Review: Personal is political

Femi Kuti journeys sonically through both his life and his nation’s history.

Wilfred Okiche

The cover of Journey Through Life, the latest studio album from Afrobeat’s most essential nepo baby, Femi Kuti, is a collage of photos of the superstar at different phases of his life.

The Kuti legacy has always been as much about family as it has been about activism. So naturally, Femi (62) – first son of Afrobeat originator Fela – also includes photos of his father, his influential grandmother Funmilayo, his son Made as well as his band, The Positive Force.

For the Kuti clan, the personal has always been political and, on this record, Femi is a family man surveying the past and present of Nigerian socio-political life while reflecting on his own place in the world.

Journey Through Life includes fresh material as well as updated recordings of older songs (Shotan, Corruption na Stealing) which concert-goers will be familiar with.

Self-produced (a first for Kuti) in Lagos, Journey Through Life is vibrant, alive and unrelenting. The instrumentation is rich and layered, with rhythmic percussion and bruising horn sections paying tribute to Afrobeat’s unique stylings as well as its funk and jazz influences.

The Kuti family’s commitment to the common cause earned Femi the right to mount the soapbox and preach to the people. He certainly does plenty of that on songs like Chop and Run which opens with the line, “Nothing for Nigeria fit shock me again oh” before recalling a half century’s worth of government crimes against its people.

After 24 Years is a damning state of the nation address that surveys Nigeria’s latest attempt at democracy (the 1999-2023 years) but finds little to celebrate.

What makes this record different, though, is Kuti’s willingness to do some self-introspection. On songs like the title track Journey Through Life and Work on Myself, he is older, wiser and perhaps more accepting of his own limitations.