Our Reporter
I was with Seun Kuti, a toddler then, as his father—Fela Anikulapo-Kuti—turned 50. The air in Lagos pulsed with sound and spirit. At the Shrine, music was more than music; it was resistance, prophecy, and catharsis. Fela’s saxophone didn’t just sing, it demanded, it provoked, it liberated. That day , through the night, was unforgettable: the rhythm of Africa’s heartbeat colliding with the audacity of a man who refused to bow.
Fast forward 37 years.
September 6, 2025. I meet Seun again—this time at the airport. No Shrine, no smoky stage, just a chance encounter that carried its own quiet magic. He is no longer the boy in his father’s shadow but the torchbearer of a lineage steeped in music, rebellion, and the mystical calling of truth-telling through art.
“Invite me to Ekiti,” he said.
It was more than a casual remark. It was a reminder that his bloodline runs through our soil. His mother, Fehintola, may Orunmila bless her soul, is from Ipoti Ekiti. And in that moment, I felt a project take shape: to bring Seun home, not as a visitor but as a son returning to his roots.
The mystic of the Kuti family is that they are never just artists. They are griots of fire, prophets of rhythm, living reminders that music can move mountains and stir consciences. Fela did it. Femi carries it. And Seun embodies it with a raw urgency of his own. And Made is igniting the future.
Ekiti deserves to feel that force. To hear in his saxophone not just notes but history, defiance, and the possibility of renewal. When Seun steps on Ekiti soil, it will not be an ordinary homecoming. It will be the closing of a circle begun decades ago in Lagos, carried forward by destiny, and completed by heritage.
