Woman, Lady, and Simi’s Defiant Fela Sample

Written by Vivian Nneka Nwajiaku

“If you call am woman/ African woman no go gree/ She go say, ‘I be lady, oh…

She go say im equal to man/ She go say im get power like man/ She go say anything man do, imsef fit do…

African woman go dance/ She go dance the fire dance/ She know him man na master…

But lady no be so/ Lady na master.”

I have never been wired to consider myself as less than a man. I am fortunate to have been that way from a very young age. Undeniably, I have internalised several norms and ideologies that perpetuate injustice in certain forms. I have however worked hard to unlearn these adverse practices. The reality however is that I am probably holding on to some of these practices, and perhaps justifying them. Holding on to the knowledge that my entire life is a learning process, as is the same with every other human, I am certain of one thing. That I have always been drawn towards the promotion of gender equality and art forms that propagate it.

It was no wonder why I would enthusiastically sing along whenever I heard Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s Lady playing, for most of my childhood. I was literally revelling in being “Lady.” Little did I know that Fela was ridiculing “Lady”. How could it have crossed my mind that the son of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, “the first Nigerian woman to drive a car,” could ridicule a woman for saying she can do what men do?

It is no secret that Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (or Anikulapo-Kuti as she later informally changed her name to) was so much more than the first Nigerian woman to drive a car — or the first girl child to attend her secondary school. Her entire life was marked by activism on behalf of Nigerian women, in one form or the other. She fought for better representation of women in local government and for the right of Nigerian women to vote. She organised literacy programmes for low-income women, particularly market women. She got involved in politics and led protests and demonstrations against tax regimes that were unfair to women. And driving a car at a time when no other Nigerian woman had driven one was activism in itself, intended or otherwise.

It may however come as a surprise to many, that her son, the Afrobeat legend who staunchly fought against oppressive systems and was an advocate for human rights, held very opposing views to his legendary mother. To Fela, by African standards, to be a woman is to be unequal with man; to have less power than man; and to recognise that your man is your master. If, as an African woman, you do not consider a man to be your own master and you dare to believe yourself to be equal with man, then you are not truly an African woman. What you are is a person aspiring to European beliefs — a lady.

To be fair, Fela’s quarrel was with the desperation of Africans to adopt European lifestyles and standards. In his 1977 song Colonial Mentality, Fela sang:

“De ting wey black no good/ Na foreign tings dem dey like

No be so? (E be so!)…

Dem go proud of dem name/ And put dem slave name for head

No be so? (E be so!)

Colo-mentality, now make you hear me now…

Mr Ransome, you make you hear/ Na Africa we dey o, make you hear…

He did not mock only ladies, he mocked men, too. He even low-key mocked his own family name! If you adopted or just happened to have any ideology that Fela considered un-African, he would probably mock you. His use of the terms “Lady” and “Woman” was metaphorical: symbols to represent European standards and African standards respectively. For obvious — and mostly good — reasons, he despised the former and encouraged the latter. But whether gender inequality is truly African or actually European is a discussion for another day.

There are people who consider Lady to be unintentionally feminist because it recognises a woman’s power to self-define since she must have that power in the first place to be able to refuse being called a woman and to insist on being called a lady. I disagree. I do not think there is anything unintentional about Lady. Fela drew a clear distinction between “Lady” and “African Woman”. And I fail to see how it constitutes self-definition if a “lady” is automatically excluded from the “African woman” moniker because she considers herself to be equal with men. It is a faux power, given with the seemingly feminist hand and taken back with the hand that says “But you are not African woman enough because of your beliefs or choices.” It is a power that requires a “lady” to stoop to conquer when she can very well stand tall and conquer.

Even if Fela did genuinely recognise a woman’s power to self-define, it cannot make an inherently anti-feminist message feminist. We know that Fela’s opinions on womanhood, hinged on his understanding of African culture, were often problematic. We know this from his music, his lifestyle, and his comments. In his 1975 song, Mattress, he referred to women as mattresses, something “wey we dey sleep on top.” In another song, Shakara, from his 1972 album which also housed Lady, he made it clear that if a woman says no, she is actually interested. In an interview, he literally said “Can’t you see that a woman has a body to be violated, soft breasts, a soft ass, a hole to dig into? She has a body that needs to be violated.” And in interviews recorded in Carlos Moore’s book Fela: This Bitch of a Life, many of Fela’s Kalukuta queen-wives admitted that Fela had slapped them on multiple occasions.

Against this backdrop, it is clear that Fela did not consider African women to be much more than sexual objects for the pleasure of men. Yes, Fela encouraged self-expression in the women of Kalakuta Republic. Yes, Fela once said in an interview that women have rights and can “do what they want to do.” But in the same interview, he noted that women have duties to perform with respect to men. And it is not far-fetched to infer that recognising that her man is her master, as he sang in Lady, is one of those duties that Fela believed a woman has.

Yet, if Fela had any right to define what it means to be an African man, he had no such right to define what being an African woman means. But, for some inexplicable reason, Fela constantly felt the need to tell African women what we are or ought to be, by his own “African” standards.

Simi’s defiant hit single literally titled “Woman” fits perfectly in this introspection into Fela’s Lyrical Hits. In this song, Simi queries societal definitions of womanhood and the societal barriers that enforce those definitions, sampling three of Fela’s most popular songs, Shuffering and Shmiling, Water No Get Enemy, and, of course, Lady.

“Na so so submission oh/ Shey we get assignment?

Suffer suffer for world (Amen)/ Enjoy for heaven

But you no pay attention oh/ To the intimidation she dey face

No be like water (E no get enemy)

If woman get confidence oh/ Then she no be woman

Woman get money, won a l’asewo ni/ She no be woman”

Woman parallels Lady in several ways. First, both artistes pass heavy messages with very few words and multiple repetitions. They both sing in Pidgin English — which should be a Nigerian lingua franca, by the way, but I digress. And they both rely on choruses that imply that there is a lot being left unsaid. For Fela, it is “I never tell you finish.” For Simi, it is “I never talk finish.” But unlike Fela who drew distinctions and, basically, a battle line, Simi does not diminish any woman for her choices or circumstances. She also does not attempt to define womanhood, even as a person in a position to know.

In fact, Simi does not so much as bring up Fela’s concept of “Lady,” as if to imply that his distinctions are irrelevant. And the truth is they are. Assuming but not conceding to the idea that the domination of women by men was originally part of African culture, it is irrelevant where our idea and desire for liberation stems from. Regardless of whether it is from Europe or the Americas or even from Outer Space, provided this desire and ideology is genuine and justified, the source is of no import. Simi simply identifies what matters: regardless of choices or circumstances, whether a woman suffers and smiles like Fela’s beloved “African woman” or decides to confidently live a liberated life on her own terms like Fela’s “Lady”, “eventually o, dem go suffer suffer woman.”

Simi is not the first artiste or even the first female artiste to sample Lady. In her debut album, Once Upon a Time, Tiwa Savage sampled the Fela song on a song which she actually titled Fela Interlude, singing Lady’s opening lines with a different tune. Before her, Wizkid sang the same words in Jaiye Jaiye, the lead single from his sophomore album Ayo, complete with a feature from Femi Kuti and dancers that paid tribute to the Kalakuta queens. But what Simi engaged in is more than mere sampling.

It is ironic (or, perhaps, deliberate?) that Simi released Woman on the anniversary of Fela’s birthday. On a day when most of the country was penning nostalgic notes and articles about the great activist and Afrobeats vanguard, from reputable publications to the average Nigerian’s WhatsApp status, Simi chose to take a stand against the harmful message of the subjugation of women that Fela helped spread through his music. This is what makes her version remarkable: Simi took Fela’s sexist music and used it to spread a feminist message, making a hit that is both celebratory of his sound and defiant against his problematic message.

And while Fela closes by making jest of “Lady” for being a master, Simi closes with a love letter to every kind of woman: “Nobody be like woman.”

Sources

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Funmilayo-Ransome-Kuti

https://msafropolitan.com/2013/08/african-feminist-analysis-fela-lady.html

https://www.afrobeatmusic.net/html/interview3.html

https://www.motherjones.com/media/2009/08/fela-kutis-bitch-life/

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/11/the-essential-fela-kuti/

https://www.spin.com/2019/07/fela-kuti-july-1986-interview-fela-freed/

Vivian Nneka Nwajiaku is a writer, lawyer, TV lover, and the Senior Film Critic for Afrocritik. She spends most of her time discussing films and TV shows, women issues, and societal biases in general. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. You can read her writings via Linktr.ee.

Edited by Blessing Temitope Oguntuase

Blessing Temitope Oguntuase is a law graduate who obtained her Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and Master of Laws in International Air, Space, and Telecommunications Law from the University of Pretoria. Temitope enjoys writing and engaging in research. She is passionate about exploring the intersection between disruptive technologies and the Law. Connect with Temitope on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Published by Titilope Adedokun

Titilope is on a mission to tell authentic stories of women and connect them with much-needed resources and opportunities. Connect with Titilope on LinkedIn and her personal website.