…Says Femi refused to allow his dreams to die
Yeni Anikulapo-Kuti is a pioneer member of Positive Force Band, the Afrobeat band that has spread and still spreading the gospel according to Afrobeat round the globe.
Recently, she sat down out of her busy schedule and took us through how it all started. Enjoy the story as she told Charles Okogene. Happy reading.
YK, taking you back, can you tell us how it all started?
You mean the Positive Force?
No, your dancing career, how it all started?
Okay, I had all wanted to dance because when I was in school, I was dancing; I wanted to go to a dance school but Fela could not afford it because they just burnt his house. Then Femi said he was starting his band, though, before then, I had wanted to do it in Fela’s band but for the politics with his wives, I stepped back and couldn’t do it there. So, when Femi was about to start his band, Sola and I now said ‘Femi, we are the ones that will do the dancing for you’. I had a desk job at the time and I said ‘no, I no do desk job again, let me face this. That was how it started for me and Sola.
If you did not opt for dancing, what would you have done?
My hands were in many pots then. I was designing clothes, working in an arcthitural firm. I was into buying and selling; my hands were everywhere so to say. I was very ambitious. I did not do just do one thing. I did many things.
Would you have been a journalist because you attended Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) then?
May yes, may no. I don’t know. I had a passion for journalism but there is no money in journalism and I have always wanted to do what has money. That is why those days I was doing several things even when I was dancing in Positive force I was into business bringing bags, clothes , shoes to sell. So, I don’t know if I would have done journalism; though, what I am doing now ‘In Your View’, in TVC, is part of journalism and I enjoy it.
Dancing was a passion for you, why did you not take it further by starting a dancing school?
It was a very serious passion. My passion was dancing but teaching was not part of it; dancing is still my passion, though. I have taught some people but for dance class, no. A lot of people might be in the same dance class with you but will not have the same passion with you. Sometimes when I am teaching Made’s wife and Femi’s daughter, I enjoy doing it with them because they are passionate, they like dancing so I enjoy doing it with them.
Dancing has taken you all over the world…
Recently I got an award, which I am very proud of.
Now, what are the highpoints of your dancing career?
That is a tough question because there were too many highpoints. Too many. There was the KORA Awards in South Africa, the WOMAD (World Music Award) in Monaco, France, Hollywood Bowl, several shows in Hollywood Bowls, San Francisco. There are so many like North Sea Jazz Festival, the Royal Festival Hall in England. I cannot say this is my favourite. Everything was so great, everything was like living out your dreams. One thing was doing a job you love, you are living your dreams. For me God answered my prayers because I was living my dreams.
Yes, I want to know because in one of the pamphlets by Pedro Okojie, I was reading how Positive Force started from Grandpa’s Moustache, Jazz 38 playing before less than 10 people but now it plays before 10,000 people every Thursday and Sunday. In those early days, how were you people coping. What was your strong point, what kept you people going?
God and I think, Femi also kept us going. Femi did not let his dreams die even when a lot of us were very discouraged. We were very, very discourage. At times at Grandpa’s Moustache, the day three people will come and watch us, we will be very happy that that day we are going to dance well. Then it was very heartbreaking for us; it wasn’t nice but we worked hard because the same way you will dance if you have 20 people is the same way you will dance if you had five people so we all worked hard and it was difficult because we had one car, one beetle. That car will go like four, five times to take our instruments to Apapa where Grandpa’s Moustache was. It will do the same number of trips after. Transport us. That car suffered. It wasn’t easy and I guess hard work pays. You are just making me relive those days. Those days were difficult.
That same document by Pedro also highlighted the fact that Positive Force’s first foreign tour was in Agolueme, France, where you opened show for Jimmy Cliff. Can you relive that experience?
I went on the tour with them but I did not dance because I was pregnant; I know that Agouleme was in 1988 because it was the same year that I gave birth. I did not agree not to go. So I went as a spectator. I was doing the supporters club but all the same it was wonderful for me to see the band at that level after our struggle. We just had that break and I cannot forget when we played Agouleme and Femi and the band opened for Jimmy Cliff who was huge then and the next day, the papers screamed, ‘Femi Kuti star of the night!’ the same page with Jimmy Cliff. When we saw the papers the next day in France, it was fantastic. We played other festivals and venues. For that I will give the French Cultural Centre a big thumbs up. The director at that time, Alan De Fonte and Ibrahim were very supportive. They were great, they were great. Alan will just look at Femi and say, ‘have you eaten, are you hungry? Okay let me get you a show and just like that a show will arrive. He was very supportive and from there it was higher and higher and I will give a lot of thanks to the French Cultural Centre, Alan De Fonte and of course, Ibrahim and Pascal.
How and when did you stop dancing professional?
It was when my mother died. When my mum was alive I could go on tour, leave my daughter with her because I know my daughter was in safe hands but when she died, I wasn’t ready to leave her in care of another woman. You know when my mother died, my grandmother moved back to England; so it was only Femi, myself and Funke. Funke and Femi were still together then. I stayed with the kids when Femi and Funke travelled. So there was no way I will leave the children in the name of tour.
You, Sola, mummy and grandma, I learnt were said to be the stabilising factor in Femi’s life. Is that true?
I do not know o. That you have to ask him. I only know that things were tough sha.
I remember one day we were coming from VI, Sola, Femi, ID and I were inside the Beatle car and we were on that bridge where they catch fish and Sola said ‘can we come and be fishing here to sell and eat’ and Femi just looked at her and said, ‘you are mad!’ Such was the level of our frustration and disappointment before French Cultural Centre and the Agouleme show came our way. Then I said yes o we will get fish to eat and sell and ID agreed with us and Femi said we all can go and fish, that he will not, such was our level of disillusionment but all that is now history, it was a phase and we thank God. If you don’t suffer you will not appreciate what you have. If you do not suffer, you don’t appreciate what you. That is my take.
Golden Tones Concert was also ….
(cuts in sharply) ha, ha, ha….
Was also a defining moment for Positive Force because I remember Femi and Shina Peters got the highest slot the first time the concert came to Nigeria. How was the feeling like?
The concert saved our lives when there was no money. It saved our lives …. We could eat, Femi could keep the band going because it is not easy to employ people and there is no money to pay them. Golden Tones made it easy for us to pay the band members. They invited us for every concert. It saved our lives, our career. I think it was …I cannot remember now, one oyibo man, he loved the band and he gave us very many opportunities. He believed in our band , that it iswas a great band, which was great; you have to remember that Femi’s music was/is not a popular music, it was afrobeat and afrobeat is not popular music, not commercial that is why they call hip-hop popular music so you have to love music to understand Afrobeat and that is when we get on stage after may be Ras Kimono and his ‘a yaga, yaga yaga yo’ they will not understand what we are doing but slowly but surely, we began to win them over, which was a good thing. I remember when we went to Jos and we played ‘Plenty Nonsense’, Orits Williki came to us and said ‘wao, this is a fantastic number’ but he is a musician, he has ears for music and understands it.
Another defining moment for Femi was when the Motown deal came and when the album came out Kenny and D1 promoted the album so much. They were partly responsible for it’s success in Nigeria. God bless them wherever they are now. Their era was when you don’t give DJs anything to promote a good job, not anymore.
