'New songs, same old struggles', says Nigeria's Femi Kuti

SAT comfortably in a large chair at the New Afrika Shrine, his family’s legendary Nigerian music venue, Femi Kuti was surrounded by history.

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The concert hall is an homage to his father Fela Kuti’s original Shrine, which had also been located in the northern outskirts of Lagos before its demise.

Femi Kuti’s music awards are scattered around, recognition for his determination to keep fighting the good fight his Afrobeat legend father was known for - calling out corruption and injustice in Africa’s most populous nation.

Part of a family defined by its determination to speak defiantly about what was going on around them — whether through lyrics or protest or both — Femi Kuti, however, is ready to turn inward, and focus on the “virtues that have guided me in my life”, he said.

Those reflections will be apparent in the 62-year-old’s album, Journey Through Life, his 13th record, released yesterday.

He sings about “the kind of advice I give myself to where I am today,” he said. The title track, for example, is “not political”. But listeners should not expect a member of the Kuti clan to give up politics completely.