started to like him.
Q: And that was what year?
A: 1974.
Q: And since then you have been with him?
A: Yes.
Q: When you told your parents you wanted to go and live with Fela, what did they say?
A: I did not really tell my parents I was going to stay with Fela. I use to go there for about four years. I use to go and come. I would go to his house.
Q: Go stay overnight?
A: Yes. Then go back home.
Q: Yes, but how did you tell your parents?
A: My mother knows quite all right. She knew I was at Fela’s. Yeh!
Q: But what would you tell your father?
A: My father. I told him, “I like the man, I like his music. . . .”
Q: No! Where did you tell your father that you stayed overnight? With friends?
A: No. I use to tell him, “I am going to Fela.” And I would stay there till morning.
Q: He didn’t mind?
A: My mother?
Q: Your father?
A: I wasn’t staying with my father then. I was staying with my mother only.
Q: Oh, so your mother didn’t mind?
A: She mind, but she can’t do nothing because I told her I like the man. You see what I mean?
Q: Then you started living with Fela in ’74?
A: I’m not staying with him in ’74. I started living with him in ’78 when he was ready to marry us.
Q: So you were not at Kalakuta when they burned it down?
A: I was there.
Q: You were there when they attacked?
A: I was the one that slept in Fela’s room that day.
Q: So the army abused you?
A: They beat me seriously. All my head, my eyes, this hand was broken. Look at this burn. My eyes, my head, everywhere was swollen.
Q: Tell me something, why are you with Fela?
A: Because he’s the type of man I like. Secondly, he satisfies me. Before I got married to him he use to give me anything I want. The things he use to give to me when I was working, I don’t use to have. I didn’t use to have the amounts of money he gives to me. And he satisfies me.
Q: What is he to you? Father? Brother? Or husband?
A: Fela is a husband to me. I can’t have my husband as my father. No way!
Najite
Photo: André Bernabé
NAJITE
“I Am Satisfied”
Small and thin with a creamy, light-brown complexion, Najite’s classically sculptured Fulani-like face is often softened by broad smiles and a flashing of even white teeth. The impression she gives of being unabashedly imbued with her own importance tends to mar the force of her otherwise imposing looks. Frank, provocative eyes project a mischievous temperament. No one can deny, however, the impressive charm of her supple, willowy body as one of Fela’s dancers.
Najite Mokoro was born 5 February 1960, in a village called Bacca, near Warri in Bendel State, Nigeria. Urobho ethnically, from a family of nine children, Najite was raised by her father – a trader – and his second wife after the death of her own mother when she was ten years old. In 1974 she left the place of her birth to go to Lagos and live with Fela.
Q: When did you meet Fela?
A: I meet Fela at Lagos in ’74. . . . I was just passing Fela’s house with a friend, and my friend showed me his house. After about three days I came to the area, so I saw Fela’s Shrine. I saw the whole group and I feel to join. So I went in. When I got there, I like the way Fela do with all the women, there, all the boys there. He does not know me, but Fela give me short money. Anybody enter, Fela have to give everybody short money. So me myself I like the organization, so I join.
Q: You ask Fela, “I want to join?”
A: No. I don’t tell Fela I want to join. I enter the house so Fela saw me and like me.
Q: And made love to you. No be so? (Isn’t that so?)
A: Yes. [Laughter.] It was very fine-o.
Q: That’s what makes you like the man? Or is it his political ideas?
A: I like the ideas and I like the ideology.
Q: Yes, but this “thing” came first?
A: I love that “thing” so much. And since then that’s what turned my mind [roaring with laughter].
Q: Fela told me you were the first woman to be dragged outside when they attacked Kalakuta.
A: I am the first woman they take out of the house the day when they come and burn the house.
Q: Did they beat you?
A: Too much. [Sad flash in her eyes.]
Q: Did you bleed?
A: All my head they sew it with needle. . . . All my neck was broke. They plaster all over my neck. All my body. Sure, everything they broke in my body [fighting back tears]. . . . They rape some of our people too. Not me but some of our girls. The soldiers they take bottle … I saw it.
Q: And how long were you in Kiri-Kiri?
A: Me, my own very serious, I don’t go to Kiri-Kiri then. They put me in the hospital. Yes, after there they take me for Lion Building* and then they come and bail me out.
Q: Najite, tell me, why are you with Fela?
A: Because I like him. I understand him. He fights for African freedom and I like him for that too. All of that again. He use to do for me very much, and no how, I don’t know, I can’t leave him. I just like him. I don’t know why. Because what Fela can do for me my father can’t do it for me, and my mother too can’t do it for me.
Q: Is Fela your father to you? Your mother? Your brother?
A: He look like father to me and mother and brother to me too. He look like husband too to me, especially.
ADEOLA
“Crown of Wealth”
In contrast with her reserved disposition, Adeola is generous with her wide smile that radiates with refreshing frequency. Of average height and plumply slender, her broad, round face is studded with large, sensitive eyes and an expression of alert awareness.
Of Yoruba parentage but born in Accra, Ghana, on 23 May 1958, Adeola attended primary school in Ghana. Brought up in a polygamous family of twelve children, her father – a businessman – has two wives, her mother being a trader. Leaving Ghana with her family at the age of eleven she attended secondary school in Oyo State, Nigeria. A few years later she was to meet Fela.
Q: How did you meet Fela?
A: I met him in 1974. See, I’m staying with my sister, so in our house we use to play Fela music, so one day we just play Fela’s latest, “Jeun Ko’ku”. So, when I hear the music I just like the music. So I say, “Ah! By all means I must join this man’s group.”
Q: You were there when they raided Kalakuta?
A: Yeah. Kalakuta raid, 18 February, I was there!
Q: Did they hit you?
A: They hit me a bit. . . . [Reluctant to continue.] I was among the girls they. . . . [Saddened.] There were about four soldiers. . . . [Looks away.]
Q: Four!
A: They want, you know. . . . Two of them hold a bottle of whisky. They broke the bottle on my head, ’cause I don’t want to agree with them to do it. So they want to open my legs. . . . So one of their oga [bosses], you know, he just came round. So he asked them: “What are you doing?” So they said they didn’t do anything. They say they don’t want to do anything with me. So they stop ev
erything. They just leave me. And they carry everybody go. So, I hide under the bed until everything go down; then I move to one man house near ours. The man is our tailor. So, I move to his house and I stay there until the next day.
Adeola
Photo: André Bernabé
Q: Hmm. Tell me something: How is your life in Kalakuta? Are you satisfied?
A: Of course I am satisfied with Fela now. Since I know that Fela is satisfying me. Everything I would like him to do he will do it for me. So I am satisfied with him.
Q: What is he for you? Father? Brother? Husband?
A: Fela is a husband to me. . . . Just husband. [Smiles.]
Q: How do you get along with the other wives?
A: Most, some. . . . [Pauses.] Some of the wives we move together. We eat together, you know. We do the same things.
Q: You get along with them?
A: Yeah.
Q: You have arguments once in a while?
A: Yes, we have arguments once in a while. Sometimes over Fela, or some other matter. . . . Sometimes we argue about clothes, or about what we want to eat, you know.
Q: About who should cook, things like that?
A: Yes, something like that. We would have our quarrels. [Smiles.]
Q: What do you want to do in life?
A: I want to be an artist.
Q: Is that what you always wanted to be?
A: Yes, I want to be an artist. I want to go to a school of music to learn how to play music and how to be an actress, too. Like my husband. . . . If I don’t get to be a musician, I just want to be an actress. That’s what I want.
Kikelomo
Photo: Raymond Sardaby
KIKELOMO
“Babies Are Precious”
Dark brown-hued, with a pear-shaped face, Kike’s elongated eyes reveal a cool, distant temperament. The charm of her wide, bright smile is all too rarely seen. Perched atop spiky heels, she looks even taller and tinier than she actually is. Not one for conversing, hers is one of the two shortest interviews. At present, she is one of Fela’s disc-jockeys.
Born in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria, on 30 June 1959, Kikelomo Oseyni is of Yoruba parentage. Sparse with any additional details on her childhood and family, Kike met Fela in 1974.
Q: Why did you join Fela in 1974?
A: Because I like his music.
Q: You didn’t join him because you like him as a man?
A: Yes, I did because I like him.
Q: Were you in love with him?
A: Yes.
Q: In 1974, did you run away from home? What did your parents say when you left to live with Fela?
A: No, I didn’t run away. I didn’t tell my parents until later. . . . They agreed with me.
Q: Were you in Kalakuta when they attacked the house?
A: Yes. They broke my head. They beat me up and naked me. They pulled my private thing. Many things.
Q: What do you want to do in life?
A: I don’t know yet.
Q: So you have no ambitions in life?
A: I just like to be Fela’s wife.
Ihase
Photo: André Bernabé
IHASE
“The Ifà Oracle Should Be Respected”
Tiny and thin to a point of fragility, Ihase’s strength rests in her quiet assuredness. Although youthful in appearance, she has a maturity greater than her years. Never imposing but always kind, soft-spoken and quick to smile. Oval-faced and mango-tinted brown, she spends much time on her appearance, but always in a natural, unaffected manner. She is a young girl who knows what she is about, whether on stage as one of Fela’s singers, or off. She is presently studying traditional medicine.
Born on 26 August 1960, near Benin in Bendel State, Ihase Osayemeri Obotu is ethnically an Ejor. Her father has four wives and there are eleven children in all. According to Ihase, her father – a teacher – has “a real colonial” mentality, but her mother – a trader – is “an authentic African woman”. Attending secondary school up to Form Three, Ihase quit her studies and went to Lagos in 1975, heading straight for Fela’s house.
Q: Why did you quit? You weren’t satisfied with life at home?
A: Yes, because when I wanted to go out with my boyfriends or play with my friends or go to pictures, enjoy myself, I don’t have the chance. Until I had Fela and his music. . . . You know, I wanted to quit, go somewhere else, maybe stay with my friends before. . . . When I listened to his music and went to his show I was really put in ’cause I wanted to be with him.
Q: When did you meet Fela?
A: The first time was when he came to Benin to play. 1973. I went to his show. . . . Before then, I learnt that girls stayed in Fela’s house, that he kept girls in his house. So, after watching the show that night I wanted to go with him to Lagos. Right straight from the stadium I wanted to go with him to Lagos. But I couldn’t have the chance because my brothers wouldn’t allow me to go that night. I was still in school then, ’73, ’74, ’75, Class Three then. So something just happened that really made me fed up. So I took 28 naira from my father’s pocket and ran to Lagos.
Q: You went to Fela’s house? What did he say?
A: I told him I liked his group and I wanted to be part of it. He said OK and he took me.
Q: He took you into his house? Then what happened?
A: I stayed there and the next day I became his singer, just the next day. At first I didn’t like him. I just took him as a father or as a person older who would take care of me. Then later, he sent for me that I should come to him. I didn’t understand what he meant by that. So, I went to him and he said I should love him. Just like that, that I should love him. I haven’t really understood that. He told me to sit down on the bed and he asked me if I’d like to drink. I said I didn’t drink. Then he asked me to remove my dress and at that point I knew what he would do with me, that he likes me. So we made love to each other. It was after making love that I started liking him.
Q: Were you at Kalakuta when it was burnt?
A: Yes. I’d come in 1975.
Q: Were you one of those who were raped?
A: No, but I saw one being raped. I saw that one and saw it was going to be my turn. They were beating everybody. They break my head. You know, my cunt here they pull on it like this and then they break my head. Oh! My inner testine was bleeding.
Q: You were bleeding from the mouth?
A: No. From my private parts, because of the damages I had in my stomach. I was bleeding ’cause they wounded me there with stone. They shook me with stone, then they were beating my stomach, and I had some injury in my stomach. So after beating me I had so many wounds on my head, they took me to Lion Building. After, they burn the house.
Q: How long were you all in prison, you girls?
A: We went there on Monday, five days in Kiri-Kiri.
Q: But tell me something, what is it you like about Fela?
A: Many things: one, the main thing is that I really like him now.
Q: You love him?
A: Yes. And secondly, his ideas. Before I didn’t really know what I am. I looked up to white man as the master of everything. His ideas really make me like him too. And the love I have for him.
Q: The love you have for him, what type of love is it?
A: Many things. Love is many things, like giving him food, or the way he sleeps with me, or what he does for me. Those ones, these are the loves I have for him.
Q: Tell me, you have a special day for sleeping with Fela.
A: Every nine days, nine days. That is my time. Alake is every week, like today, Tuesday. . . .
Q: Why Alake more often?
A: You know, it depends on what you do, because Alake was in the house first. But Fela does not sleep with us by seniority. He sleeps with us according to what you do, because we have to make our husband satisfied.
Q: So, if you do something wrong he doesn’t sleep with you. How do you call that punishment?
A: I have served the punishment.
&nbs
p; Q: Yes, but they have a name for it?
A: Yes, edit. Like a week, two weeks. [Laughing.]
Q: Two weeks without fuck, that’s heavy punishment.
A: That’s heavy punishment, man. That’s just a new punishment. That one really hooks us. If we mess around, two weeks, one month. . . . So we be careful.
Omowunmi
Photo: André Bernabé
OMOWUNMI
“I Like Children”
Quiet and reserved, with a girlish-type simplicity, there is nothing flashy about Omowunmi. She adds only a few touches of make-up to her deep-brown complexion. Rarely does she appear in public without an elaborate headwrap, the kind which best emphasizes her soft, full and very round face. Of medium height, small-boned but fleshy all the same. Often keeping to herself, Omowunmi is a shy, young girl, who of all the queens was the most intimidated by this interview.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1961, to parents of the Beni ethnic group, originally from Bendel State, Omowunmi Afesnay completed her primary schooling and part of her secondary studies in Lagos. It wasn’t long before she met Fela.
Q: Omowunmi, where were you born?
A: I was born in Africa-o.
Q: I know that one. I want to know where.
A: Ah, I don’t want to talk this thing.
Q: It is Fela who has said that I should come and. . . .
A: No! Not everybody. ’Cause I don’t be ready for this-o. [Long pause.]
Q: Look, me I don’t care-o! It’s your husband who said I must talk to all the queens, or none at all.
A: OK. Go ahead. . . .
Q: When did you meet Fela? What year?
A: ’75.
Q: Did you run away from your family’s house?
A: No. How can I run?
Q: To go to live in Kalakuta. That’s what I mean.
A: Why? I no have to run.
Q: Your family agreed, then?
A: Yes.
Q: They said it was all right?
A: Yes. . . . [Looks away.]
Fela Page 18