This post is in remembrance of the legendary Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, deceased on this day in 1997. May his soul continue to rest in peace.
Extract from “Lady”
If you call am woman / African woman no go gree / She go say, she go say, I be lady o / CHORUS: She go say, I be lady o / I wan tell you about “lady” / She go say im equal to man / She go say im get power like man / She go say anything man do, imself fit do / I never tell you finish / She go wan take cigar before anybody / She go wan make you open door for am / She go wan make e man wash plate for am kitchen / She wan salute man, she go sit down for chair
TRANSLATION: If you call her a woman an African woman will not listen / She will tell you she is a lady / CHORUS: She will tell you she is a lady / Let me tell you about this “lady” / She believes she is equal to men / She believes she is as powerful as men / She will tell you that she can do anything men can do / Let me tell you / She is not ashamed of smoking in front of anyone / She demands that you open doors for her / She expects her man to do the dishes in her kitchen / She will sit down on a chair before saluting a man
It’s my birthday tomorrow and through some admittedly self-indulgent birthday-related search on Google I stumbled upon a site where you can order the soundtrack of your life.
Their song suggestions were not apt for me but it made me consider which songs I would put on the soundtrack of my life. One song that would headline such an album would be Lady by Fela as it’s a song that has accompanied both my childhood and adulthood.
I’m not alone. Lady has been the cause of joy, dance and debate for many. Although there isn’t as much analysis of the song as I think it deserves, writers like Mercy Oduyoye and Michael Veal have tackled it. Last year OkayAfrica reported that Tuneyards, Angelique Kidjo, Akua Naru and Questlove set out “reclaiming “Lady” for modern African women” in this remix. Most discussions have pondered whether Lady was misogynist or feminist without reaching a consensus.
Here’s what I think.
First, we need to understand the kind of society that Lady was released to.
Lady came out in 1972 on the Shakara LP, twelve years after Nigeria had gained independence from the British and two years after the end of the Nigerian civil war. 1972 was also the year that revenue from oil sales boosted Nigeria’s economy to such an extent that people’s salaries were in many cases doubled. The “Udoji Award”, as the unprecedented wage increase event was dubbed, was not without complications but I mention it here to demonstrate the celebratory mood that Nigeria found itself in.
It seems fair to assume from the lyrics that during this time of change, a parallel discussion about African women becoming westernised was taking place. When Fela sings, “African woman go dance she go dance the fire dance – She know im man na Master – She go cook for am – She go do anything he say – But Lady no be so”, he is implying that westernised African women are disrupting gender harmony in contrast to the “pre-lady” African woman who knows her place in society.
In this sense the song is a condemnation of women’s liberation from patriarchal, servile roles.
On the other hand, despite its display of male-dominant attitudes, it is also a song that demonstrates African women’s power to self-define. There is even a sense of affection and pride towards the lady’s display of power when Fela says “I wan tell you bout lady [..] Hmm, I neva tell you finish”. It may or may not have been Fela’s intention to demonstrate the no-nonsense attitude many Nigerian women flaunt upon a man who tries to subjugate her, but in the very line “She go say I be lady o”, this matter-of-fact self-determination is represented. Furthermore, by rejecting the idea of the emancipated, liberated lady, Fela was inadvertently opposing Western cultural dominance.
There are nevertheless three problems here.
Firstly, the song contradicts Fela’s own life and the women in it. After all, Fela was the son of Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti, an unapologetically modern and traditional women’s right’s activist. Also Sandra Izsadore, progressive and modern, whom I interviewed last year, was one of the most important women in Fela’s life.
The second problem is that both the African woman and the lady in the song are mere symbols of essentialist cultural wars between western and African men. In actuality, they are one and the same as implied by the line, “If you call am woman, African woman no go gree, she go say I be lady o“.
Third, and most importantly, the depiction of the traditional African woman in Lady is biased. Many so called traditional African women are just as prone to claim, “anything man do, imself fit do”. In fact, some of the most important African feminist icons, including Fela’s mother, were traditional African women too.
Fela of course knew this. In one interview he said,
In the spirit world, women are Aje [normally interpreted as “witch”]. The Aje whose physical manifestation could be womanhood is a spirit being with potentially positive and/or negative energies. As in the drama of life, the conflict that propels this force is both negative and positive…. The Aje rules us, rules the world, even when men assume that they have the edge. My mother is Aje, and so are all our sisters and wives.
Yet in another, he said,
To call me a sexist . . . for me it’s still not a negative name. If I’m a sexist, it’s a gift. Not everybody can fuck two women every day. So if I can fuck two women every day and they don’t like it, I’m sorry for them. I just like it.
Well..
Apart from being a phenomenal song, and despite – or perhaps because of – its problematic stance, ultimately I find Lady is an African feminist anthem thanks to its depiction of African women’s self determination. As a commentary on gender and the intersections of ethnicity, modernity, class and tradition, Lady tackles some of the key issues in African feminist thought and is a valuable contribution to gender politics in post-colonial Africa. Most of all, Fela’s lyrics, if unintentionally, reveal the narrow space between pan-Africanism and feminism in which African women determinedly find our revolution. To quote the Black president, “Lady na master”!
What do you think? Leave a comment with your thoughts.
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Photo from www.afrobeatmusic.net
Love this! Thank you
Thanks! My pleasure
Nice one….
Yes. I be LadyO. 🙂 Loved it. Great analysis and one I am in total agreement of.
This is the first time I’m coming across this blog and I’m glad it was this lovely piece that got me here. Really nice! Copied the link and literally shoved it in the faces of all my ‘ladies’. ☺
Thank you and welcome! Hope to see you here again.
It’s an ok article, I like the commentary but I expected a bit more depth in the analysis, and though I appreciate its poignant points and the pre-existing bias of this site/blog it jumps too quickly to the feminism anthem conclusion before mentioning a few contrasting points. Firstly Fela was a great social commentator without sometimes holding any position over the point he was stressing. Musicians, artists, poets, often do not reflect the lives they comment on (Fela’s mother’s strong womanhood).
Secondly Fela uses the ‘African Woman’ moniker interchangeably sometimes it seems parody, paradox or sarcasm? One African woman dances and serves her man, another to distinguish herself calls the market woman a woman and herself a lady. Emphasising her right to equality often in the less noble things. Openly smoking, the first to sit, the first at the table, the first to stick two fingers up to protocol, bad habits or attributes or emblems of emancipation depending on your persuasion.
Yes this is indeed a sign of the times, the lady vs the African woman, and somewhere in between a man in protest and a man observing that the two might well be the same, the African woman is indeed the Lady, but no maybe not in the way you think. Lady na master…
Hey JSON, thanks for reading. I mentioned quite a few contrasting points actually or did you not agree with the three issues that I raised?
I think artists can change their minds and be contradictory, and should be, as this is human nature, but I think in this instance and in most instances in fact, Fela was opinionated about the issues he raised, although of course he was also often being a provocateur.
You said, “…somewhere in between a man in protest and a man observing that the two might well be the same, the African woman is indeed the Lady, but no maybe not in the way you think.”
In what way do you think?
The African Woman considers herself the Lady, the Lady is the African Woman…not just in the ‘seemingly’ pro-feminist stances but in both instances. The two intrinsically linked. Yet there is contained within this perhaps a protest or at best a cautionary note, not all attributes are ‘lady’like.
I really like this article. Very informative
Hmmm….
I think Ms Afropolitan you are caught in the same ideological minefield I was when I became older and politically aware enough to decipher the meaning of the words Fela sang in Lady.
Like you I grew up listening to Fela, his confidence, bravado, spiritual determination and political outspokenness instantly made him one of my role models. Knowing his mother was also awesome only helped cement the Kuti brand in my psyche. However it was when my own children were singing the lyrics of Lady one day, in particular my daughter I had to stop and think.
I do agree that in lady Fela is admitting a love of the traditional African woman, from her fire dance to her confidence to self define. Yet if I am being honest he is admitting to a sadness that means she is/was becoming unwilling to accept traditional roles which placed her at odds with male authority.
Some parts I agree with, other I do not. But likewise I feel the quotes you shared offer a perfect exploration of contradiction brilliant artists have on their journey of learning.
Fela’s views of women as spiritual Aje matches many African men including myself. But this does not automatically relegate men into a position that is therefore physically inferior. Fela’s views on sexual intimacy (cough cough) were as you suggest a product of his time and perhaps celebrity lifestyle.
Where Fela and I may disagree (it feels sacrilege even suggesting this) is that I believe we are both designed to be totally complimentary in the spirit AND the physical world. Thus a man can have a ‘female’ spirit and a woman a ‘male’ spirit. The completed picture only happens when both opposites combine together.
Perhaps I’m stretching this to provide justification for why I still love ‘Lady’, but then I equally love Fela’s ‘Gentleman’ song. My wife uses it as her ring tone for when I call and when those words ‘I be African man original ‘ sing from her phone I always smile. Its not a denigration.
There we go, perhaps we should never analyse Lady without Gentleman in tow and recognise despite the ‘civilising’ associations that are suggested by the labels, Fela is revealing that both man and woman are still capable of being civil and traditionally African at the same time.
@Toyin, thank you for this eloquent note. Your suggestion of listening to ‘Gentleman’ and ‘Lady’ together is great. To my sensibilities, ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ are adjectives rather than biological descriptions as male and female are and I don’t think one *necessarily* must have to do with the other.
Fela is openly contradictory and why he is truly authentic. He made no apology for his complexity and never reduced it to complication. His goal is to disrupt the confusion of westernisation as the only form of modernisation . As is often true with him he also has his tongue firmly in his cheek. The most rarely recognised part of Fela is that he does not take himself too seriously. I think in Lady he subsumed the issue of gender equality for his grand narrative of African self determination. Like many men he is both sexist as well as respectful of the power of Women. I suppose it is part of the eternal journey of manhood to discover as well as possibly embrace his own feminine side.
Thanks for your comment. I have a deep love for Fela for his complexity, and tried to convey that precise contradictory nature in this article.
Out of curiosity – how would you define the “power of Women” you mentioned?
I am not sure that power of women means anything other than to affirm the fact that he does not consider them as victims or powerless vacuums for his use. For example for the latter part of his life his most trusted adviser and guide was one of his wives. As you pointed out his relationship with his mother as well as great influence on his life. Also for many of the women in Kalakuta especially the daughters of middle class who left their families to live with him he was both a dominant influence as well as liberator. Fela was many things but not the abuser and hater of women as one feminist scholar has presented him.
He respected some women and treated others as sexual objects in his harem, in a rather disturbing way especially considering his HIV status. But probably the word is not abusive, Fela believed in individual’s freedom and forced no one to stay unless they desired to be there and I think kalakuta felt like a place of freedom for many of the girls, although there is always the question of what is freedom when choices are limited. Basically, Fela was no saint but neither was he a villain when it came to his views on women. Contradictory indeed…
You have to remember Fela did not believe in HIV . No one can survive the kind of scrutiny of behaviour without consideration of intention that he has received on this issue. Certainly not helped that Fela genuinely is a disrupter and likes to stir things up. Often he plays a role and we seems to confuse the role with the entirety of his world view. People who review Fela on issue or his views on gender tend to cast him as a monster yours seems truly and genuinely informed and open. Thank you and Bless
Like the spirit of Eshu!
Thanks for the discussion. Fela is a legend.
just listening to this song now & found my way here, read the post 😉 reckon that in general a sense of ambiguity is good for ideology in art, it sets apart good wholesome food for thought (and feeling) from use-once propaganda pamphlets. which is not to say that I endorse sexism, but I do not expect artists to live and act out an ideological ideal for my entertainment. this is a complex issue and got me thinking. plus I’ve always been curious about Fela’s lyrics and lyfestyle. so this is all to say: thanks for the post 🙂
Thank you for this. I have been loving this song for a few years now, but as progressive man, I do not sing or share it with my female friends. Though I have done a lot of thinking about this song.
The fact that you started out by asking the question: what was the ambient political/social context of Nigeria when this song was written, for me is the key in any analysis such as this one. I have to struggle through the Creole, but I came to many of the same conclusions as you. Even without understanding the Creole, there are a few conclusions I’ve come to:
1. No matter what his intent in writing this amazing song, Fela was expressing his reality, of his time and place, as he saw and felt them. In other words, he was acting as an artist who owes nothing to me or to anyone else, feminist or not;
2. Looking at Fela in context, he is just way too smart for this song to have a simple anti-feminist message. He is witty, sarcastic, and always plays with words and tropes; and
3. There is no reason Fela could not have: been annoyed and proud of the changes to his society and the women in it. No reason Fela could not have felt the push/pull, love/hate, excitement/fear we all feel with change.
thanks for taking away any guilt I had for loving this song!
Thank you for the great comment. Well-put, I like the break down.
Good work. Loved the article. Make more on Fela’s songs
Does anyone else think Antibalas’ song ‘Sister’ is somewhat of an apology or counter for Fela’s ‘Lady’?
I don’t know if ‘Sister’ is an apology for ‘Lady’, primarily because I don’t think Antibalas are in a position to apologise on Fela’s behalf. But wow, it could certainly be seen as a counter or evolution. Thanks for this v. interesting consideration.
Really enjoyed the discussion on this song!
Thanks, me too 🙂
This is a fascinating article posted over two years ago that is still relevant today.
I do not consider myself well-informed regarding the catalog of Fela Kuti’s music. The music I am familiar with seems to be tricky for me, at times, only because I must research some of the socio-political and cultural contextualities surrounding the songs, or simply be in awe of the afrobeat. But I find, upon doing some of that work, that Fela Kuti was not complex lyrically, but rather his own contradictions and complexity as a person, bore its own contradictory and complex fruit. Which seems to be the summation of this post. To allow Kuti the position of “provocateur” in a song like “Lady” might be giving him too much leeway, unless I imagine an artist creating a song in which he acknowledges his sense of gender and cultural contradictions, in order to examine a social trajectory within his country in a manner in which those mixed feelings could not only be expressed, but commented upon. Like poetry, perhaps.
And even if that is the case, that I yield that point about Kuti’s possible self-awareness, I am left with a strange aftertaste, one that mixes not just in the examination of Fela Kuti as a complex person, living in complex times, at the intersection-or clash-of multiple cultures, because we all fit that description, but rather, as, me, a self-identified man, it is not enough to assume the universality of the word “man,” nor is it wise to assume the universality of the word “woman.”
So while I haven’t written a lot of words, I may have only discovered my own truth with regards to this song–and maybe others by Fela Kuti–and now, will love the work for not just its infectious rhythm and skillful musicianship, but also as a way in which I accept that the speaker in the song believes what he is saying, while I continually reaffirm or challenge my own viewpoint about gender and biological sex.
Perhaps, a simple “thank you for this article” was all that needed to be said. Peace.
I love this song, i used to just listen for the brilliance of the music. When I paid more attention to the lyrics, I thought there was an element of romance and pride in the way Fela thought he was praising the traditional African woman ‘dance the fire dance’ etc.
At the same time I was almost disheartened at his expectance of subserviance in the song (She go do anything he say etc ) equating a strong willed woman to something negative, opposed to his culture. Im not sure why I was disappointed- I know this is the traditional African way! Interesting to see that since feminists existed, men have been complaining that women still expect chivalry, even in Africa! Its also interesting that his mother was a leading feminist.
Thanks for a good read!
Or alternatively, no.
Fela was a genius and to average mortals he may seem to hold contradictory beliefs and embrace dichotomy. Geniuses seldom follow one ideology or one truth. They see the good in the bad and the bad in the good. They see many connections in otherwise unconnected things. Fela saw culture as both a social and biological construct. He once said that men are going to sleep around anyway, its their nature, so they might as well bring them home. “Not everybody can fuck two women every day” – a not so subtle statement on the male perspective of sexaulity. It’s refreshing to here a man embrace his sexuality – as feminism encourages women to to do.
Perhaps the song is both misogynous and feminist at the same time and maybe that’s both good and bad at the same time. I think he was seeing complexity and a little hypocrisy & was playing with it lyricly to find maybe some answers or hash out his own conflicting feelings.
It’s me again, very late BUT I love this because I have always had this strange ambiguous feeling about this great song. I appreciate your analysis. One comment: the fact that the African woman ‘go do anything you say’ disturbs me too much to call the song an African Feminist anthem, even as i appreciate the tensions between traditional/modern(/western?) it portrays, that form part of the issues African feminism deals with.
Glad I came across this article. I’ve always sort of wondered what was going on in this song, not knowing how exactly to interpret many of the lyrics. I also love the unnerving feeling one gets from art that is at once aesthetically invigorating and intellectually disturbing.
To me, the song is ambiguous.
It seems to point to recognition of the power of women….with a hint of the exasperation that many men feel in struggling to understand women.
Fela was a Man, unapologetically. His ancestors may have been enlightened, but then again, they were not musical superstars in the 1970’s like him.
! Do not forget Sandra Iszadore was more than a lover, his best friend for life, his mentor and a very active memeber of the Black Panthers and convinced – if not radical- feminist trying pusing forward feminist ideas in theat movement and, so, not just – as mentioned above – a “modern African woman “. She learned Fela to look different upon women and as they stayed friends for life ( and as he admired his ma AS a feminist) Fela can not be a pure macho sexist , and certainly no misogynic; Sandra would have cut of ties, I think. Other thing the song is in pidgin English and some words may have been wrongly transcribed in the most used lyrics interpretations I’m far from a specialist but there are some words do not seem logic example what sounds/ is written as ‘na’ means mostly ‘now’ but sometimes might be ‘no’ .. more so when the written text say “She go say him equal to man ” what is meant “her equal to man” or “INequal to man” , the 2nd I think is the correct like its written “him equal to man ” which makes no sense cause needless to say. last but not least think other comments are right, Fela was a man with different sides and changed opinion throug his life cseveral times and liked to provoke and confuse and make you think (deeper) and than there’s this mystical part…
more about text transciption possibly wrong: the same for “am got power like man” : is n’t actaually meant “AIN’T got power like man ” ??
..and when there is written “she want salute man she go sit for chair ” it seems more logic he sings “won’t (sit)” in stead of “want (sit) “..
I absolutely love this! Very informative and I actually felt these things initially when I heard the song. Like my ancestors were telling me it was lady pride lol. And I just started listening to Fela heavy in the past few weeks. What have I been doing with my life not listening to Fela!? I don’t know lol.