FELA @80: Femi Kuti, siblings celebrate posthumous birthday

Yesterday, Femi Kuti and his siblings celebrated their late father, afro-beat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, on his posthumous 80th birthday.

Celebrating the afro-beat maverick, Femi and his siblings took to their Instagram pages to pen heartfelt birthday messages.

Femi Kuti wrote; “Happy Birthday to our father the greatest, he would have been 80 today. He can never be forgotten. We love you.”

“Happy birthday dad, although you preferred to be called Fela. Because of you in this strange wicked world we live in, I still have hope. I miss you so much. I’m glad you are still with me because one day will be one day”, Motunrayo wrote.

Kunle Kuti wasn’t left out. In his message, he expressed how much he misses Fela.

“It hurts me to think that you are no longer with us. Although I cannot help but smile with tears in my eyes thinking of how we have cherished each and every moment of our lives together while you were still alive. Happy 80th birthday”, he wrote.

While celebrating his father, Seun Kuti condemned all Fela wannabes as he recalled his father’s struggle during his lifetime.

“People will never understand you without going through the education you have tried to promote. Every Tom, Dick and Ashy is the new Fela just because they want to smoke Igbo and chase women. How about the sacrifice? How about duty? They want to be Fela and at the same time and be the darlings of all the oppressors. All these new Fela’s and those possessed by his sprit hob-nobbing with white supremacists. They think you are great because rappers mention your name, they don’t know that rappers mention your name so they can feel greatness. What do they know about sacrifice? What do they know about the trauma that first hand violence has inflicted on our family? The blind leading the blind listening to the deaf speak! Happy 80th birthday. The struggle intensifies”, he wrote.

Yeni Kuti revealed that Fela was an icon she admired a lot which is why she would never forget him.

“Today Fela my father, my icon, a brilliant mind, a man I greatly admired would have been 80 today. He is felabrating in the greater beyond; we here will never forget you.”

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