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5 min readFela Kuti: Enter the Shrine
The Question That Started It All
When Jad Abumrad stepped away from Radiolab, he didn't plan to make another podcast. Then an old friend approached him with a question: did he want to do a series about Fela Kuti? The Nigerian musician who invented a new genre of music, started a political movement, and nearly toppled a dictatorship—just with music. Abumrad said yes in the way you say yes to things you know will never happen. Then he started making phone calls and didn't stop for three years.
The result is a 12-part series called Fela Kuti: Fear No Man. But the question that drove it was personal. "Right now, you're looking out in the world, none of it makes sense," Abumrad says. "If you love music, you kinda look around and you're like, what is the point of making music? What's it gonna do to make our world better?" Fela Kuti answered that question. His music wasn't just music—it became the catalyst for a political movement that brought tens of thousands of young people into the streets and nearly toppled a dictatorship. "This is the point of making art," Abumrad says. "To try and change the world in some way."
The Shrine
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Episode Introduction & Host Banter** - Jad Abumrad returns to Radiolab to discuss his new series on Fela Kuti.
- 2 (04:21) **Why Fela? The Point of Music** - Jad argues that Fela's music was not just entertainment but a political catalyst.
- 3 (08:19) **Entering the Shrine: The Place** - Introduction to Fela's club in Lagos, the epicenter of his movement.
- 4 (14:51) **Setting the Stage: Lagos & the Kalakuta Republic** - Context on Fela's return to Nigeria and the shrine's location.
- 5 (18:18) **Inside the Shrine: An Alternate Universe** - Eyewitness descriptions of the club's atmosphere during the dictatorship.
- 6 (23:03) **The Transformative Power of the Music** - The episode's core question: how did the music itself change people?
- 7 (28:33) **The Lyrical Punchline** - After 40 minutes of groove, Fela's lyrics deliver a political awakening.
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Show Notes
Our original host Jad Abumrad returns to share a new podcast series he’s just released. It’s all about Fela Kuti, a Nigerian musician who created a genre, then a movement, then tried to use his hypnotic beats to topple a military dictatorship. Jad tells us about the series and why he made it, and we play the episode that, for us at least, gets to the heart of the matter: How exactly does his music work? What actually happens to the people who hear it and how does it move them to action?
You can find Jad’s entire nine-part series, Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, on Apple or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Jad Abumrad
Radiolab portions produced by - Sindhu Gnanasambandan
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