Fela
Page 19
Q: Were you at Kalakuta when the army attacked?
A: I was not in the house. [Long pause.]
Q: Tell me, why did you marry Fela?
A: Because I like him.
Q: What do you like? The music? The man? His ideas?
A: Everything with the organization I like.
Q: What is your ambition in life?
A: [Long pause and no answer.]
Q: What do you want to become? An actress, a musician, a dancer?
A: I am a dancer. [She gets up, ready to leave.]
OMOLARA
“Child of the People”
With a tallness accentuated by her slender, angular torso and long-leggedness, Lara has a sort of boyish lankishness. She’s ebony-hued, with short-cropped Afro, large round eyes, a warm, open smile and a deep, husky voice. Withdrawn at times, Omolara alternates between sombre moodiness and carefree joviality. She is happiest when performing on stage, for dancing is what she enjoys most.
Born in Ijebu, Nigeria, to Yoruba parents, Omolara Shosanya comes from a polygamous family. Her father (now deceased) had two wives and six children with both. Attending primary school in Ijebu as well as secondary up to Form Two, Omolara quit her studies at that time since, as she says, “I don’t like book too much,” and, “I wanted to be free and enjoy myself.” Not long thereafter she met Fela.
Q: So, when you quit school you came to Fela?
A: Yeah.
Q: Why?
A: I hear with Fela you can live free.
Q: Your friends told you that?
A: No. I hear Fela’s songs.
Q: Oh, and you like it.
A: Yeah. That’s why I came.
Q: To Lagos?
A: No. I get sister from Lagos. When I leave Ijebu, I go to my sister’s house. I stayed with my sister for about three years. So, ’76 I come Fela house.
Q: Oh, in ’76? That’s before Kalakuta thing?
A: Yeah.
Omolara
Photo: André Bernabé
Q: You come and start living there? What did you tell him when you come? “Fela, I want to live with you?”
A: I tell him I want to come live with him, and he said: “All right, you can.”
Q: And you started just like that?
A: Yeah! Just like that.
Q: And you just started making love to the man immediately?
A: Yes. Just like that.
Q: Was it good?
A: Very good, very nice. Too nice. [Laughs.]
Q: So you liked it, and that’s why you stayed?
A: Yeah. That’s it.
Q: Any other reason?
A: I stay because I like his way. The way he talks.
Q: What do you like in Fela most? The man? His mind? His sex?
A: I like his mind.
Q: That’s what you like the most?
A: Yeah. And I like his prick. [Laughter.]
Q: Mama mia! Is “it” special?
A: Yes. It be good-o. Na sweeter than sugar-o.
Q: Oh, my God! Let’s go on to something else. Tell me, when the army attacked Kalakuta, were you there?
A: I’m there, man.
Q: Did they attack you?
A: They shook me under here. . . . [Points to her sex.] I get one private wound. When they take me outside – ’cause all of us are rushing. When the army enter like this … [gesticulating violently] … me and some of the queens are inside Fela’s room. So the army attack Fela room. They open and they catch all of us. When [nervous laugh] they catch me, they put me outside. They beat me, open my legs and shook my private thing with bottle. And one man says, “No, no, no! Leave that girl alone!” And they leave me. They beat me, beat me, beat, beat, beat! …
Q: Did you see any of the queens raped?
A: I don’t see any rape. They raped some queens, but I don’t see. Me myself, I hear that one later, but I don’t see with my two eyes.
Q: Tell me something, what things don’t you like about Fela?
A: I like everything.
Q: OK. What are the things you don’t like with the other queens, then. Because sometimes you have fights among you?
A: That one doesn’t mean anything. We can fight anytime, we can talk anytime.
Q: But do you fight with fist? Do you hit each other sometimes?
A: Oh, it can happen. I don’t hit anybody. We fight sometimes; and we can quarrel anytime. We talk anytime.
Q: What do you want in life?
A: Ah, I want pregnant. I want to born pikin* that’s for Fela. That’s what I want in my own life.
Q: And what else?
A: I want something else. [Pensive.]
Q: What?
A: To enjoy my life, if I can before I die.
Q: Are you afraid of death?
A: Ahh! Anytime I can die. That is why I am here now, to enjoy my life ’cause I can die any time.
FEHINTOLA
“Resting on Wealth”
Long, lanky and roundly thin, Fehintola has a slow, unperturbed, and rather lofty gait. Hers is not an outgoing personality, though when she smiles one would never know, for her deep-ebony, pear-shaped face becomes warmly radiant. Reservedly off to herself, and of an impassive temperament, she is usually seen attending to her appearance. Fehintola is one of Fela’s singers.
Of Yoruba parentage, Fehintola Kayode was born on 25 October 1959, in Ipoti-Ekiti village in Ondo State, to a large polygamous family. Her father, a retired colonial soldier who now does trading, has nine wives, and some thirty children. Educated in her village, she finished primary school and did three years of secondary. Upon leaving her village in 1976, Fehintola went straight to Fela’s house.
Q: How did you meet Fela?
A: One day I just decided to join any musician that has name and get the sense of music.
Q: So you joined Fela because you liked music?
A: Yeah.
Q: Not because of Fela?
A: Ah, it is because of Fela. Because I like Fela and I like the music.
Q: And were you living in Lagos?
A: No, in my village.
Q: So you ran away from your village?
A: No, I didn’t run. I just tell my parents that I can’t stay with them any more and I left the house in ’76. I come straight to Fela’s house. I told him I wanted to stay with him.
Fehintola
Photo: André Bernabé
Q: And what did he say?
A: And he told me that whether I can stay, I say I will stay. He say OK, I should stay. And I stayed.
Q: And you made love to him that day?
A: No. After about two weeks.
Q: And then what happened?
A: Nothing happened, I enjoyed everything and I satisfy and I stay.
Q: OK, that was 1976. So that means you were there when Kalakuta was attacked and burnt.
A: Yes, they beat me, shook me and abused me with bottle and knife. When they take me to the hospital people don’t know that there is bottle inside my body and they saw the bottle and knife on my body so they carry me to Kiri-Kiri. . . . The knife was in my body; they sew it together.
Q: They put knife in your body?
A: Yes, and some bottle like this. They sewed on my body. So afterwards at police station they took us to court. After court we went to Kiri-Kiri. That is where the prison yard is.
Q: How long were you in prison?
A: About one week, let’s say five days. After I left the hospital they took me to hospital again to go and do operation for me, remove the bottle in my body.
Q: But tell me something, you have suffered in your life with Fela. What makes you stay with Fela?
A: First because I believe in what Fela is doing.
Q: So that means that you believe in him politically.
A: Yes. I believe in what Fela is doing and I believe in his political. . . .
Q: How would you consider him? As a husband? A brother? Or as a father? How do you see him?
A: I see him as
my father, as my husband, as my mother because he takes care of anything in life.
Sewaa
Photo: Raymond Sardaby
SEWAA
“The Beautiful One”
Feline-featured and velvet brown, Sewaa is often off to herself and quiet, her large doe-like eyes absorbing everything around her. She is generous with her smile, her youthful laughter accentuating the softness of her expression. Voluptuous and of medium height, with an agility that makes her an excellent dancer, she is kind and sensitive in character, always pleasant whatever the occasion.
Born to a polygamous Ashanti family on 1 June 1960, near Abisua, Ghana, Sewaa comes from a family of nine children. She grew up helping her grandmother in her shop in Accra before meeting Fela there in 1977, Sewaa is Fela’s second Ghanaian wife.
Q: When did you meet Fela for the first time?
A: I met Fela in ’77. In Accra when he had a concert.
Q: Did you know his music before? Did you like it?
A: Yes. And my grandmother too like the music.
Q: She likes it?
A: For me, I don’t know Fela before, but we just hear the music. So if my grandmother want to do party for house, they go like some slow music. Then one day she say she want to go party with Acheampong, the president before. So she go buy new record of Fela.
Q: Was your grandmother a friend of Acheampong?
A: Yes.
Q: And she went to a party of Acheampong?
A: And she took Fela record. I didn’t go the party that day. Fela music she like. Because the sound, the beat; they take dance. We be playing Fela’s records every day for house. My brothers they buy any record because they like to hear music sometimes.
Q: How did you meet Fela?
A: One of my friend, a girl – her name now Elizabeth, Lizzy. So she come to tell me, say she go get one new boyfriend name Nabayo. The boy plays. So my friend, the girl, we go get the boy and reach where Fela dey stay for the hotel. We go upstairs and sit down there. When I go there, Fela there. I think Fela is asleep. I just see one man sit down with pants. With pants. Fela! I didn’t know him before.
Q: OK. And what did he say to you?
A: So the boy just come and him say Fela say he want go see me.
Q: But you’re talking too fast. Talk slower.
A: That’s how I de talk. [Laughing.]
Q: OK.
A: He said Fela say he want to see me at night, that day. Then I tell him I can’t go stay ’cos I go fear ’am.
Q: You were afraid of him?
A: Yes.
Q: Why?
A: Because everybody talk about Fela. Smoking hemp.
Q: And you’d never smoked hemp before?
A: No. So they talk bad about Fela. The next day we go Fela club. We go dance. And there be one man they call Abajungwo, they come meet me. They say Fela say after he finish the show he wants to see me.
Q: And what did Fela say to you?
A: Then I go. He say make I come meet ’am for hotel the next day. Next day I bring my grandmother motor there. They wait for me with the driver. Me and that friend, Lizzy, go to the hotel. Then he give us food. We eat. Then he tell Abajungwo to go take me to any club, make I go drink anything what I want. Then in the night me and Abajungwo we go club. I just meet him another day again. So for night, he tell me saying they go, the morning, the next day.
Q: Fela was leaving?
A: Yes. So he say if I want to go with them. I say I feel for ’em go, but my mama she dey for Accra. If he feel I go, I say make I go, less my mother travel.
Q: Did he tell you he liked you?
A: Yes. No. I don’t know. I can’t say, because when a man say he want to get something, it mean he likes you.
Q: That means he liked you. But did you like him then?
A: Yes. [Laughing.]
Q: When did you leave Accra and come to Lagos?
A: March ’78. When I come my mother died.
Q: OK. So you started living with Fela in Kalakuta. How was life at the beginning? Did you have problems with the other queens?
A: Oh, we go fight with ourselves, but we can fight anytime and we can settle anytime.
Q: And you have problems of jealousy among the queens?
A: Some are jealous. I don’t know whether some (others) are jealous. We do fight.
Q: So when you fight what happens? Who separates you? Is it Fela?
A: Sometimes. No, only one day I fight with one queen. because when the two women they fight, Fela go leave us to fight ourselves, but Fela sometimes he wants put himself inside. So when me and one girl fight, Fela come and stand with the girl. He come there and yab me for the girl.
Q: Has he ever beat you?
A: He beat me three times.
Q: Three times?
A: He beat me six one time. Bang! Bang! Bang! Six. The next one he give me three. Another time he just give me one bang on my back, because I say I no go do practice. No be saying because of another woman. Because I say I no go do my work. Me, I don’t want to have pain in my life.
Q: Tell me, what don’t you like with Fela?
A: When him beat me. That be the only one I don’t like. Finish. Everything else I like.
Q: What do you like the most with Fela?
A: [Laughing.] I just like Fela because sometimes he no get money or he get trouble. So sometimes when somebody get problem, he come tell Fela, then Fela go settle for the person, or he would give the person money. And that too why I like ’am.
Q: OK. But what is it in the man that you like the most? Why do you love him?
A: [Laughing] I don’t know. Me, I just like ’am. I like the ideology. The way he do. The way he pity for another person. The way one person get trouble he help ’am for trouble. The way he deal with the people, ’cos no be only Nigerians Fela like. Fela like and I be Ghana and he be a Nigerian man. So he make me like ’am.
Q: Good. What is he for you? A father? A brother? A husband?
A: A husband. He’s my husband and we be friends – a brother.
Q: Do you get everything you want in life?
A: Yes.
Q: So you’re happy?
A: YES! When I see Fela, he say I get anything I want.
Q: What do you want to be in life?
A: I want to be a millionaire. I want to get like all the houses. Make them be my own. Me, if I get two thousand houses I don’t mind. And if I be rich, I go help sickness people; those people ill in paralysis, I can help them.
Q: What do you do now at Kalakuta?
A: I’m a dancer.
Fela in concert with his queens
Photo: Chico
20
What Woman is to Me
“Mattress”, “Lady”*
What I think about women in general is a subject which calls for a colloquium. Women? Mmmmmm! You see, before I used to be afraid of them. That’s how it started. After that, fear changed into understanding. What do I understand about women? First, that they like to be slept with. They like you to make them do things for you. They’re like Satan in that stupid book, the Bible: they like to test you, so that they can get away with something. If you let them get away with it once, you’re in trouble. But if you stop them from getting away with it, then they’ll stop.
What else? If a woman really likes a man, she doesn’t really mind sharing him with other women. Yeh, I understand many things about women. Women isn’t anything you should be afraid to talk to. But they’re not on the same level with men. Men and women are on two different levels. You can say different wavelengths. Man. Woman. Two points that can never meet. Women have different feelings than men. It’s as simple as that. You can’t compare them. Equality between male and female? No! Never! Impossible! Can never be! It seems the man must dominate. I don’t want to say so, but it seems so. Why?
Well, let’s put it another way. What can a woman do to rule the world? You see, to rule the world you have to do very heavy work, like agriculture, etc. Understand? Yo
u have to build houses. Understand? You have to build. And building is hard work. It’s a man’s job. Producing babies is woman’s job. It’s more tender. The more vigorous job is man’s. The tenderer one is woman’s.
The position of women? Do I see man as being naturally superior to women? Naturally. Why? Well, I wouldn’t say superior. I’d say dominant. Yes, dominant. Dominant is the word I want, not superior. Dominant means that there must be a master. Men are the masters, not women. When you say the “master of the house”, you mean the head of the household: the father, not the woman, man. That’s life, man. Natural life. Life is based on nature. The nature we don’t see now. You can’t ask me “Which nature?” ’cause you can’t see nature. You understand?
What I’m saying is that there’s a natural order which says that man must be dominant. Yeah! The advantage is that one has more strength, can carry heavy loads. He can even carry the woman when she is tired. More strength. But the woman is more subtle. She is more passive and that is the way it’s supposed to be, ’cause that enables her to take care of the house. You can’t have two dominances. One must be dominant and the other passive. Then you have a smooth life. There must always be a leader. Even among spiritis, there’s a head spirit!
It’s part of the natural order for women to be submissive to man. Yeah. Africans know that one. We don’t have to argue about that one. ’Cause let women come and carry heavy load and you’ll see. They call men to do the heavy things they can’t do. So what’s all this women lib about? Let them come and do exactly what men are doing, man. Let them come and start to build roads. What’s the matter with them? Are dey craze, or what? When they can do man’s job, then we can talk about women’s lib, if you want. Not before!
What’s the woman’s role? To keep the home smooth, the children happy, the husband happy. To make the husband happy, that’s a woman’s job. Women got no other work than making the man happy. ’Cause when the man is happy, he can move mountains. That’s all. Women today are not making men happy, man. They are constantly confusing the man’s mind. So there’s no happiness. There’s too much deceit, too much confusion going on. The Christian woman and the Muslim woman – oh, yes, too much bullshit, man! The non-Christian African woman is much more together. Well, I mean they don’t argue in the house. To them, the man is always right. That’s the point: the man is always right; they don’t argue. ’Cause when the man is wrong, he will repair his wrongness by himself. He will apologize by himself. If he makes his decision, and he’s wrong, he will always repair it. ’Cause it’s better for a man to make the decisions and learn for himself, from his mistakes.