Fela Anikulapo Kuti's headless statue
Following the unveiling of ‘The Liberation statue of Fela'
at Allen Roundabout, Ikeja, Lagos, by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, many
people have wondered why the statue of the legendary musician, Fela
Anikulapo Kuti was unveiled without a head.
The effigy sees Fela standing tall with both arms raised above his
shoulders, strangely without a head. The conspicuous absence of Fela’s
head in the art work has caused some concerned followers to raise
questions – some insinuating that the absence of the head is
disrespectful.
Responding on behalf of the family, Fela’s daughter and social
commentator, Yeni Kuti has justified the design of the monument, saying
it was the expression of how the artist felt about the late legend.
She said: ‘Before people on social media will start to say the
Fela has no head or it has no hand and so on, it is art and before you
abuse us, let me answer quickly. It is art. How an artist feels is how
he feels because if he had put a head and the head did not look like
Fela, everybody will say the head did not look like Fela so now you
cannot abuse the head because it is not even there.’
The visual artist who designed the effigy, Abolore Sobayo said the
work was an expression of how he feels about the late Afrobeat legend,
saying that it was designed to generate discussion about the
emancipation of the people.
While justifying the fact that the art work had no head, Sobayo
said the design came out of extensive research on what Fela represented
through his music, and how to use same to correct some of the things he
complained about years ago that are still happening.
‘For me as an artist, art transcends beyond beauty or
aesthetics. For me, art should generate discuss; art should ask question
and art should provoke our thoughts. For me, the creation of the
Liberation Statue is to represent the essence of Fela by using his
costume. For me, I believe that this should serve as a conscious to our
subconscious that twenty years after Fela’s demise, most of the things
he talked about are still happening. For me, this work should come to us
not just as a beautiful work, but it should come to us as something
that will ginger us to look at the positivity in our lives; positivity
in the values of his music; for us to start to emancipate our people
positively. Going forward, I have been able to use symbolism as a medium
to represent Fela through his costume and to represent his essence,’ Sobayo said.
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