Fela Kuti – The Saxophone the CIA Tried to Silence - video Dailymotion

Watch Fela Kuti – The Saxophone the CIA Tried to Silence - Rizzle on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Fela Kuti's saxophone became so dangerous that Nigerian soldiers literally threw his

00:09mother from a window to silence his protest songs.

00:13In 1978, soldiers retaliated against his afrobeat rhythms by attacking his compound,

00:18demolishing his studio, and leaving him unconscious.

00:21His lyrics directly named corrupt officials and demanded justice.

00:26The multi-instrumentalist composer understood that music travels faster than propaganda.

00:31Your favorite protest song likely owes its roots to Kuti's blueprint, blending direct

00:35political messages with captivating grooves, which made censorship nearly impossible for

00:40regimes.

00:41Nigerian authorities arrested Kuti over 200 times, proving that no punishment was too extreme

00:46for a musician who refused to stay quiet.

00:49The government was relentless.

00:51They regularly beat him and destroyed his music, imprisoning him on trumped-up currency

00:55charges.

00:56Amnesty International championed his release, highlighting the conviction's political nature.

01:02The regime even resorted to absurdist propaganda, accusing this fierce anti-colonial activist

01:07of being a CIA agent.

01:10He ridiculed these claims, recognizing attempts to discredit him, and his anthems resonated

01:14with Nigeria's urban poor.

01:17Once newspapers dropped his Chief Priest Say column under pressure, it was clear no dissenting

01:22voice was safe.

01:23Think about that level of fear, a government so threatened by one musician that they invented

01:28spy conspiracies to justify decades of persecution.

01:33Decades after his death, Kuti's sons continue using Afrobeat as a platform for political resistance,

01:38proving music's enduring power against oppression.

01:41Artists like Burna Boy and Kendrick Lamar embody this belief, showing that authoritarian regimes

01:46fear artists more than armies.

01:48When your saxophone can inspire revolution, every note becomes an act of rebellion worth dying

01:53for.