Introduction-The Colonial Mentality
In 1977 approximately seventeen years after Nigeria had gained it’s independence of British colonialism, Nigerian musical phenom Fela Kuti released a song called “Colonial Mentality” on his album “Sorrow, Tears, and Blood”. In the chorus and first verse of the song Fela sings the following lines:
He be say you be colonial man
You don be slave man before
Them don release you now
But you never release yourself
I say you fit never release yourself
Colo-mentality
He be say you be colonial man
You don be slave man before
Them don release you now
But you never release yourself
In these lyrics, Fela is speaking to the general African population. He argues that despite direct and physical implementations of colonialism ending, as colonial superpowers began to leave the continent as early as 1957, that the minds of African people were still stuck in the psychological bondage of the colonial mentality.
Afrobeat, the style of music that Fela Kuti originated, was in many ways inherently political by Fela’s choosing. It centered around pan-Africanism and figuring out ways to break down the influence of the colonial system that was still present in post-colonial Africa(Sithole,1). Fela was born in 1938 and lived through the transitionary years of Nigerian independence, the colonial system was something that he understood intimately through firsthand experience. With colonialism and the lingering effects of the colonial mentality being such a central theme in Fela’s life and music, it is imperative that it is explained before moving forward to analyze the development of Fela as both a musician and Activist.
From as early as the late 1800s the continent of Africa faced imperial pressure and colonization from various European powers. Nigeria first came into contact with British rule as early as 1807 and continued to have colonial ties with the European power up until the African nation gained independence on October 1st, 1960. During this time period, that lasted for over a hundred years, Britain completely changed the make-up of Nigeria. They changed the currency, the education, the standard religious teachings, and the social norms of the country. The Europeans weren’t just exchanging their beliefs and ideas with the natives but in many ways they delegitimized African customs. Africans were being taught in colonial churches and schools that their own culture was primitive and unfit for the modern world(Falola et al.,11). As a result of these negative connotations that were being attributed to Africaness, the African people, and especially the African elites were still clamoring to be European.
In 1957 Britain had already begun to give some control to the native population by implementing systems such as self-governance in the three major geographic regions of Nigeria. However, as many of these new local leaders gained power they began to be focused on their own personal success over the success of the general African public. The Europeans slowly left Africa, but their government and their systems did not leave as they were being upheld by this greedy crop of African officials. These African officials were put in a position where the European system privileged them. They now had control over government job appointments, funds for local development, trade licenses, and even government contracts.
These African officials were happy with the status quo of an exploitative European style of governing because they were now the beneficiaries of the system. Even after Nigeria had gained its full independence in 1960, these officials continued to abide by a constitution that had been created and implemented by Britain, despite it hurting the majority of the public in Nigeria(Falola et al.,12). This became one of the major points of contention that Fela had with the colonial mentality. He constantly attacked the black African officials who were in power and chose to continue to follow a European style of governance. In the later verses of his song Colonial mentality he sings:
The thing wey black no good (They think we black no good)
Na foreign things them dey like
No be so? (He be so!)
Them go turn air condition
And close them country away
No be so? (He be so!)
Them Judge him go put white wig
And jail him brothers away
No be so? (He be so!)
In these verses, Fela emphasizes the ways in which African officials were using their power within a foreign system to disenfranchise other Africans. Fela focusing on the concept of African judges wearing white wigs helps to highlight the uselessness, arbitrariness, and the absurdity of some of the European customs that Africans adopted. However, by juxtaposing that concept with the line, “And Jail him, brothers, away”, Fela is able to add gravity to the situation by showing the type of power and influence we give to these European systems. Another key component of the colonial mentality that these verses are able to convey is the trust in which the “civilized” black African is able to place in the things of the white European (Fanon,13). They don’t simply subscribe to the teachings and systems of Europe solely as a result of their greed, no these officials have been socialized to believe there is no such thing as an African solution. They have been taught that the things of Africa are inferior to the things of the west.
This notion of this inferiority complex is at the root of the colonial mentality. Frantz Fanon, a revolutionary writer, and philosopher that was born on the French colony of Martinique speak about this extensively in his 1952 book, Black Skin, White Mask. In one passage of the book he states:
Every colonized people — in other words, every people in whose
soul an inferiority complex has been created by the death and
burial of its local cultural originality — finds itself face to face with
the language of the civilizing nation; that is, with the culture of the
mother country. The colonized is elevated above his jungle status
in proportion to his adoption of the mother country’s cultural
standards. He becomes whiter as he renounces his blackness,
his jungle. (Fanon,9)
This quote shows how far-reaching the effects of colonialism is on the psyche of the African people. The deep-rooted inferiority complex that was developed through cultural erasure made it hard for Africans to conceptualize and create anything that was truly African. They had been taught not to believe in Africa or Africans as a means of progress and it hindered the growth of African forms of government and even music. The colonial mentality was something that was so deeply entrenched into post-colonial African society that even Fela who was constantly speaking out against it, was subjected to it throughout his youth until early adulthood.
The crux of Fela’s music was Africanism which to him meant the total rejection of western ideas and philosophies( Vakunta,187). He prided himself on “thinking African” and believed that his African way of thinking is what made his music successful both domestically and abroad( Labinjoh,126 ). However from his childhood throughout his early adulthood their was no clear definition of what it meant to think African, because African thought had been corrupted through generations of Colonial control. In fact, the prevailing African thought of the day was to look to the lifestyles of the colonial masters as a model to live. The colonial mentality itself was the continued rejection of African ideas even after the colonialist left, because of a developed inferiority complex(Fanon,68). The colonial mentality itself is incompatible with genre of Afrobeat. This genre is considered to be the first modern form of truly African music and does not deal with western ideas at all other than to criticize them. Fela Kuti, the creator of the genre, however was a product of the colonial system and was taught to respect and uphold western ideas in his youth.
This project will act as a road map and analysis of Fela Kuti’s life and the various ideological shifts that he experienced at different points in his life. Fela himself was born as a self described colonial boy and his family’s socioeconomic background and his upbringing tamed his political outview in many ways. However, as he traveled and lived outside of the lifestyles of the Nigerian upper crust, he was able to synthesize his experiences into a clear revolutionary and distinctly African-centric ideology that he brought back to his more country and expressed through his music, Afrobeat.
