Jad Abumrad

And it's run by a dictator for, you know, I think what some would say the wrong reasons.

Yeah, he had a nine-point list that he presented to the committee.

I think the committee brought him on because they really couldn't not have him on it.

He was the most popular Nigerian musician, most popular African musician at that point.

So they had to include him in some way.

Yeah.

He comes in and basically says, here are the nine things I need to be in place if I'm going to participate.

One of them was to feature Nigerian artists.

Another was to create a kind of educational curriculum around FESTAC that was all about African pride and African history.

There were all of these things that were basically around educating the people, not simply making this accessible.

A good time, a good dance party, but let's actually make this an educational teaching moment about sort of African history.

And of course, the committee said, no, we just want you to play.

And so he stormed out and he created very famously a counter fest act so that.

As festec was happening across town, he would play every night at the shrine.

And, you know, if you are a black intellectual or a black musician at this moment and you're coming to Nigeria, the person you want to see is Fela Kuti.

And so you had all of these people coming to the shrine.

They had been flown in on the government's dime and they were suddenly going to Fela's shrine where he was talking badly about the government.

So from the dictator's point of view, this was terrible.

beyond enraging.

And it was only a day or two after the festival closed that you had this incredibly violent conflict between Fela and the authorities.