New facts are beginning to emerged from the estate of the late Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti as to how he stumbled and fell in love with the name, ‘Kalakuta Republic.’
This much was revealed by one of the memoirs he left behind.
According to him: “It was when I was in a police cell at the C.I.D. (Central Intelligence Division) headquarters in Lagos;
The cell I was in was given the name “The Kalakuta Republic” by the prisoners. I found out when I went to East Africa that “Kalakuta” is a Swahili word that means “rascal.
” So if rascality is going to get us what we want, we will use it; because we are dealing with corrupt people, we have to be rascally with them.”
Fela died of an Aids-related illness in 1997, and it seems that every year since then his profile outside Africa has been steadily increasing.
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