Jad Abumrad

There was kind of, as it was put to me –

an eerie calm, and into that walks this guy.

As you have millions of young people looking for a new way, a new direction, in walks this guy with otherworldly confidence, making music that is just funky and danceable and trance-inducing and amazing.

And he becomes this instant magnet for lost souls and creates a compound almost overnight.

Hundreds of young people flocked to him.

And it's really hard to know how he got away with it because to declare your compound a sovereign republic a year after a civil war when a whole republic tried to secede and that was met with brutal force, it's kind of mind-bogglingly insane and courageous to do it.

But it's really hard to know how he got away with it.

I mean it's really – Fela's relationship with women is hard to wrap your mind around.

All I can say is that it was very important for us when we were reporting this series to speak with those women.

And by the way, I mean I see that particular marriage as a PR stunt and also kind of as an HR move.

Because he was bleeding talent at that moment.

This was after the house was burned down.

A lot of his band were like, this is ridiculous.

We're out.

A lot of his backup dancers were coming to the same conclusion.

And so I think the idea of marrying them was as much about trying to make sure people don't leave as it was anything else.

That's not to excuse it at all.

But I see that much more as a stunt and as an act of desperation, frankly.

Yeah, we spoke to three of the four that are still alive, as far as we can tell.

And what was really interesting is that they all insisted that they were there by choice, however we might judge them.