FELA'S FAMILY ABANDONED EGYPT 80 BAND IMMEDIATELY HE DIED –BABA ANI BAND LEADER

Lekan Animasaun, popularly known as Baba Ani, is the leader of the late Fela’s Egypt 80 band. He tells ‘Nonye Ben-Nwankwo how he met the legend and the issues he has with Femi Kuti

Egypt 80 Band is one of the oldest bands in Africa, how come it has been able to survive this long?

Most of the bands that were formed in the early days of 1950 are no more. Then we had Rex Lawson and we also had Eddie Okonta’s band, Roy Chicago’s band and all others of blessed memory. It is correct to say that Egypt 80 is the oldest band. The band has outlived its owner and it is still waxing strong.

But how did the band manage to still be together even after the founder and owner, Fela, died?

I will say that the Almighty God has His hands in everything that concerns us. I believe it has been destined that the band will be running. After the demise of Fela, we went through a lot of difficulties. But we thank God that we are still together. Then again, those of us who were with Fela when he was alive were determined to stay put and stay together. After Fela’s death, his family (Kuti family) held a meeting with the band. At that meeting, the question of whether we wanted to keep the band came up and we answered in the affirmative. But they said nobody in the family was ready to support the band financially. The late Prof. Olukoye Ransome-Kuti was the spokesperson for the Kuti family. To them, the owner of the band had died, so that should be the end of the band and we should all go our different ways. But we insisted we wanted to stay together even without having any prior meeting amongst ourselves. We just decided there that we wanted to stay together.

So what did they say?

They said if that was our decision, that we should have it in mind that whatever we made would be what we would eat. We said we were okay with that. Then again, the determination of the members, particularly those who were still around after Fela died, was what really kept us together even till now.

It must have been very tough for the band, especially when the family said they would not support the band after the founder died…

It was not easy at all. There was a time we were having shows at the Shrine before it was taken over by the owners of the land. Even at that time, the crowd kept dwindling. At times, we would play at Ojez at Onike (Lagos) and after the show, we would be sharing N250 or even less than that. Many times I had to tell the members to share the money amongst themselves and bothered less about me. Seun’s mother sometimes would add money to what we made so that members could at least get transport fares back to their homes. We went through hell. In fact, immediately after Fela’s death, his first son, Femi, took all the instruments and locked them up in his house.

Why did he lock them up?

He said he was doing that for “safe-keeping” when the band was still performing. We had to be hiring equipment to perform each time we had any engagement.

How did you get them back eventually?

It took two years and with the effort of Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi for him to agree to release the equipment. Chief Gbadamosi called a meeting at Hotel Tropicana in Ikeja. I remember there was a show that night; Chief Gbadamosi was there, Yeni and Femi were there too and we had a meeting. Gbadamosi asked me to go and collect the equipment. Femi said I should return the equipment to his father’s house at Kalakuta in Ikeja. Gbadamosi gave me money to hire a truck and fuel my car and I went to collect the equipment and we itemised everything. Fela’s younger brother, Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, was still alive. He was the manager of the band at that time even before Fela died. I took the instruments to him at his Anthony Village (Lagos) house. When I got there, he was annoyed. He said I didn’t consult him before going to collect the equipment. He said the family had a meeting after Fela’s death and decided that whoever wanted to use the equipment amongst Fela’s children would pay a token of N10, 000. I then told him I would return the equipment and when he asked me who I would mention that asked me to return the equipment, I told him I knew the story I would tell.

Did you return them?

Oh yes I did. I returned them to Fela’s house as instructed by Femi. The band didn’t even want the equipment any longer because we were already hiring equipment each time we wanted to play. Thereafter, we started getting our own equipment in trickles. We went through a lot of difficulties. A member of the family (I don’t want to mention the person’s name) actually said that when we started drinking garri, every one of us would know it was time to go back to our fathers’ houses. There was a day we were playing at Channel 10 Night Club at Surulere (Lagos) back then and power went off and people started mocking us. They said we were used to suffering. But I thank God today, I am the happiest member of the band. Fela made me the band leader in 1979 and since then, I have been leading it up till now. Today, even places Fela didn’t go, we have been there. We have been all over the world including the US, UK, India and Japan.

Was it through Seun that you travelled all over the world?

Seun is now the leader of the band. But when Fela died, he was a young boy. I was leading the band. I am still leading the band but Seun is the owner of the band. So, I am still working with him. We just came back from a tour of six months. No band has ever done that in Nigeria. We didn’t go there to do drugs or use women for pimping. We went to do our work which is music. We had to tell our manager to postpone some of the shows till March next year. Originally, we were supposed to go for a three-month tour. But the shows kept coming. The first time I went out on such a long tour was when Fela was alive. We left Nigeria in June 1969 and we came back after the Civil War in 1970. We spent nine months in the US.

What’s your relationship with the other Fela’s children, Femi and Yeni?

The relationship is nothing to write home about. If you look at the Museum, you will notice that my picture and that of Tony Allen are not there. Instead, you see pictures of Fela with his women and some of his friends. Fela didn’t make himself; we were all there with him through the thick and thin to make his name and become what he eventually became before he left this world. Our pictures not being there is a deliberate attempt to rewrite Fela’s history. After Fela’s death and after the children settled the rift amongst themselves, the first time the band and Seun went to play at the Shrine, they went to Femi’s office to greet him. He said a lot of things about the band, saying that the band deserted him instead of saying that he deserted the band. He said the enmity between him and the members of the band would continue for ever. Somewhere along his address, he asked the members of the band, ‘where is that your Baba Ani?’ They told him I wasn’t around because I decided not to go there. He told them to tell me not to show my face at his shrine. Since then, anytime the band goes there to play, I will not be there. It is just like a child that is born today saying he wouldn’t want to play with us, doesn’t that child know that even before he was born, we were playing with some people? I am very glad that without them, people even outside Nigeria still recognise us. They still give us the honour that is due to us. I once told a friend who went to ask them why our pictures were not in the museum and they said they looked around and they couldn’t find a picture. That was their lame excuse, can you believe that? Anyway, when we meet outside, we do greet. I just don’t go to their Shrine, though Seun always pays me each time they go there.

How did you meet Fela?

I studied music under my teacher, Chief Chris Ajilo. He was the leader of the defunct Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation Dance Orchestra. Late Pa Sowande was the director of the band. Somewhere along the line in 1961, he introduced me to the NBC Dance Orchestra. I was interviewed and I was taken as a member of the band playing the baritone sax and tenor sax. At that time, Fela was a producer at NBC. Benson Idonije was also a producer. We always had our rehearsals every Monday and Wednesday. It was during one of those rehearsal days that I met Fela. I had a break and I was going to the canteen and I had to pass through the reception. I saw Fela. A few days before, I had read in the papers that Fela was about to form a highlife band. So I went to him and introduced myself to him. He asked me if I had my equipment and I said yes. He gave me an appointment to meet with him at his house. He and some members were rehearsing. I met Tony Allen and some others there. I met Benson Idonije too. Fela gave me the baritone part and I took it, set up my instrument and I started. He just looked up at Benson Idonije and said, I will take this man.’ That was how we started. This was in 1965.

So before then, you weren’t doing anything else?

I was working with the government as an environmental health officer. At the same time, I was working with Fela. Fela was so good. He wouldn’t encourage me to resign my appointment. He made allowance for me to perform my official work. After his house was burnt by the Nigerian Army, we relocated to Ghana. He had his own hotel with his women and boys who were serving him. I had a room in the hotel. Every Friday, after my official work, I would take a flight to Accra. I would meet the band playing and I would just join them and I would head back to Lagos on Monday morning. Apart from the fact that I was useful in the band, Fela was so good to me. He was the one footing my flight bills.

So when did you resign from the government work?

I never resigned. I spent 35 years in service. I joined in 1961 and I retired in 1996 after 35 years. I was lucky with colleagues in my department in the office. They loved me and they loved Fela. I am grateful to my colleagues because they were there for me.

How did you develop interest in music?

When I was a little boy, I learnt from my elder brother that I loved to sing even before I could pronounce words distinctively. He told me that I would hold his hands and take him to a spot near the lagoon and I would be singing for him. My brother eventually left Nigeria for London where he spent about 22 years. Chris Ajilo was his friend at that time. He was the one that gave me a letter of introduction to Chris Ajilo. I told my brother that I wanted to play music. He sent two instruments – a trumpet and a baritone sax–to me. I took the baritone sax and the introduction letter to Ajilo. He took me in as a student and I was paying him two pounds ten shillings monthly. He took me through the theories and practice of music. When he saw I was competent enough, he put me in his own band. His band was the resident band at the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos in the 60s. He took me in as a member of his band in 1959. I was in the last year of my secondary school. That was how I started playing music.

Fela was always linked with one controversy or the other, especially with women and drugs; didn’t such affect you as well?

I would say it didn’t affect me. At the time I knew him, he wasn’t taking any drug; he was just taking soft drinks. I loved his policies. He didn’t tolerate stealing and lying. He was a very hard working man. After his house was burnt, he was hurt. His leg and hands were broken but he would still come for rehearsals with those broken bones. He would still play at the nightclub. He was a very meticulous man. He would always document everything. I loved his politics. I was destined to work with him. Like Jesus had his disciples, I was made Fela’s disciple. I didn’t live with him, though. I was already married. But he played at my marriage ceremony. For many reasons, I admired and cherished him. I was not involved in all the time the police raided his house. It was either I had gone before they got to his house or I was away at work. God was always making it possible for somebody to hold the forte whenever he was taken to prison.

Did you ever consider forming your own band or even becoming a vocalist?

I used to have the idea. But after some time, I felt the time was not ripe. At that time, it was difficult for anybody to form a band. There was money issue. People would not work for you without money. We would need equipment to hire and it wasn’t easy. Then again, it wasn’t easy to get dedicated people to work with. Every time I had the dream, I looked at the circumstances and I would shelve the idea.

Fela loved plenty women, did the lifestyle rub off on you?

Hardly can you see a musician who doesn’t like women. Even if you don’t like them, they will come to you. It is left for you to use your sense to be focused to know what you are after. At that time, I had my girlfriends among the singers and dancers. But I didn’t have as many as Fela.

Was it by choice that you became a polygamist or it happened through some circumstances?

Even if you don’t ask women, they will still come around you. Then again, I am a Muslim and the religion allows for more than three or four as long as you can cater for them. I had only two at a time. Eventually, one had to go and I was with my first wife. I am still with her, though she is not living with me. She built her own house in Sango (Ogun State). We stayed there together when I was building my house in Lagos. It was just a few years back that I got another wife. I wouldn’t even call myself a polygamist because I don’t even have more than one at a time.

Was it that your parents were so comfortable that they could afford to train you in school?

It was by the grace of God. My father died before I could reach primary school age. It was just my mother and my father’s twin sister that trained me. I first went to a primary school at Lagos Island. Then, when I was getting too rascally, I was taken to a cousin in Epe (Lagos). After Epe, I was sent to Oshogbo to stay with my mother’s immediate younger brother. I went to All Saints School, Oshogbo. In 1954, an incident happened and I was expelled from the school, I was brought back to Lagos. The family had a meeting and they said I should go and learn a trade. My mother called me and asked me what I would want to do. I told her I wanted to go back to school. She got me a primary school at Tinubu in Lagos Island. After that, I was admitted at National High School, Ebutte Meta. It was my last year at the school that I started learning music. I got an appointment in 1961 as a health officer. But all along, I was educating myself. I was taking correspondence courses with schools in London. I took my ordinary level GCE and I passed. I took the advanced level and I also passed. I also got promoted at work.

So why didn’t you use your qualifications to further your education?

I actually applied at the University of Lagos to study Law and I was admitted without taking any exam. I got direct entry. This was in 1979. I was there for about two years. But something happened that took me out of the university. I didn’t really know what life was all about when I was admitted. I went telling people that I got admission. They were all happy and of course, some of them pretended to be happy. I didn’t get hostel accommodation so I was going for lectures from my house. Somewhere along the line, I got so ill. It was so bad to the extent that whenever I was taking my bath, the water would be pinching me like needles. I didn’t want my mother to panic, so I didn’t tell her. So when I told her and my family members, they went to ‘search’ and found out what happened. They came back to tell me to withdraw from the school so that the sickness would go. I withdrew. Even at that, I didn’t withdraw voluntarily. The sickness had affected my education. I performed very poorly, so they wrote to me and said I should withdraw.

Don’t you feel saddened by that?

I do feel sad but at the same time, I have it in mind that whatever will be will be. I am glad my little experience in the Faculty of Law is helping me to deal with people and situations.