Terry Gross

And what would happen is he'd write a song, then he'd be like jailed or beaten for it.

Then he'd write a song about being jailed or beaten or, you know, whatever was done to him.

They'd punish him for that song.

And then he'd write a song about the punishment.

So it was like he answers songs to the military, right?

They were writing answer songs to each other.

Do you have a favorite example of that?

So let's hear Kalakuta's show.

Okay, we have to take a short break here, and then we'll get back to my interview with Jad Abumrad, the creator and host of the new series, Fela Kuti, Fear No Man.

I'm Terry Gross, and this is Fresh Air.

So here's where Fela loses me.

He puts together a group of fantastic women dancers and backup singers, and that's part of the reason why people want to see him perform, because it means seeing these women sing and dance in their elaborate makeup and face paint and costumes.

But he eventually marries 27 of them in one day.

I want to play an excerpt from the podcast in which several people talk about how they felt about the 27 wives.

What do you make of that?

So you spoke to, I think, a couple of the women who used to be in the band and married to him.

And one of them said he didn't marry the women.

He married the women to his band, which is like what you were saying.

What else did you hear from the women you spoke to who had been in his band and married to him?

So we have to talk about FESTAC.