He was born of christian parents,he is born Hilderglart, named after a certain Christian missionary.He dies because he could not bear the name of an outsider.And comes back as FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI;the one who has death in his pouch-bearing the saxophone.A true Pan-Africanist.
His music (Afro-beat); a mix of American funk and Jazz, laced with traditional/highlife beats becomes an arena of change and confrontation-all conspire to making him a legend.But then, his process of deification had already begun, given his well publicized escapades; marriage to twenty seven women in one day, spokesman of the voiceless. For the molue bus conductor, he is a prime rascal; to the area boys,he's the chief priest of the shrine; to the student, he's a revolutionary; to the elites, a rebel; while he worships an entourage of African deities whose spirits he daily supplicates with sacrifices. His closeness to his mother earned him the name:"Omo Iya Aje" (Son Of A Witch), making his status of a Pan-Africanist less suspect, while creating a carefully orchestrated path in which his art becomes a dominant vehicle for the espousal of the social, political and philosophical tenets.He is the living spirit of Pan-Africanism even in death.Fela Anikulapo Kuti is indeed,a true Pan-Afrcanist in every sense of it.