Jad Abumrad

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.

They did not want to be seen as political objects.

Each of them got there for their own reasons.

One of them, Laide, wanted to travel and see the world.

She'd always dreamed of being an air hostess, and there was no way for her to be that.

But along comes this guy who is traveling, and it does allow her to see the world.

Another, Lara, wanted to fight back politically, and this was the only guy doing that.

A third person, Chinieri, talked about how in...

In Nigeria, you have an amalgam of ethnic groups and an incredible amount of tension.

That's what led to the civil war.

And one of the rules of Fela's compound was that there can be no ethnicity.