How Fela Anikulapo-Kuti Created Afrobeat—and Why Tony Allen’s Role Still Matters

Afrobeat emerged from Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s bold fusion of highlife, jazz, funk and Pan-African politics. His musical journey began with Koola Lobitos, formed while studying music in London, and continued in Lagos, where he refined a restless sound that went beyond conventional highlife and jazz. Fela’s 1969 trip to the United States sharpened both his political consciousness and his artistic direction. After returning to Lagos, he named the sound Afrobeat and made it a vehicle for resistance. Its long horn and guitar riffs, Pidgin call-and-response vocals, searing saxophone passages and attacks on corruption became defining features of his music and performances at the Afrika Shrine. Fela remains widely recognised as Afrobeat’s central originator because he named the genre and built its political and musical identity. However, the fuller history also recognises drummer Tony Allen as a major co-architect of Afrobeat’s distinctive rhythmic foundation, while earlier highlife and jazz musicians supplied important influences.

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