Terry Gross

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I'm Terry Gross.

No.

Hi, this is Molly C.V.

Nusberg, digital producer at Fresh Air.

And this is Terry Gross, host of the show.

You may know my guest, Jad Abumrad, as the creator and former host of the public radio program and podcast Radio Lab, and the creator and host of the popular and Peabody Award-winning nine-episode podcast series Dolly Parton's America.

Now, Jad has a terrific new series of episodes about the life and music of Fela Kuti.

He's known as the father of Afrobeat, but music was also Fela's weapon against the colonial values that tried to civilize Nigerians, erase African culture, and inflict punishment, often brutally, to keep Nigerians in line.

With Fela's danceable, almost trance-like grooves and political lyrics, he started a youth movement that rebelled against the repressive post-colonial government and military.

For that, he was jailed about a hundred times, beaten frequently, enduring multiple broken bones, leaving scars all over his body.

The military breached the electric fence that protected his compound, threw his mother out a second-story window, and burned his home to the ground.

He's also a problematic figure.

He fashioned himself into what you might describe as a cult leader.