Jad Abumrad

I also think part of it was this is a moment after a brutal civil war that ended right about 1970, 1969, 70.

where the Nigerian government basically starved an insurgent movement to try and secede from the Biafran Republic.

It was a horribly brutal war of starvation.

And in the wake of that, I think there was a lot of disillusionment on the part of young people.

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

an eerie calm and into that walks this guy, you know, as, as you have millions of young people looking for a new way, a new direction in walks this guy with other worldly 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 and, and,

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.

You know, one of my favorite Fela trickster songs, I think of those trickster songs where he was sort of like playing tricks on the authority and then they'd come and raid him and then he'd make a song about the raid and then they'd raid him again.

One of them is called Calakuta Show.

I believe this was 1974.

It's not only like a really great, really funky song, but if you listen to the lyrics, it's almost like a news report, like an eyewitness news report about a raid.

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.