By Charles Okogene
If the late Ras Kimono was the first musician to take this writer out of Nigeria (to Ghana) in 1994, Femi Anikulapo-kuti, was the first to take him on a tour of four european countries of Switzerland, France, Belgium and Germany on a promotional tour of that incredible album, ‘Beng’, Being!, Being! released in 1999 and produced by Sodi , his French producer.
This was in 1999 and the first place he performed was Winterthur where he shared the stage with Anglique Kidjo and afforded me the opportunity of
Femi with Jackie Chan (l) and Kidjo, Femi has paid his dues!
interviewing the lady for the first time. The second time was when a Lagos based FM station (name withheld) brought her to Lagos to perform in its anniversary concert. I have forgotten the year now.
Aside the Switzerland show, he also performed in several French cities but the most memorable was the one at the Zenith in Paris, where he shared the stage with Mecio Parker , a one time trumpeter for Papa James Brown of ‘…black and proud fame’.
The tour train then took us to Angouleme, incidentally, Angouleme was the first place he started his international shows in 1988.
The show there was like homecoming for Femi and his Positive Force Band.
After the France leg of the concerts, we headed to Germany where he played only one show. There, he would have left a member of his band, who was still sleeping in his hotel room, behind when the bus left. Thank God for his manager then, Sebastian , Who was also a German; he quickly worked on his phone as we cruised back to Paris, the band member was discovered in the hotel room still sleeping, but was later booked on the next train trip to France and he even got to our hotel room in France before us.
Sabastian .. .the then Femi’s manager
On coming back to Nigeria, the late mother of Femi , Remi , was surprised that a journalist had the rare opportunity of accompanying her son on a tour of Europe and still came back with him without dropping in any of the country.
“Charles, you came back with them?” She asked me days after we returned.
And the answer I gave her in her bedroom in their Omole Estate apartment was, “mummy, I had no plan of jumping ship. I still like Nigeria.”
The next place I visited with Femi Kuti was Benin Republic when he was invited to the West African country to perform in its 10th anniversary as a democratic country. Biodun Kupoluyi , then of the Punch Newspapers was on this trip we made by road from Lagos. I think that was also in 1999. There in Benin Republic, he played alongside Neil Oliver of “… My baby girl.”
Our next port of call after the Benin Republic trip was Cote D’Ivoire where Femi featured alongside Youssou N’Dour
, at the Dunhill Jazz Festival. Like the Swiss tour, here I was able to interview the then Senegalese leading act at the lobby of the hotel, Intercontinental Hotel, that we were lodged. Of course, that was my first time of interviewing N’dour and the memory still lingers like yesterday.
N’Dour (r) and I
The highpoint of this tour was not really the interview but the fact that had we not flew back to Lagos, Nigeria, aboard the then defunct Air Afrique, two days before the military coup in that country that took place years after the death of Felix Houphouet Boigny , the country’s first president, we would have been trapped in there. What a narrow escape!
… Watch out for how Femi started from Grandpa Nightclub in Apapa to a global act.
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