Culture activist, Jahman Anikulapo, has described the late Afrobeat maestro, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, has a disciplined man who helped shaped his life.

Anikulapo, who was speaking at the public presentation of a book authored by Lanre Arogundade and titled, Fela: Yesterday’s message as today’s reality, also lamented that Fela was not being documented enough.

“We all have our Fela stories. Lanre Arogundade has just written his own version of the story and we have to thank him for it. Fela is one of our most important cultural products, locally and internationally, but we do not document his story,” he said.

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Anikulapo recalled how deeply his encounter with Fela had impacted his life.

He said,

“Fela shaped my life, my character, my perception of life and the way I relate to things in my environment.

“Many years ago, I was the stage manager for the popular music show known as Lekki Sunsplash. I remember that Fela was billed to perform at 5pm. The previous day, he had a show at Ogbe Stadium in Benin City. After the event, he had to drive all the way from Benin to Lagos that night and finally arrived at 6.am in Lekki.

“For me, that was the first thing to learn about Fela. He was a disciplined man.

Another thing that struck me about him was his humility. In spite of his toughness, he was a very humble man. He was humane, too.

“Before he died, Fela spoke extensively about restructuring. He spoke about it in such a way that seemed to suggest something needed to be done about poverty.

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I believe that what he did to me is the same thing he has done to young people. I have seen many young Nigerians dancing to Fela’s songs. It occurred to me that they never met or encountered him, but the music resonated with them.”

The event was held in Fela’s former residence, also known as Kalakuta Republic, on Gbemisola Street in Ikeja, Lagos.