The Son Also Rises
Yesterday dozens of African leaders convened in Ghana to debate the creation of a United States of Africa based on the European Union model. While the group's most ardent backer is Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, an even more celebrated African has stepped up to declare his willingness to serve as the Union's first president. Last week at Dakar University, Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour announced, "I pledge in front of you, student youth of Africa, to stand as a candidate to head the Union African government if the project is endorsed at the heads of state summit."
Youssou N'Dour is not the first African musician to stake this claim, however. Nigerian afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti was known as the "Black President" as early as 1976 and even released an album under that title in 1981. Kuti died of AIDS-related causes in 1997, unfortunately, but until his death he was as presidential an African presence as the continent had to offer. His legacy persists today in two musical sons, Femi Kuti and stepbrother Seun Kuti, the latter of whom performed last night at SOB's in Manhattan with his father's Egypt 80 big band.
Where Femi has carved out his own musical niche, Seun Kuti bears an uncanny onstage resemblance to his late father, whose West African take on James Brown-ian funk he also faithfully recreates. Seun's a lithe, almost serpentine presence, and Egypt 80 is still a juggernaut. In songs like "Many Things," about politics and media, or "Mosquito," an itchy number about Africa's malaria crisis (watch a Dakar performance of it here), the band would settle into a funky groove that Seun would add to and subtract from with dramatic hand gestures. Occasionally he'd break it down to just drum and bass, step up to the microphone for a saxophone solo, or make room for his three female backing singers to rotate various strategic parts of their bodies quite rapidly.
It was an inspiring show but over far too quickly. Where his father (who can be seen performing "Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense" here) was famous for all-night spectacles at his Lagos nightclub, the Shrine, Seun and his band were offstage after about ninety minutes. For anyone who didn't get enough, though, Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 perform at the Montreal Jazz Festival tomorrow.