Q: So you and Fela finally hooked up again. How was Fela then?
A: He had changed completely, man. By the time he came back from America he smoked, he drank, he fucked. He was more lively. He was a new man. A completely different man! Yeh, he even tried conning me. I’d say, “Look at him. He wants to con me!” [Laughter.] I asked myself, “But how did Fela get to be like this?” I was wondering what had happened. It was the American thing, you know. He saw the light over there and everything came out in him. Fantastically good things came out.
Q: But give me the whole story!
A: Well, as I told you before, I was doing fine-fine in England. I was into a lot of bread, man. I was making plenty-plenty by ’70. I was comfortable. I bought big car. I was drinking a lot. ’70, ’71, ’72 were all right, man. Actually, this was how I left. Fela came to London with his group in June ’71 on a recording tour. So when he came, he said: “Why don’t you come home and we join together? We’ll team up together. I have Africa 70. We could do something together.” He said I could be his PR man. I said, “OK, I’ll think about it.” You know, I would have liked to come home. So I came home in ’71 just on holidays. I saw the band, what was happening. It was all right, promising. So I went back to London, sold my house, and then. . . . Shit! There was this trouble, a whole mess that led to court. Ginger Baker was one of those involved. Anyway, they freezed my money. They freezed about £60,000 of my money in England. Up until today I haven’t got it back, man. Up till today! They even charged me. They wanted to charge me with some other guys for conspiracy.
Original album cover of Shakara
Design: Africa 70 Organization
Photo: Africa 70 Agency
Q: Conspiracy with Indian hemp?
A: Yes. Fela had sent this American guy with the drum. This was a long time ago. Fela was not the one who did it, you know. Anyway, the drum was full of shit. When they caught the guy – who I won’t name – at the airport, he just started talking. He said Fela gave it to him and all that bullshit. You see, Fela was supposed to play with Ginger Baker and Ginger Baker was supposed to come and live in my house, you know. And things like that. So the police came over to my place and raided me. They didn’t find a thing. But I’m so clever to the extent that the police can’t see anything. Yet they still said they would charge me with conspiring. ’Cause they said I was supposedly the one giving them the stuff. . . . They started with their inquiries and everything. They charged me to the Old Bailey, one of their biggest courts. Afterwards, I thought, “Why did they charge me to the Old Bailey?” That was in ’72. I said to myself, “Well, we’ll see!” Then I came to France. I sold my car there and moved on to Italy. From Italy I went to Accra (Ghana). Africa, at last!
Q: Once in Africa, you were OK! [Laugh.]
A: Damned right! [Laughter.] So I got to Accra. Fela came to meet me in Accra and then we crossed over to Nigeria by land. I came home and said: “I’m home. Nobody can do me anything here. That’s for sure!” Then I started settling down, man. We started with Africa 70. Our first number then was “Shakara”, which was a smash. I was the one who gave the name Shakara to that record. And that was my first album with Fela. I had joined the Africa 70 organization.
Q: As PR man or as Fela’s manager?
A: As everything, man. Yeah, ’cause at that time he started rising up like that [motions to the sky]. After “Shakara”, all our numbers were making it. ’73, ’74 we toured the Cameroons, all over the place. . . . We were making big hits, man. But we also began to get hit! And fuckin’ hard, too!
Defiant Fela
Photo: Chico
