By: Kehinde Amusan
In a paper presentation delivered at the 2018 edition of Fela Kuti International Conference on Homeland and Social Theory, Prof. Anthony Akinwale associated the style of Fela lyrics and activism with the thought of Jean Jacques Rousseau, an exponent of social contract theory.
The conference organised by the Fela Kuti Studies Group on Wednesday, 10th of October, 2018 at the Small Lecture theatre (SLT or Room 32), Faculty of Arts, was with a view to “reinforcing the pillars of social movement and pillars of political movement.“, said Prof. Femi Osofisan, the chairman of the occasion.
In his paper presentation, Prof. (Rev. Fr.) Anthony Akinwale, the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of Dominican University, Ibadan acknowledged the socio-political consciousness of Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat music which attempts to awaken the unconscious Africans, who were absolutely colonized by the Western world. According to him, “Fela was famous for instrumentalizing the Afrobeat genre of music for socio-political critique.” “By his various stances against Western civilization, Fela showed the thought to be a government opponent of what he called Eyinbo style.”, he added.
Prof. Anthony Akinwale further explored Jean Jacques Rousseau critique of western civilization in a bid to establishing the nexus between Rousseau and Fela’s ideologies. Hence, he stated that “the philosophical understatement of Fela’s critique of Western civilization bears an inextricable resemblance of Rousseau’s critique of the same civilization.“ According to him, Rousseau believes “civilization is used to engender and construe deprivation of liberty. What they call virtue is nothing but appearance, they appear to the book, but to the fact they are not.” Thus, he said Fela declared emphatically that – “Me I no gree to copy Eyinbo style” to put forward the critique of Western civilization. Prof. Anthony Akinwale further pointed to a line of thread that connects the thought of Rousseau with that of Fela Kuti. According to him, “Rousseau judged Western civilization as having corrupted human nature; while Fela judged the Western civilization as having corrupted the Africa.”
Also, the Professor of Systematic Theology, Rev. Fr. Anthony Akinwale indicated Fela’s critique of Islam and Christianity, which he said was a product of colonization. He added that this is apparent in Fela’s song titled – “Shuffering and Shmiling”, where he sang, “Open your eye everywhere; Archbishop na miliki*; Pope na enjoyment; Imam na gbaladun*“ Hence, he affirmed that Fela could have been influenced by Jean Jacques Rousseau, though most probably indirectly. He also noted that Fela Kuti was also influenced by Sandra Swift, who brought into Fela’s consciousness the ideology black power. According to him, “The black power movement promotes economic and political empowerment of blacks in the United state.“
Speaking of culture, Prof. Anthony Akinwale delineated Culture as “the continuous cultivation of human spirit as well as the adherents of this cultivation.” He added that “no culture can exist in isolation of other culture.” He further emphasized that Africans can no longer hide under how their ancestors thought and how things were done by our ancestor. According to him, “this new African culture must be a new way of cultivating African Culture.” “Then, the Africans can evolve in an environment where personal and collective fulfilment are mutually inclusive. “, he stated.
Professor Akinwale studied philosophy at the Seminary of Saints Peter and Paul, Bodija, Ibadan from 1981-84. Obtained his M.A in theology at the Dominican University College in Ottawa, Canada in 1991 and Ph.D. in Theology at Boston College, USA in 1996. He has been lecturing since 1993 with Specialty in Systematic Theology. He is the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of Dominican University, Ibadan.
