Fela Anikulapo Kuti: Original Sufferhead

Original Sufferhead was the first album Fela released under Egypt 80's name, having disbanded Afrika 70 in 1979; the only musician held over was baritone saxophonist Lekan Animashaun, who had been with Fela since 1965 and who took over from the departing Tony Allen as bandleader.

The album was recorded in early 1981, shortly after Fela received a particularly savage beating from the Lagos police—the only beating, he said later, among the many that he received over the years, during which he believed that he was in mortal danger. Despite a supposedly legitimate civilian government being in power in Nigeria at the time, rather than a military regime (soon to return), no-one was prosecuted for the assault, much less punished for it. The incident is reflected in the lyric for the B-side, "Power Show," but is not directly referenced in the song.

This vinyl reissue is a major event. For the first time ever, the title track is presented in its complete 25+ minutes running time. While preparing to remaster the disc, a previously undiscovered tape in the Kuti family's tape archive revealed that almost four minutes of music had been left off the originally released version (on the Lagos International label in 1981), including a stirring keyboard solo by Fela. Until now, all reissues of the album have been made using the foreshortened original release.

On the title track, Fela describes the appalling living conditions experienced by Nigeria's "sufferheads," his name for the country's urban working class. ..."United Nations them come, get name for us," Fela sings. "Them go call us underdeveloped nation / We must be underdeveloped / Ten people in one room / The first and second world they call us third world / We must be crazy in the head / We sleep inside dustbins / They call us non-aligned nation / We must be crazy in the head / We sleep under bridges / Yes, what about ordinary houses for man to live in? / E no dey (there are none) Trouble? E yen dey (it is here)..."

In "Power Show," Fela sings about the two-tier system dividing Nigerian society, in which the rich get treated one way and the poor another. One of the examples he gives is the offhand treatment "ordinary" people receive at Nigerian border posts: ..."You reach border, immigration officer dey him go bluff you, waste your time / Change him pants, some dey comb them hair , then tidy them table / Then them pull them chair, before him go know say you dey there / If you no talk quick, him go for shit / Him go shit come back, and you talk to am / Then you surprise when him go say you no go cross / You no go cross today / Na that time them go start them power show-o..."

By contrast, Fela's tactic when faced with border guards was never passive. Ghariokwu Lemi, who designed many of Fela's album sleeves (though not Original Sufferhead) remembers one such incident in 1976 on a journey to Ghana, during a national dusk to dawn curfew. "Fela drove like the devil was after us [from Lagos] straight to the Benin border," says Lemi. "We made it just in time to see the gates closing for the day. Fela stared in disbelief at the stone-faced, bloodshot-eyed soldiers mounting sentry, very ready and willing to shoot to death any interloper.

"On a whim, Fela drove straight forward, almost to the locked gates. The soldiers had their guns cocked and pointing at him. We were all scared and wondering what the heck Fela was trying to do. 'My brothers, ah-beg open the gate for me-o,' he pleaded, 'I dey go Accra for a show tonight.' At this point, the head man barked an order for Fela to 'disappear or be shot.' JK Braimah [Fela's lifelong friend and right hand man] and Alex Oduro [his then manager] dashed forward to appeal to Fela to get back in the car. Spinning round from their grip, he turned his back on the soldiers and pointed to his buttocks and at the nozzles of the soldiers' guns. Fela challenged them: 'Oya shoot me if I be fowl for your eyes.'"

Concludes Lemi: "What a spectacle that was. I don't mind saying I was scared to death."

Liner Notes copyright © 2024 Chris May.

Original Sufferhead can be purchased here.

Contact Chris May at All About Jazz.
Chris May is a senior editor of All About Jazz. He was previously the editor of the pioneering magazine Black Music & Jazz Review, and more recently editor of the style / culture / history magazine Jocks & Nerds.

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