Femi Kuti, the eldest son of legendary Afrobeat pioneer, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, has relived memories of how people hated him while growing up because of the fact that he was Fela’s son.
Femi made this revelation, while featuring in this week’s episode of #WithChude. He also talked about being a single father, the loss of his parents, and the impact it had on his life.
Recalling what he experienced as Fela’s son, while growing up, Femi said
“people didn’t like me because I was Fela’s son. Schooling was a very depressing time for me because there were some teachers who liked my father,while many others didn’t like him. So, if I got into trouble with a teacher that didn’t like him, that teacher would beat me mercilessly because they didn’t like my father. Then there were the rich children in the same school who didn’t like me because I was Fela’s son. So, I was fighting for most of my time in school,” Femi recalled.
Another sad experience he had while growing up according to him was that his father was always beating him as a child.
Femi also shared about dealing with grief after the death of his loved ones, especially his mother.
“I’ve also experienced death. The passing of my mother was probably the worst time because my mother was like my pillar, and when she died, I was lost. Till about three or four years ago I would still wake up wanting to go and say good morning to her hold on’! Fela had just gone, my sister had gone, my cousin had gone. Some people predicted that 12 of us will die, and I was thinking, is this prediction going to come through? Then we had our internal family problems, my wife went, and then they said, ‘Femi is going mad’. But I am thankful that I overcame it, I think it is what has made me a better person.”
